Letters archive

In comparing the complexity of the Crescent Nebula with the human brain, there may be a danger that we focus on the complexity of the structures, rather than the complexity of the outputs they produce. When evaluating the human brain in terms of output, it is hard to ignore the significance of consciousness. While this …

You ponder whether the human brain is the most complex object in the known universe. Without a brain there is no known universe, so the converse is more empirical: the universe is the most complex object in the human brain.

If we know that the skin is the largest organ of the human body, that it acts as a protective barrier to the ravages of our environment and is a first line of defence against infections, why do millions of people cover that organ daily with a range of chemicals and microplastics( 2 March, p …

I agree with most of what Kirsty Sedgman wrote on how manners can be used to suppress others. As well as being mindful of the horrors of the past that she described, I'm old enough to remember having to sing the full version of All Things Bright and Beautiful at church and in school ( …

Amanda Ruggeri reports that many researchers question whether artificial intelligences can have empathy, even in principle. And if one were to produce something that looks like empathy, some think that wouldn't be real. But isn't this the same assumption about human uniqueness that can be applied to machine intelligence? The Turing test – in which …

Many years ago, I wondered if there was any aspect of the human condition without a downside. I thought I had a winner in empathy. Then it became apparent that, for con artists, empathy is their most important weapon. This trait is the most powerful tool humans have. It therefore becomes our greatest exploitable weakness. …

We have no solid basis for the common assumption that other people are conscious, let alone that a therapist feels with us and isn't merely emulating empathy.

Ruggeri clearly and correctly characterises empathy as "Ugh, I know exactly how you feel". She goes on to say that "ultimately, you can't really know what sadness is unless you have felt sad". There is the rub: a truly empathetic therapist, friend or confidant needs to have really been there. Where? Where no AI has …

In defence of Pythagoras, that he showed us music was based on harmonic intervals was a very impressive analysis with the primitive tools at his disposal. What is more, some of nature's most wonderful singers, the Australian pied and grey butcherbirds, create beautiful melodies based on those intervals, and these can be transcribed using Western …

You report that boiling tap water can remove microplastics. But this only really works for hard water, as the microplastics co-precipitate with the calcium carbonate. In which case, you must also avoid using the water in the very bottom of the kettle. I think I would prefer a water company to supply water without microplastics …