Author: The Conversation

This week Amazon announced plans to fork out $3.9 billion (R64.8 billion) to acquire US healthcare company One Medical. One Medical reportedly provides primary care on a membership basis to some 800,000 people across the United States. In its own words, it claims to be “on a mission to make getting quality care more affordable, accessible and enjoyable for all”. But why is Amazon – the company that helps you get a cheap home projector, or a toaster – investing in this area? What is One Medical? With a subscription fee of just $199 (R3,300) per year, One Medical helps bridge the gap…

The chance of someone being killed by space junk falling from the sky may seem ridiculously tiny. After all, nobody has yet died from such an accident, though there have been instances of injury and damage to property. But given that we are launching an increasing number of satellites, rockets and probes into space, do we need to start taking the risk more seriously? A new study, published in Nature Astronomy, has estimated the chance of causalities from falling rocket parts over the next ten years. Every minute of every day, debris rains down on us from space – a hazard…

Russia intends to withdraw from the International Space Station after 2024, according to an announcement from Yuri Borisov, the new head of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, in a meeting with Vladimir Putin on July 26, 2022. Borisov also said future efforts will focus on a new Russian space station. Current agreements on the ISS have it operating through 2024, and the station needs Russian modules to stay in orbit. The U.S. and its partners have been seeking to extend the station’s life to 2030. Russia’s announcement, while not a breach of any agreement or an immediate threat to the station’s daily operation, does…

When politicians talk about reaching “net zero” emissions, they’re often counting on trees or technology that can pull carbon dioxide out of the air. What they don’t mention is just how much these proposals or geoengineering would cost to allow the world to continue burning fossil fuels. There are many proposals for removing carbon dioxide, but most make differences only at the edges, and carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere have continued to increase relentlessly, even through the pandemic. I’ve been working on climate change for over four decades. Let’s take a minute to come to grips with some of the rhetoric around climate…

Disturbing footage emerged this week of a chess-playing robot breaking the finger of a seven-year-old child during a tournament in Russia. Public commentary on this event highlights some concern in the community about the increasing use of robots in our society. Some people joked on social media that the robot was a “sore loser” and had a “bad temper”. Of course, robots cannot actually express real human characteristics such as anger (at least, not yet). But these comments do demonstrate increasing concern in the community about the “humanisation” of robots. Others noted that this was the beginning of a robot revolution –…

Cryptocurrencies have gained acceptance among a large proportion of the low-income population that was, previously, financially marginalised. Most banks in Africa were not accessible to this segment. Even when they were, low-income account holders were discouraged by high transaction costs. Another factor is economic stagnation compounded by debt crises and political instability in African economies since the era of independence. This has resulted in weak currencies ravaged by inflation in countries like Kenya and Nigeria. Cryptocurrencies promised to address both financial exclusion and the problem of weak domestic currencies. Cryptocurrency gives everyone with access to a mobile device and internet connectivity the opportunity to engage…

What was your first reaction when you heard about Blake Lemoine, the Google engineer who announced last month the AI program he was working on had developed consciousness? If, like me, you’re instinctively suspicious, it might have been something like: Is this guy serious? Does he honestly believe what he is saying? Or is this an elaborate hoax? Put the answers to those questions to one side. Focus instead on the questions themselves. Is it not true that even to ask them is to presuppose something crucial about Blake Lemoine: specifically, he is conscious? In other words, we can all imagine Blake Lemoine being deceptive. And…

Fifty years ago, U.S. scientists launched a satellite that dramatically changed how we see the world. It captured images of Earth’s surface in minute detail, showing how wildfires burned landscapes, how farms erased forests, and many other ways humans were changing the face of the planet. The first satellite in the Landsat series launched on July 23, 1972. Eight others followed, providing the same views so changes could be tracked over time, but with increasingly powerful instruments. Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 are orbiting the planet today, and NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey are planning a new Landsat mission. The images and data from these satellites are used…

This past June, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced a probe into Tesla’s autopilot software. Data gathered from 16 crashes raised concerns over the possibility that Tesla’s AI may be programmed to quit when a crash is imminent. This way, the car’s driver, not the manufacturer, would be legally liable at the moment of impact. It echoes the revelation that Uber’s self-driving car, which hit and killed a woman, detected her six seconds before impact. But the AI was not programmed to recognize pedestrians outside of designated crosswalks. Why? Because jaywalkers are not legally there. Some believe these stories are proof that…

We hear the phrase “digital transformation” a lot these days. It’s often used to describe the process of replacing functions and services that were once done face-to-face by human beings with online interactions that are faster, more convenient and “empower” the user. But does digital transformation really deliver on those promises? Or does the seemingly relentless digitalisation of life actually reinforce existing social divides and inequities? Take banking, for example. Where customers once made transactions with tellers at local branches, now they’re encouraged to do it all online. As branches close it leaves many, especially older people, struggling with what was once…