Developer burnout is down to more than just AI
Don’t tell my students, but I am often tempted to beg them to stop coding. I lament lines of code that spew features that may not vary discernibly from those of another program (13 June, p 8).
The result is burned-out developers, as you describe in your article, dumping fragile software more likely to print out a ransomware demand than “hello, world”. And then there’s the expectation that they fix the quagmire of bugs, while also adding the latest idea that someone in sales thought of on the way to work.
The late Terry Pratchett described progress as “bad things happening faster”. There is much to laud in “alleged intelligence”, just as apples are part of a healthy diet. Pick from the tree of knowledge with caution, and apply that knowledge with even more care 鈥� for the people over the technology.
Epic dreaming isn't always bad 鈥� to me, it's an asset
I have been an “epic dreamer” all my life. As an engineer, designer and artist, I put this down to having an active and creative mind. I often wake up exhausted after a technicolour, real-time, physical dream, and I have trained myself to remember the details, much to my partner’s interest. She has one occasional repetitive dream in black and white and sleeps like the proverbial log (30 May, p 7).
We often play a game with our dinner guests where we ask them whether they dream in colour or in black and white, or even dream at all. It’s interesting how often the answers relate to the personality of the individual, in terms of their lifestyle and occupation.
I mostly enjoy my “journeys” and consider them a positive part of my creative working life. I have always been able to visualise construction problems in colour, motion and three dimensions well ahead of committing a project to paper. It is an asset I would hate to have “cured” by a psychologist.
A possible side effect of the dinosaur-killing impact
I had some questions after reading your piece on the Chicxulub asteroid (20 June, p 17). It crashed into Earth with enough force to melt 10,000 cubic kilometres of rock, but was this on raised, dry ground or in the sea?
If below sea level, wouldn’t sea water pour into the crater and immediately evaporate, causing superheated steam to enter the atmosphere? If so, was it enough to reduce sea levels, and what part did it play in the mass extinction?
Climate action requires us to tackle inequality too
Trials of pumping cold seawater onto Arctic ice to slow its melt are a valiant attempt to counter global warming. But they are yet another example where people with knowledge and understanding of climate change are left to deal with the consequences of actions by those with far more power and money, whose short-term personal interests continue to drive the phenomenon (6 June, p 4).
Without global collaboration on urgent action to reduce carbon emissions and redress inequalities, all such projects are doomed to failure, even with the best science behind them. Unfortunately, greed is a powerful motivator, often more so than working for the collective good.
Should we say please and thank you to chatbots?
The United Nations has urged users of AI chatbots to avoid niceties to save water and energy. To me, this advice is futile on two levels (13 June, p 11).
Firstly, asking users to act against the very impulses that this technology is designed to evoke seems somewhat akin to the “carbon footprint” messaging around climate change, in that it shifts the burden onto the end user, rather than targeting the source of the problem (in this case, the tech companies themselves).
Secondly, regardless of the evils that competing hyperscale data centres wreak on the environment and workers, it is undeniable that AI technology has its uses, and the “human” feel contributes to those. I have recently been using a chatbot to talk me through some of the more challenging elements of a home technology project, and the sense of camaraderie when my AI companion helps me solve a knotty problem 鈥� illusory though I know it is 鈥� does take the edge off of a rather lonely and often frustrating pursuit.
Going against the grain in medicine has paid off
Regarding your leader on why controversial ideas in science shouldn’t always be dismissed, the use of beta blockers in some cases of cardiac decompensation was once viewed as an anomalous or suspect practice. Things have radically changed since I was a medical student in the 1980s (Leader, 13 June).
Quantum computing must be reigned in to stop Q-Day
Regarding the threat of Q-Day, when quantum computers will be able to crack encryption, I am struck by a familiar pattern: our collective inability to pause a self-destructive trajectory. We act as if this code-breaking is as inevitable and unavoidable as Y2K, rather than an active engineering choice (6 June, p 18).
If society were acting rationally, we would limit quantum development, solidify post-quantum standards, then proceed. Instead, we rush forward without thinking. If we can’t secure our digital foundations against a known threat, what hope is there for greater existential challenges?
For hope on bees and biodiversity, try this film
Reading Thomas Lewton’s excellent review of Jennie Durant’s book on bees and big agriculture, Bitter Honey, I wasn’t optimistic that anyone will act to change things (we just want cheap honey and almonds). But the last two columns lifted my mood a bit and reminded me to rewatch the film by wildlife photographer Martin Dohrn. I would recommend it as an antidote and an inspiration (23 May, p 20).
For the record
During so-called neutral conditions, trade winds blow westwards along the equator (13 June, p 12).
Emily Rogalski is a neuroscientist who studies superagers (20 June, p 38).