There’s been some kerfuffle in recent days about the reaction of the famous scientist and writer Richard Dawkins to his interaction with the AI bot Claude, or Claudia. For example:
The Guardian, Robert Booth, Tue 5 May 2026: Richard Dawkins concludes AI is conscious, even if it doesn’t know it, subtitled “Chats with AI bots have convinced evolutionary biologist but most experts say he is being misled by mimicry”
I see this as an example of Arthur C. Clarke’s first law. As at Wikipedia, Clarke’s three laws.
1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
Something of the reverse is going on here, of course. Most observers today say that Dawkins, making an existence claim, is almost certainly wrong.
Friendly Atheist, Hemant Mehta, yesterday: Richard Dawkins was seduced by a glorified autocomplete engine, subtitled “Call it the Claude Delusion. The evolutionary biologist who warned against falling for comforting stories has been taken in by AI flattery.”
This incident might be a little like Michio Kaku seeing a conspiracy in the “pattern” of disappearances of scientists. The point here is that everyone, including Kaku and Dawkins, is subject to biased pattern recognition. But these errors are discovered and overturned through the usual methods of science. And such errors don’t invalidate their earlier accomplishments.
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Similarly, UFOs. There’s no there there. Just more blurry images.
- Scientific American, Adam Kovac, today: The Pentagon just started releasing UFO files, but skeptics say they’re not impressed
- Subtitle: “The Pentagon’s first UFO file release includes photographs, videos and documents gathered as part of an effort that spans several governmental offices and agencies, including the FBI, the White House and NASA”
- NY Times, Helene Cooper, today: Pentagon Releases Files on U.F.O.s
- Subtitled “The initial files are murky images that show what could be anything. The government said more would be released on a rolling basis.”
- David Brin has written about the UFO/UAP issue for many years, again and again pointing out how the photos don’t get any better, even though most of the world’s population is now armed with phone cameras. He points to this piece today:
- Ars Technica, Eric Berger, today: The US military just released a bunch of UAP files, but there’s no there there
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Briefly Noted.
- About tradwives. I get it, I think, but I’ll read these two pieces and follow up.
- Salon, Amanda Marcotte, today: I read the right-wing women’s magazine sex issue so you don’t have to, subtitled “Evie magazine, conservatism’s answer to Cosmo, tried to make ‘trad’ sexy. It failed”
- The Atlantic, Hanna Rosin, yesterday: The Tragedy of the Tradwife, subtitled “Caro Claire Burke on her best-selling novel, Yesteryear, and the retrograde fantasy that inspired it.
- There’s also the tie to that novel, about a woman from the present who is thrust back in time to, I gather, the ideal age of the MAGA crowd, when women stayed at home being “traditional wives.” And this is what I think this is about: yet another appeal to a mythic, ideal past, that if looked at closely enough, never existed.
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- OpenSky, Adam Lee, today: No religious revival, quiet or otherwise, subtitled “Claims about a surge in young converts are wishful thinking based on no evidence.”
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- JMG, today: Trump Claims Hantavirus Is “Very Much Under Control”
- Ring any bells?
- JMG, today: Burchett: WHCD Gunman Was Under Mind Control
- The devil? Demons? No, mind control!
