This is a guide to research on the problem of preventing significant accidental harm from superintelligent AI systems, designed to make it easier to get started on work in this area and to understand how different kinds of work could help mitigate risk. I’ll be updating this guide with a longer reading list and more detailed […] The whole story can be found at The Global Priorities Project
Are Today’s Newborns the Luckiest Generation in U.S. History?
By James D. Agresti In his annual letter to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett—the world’s third richest person—remarked on the state of the U.S. economy and current political fracas by writing: It’s an election year, and candidates can’t stop speaking about our country’s problems (which, of course, only they can solve). As a result of this negative drumbeat, many Americans now believe that their children will not live as well as they themselves do. That view is dead wrong: The babies being born in America today are the luckiest crop in history. Buffett …
Litmus Test for Liberty Is Exchange Willing or Unwilling?
A new Harvard survey reports that only 42 percent of those between 18 and 29 support capitalism, while 51 percent say they do not. It has been suggested that such views may be traced, at least in part, to the word capitalism. A plausible case could be made, particularly since many believe Karl Marx invented the term to falsely imply that the system benefited capitalists at others’ expense, when, in fact, workers have been the greatest gainers from all the productivity enhancements the system has generated. That perception, in turn, raises the question of whether …
Playing a leadership role What Canada is doing to promote international cooperation on tax evasion
The Government of Canada continues to play a leadership role in the global network of tax administrations that work together to fight offshore tax evasion and tax avoidance. Information sharing and international cooperation are paramount to fighting international tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance, serving as a deterrent and a way to identify non-compliance. See more at the Goverment of Canada Website
California Charter School Breaks Away from District
In spite of opposition from some members of the Ross Valley School District (RVSD), the California State Board of Education (CBOE) unanimously approved the transformation of an alternative education program into the Ross Valley Charter School. As the Heartland Institute’s School Reform News reporter Ashley Bateman recently wrote: Vicki Alger, a research fellow with the Independent Institute, says RVSD students—who live in Marin County, which is located in the northern region of the San Francisco Bay Area (SFBA)—have fewer alternatives to government-run schools than other California children. “More than 9,900 students are currently on charter …
Without state enforcement, medieval trade flourished
Passover arrives next week, and so I have been thinking about haggadot—the book that contains the service, prayers, and songs used to celebrate the exodus of the Jews from slavery in Egypt and to celebrate and hope for freedom everywhere.There are countless haggadot—customized for every level of observance, every political Vist The Fraser Institute to read the complete article
Venezuela’s nightmare lost in novel of historical fiction
The gravity of the crisis in Venezuela belies its low profile in English-language media, perhaps because it’s beyond the acute concerns and easy grasp of people in the developed world. This lack of investigation and coverage is tragic because the lessons of a tyrant’s quest for power and “21st-century socialism” Vist The Fraser Institute to read the complete article
Deep-sixing another useful climate myth The vaunted “97% consensus” on dangerous manmade global warming is just more malarkey
David R. Legates By now, virtually everyone has heard that “97% of scientists agree: Climate change is real, manmade and dangerous.” Even if you weren’t one of his 31 million followers who received this tweet from President Obama, you most assuredly have seen it repeated everywhere as scientific fact. The correct representation is “yes,” “some,” and “no.” Yes, climate change is real. There has never been a period in Earth’s history when the climate has not changed somewhere, in one way or another. People can and do have some influence on our climate. For example, …
Ryerson men’s issues group takes student union to court after being denied club status
News Release Ryerson men’s issues group takes student union to court after being denied club status April 12, 2016 TORONTO: The Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) has once again denied club status to a student group seeking to discuss issues and views on campus that RSU executives disagree with. The Ryerson Men’s Issues Awareness Society (MIAS) is a Vist The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms to read more!
Agents of SHIELD fiction taps real-life debate about justice, right and wrong
The end justifies the means. By any means necessary. These are slogans people hear regularly, and despite their brevity actually represent a school of thought in moral philosophy. If a particular outcome is just, the argument goes, then whatever it takes to secure that end is therefore also just.This is Vist The Fraser Institute to read the complete article
Unsettled Science: Greens Are Their Own Worst Enemy
When environmentalists overstate the certainty of climate science, they set themselves up to look like fools when their doomsaying prophecies are proven wrong. In an attempt to set right some popular misconceptions, the Gray Lady warned its readers not to be fooled by the notion See More at the Global Warming Policy Foundation
Methane mendacity – and madness Radical green and government agitators slam methane in latest bid to terminate fossil fuel use
Paul Driessen Quick: What is 17 cents out of $100,000? If you said 0.00017 percent, you win the jackpot. That number, by sheer coincidence, is also the percentage of methane in Earth’s atmosphere. That’s a trivial amount, you say: 1.7 parts per million. There’s three times more helium and 230 times more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. You’re absolutely right, again. Equally relevant, only 19% of that global methane comes from oil, natural gas and coal production and use. Fully 33% comes from agriculture: 12% from rice growing and 21% from meat production. Still more …
