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Happy Friday, Nautilus readers! We’re cruising into the weekend with reads about large stick insects, the asteroid named after Weird Al, and the taxonomic mysteries of the muppet Gonzo. |
The daily picks: |
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P.S. You can unlock all Nautilus articles by upgrading to a premium membership. |
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He showed us how to avoid the AI apocalypse |
In Isaac Asimov’s 1942 story Runaround, a robot named SPD-13 (Speedy) malfunctions while on a critical mission to save his human operators from roasting to death under the planet Mercury’s relentless sun. Speedy is tasked with bringing them some selenium, to help restore their life support system, but instead he stumbles around the selenium pool in circles, acting “drunk” and quoting Gilbert and Sullivan. One of the engineers realizes the robot is caught in a logic loop between conflicting orders.
Speedy was designed to follow Asimov’s now-famous three laws of robotics. Those laws are as follows: |
A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings unless such orders would conflict with the first law. A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the first two laws.
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Because Speedy was so expensive to build, its programmers placed special emphasis on number three. |
Read the full story. → |
More stories about AI and robotics: |
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🦧 Animals |
> How social learning keeps orangutans fed. (Read on Nautilus) |
> Pangolins are some of the most illegally trafficked animals on the planet. A rediscovered species could help. (Read on Nautilus) |
> Two big stick insects have emerged from Australia. (Read on Nautilus) |
🌍 Planet Earth |
> Does Earth’s magnetic field affect aging? (Read on Nautilus) |
> Astronaut photos taken just 13 years apart show a major shift in city lights. (Read on Nautilus) |
> This creature is breaking records for complex life in extreme heat. (Read on NPR) |
🪐 Space Exploration |
> Scientists named this space object after Weird Al. (Read on Space.com) |
> A NASA study indicates Mars was shaped by a "complex sequence of ancient lakes, groundwater systems, and hydrothermal fluids." (See over at NASA) |
> Researchers have detected radio signals from outside our solar system for the first time. (Read on Gizmodo) |
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SPONSOR |
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Everyone has a stack of books they swear they'll get to. Shortform is how to finally make a dent in yours, and readers who sign up through this link get 49% off. Shortform guides distill 10,000+ nonfiction books into dense, zero-fluff breakdowns, but they go deeper than the usual summary: you get expert commentary, counterpoints, and exercises that turn key ideas into things you'll actually use. Read them, or listen on your commute; every guide has audio. With nearly half off and a free trial to explore the full library first, your backlog doesn't stand a chance. |
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*Scientific claims made in ads are not researched, verified, or endorsed by Nautilus. |
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Today’s Trivia |
🧐 Around 10 percent of people globally use betel. What is that? |
A) A psychoactive nut
B) An intensely caffeinated sludge
C) Snail mucous used to moisturize the skin
D) A plant extract used as a sleep aid |
Click here for the answer. |
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SPONSOR |
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*Scientific claims made in ads are not researched, verified, or endorsed by Nautilus. |
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Fresh Perspectives |
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It was subtle, but it was very wrong, and everything downstream of it was also wrong, and I had shared the whole thing in a room full of people who trusted me. The code was fast. The code was beautiful. The code was incorrect. After 20 years of training, I had presented nonsense with total confidence. |
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| —Astrophysicist Paul M. Sutter in his story “AI Made Me Look Foolish. Then I Learned” |
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