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August 30, 2024
Lost in Space
More than 30 years ago I wrote a master’s thesis that evaluated NASA’s Space Shuttle program (you can read the publications that followed here and here). As I turned to my PhD dissertation, I decided to move on from human space flight. Over the years that followed I felt like there was something left unfinished from my work…
August 29, 2024
AI-Generated Inventions Suffer Two More Setbacks, Bolstering the “Automatoner” Viewpoint
Readers of this space are by now intimately familiar with the Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience (DABUS), the machine created by computer scientist and prolific inventor Stephen Thaler that purports to have invented several items on its own. According to Thaler, DABUS independently developed an improved liquid container with enhanced surface area for insulation and…
August 28, 2024
Regulating AI, Hypothetically and in Reality
Let’s consider two hypothetical scenarios. First, an artist creates a new work. Copyright law protects the artist’s intellectual property, allowing the artist to release the work for public enjoyment. Copyright law also permits others to make derivative works based on the original piece. Society is enriched from the existence of both the original and the…
August 27, 2024
The “Gore Tax” May Finally Get Assessed
Tech policy analysts of a certain glamorous age may remember the “Gore Tax.” That’s the partisan moniker given to a program established by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and implemented during the Clinton administration. It required telecom firms to pay into a small suite of “universal service” funds aimed at ensuring the availability of affordable…
August 26, 2024
The Promise and Limitations of AI in Education: A Nuanced Look at Emerging Research
As AI continues to advance, its potential applications in education have become a subject of considerable interest and debate. Recent studies illuminate AI’s promise and limitations in different facets of teaching and learning, providing an emerging and nuanced perspective on how these new large language models (LLMs) can transform educational practices. AI as a Grader:…
August 26, 2024
VIPER’s Failure and the Future of Space Exploration
Earlier this year, NASA’s most advanced lunar rover—the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover or VIPER—seemed to be on track to the moon. Engineers integrated the VIPER’s final instrument of four in February. By April, the golf-cart-sized rover stood “taller and more capable than ever” after its mast was installed and it passed a crucial review. The fully assembled VIPER…
August 26, 2024
Bring Digital Twins Back to Earth
Abstract We reflect on the development of digital twins of the Earth, which we associate with a reductionist view of nature as a machine. The projects of digital twins deviate from contemporary scientific paradigms in the treatment of complexity and uncertainty, and does not engage with critical and interpretative social sciences. We contest the utility…
August 26, 2024
What Future for U.S.-China Science and Technology Collaboration?
On Tuesday this week the U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement (STA) is due to expire unless the U.S. and China can agree on its extension. Today I provide some background on the agreement, why it is now being debated, and my view on what should happen next. STAs are a common tool of science diplomacy. The…
August 24, 2024
The Commerce Department Celebrates a “Milestone” in Restoring Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing to the US—Intel, Not So Much
Recently, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo proudly announced that the US had achieved a “milestone” in its drive to build secure advanced semiconductor plants within its borders. Specifically, the Department of Commerce has now received commitments from the five leading manufacturers of advanced semiconductor chips to build new facilities (fabs) in the US over the next decade. The manufacturers…
August 24, 2024
A RealClearEnergy Conference Well Worth Your Time
The Biden administration is a full-employment act for energy/environment policy analysts, in particular those interested in defending the market allocation of resources, the national wealth and freedom inherent in expansion of efficient energy technologies, and resistance to the diktats and impoverishment—the central anti-human stance—favored by the environmental left, the bureaucracy, and many “experts.” It is…