AI engineers might be doing what engineers do, working in a reductionist way on a discrete part of a problem with the ethical contexts left to someone else. The commercial drive to develop better and better AI should make us all nervous unless we have absolute transparency, ‘commercial-in-confidence’ is not helpful here.
The NDIS is one enormous quango (QUasi-Autonomous National Government Organisation). My gut feeling is that three or four fold the amount of money given to people with a disability through their NDIS funding package has gone on the salaries and infrastructure of those setting up the system and those administering it. In my opinion, just one of the many downfalls of the system introduced.
Our society professes to be concerned about animal welfare but sanctions very different treatment of animals according to their perceived utility and the vested interests that benefit from their use. The law as it stands reflects this contradiction. As a result millions of animals suffer routinely, whether it be for live export, domestic agricultural use, feral animal control, research or entertainment purposes. Not even companion animals are immune from suffering; treated as disposable property and with little or no restriction on their breeding and sale, hundreds of thousands are euthanased every year in Australia. All of this is both inhumane and dishonest. Either we believe in the humane treatment of animals or we don’t. If the latter, let’s be honest about it; if the former, we need significant legal change. A good start would be the creation of independent statutory bodies to administer and enforce animal welfare laws instead of the current primary industries departments with their conflicts of interest.
The rise of adult colouring books, the return of the 90’s and just us reaching for things that remind us of our childhood constantly, made me wonder if it was like this for previous generations too or are we trying to postpone adulthood and all that comes with it more than before? Are we longing for simpler times with everything developing so fast around us?