Humans 14 April 2021
Watch
Zero is the story of shy teen Omar, a boy from Milan, Italy, who no one notices and who feels invisible. In this sci-fi series, as his inner turmoil morphs into real invisibility, Omar must adapt to his new status. On Netflix from 21 April.
Read
The New Breed of robots are best understood as animals, says Kate Darling, an expert in robot ethics. She forecasts that like real animals, robots will supplement, not replace, our own skills and abilities. Review to come next week.
EMAF
Visit
European Media Art Festival is going online this year, from 21 April, with a programme of films, installations, performances and lectures exploring questions about ownership and forms of possession.
Bold Type Books
THIS isn’t just a popular science book. There is plenty of physics in it – from the big bang and relativity to particle physics, it is all there. But attention rapidly shifts to the author’s other preoccupation: social injustice, such as inequalities, prejudices and the kind of social grooming and timidity that also hinder us from calling out these vices.
The author of
The Disordered Cosmos is Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, a core faculty member in women’s and gender studies at the University of New Hampshire – and a
New Scientist columnist. This gives her an excellent position from which she can both engage in rich detail with science’s most fascinating theories and grapple with human and inhuman social failings.
Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more 14 April 2021
Udderly disgusting
“Pause and ask yourself where would you rather be right now?” says an email with a tad too much upwards inflection for Feedback’s taste, sent on by reader Barry Cash. We do, coming to the pandemic-weary conclusion “anywhere”.
This answer is apparently correct, as it also embraces the British crown dependency of Jersey. “This season, we’re celebrating all things edible and home-grown, so read on and discover a flavour of Jersey,” the email from that island’s tourist board burbles on. A brief discussion of the merits of Jersey Royal potatoes and freshly caught local seafood follows, before things take an unexpected turn. “Still hungry?”, we read, and then, “WIN a fresh pat picked from our local fields.”
WHO loves Murderbot? We all love Murderbot. Many of the books in Martha Wells’s series have won (or been shortlisted for) Nebula, Hugo, Locus and other awards. Writers and reviewers are open about their feelings for the eponymous protagonist. “I love Murderbot!” was sci-fi writer Ann Leckie’s take. “I might have a little bit of a thing for a robot,” wrote Jason Kehe, a culture critic at
Wired. I have to sheepishly put my hand up as well.
So why are we fawning over a grouchy, ungendered hybrid of human neural tissue and integrated AI combat weapons?
Fugitive Telemetry, the latest instalment, only deepens the devotion. The 176-page novella is set between the five novellas of the All Systems Red series and the novelNetwork Effect.
| Leader 14 April 2021
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IN COUNTRIES where covid-19 is coming under some degree of control, those who have spent the pandemic working from home are beginning to return to their workplaces. For many, this will come as a relief after months of virtual interaction with colleagues. Others will mourn the return of the commute. Some will feel anxious about the changes ahead.
Of course, first and foremost, workplaces will need to be made safe. So what will that involve? The business of covid-proofing a workplace can seem overwhelming and confusing: there are so many things to consider, from how to organise the …