Rivka Galchen

Oct 14, 2024 | newyorker.com | Rivka Galchen

On a drizzly day in Grünau im Almtal, Austria, a gaggle of greylag geese shared a peaceful moment on a grassy field near a stream. One goose, named Edes, was preening quietly; others were resting with their beaks pointed tailward, nestled into their feathers. Then a camouflaged speaker that scientists had placed nearby started to play. First came a recorded honk from an unpartnered male goose named Joshua. Edes went on with his preening.

Aug 18, 2024 | wired.jp | Rivka Galchen

1月、コンピューターサイエンティストのジェフリー・ヒントンがシカゴ大学で「人類は破滅に向かっているのか？」というタイトルで講義を行ない、人工知能（AI）が人類の存続を脅かすことになるかという問いについてZoom経由で話した。彼はとても陽気で、饒舌で、すべてが悪い方向へ進むと、しかも時間はほとんど残されていないと、確信しているようだった。76歳のヒントンは「わたしの人生はタイミングが完璧だった」とクラスの学生たちに言った。「第二次世界大戦のあとに生まれ、10代を過ぎてからエイズが現れ、そしていま、終末が来る前に死ねるのだから」 数十人の学生はいっせいに笑った。そのほとんどは21世紀に生まれた。ヒントンの講義に先立って、学生たちはAIが合成生物兵器の製造を容易にし、少数のエリートに監視権力を集中させ、ならず者AIが人間の意図を無視して自らの目的を追い求めるようになる、要するにすべてが台無しになると主張する論説を読んだばかりだった。...

Aug 14, 2024 | newyorker.com | Rivka Galchen

In the summer of 1999, a pathologist at the Bronx Zoo noticed an unusual number of dead crows in the vicinity of the zoo. Then, over Labor Day weekend, one of the zoo’s cormorants died, as did a pheasant, a bald eagle, and three flamingos. In Queens, physicians at Flushing Hospital saw six patients with encephalitis, all within a few weeks. Normally the city saw about ten cases a year, but now similar cases were turning up across the city.

Jun 15, 2024 | newyorker.com | Rivka Galchen

“Nothing describes children’s drawing in general better than the term realism,” Georges-Henri Luquet wrote in his classic study, “Le Dessin Enfantin” (“Children’s Drawings”), from 1927. Fourteen years earlier, Luquet—who also wrote about topics such as medieval history, logic, and philosophy—had put together a monograph on the more than fifteen hundred drawings made by his daughter, “Les Dessins d’un Enfant” (“A Child’s Drawings”). This was a man who took the drawings of children seriously.

Jun 8, 2024 | archive.is | Rivka Galchen |Idrees M. Kahloon |Sharon Lerner |Sarah Larson

I was more than charmed by the students, I admit. Their temperaments were brighter than my own, their thoughts more surprising. It was a tiny, unrepresentative group, but they didn’t resemble “young people” as they are portrayed in popular culture. When I asked them whether concern about the environment or other risks was likely to affect their decisions about having families, they looked at me as if I were a pitiable doomer—no, not really.