Mike's "NONFICTION" Book Club discussion

This is the place to share & discuss interesting news articles. I think we should skip politics, religion, or other matters of faith. There are plenty of other areas of interest. Here are a couple of recent examples that I found fascinating from the Smithsonian magazine in the last day or two.

See a Spotted Lanternfly? Squash It, Officials Say
The invasive insect poses a huge threat to agriculture and trees in the Northeast United States.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-...

I don't live in the northeast, but the Emerald Ash Borer made its way south & killed off every ash tree in my woods in a couple of years. I'm have a terrible fight with 'Star of Bethlehem', a pretty little flower that wants to take over my grazing fields & poison our livestock, too. The only way to kill it is to spray with an herbicide during a few weeks in the spring that contains paraquat which can kill me if I get it on my skin so I'm concerned about all invasive species.

"This Insect Has The Only Mechanical Gears Ever Found in Nature"
The small hopping insect Issus coleoptratus uses toothed gears on its joints to precisely synchronize the kicks of its hind legs as it jumps forward.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/scienc...

How cool is that? They have pictures of the bug & the internal gears. Wild!

What interesting articles have you read recently?

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6057936...

The top 50 signs that you're getting old without realising it.

An interesting article I found online https://www.gentside.co.uk/health/do-...

Jim Machlan,
I agree with you totally. Book, Poems, Articles. Other peoples opinions on what they read. Not politics, religion.

An article on how to get rid of fly's that keep coming inside your house.
https://pestpointers.com/scents-that-...

An interesting documentary I watched about the UFO conspiracy
https://www.amazon.com/UFO-Conspiraci...

I found an article on Nature journal about how AI can impact the way mathematics is approached:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d4158...
Feel free to tell me what you think!

I think humans will still be better because if not then people wouldn't have maths lessons in class.I was good at maths at school and I watch a show called Countdown which involves letters and numbers and I usually get all the numbers unless the target is impossible to get.

Mike wrote: "I think humans will still be better because if not then people wouldn't have maths lessons in class.I was good at maths at school and I watch a show called Countdown which involves letters and numb..."
Yeah, I think that while AI is breaking boundaries, it cannot FULLY replace humans in the field of mathematics... and it shouldn't.

I do believe that technology is useful---if not indispensable---to the field of mathematics, and it can really improve workflow in mathematics. Spending just a few seconds crunching 4+ digit numbers needed for a proof could be helpful in ensuring efficiency and productivity in the STEM field. However, I do not think AI can fully replace mathematicians, nor do I believe it should.

Human mathematicians can at least use characteristic thought and creativity to actually understand why calculations are relevant, or why they should be pursued in the first place. While an AI will calculate for the sake of calculating, a human can at least ponder why a calculation is important. An AI cannot perform an operation without a human who gives it reason to do it in the first place... and I am genuinely quite glad of that. Technology is beneficial, but I do not want human thought and contemplation to be replaced with AI. I think that the fact that humans can use technology for relevant calculations is powerful; humans are giving technology a purpose. However, to be honest, I think letting AI do all the work would really just limit some key things that makes us human---our intellects and curiosity. I do think using AI technology to verify a proof or perform some underlying calculations is totally fine, although I wouldn't want it to replace the human thought process behind deciding to do the calculations in the first place.

I found an interesting video on YouTube about Elon Musk saying the world will end within 12 years.Feel free to comment what you think of it https://youtu.be/1wotmu1KL0E