It's been exactly 3 years since I pinned this thread of threads re #COVID19. The early threads prompted me to write #ApollosArrow which has stood the test of time, I think (amazon.com/Apollos-Arrow-…).
And, as forecast, the pandemic is ending. I'm unpinning the thread—on schedule.
*subject to the low-likelihood emergence of a novel strain of the virus that fully evades our vaccines or that is much deadlier. ;-)
This piece in the @WSJ (wsj.com/articles/the-l…), published on October 16, 2020, laid out the likely course of the pandemic, and we are still on track. We are now late into the "intermediate phase" and will put the pandemic fully behind us in 2024. #ApollosArrow
Yet: “For the elderly, the chronically ill, the poor, the imprisoned, and the socially marginalized, the SARS-2 pandemic might continue to be a biological threat long after the majority of the population has moved on psychologically and practically....” p. 318 in #ApollosArrow
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Super-cool @PNASNews study examines historical changes in decision-making by professional Go players from 1950 to 2021, focusing on changes in game play after the advent of superhuman AI (i.e., AlphaGo). pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.10… 1/
Human players in human-human matches began to make significantly better decisions in Go following the advent of superhuman AI. Players’ strategies across time changed to reflect more novelty (in the first 60 moves of a game). 2/
The development of superhuman AI programs may prompt human players to break away from traditional strategies and induced them to explore novel moves, which in turn may have improved their decision-making or even enjoyment of the game. 3/
Students said: "I had used racist language. I had misgendered Brittney Griner. I had repeatedly confused the names of two black students. My body language harmed them. I hadn’t corrected facts that were harmful to hear when the (now-purged) students introduced them in class...."
"I invited them to think about the reasoning of both sides of an argument, when only one side was correct...."
This is an absolutely fantastic teaching tool, on multiple levels, regarding philosopher John Searle's "Chinese Room" thought experiment. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_r… via @social_brains Just watch it, below! 1/
The Chinese room argument holds that a digital computer executing a program cannot have a "mind", "understanding," or "consciousness", regardless of how intelligently or human-like the program may make the computer behave. 2/
In this illustration, @social_brains had ChatGPT explain the concept and then gave that script to a @D_ID_ avatar to read. It's so meta, and also so incredible. 3/
Bravo to Dean Elmendorf! This is admirable: “It is important for institutions to be able to recognize where they have made an error that encroaches on free speech and academic freedom and to correct it.” chronicle.com/article/after-…
Exactly what a university should do: “That’s fine and appropriate for that kind of institution,” because representing numerous viewpoints is part of the purpose of a “premier public policy program.” nytimes.com/2023/01/19/art…
Other details also pertinent: With its 2021 report, @hrw became first major international human rights group to apply term “apartheid” to Israeli conduct. @amnesty followed suit in its own report. In 2022, @Harvard_Law International Human Rights Clinic issued a similar report.
Ever since COVID vaccines were first developed, there's been some debate about whether & by how much they prevent not just illness, hospitalization, & death, but also transmission. The mRNA vaccines were not, alas, truly sterilizing and did not reduce infectiousness by much. 1/
This technical point has intersected with politics, as people have argued that the state and employers have no right to mandate vaccination if being unvaccinated does not place anyone else at (direct) risk. 2/
A new paper via @NatureMedicine explored the epidemic dynamics in a population in 35 California prisons, and it documents that the vaccines do indeed prevent transmission, to a small but meaningful extent. 3/
"One of the most egregious violations of academic freedom.” Ms Aram Wedatalla &, more to the point, the ostensible educators here (Marcela Kostihova, @FayneeseMiller, & @Jaylanihussein) seem unable to understand a plural society or teaching of art history. nytimes.com/2023/01/08/us/…
The overwrought emotionality of so many of these absurd campus outbursts seeking to have a (typically female) teacher fired for the good faith performance of pedagogic duties, as described in this article (nytimes.com/2023/01/08/us/…) about the new @HamlineU case, evokes The Bacchae
And note the further irony here that this professor, like others teaching art history who are actually trying to 'diversify the curriculum," can lose her job for doing exactly that. It's just incredible.