Kidnapped; AI and free speech; Australia and egalitarianism; Coleman Hughes TED talk

Published: Sun, 10/01/23

RSA Daily

For atheists, rationalists and secular humanists in Australia

Monday, October 2, 2023

Rationale, the magazine of the Rationalist Society of Australia

Good morning ,

My new man and I have been going to some of the Italian Film Festival films lately. He being a good (lapsed) Irish Catholic, last night we went to see Kidnapped, based on the true story of a six year old Jewish boy taken from his family by the Vatican under the pretence that a former nurse had surreptitiously baptised him. There were some scenes I could hardly watch, so great was my anger. Highly recommended.

Lead stories

Does AI have a right to free speech? - Rationale Magazine

From Trinity College, Dublin: "We have a term – ‘sophist’ – for those who use language to persuade us of falsehoods. While AI super-soldiers would be dangerous, AI super-sophists could be much worse .. unconstrained AI might pollute the information landscape with misinformation, flooding us with “propaganda and untruth” .. but punishing falsehoods could easily stray into censorship .. could also use its knowledge of human thinking to systematically attack what makes our thought free .. control our attention, discourage pause for reflection, pervert our reasoning, intimidate us into silence"

The Stats Guy: Inequality is on the rise, how will Australia react?

Simon Kuerstenmacher (the Stats Guy) is always a good read and this one is no exception: "Read any description of the Australian people and you will quickly see us described as being an egalitarian bunch .. a core part of our collective national identity .. the fair go and meritocracy .. strong cultural aversion to arrogance or displays of excessive wealth .. deeply rooted instinct to cut down anyone we perceive as being boastful. [But] a look at the data suggests that we keep moving away from our egalitarian ideal." Tha main way we can counter this shift? A: make it easier for the lower quintiles to get to own their own home.

Coleman Hughes: A case for color blindness

Racial inequality provokes passionate opinions and varied ideas of how to build a fair, equitable…

For those of you who don't know Coleman Hughes, he's a young public intellectual (and jazz musician) who hosts a terrific podcast called "Conversations with Coleman". In this TED talk, he advocates economic 'affirmative action' rather than race-based affirmative action .. spurring a ginger group called "Black@TED" to complain and almost have the video cancelled. Watch and decide for yourself if Hughes is right or not.