Interesting Links: April 8, 2019

Interesting content from my RSS feed:

1. Holding Robots Responsible: The Elements of Machine Morality - The article discusses factors of machine intelligence including, situation awareness, free will, intentionality, human likeness, and potential harm. It suggests that "as robotic minds become more opaque, people will see robots as possessing more free will, and ascribe them more moral responsibility."
2. Fine-Tuning Really Is A Problem In Physics - The article explains "fine tuning" in several contexts, including the distribution of billionaires' net worth, the "coincidental" geometry of a large rock that's finely balanced on another, and the flatness of the cosmological universe. It argues that when fine tuning is encountered in nature, it is the role of the scientist to theorize about possible causes, not to shrug it off as a coincidence.
3. Pompeii ‘fast food’ bar unearthed in ancient city after 2,000 years - Pompeii, one of the most visited archaeological sites, was destroyed in a volcanic eruption in AD 79. One of its 150 or so "thermopolia" (snack bars) has been unearthed. These snack bars provided food to many of the city's inhabitants, who were too poor to afford their own cooking facilities. Menus typically included fish, bread, wine, and lentils."
4. STEEM Great Chicago Fire of 1871 - From the speculative causes of the fire to the city's recovery, @undead-writer gives an interesting run-down on the history of the 1871, Great Chicago Fire.
5. The 1 thing to avoid in online political arguments - According to a recent study in Computers in Human Behavior, people evaluate incivil arguments as less rational than civil ones, even if the logical strength of the arguments are identical. So, if we want to persuade someone over to our own points of view, calling them names and belittling their ideas may not be the best way to do it.
6. Cloudflare's privacy-focused DNS app adds a free VPN - Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 mobile app already provides speed and security to DNS queries from mobile devices. Their new warp adds VPN encryption with a freemium model.
7. Britain just laid out plans to end the internet's Wild West days and take a world-leading role in regulating big tech - The UK wants to create an independent regulator to oversee "harmful content" on search engines, social media, file-sharing, and messsaging platforms. Under the plan, companies that don't eliminate content relating to terrorism, sexual abuse, violence, or hate speech will face huge fines. Tech companies would have transparency requirements and a "duty of care" for dealing with harmful or illegal content, and even misinformation.
8. Machines That Read Your Brain Waves - Neural interfaces that read brain waves have great potential for usefulness, but they come with profound implications for law and ethics. For now, the "watch word" is caution.
9. Bitcoin Will See Global Need After Future Applications Emerge, Says Andreas Antonopoulos - According to @aantonop, current cryptocurrency adoption is only happening in in niches of hobbyists and in places where the existing financial system is dysfunctional, but as it gains popularity and improves in usability, people will find new ways to use it that cannot be duplicated by fiat currency. When that happens, cryptocurrency will become a necessity.
10. Researchers unearth 74 Facebook cybercrime groups with 385,000 members - It only takes moments to locate groups specializing in spam, phishing, and credit card fraud, and once you locate one of them, the AI algorithms "helpfully" suggest others. The 74 identified groups have been taken down, but it's likely that others emerged just as fast to fill the void.

Thanks to steemrss from @philipkoon, @doriitamar, and @torrey.blog for the Steem RSS feeds.

Please feel welcome to discuss any of those links in the comments.