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Robert Rosenkranz Recommends A Troublesome Inheritance by Nicholas Wade

Recommended Reading: A Troublesome Inheritance by Nicholas Wade

by robertrosenkranz on March 14, 2016

If scientists purport to serve society’s need to uncover answers that illuminate the nature of our world, why would they leave open questions unexplored?

Yet, in his 2014 book on modern evolution, science writer and former New York Times science editor Nicholas Wade suggests that the pressure of political correctness has forced us into exactly this predicament.

In A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History, Wade argues that science seems to be ignoring rather concrete evidence that identifies genetic differences between human beings. Heads of researchers turn away from the subject, he writes, due to institutionalized fear of “being smeared with insinuations of racism” and jeopardized careers.

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robertrosenkranzRecommended Reading: A Troublesome Inheritance by Nicholas Wade

We Need Better Presidential Debates

by robertrosenkranz on February 22, 2016

We Need Better Presidential Debates

Oxford-style would tell us more than the current uninformative and stilted face-offs.

Originally published on the Wall Street Journal on Feb. 21, 2016 6:09 p.m. ET
http://www.wsj.com/articles/we-need-better-presidential-debates-1456096141

By ROBERT ROSENKRANZ and JOHN DONVAN

Prime-time presidential debates were a brilliant innovation of the 1960s, meant to inform voters and let them see the candidates in action. Their format, however, is due for an update.

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robertrosenkranzWe Need Better Presidential Debates

Artificial Intelligence: Stop or Go? The Makings of a Debate.

by robertrosenkranz on February 1, 2016

Originally Published in The Huffington Post By Robert Rosenkranz

In classical Chinese painting, one sometimes sees distinguished figures in a mountain retreat, involved in “the four elegant pursuits.” The first three are readily understandable: painting, music, and calligraphy. The fourth is a surprise: the game of Go. Seeing these paintings, it seemed most odd to include a board game in this pantheon of pursuits. But then I realized there was something quintessentially human about the game. Computers simply couldn’t do it. In 1996 an IBM chess program, Deep Blue, beat the then reigning human champion. Its programs were designed by expert chess players, whose algorithms, pared with the computer’s vast calculating powers, produced an unbeatable competitor. 20 years later, no computer program could play Go as well as decent amateur. Until last week.

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robertrosenkranzArtificial Intelligence: Stop or Go? The Makings of a Debate.

Recommended Reading: Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli

by robertrosenkranz on December 31, 2015

Consider this: “Planets circle around the sun, and things fall, because space curves.” 

Such a means of explaining the force of gravity has the capacity to change the way people think about physics, which is exactly what Carlo Rovelli’s “Seven Brief Lessons on Physics” does – and more.

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robertrosenkranzRecommended Reading: Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli

Intelligence Squared US Debate Analysis: U.S. Prosecutors Have Too Much Power

by robertrosenkranz on December 15, 2015

Robert Rosenkranz: Intelligence Squared US Debate Analysis
U.S. Prosecutors Have Too Much Power

More than 90% of America’s prison population has never had a jury trial.   Instead, they are in jail following plea bargains negotiated with prosecutors. 

In these negotiations, prosecutors have vastly more bargaining power than the accused.   Since plea bargaining saves time for judges, juries, and the entire apparatus of the court system, it is arguably an efficient approach.   But does it produce just results? 

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robertrosenkranzIntelligence Squared US Debate Analysis: U.S. Prosecutors Have Too Much Power

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