News

March 3, 2025, Albany, NY, USA

Here are details concerning the proposal in the letter above, which appeared in the Albany Times Union:

At a 5% real rate of return, an endowment of $150 million yields $7.5 million per year. That's an average real salary of $100,000 in current money for 70 people, plus $500,000 annually for expenses. By comparison, the S&P 500 has produced a 6.37% inflation-adjusted return since 1957.

There are so many vital issues at the intersection of science and society on which an independent panel could issue majority and dissenting opinions. Does science say anything about whether a zygote is a person? Does science say anything about the nonexistence of God? Should the development of this or that technology be slowed or paused until its safety has been established and its potential for societal transformation addressed? Do we want to continue technological anarchy? Do we want to permit simulations of a process that could replace our universe with a very different one? (This is a real thing being done. One of the reasons I try not to think about physics very much is that I fear my work might produce insight concerning how someone could destroy the universe in this way. I assume most physicists would consider me an idiot to be worried about this, but risk-benefit analysis seems to be a very weak point in our civilization.) Should we permit the deliberate pursuit of artificial superintelligence, an obvious existential threat to humanity with the dubious upside that people wouldn't have to think for themselves anymore? Is the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics anything more than a wild guess, and is anyone basing their philosophy of life on rank speculation that's been presented to them as if it were fact by a small minority of physicists? These are examples of possible items in the jam-packed agenda the panel would quickly develop.

To avert catastrophe, let's rethink our love of doing anything and everything for which funding is available in physical science, computer science, and some other fields. Let's also give decision-makers, including voters, accurate distinction, uninfluenced by financial concerns, of fact from guesses, not to mention clear risk-benefit analysis. This won't happen without the kind of independent voice of morality, ethics, and reason for which I call in the letter. The survival of our species in the face of runaway technological growth, among other things, is at stake.

February 17, 2025, Albany, NY, USA

I read in the Times Union that large law firms and other businesses are fleeing downtown because of aggressive panhandling, rather than, say, using their wealth and power to improve the lives of people who are in obvious distress. No matter whether sacred texts come from divine or human sources, I think they're intended to teach systems thinking to reductionists and rich folk. I recall from the texts my ancestors held sacred that what we do unto the least among us, we do unto Jesus. Fleeing Jesus for the temporary safety of the suburbs is probably a bad idea. In fact, if people look at scripture through the lens of complex systems science, they may understand the words of Jesus better. A breakdown in human decency can destroy civilization by sending it into a vicious cycle. Mental illness, righteous rage, and justifiable fear all become more common as society becomes more brutal and, in turn, themselves promote increase in the rate of brutal acts. There are those who believe that God, or the natural progression of societal trends, destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of disregard in those cities for the laws of hospitality. Civilizations fall, and ancient people tried to warn those who came after them, in ways that might reverse vicious cycles and start virtuous ones, about the mistakes they saw around them and in the past.

November 4, 2024, Albany, NY, USA
In local media today, a story on the vast sums of money that are flowing into Albany for chip research and development referred to Silicon Valley as the birthplace of the transistor. No! The transistor was invented at Bell Labs in the greater New York City area. Our culture transfers credit for the work of physicists to the businesspeople who profit from the science. It's like saying that your house was built by the people who painted it last. Here in Albany, the Capital Center, a convention facility, has a wall commemorating, among other things, technological advances brought about in Albany. Billiard balls and perforated toilet paper made the wall, but Joseph Henry's fundamental inventions didn't! The problem arises from attitudes toward people who were especially good at school. Here's my most recent letter to the editor of the Albany Times Union:

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Nerd stereotype needs to be put aside

James Lyons Walsh, Ph.D., Albany

To me, Chris Churchill is an important force for good in our community. In his column on the beloved and talented educator John Sawchuk (“John Sawchuk was a hero, and not just for stopping a school shooting,” Oct. 6), Churchill has done a great service by writing, “With broad shoulders, a big chest and a strong jaw, Sawchuk was a living, breathing rebuke to the nerdy 'Bueller, Bueller' portrayal of teachers so common in Hollywood movies.” Because even so careful a thinker as Churchill has fallen prey to it, let’s take a look at the harm everyone suffers from the stereotype “nerd.”

A Google search for “nerd” served up images of bespectacled white people dressed unfashionably and smiling awkwardly. Alongside was the definition, “A person who is extremely enthusiastic and knowledgeable about a particular subject….” 

I possess full training in both teaching and theoretical physics. The fact that dedication to an academic subject is mapped in so many minds to particular physical appearances and personality types is one reason we struggle to fill STEM jobs. Why, oh why, do girls tend to lose interest in math as they grow up?

Hollywood movies can help break stereotypes. Do you know who were nerds? Indiana Jones and the real-life mathematicians in “Hidden Figures."

Would technology be designed more responsibly if the designers grew up feeling valued? Is there any doubt that hatred of nerds promotes former President Donald Trump and undercuts climate action? Thanks to Churchill for spotlighting a critical issue.

Published Oct. 14, 2024