Month: April 2024

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NBN Book of the Day - Max Bennett, “A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, Ai, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains” (Mariner Books, 2023)

A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, Ai, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains (Mariner Books, 2023) tells two fascinating stories. One is the evolution of nervous systems. It started 600 million years ago, when the first brains evolved in tiny worms. The other one is humans' quest to create more and more intelligent systems. This story begins in 1951 with the first reinforcement learning algorithm trying to mimic neural networks.

Max Bennett is an AI entrepreneur and neuroscience researcher. His work combines insights from evolutionary neuroscience, comparative psychology, and AI. As each chapter describes how a skill evolved, it also explains whether(!) and how an AI system has managed to implement something similar. A recurring theme is how human brains and neural circuits have influenced AI architecture. The other side of this bi-directional connection is also intriguing. AI has often served as a litmus test, giving a clue how a not well understood neurobiological phenomenon might work, how plausible a hypothesis is.

The organzining principle of this book is a framework of five breakthroughs, which compares evolution to technological innovation. Like a new technology enables several innovative products, a new brain capability enables several new skills. For example, mammals show several new intelligent behaviors compared to their ancestors: vicarious trial and error, episodic memory, and planning. The foundation of all these novelties, is probably the same capability: simulation.

The five breakthroughs are:

  1.  steering in bilaterians
  2. learning from trial and error in vertebrates
  3. simulating in mammals
  4. mentalizing in primates
  5. speaking in humans


This framework guides the readers through a time travel of 600 million years. We learn about the environment in which these capabilities evolved: Who were the first mammals and why did planning benefit them? We see what contemporary animals can and can't do: Fish aren't as dumb as folklore suggests. And we take a look at AI's baffling achievements and limitations: Why can AI write decent essays but not load a dishwasher?

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Everything Everywhere Daily - The Vestal Virgins

One of the most important gods in the Roman pantheon was the goddess Vesta. 

Vesta was the goddess of the hearth and home, and her temple was one of the most important in ancient Rome.

It was attended by six women who were some of the most important in all of Roman society. They were given privileges that few in Rome were allowed, but it also came at a very steep price.

Learn more about the Vestal Virgins, the cult of Vesta, and its role in Roman society on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.


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What A Day - How Biden Can Move Voters on Immigration

Cesar Chavez Day was Sunday, and it’s the day when Americans honor the late Latino civil rights icon and labor activist. Chavez is most known for co-founding the United Farm Workers (UFW) — the nation’s first-ever farmworker union. He dedicated his life to the fight for better working conditions and wages for people who were part of the agricultural workforce — many of whom were migrants. And while Chavez’s track record on immigration is complicated, UFW is one of many organizations that currently advocates for the rights of undocumented workers, more pathways to citizenship, and overall immigration reform.

In this special episode, we host a roundtable with Dani Marrero Hi of La Uniòn del Pueblo Entro, Liza Schwartzwald of the New York Immigration Coalition, and Pulitzer Prize-winning immigration journalist Molly O’Toole. We talk about why our immigration system doesn’t work — and what’s at stake this November as both Biden and Trump make their case for how to fix it.

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The NewsWorthy - Widespread Severe Weather, AT&T Data Breach & April Fools’ Day- Monday, April 1, 2024

The news to know for Monday, April 1, 2024!

We're talking about the major storm system that's expected to bring the risk of severe weather to millions of Americans. Also, we'll explain what's behind the biggest protest in Israel since the start of the war in Gaza...

Plus, what to know about next week's highly-anticipated solar eclipse, and about a data breach might have impacted millions of AT&T customers. We're also looking at how April Fools' Day is celebrated around the world... 

Those stories and even more news to know in about 10 minutes!

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Short Wave - The Two Sides Of Guyana: A Green Champion And An Oil Producer

For Guyana the potential wealth from oil development was irresistible — even as the country faces rising seas. Today on the show, host Emily Kwong talks to reporter Camila Domonoske about her 2021 trip to Guyana and how the country is grappling with its role as a victim of climate change while it moves forward with drilling more oil. (encore)

For more of Camila's reporting and pictures from her visit, check out "Guyana is a poor country that was a green champion. Then Exxon discovered oil."

Want to more about how countries around the world are grappling with climate change? Write us at shortwave@npr.org to let us know — your suggestion might become a future episode!

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The Daily Signal - Why Nonprofits Serving Homeless Should STOP Taking Government Money

After spending years serving the needs of the poor and homeless through nonprofit ministry, James Whitford says he learned that “it's good for nonprofits … to stay away from government funding.” 


Whitford, the co-founder and CEO of True Charity, a national initiative to reform charity work, started serving the poor through a ministry called Watered Gardens Ministries in Joplin, Missouri, over two decades ago. Over time, he has crafted a model for how nonprofits can best serve the needs of the poor and actually be a part of solving the homeless crisis. 


Step one, according to Whitford, is declining government funding because it reduces fundraising efforts, which disengages local donations, and “those local donors are often volunteers as well,” he tells “The Daily Signal Podcast.” 


“So there's a kind of a symbiosis between the local donor and being a volunteer,” according to Whitford. “Sometimes it's a volunteer first that becomes a donor. Sometimes it's a donor that becomes a volunteer. But the last thing we want to do is crowd out local involvement in the work.” 


Nonprofits working with the poor also need to measure the “impact, not just outputs, but outcomes,” of the work they are doing, he says. 

And finally, “nonprofit leaders need to embrace work for their clients.”


Whitford joins the podcast to explain how nonprofits can create a sustainable model to address homelessness and poverty in their communities. 


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The Best One Yet - 🌚 “Eclipse Economy” — Solar Eclipse boom towns. Japan’s diaper downturn. And Facebook’s best product? Marketplace.

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The total solar eclipse hits the US one week from today on April 8th — So we're looking at the financial impact on the Eclipse Boomtowns, from Texas to Maine. 

Japan’s largest diaper brand just made a shocking move: Switching from baby diapers to adult diapers — Japan is officially the oldest country in the world, but immigration is the anti-aging cream of economics.

And Facebook’s most successful feature ever? It's Facebook Marketplace — with over a billion people buying something, It's bigger than Walmart, eBay, and even Amazon. 


And prep for the eclipse using NASA’s info here: https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/


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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - The Group Behind Christian Conservatives’ Winning Streak

The group that brought the case that overturned Roe v. Wade is back before the Supreme Court arguing for more restrictions on mifepristone, the “abortion pill.” Who are Alliance Defending Freedom, and what are their goals?


Guest: David Kirkpatrick, staff writer for The New Yorker.


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NPR's Book of the Day - ‘Climate Capitalism’ projects an optimistic future for environmental policy

Early in today's episode, Here & Now's Scott Tong poses what a lot of activists and listeners might think — that the two words titling Akshat Rathi's new book, Climate Capitalism, are at odds with one another. But Rathi says governments can play a role in shifting economic policy to prioritize both profit and environmental protections. In his book and in this interview, he explains how business leaders, students and politicians are already implementing ideas that connect the dots between the climate crisis and global markets.

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The Economics of Everyday Things - 42. Cemeteries

The verdant lawns promise everlasting rest — but what does it mean to sign a lease for all eternity? Zachary Crockett finds out where the bodies are buried.

 

  • SOURCES:
    • Terry Arellano, co-founder and president of Cemetery Property Resales, Inc.
    • Jeff Lindeman, C.E.O. and General Manager of Mountain View Cemetery.
    • Tanya Marsh, professor of law at Wake Forest University.
    • Maureen Walton, founder and president of The Cemetery Exchange.