Gene Tracy
Chancellor Professor of Physics, William & Mary
Gene Tracy is Chancellor Professor of Physics at William & Mary in Virginia. He blogs about science and culture at The Icarus Question.
Written by Gene Tracy
essay
History of ideas
Sky readers
For most of human history, the stars told us where we were in space and time. Have we forgotten how to look up?
Gene Tracy
essay
Physics
A science without time
From past to present, into the future: the flow of time is central to human experience. Why isn’t it central to physics?
Gene Tracy
essay
History of science
Behold: science as seeing
One astronomer’s dimpled pie is another’s cratered moon. How can our mind’s eye learn to see the new and unexpected?
Gene Tracy
idea
Computing and artificial intelligence
How much can we afford to forget, if we train machines to remember?
Gene Tracy
How much can we afford to forget, if we train machines to remember?
Gene TracyThank you for the thoughtful posts, all. I’m not sure where to begin.
This is a wonderful sampling of ideas, Vivek, and shows that I only touched the surface of a very rich topic in my essay: how technology affects our memory, leading to shifts in both personal and cultural identity. I’m glad you found the essay provocative in this way. Lot’s more to think about, I agree.
I’d also like to return to the point Sally put her finger on in her comment, which is one I was aiming for in the essay: What’s new is not only how rapidly this technology has spread, and the nature of it as a form of ubiquitous and now easily-accessed memory, but also how this new technology could ‘fool’ u...