Category: Society

  • Algorithms. Jail. Peoples’ lives.

    An algorithm takes decisions about peoples’ live and decides whether and how they will potentially go to jail again. The algorithm is one of many making decisions about people’s lives in the United States and Europe. Local authorities use so-called predictive algorithms to set police patrols, prison sentences and probation rules. In the Netherlands, an […]

  • Loving your brother…

    Loving your brother…

    The sibling relationship is the longest most people will enjoy in their lifetimes and is central to the everyday lives of children. A Tel Aviv University and University of Haifa study found that relationships between children and their siblings with intellectual disabilities are more positive than those between typically developing siblings, with the children being […]

  • This is deep…

    This is deep…

    A child passing next to a shallow pond of water at the edge of the street… “This must be very deep”, it says to its parents as they walk together. “You cannot see the bottom of it”, it says. And I smiled as we walked. Not at the child. But at the arrogance of humans. […]

  • Expert decisions…

    Expert decisions…

    Does a mass on a mammogram indicate breast cancer? Will Serbia be a member of the EU by 2025? Will there be more floods in Germany in five years’ time? The diagnoses and predictions made by doctors, scientists, and experts often have far-reaching consequences. And in many cases, it is only years later that it […]

  • Harsh sounds…

    Harsh sounds…

    Neuroscientists have analyzed how people react when they listen to a range of different sounds, the aim being to establish the extent to which repetitive sound frequencies are considered unpleasant. Their results showed that the conventional sound-processing circuit is activated but that the cortical and sub-cortical areas involved in the processing of salience and aversion […]