Editor's pick: Accounting for empathy
Pat Kane writes that empathy “is one of the few aspects of professional roles that… might survive incremental transformation by information technology” (21 November 2015, p 42). Perhaps the premise is that empathy is an insignificant aspect of what professionals do, hence the prediction that the work of lawyers, doctors, teachers, accountants, architects, engineers and so on will be “decomposed” by information technology (IT).
I suspect many readers will be sad to see this happen to doctors and teachers. I also suspect that some will be buoyed up by the thought of decomposing lawyers and accountants. But this reaction might be premature, for a reason that may be rather unexpected.
for the professional body Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand tells its members how to spot something amiss. “The first lesson is that it’s not just about the numbers 鈥� it’s about the people… Engage your soft side… If something doesn’t feel right in the way people respond to you, note the signals and see where it leads you in your investigations.” If empathy is so important in forensic accounting, might the same be true of other professions? Could IT’s impact be to enhance professionalism rather than decompose it?
Shepton Mallet, Somerset, UK
What scientists can say without doubt
Do scientists need training in talking to the media? As a scientist I understand why experts who are asked, “Was Storm Desmond caused by climate change?” answer: “It’s impossible to say whether a particular flood event is or isn’t caused by climate change” (12 December 2015, p 6).
But it really doesn’t help. Most people are not trained in scientists’ ways, but are all too well aware of the workings of politicians’ prevarications, and interpret them as a lack of conviction (or even lying). We scientists must wise up. The overwhelming majority of us accept the reality of human-made climate change, and our communication with the public must reflect this. For example, an answer like “climate change will bring more storms like this” is equally honest but more helpful.
Walsall, West Midland, UK
<b>First class post</b>
Maybe it’s already happened and they’re just allowing us to discover it for ourselves now
Terry Braine that the idea of implanting memories may be disquieting (19 December 2015, p 28)
Making labels with simple words
You interviewed Randall Munroe about his effort to describe things in simple language (28 November 2015, p 32). Languages with smaller vocabularies have long described items that their speakers have not encountered before with constructions such as “iron bird” for aeroplane.
Larger languages also use this method: consider the French chemin de fer (iron way), the British-English “railway” and the American “railroad”.
“Technical languages” have been developed for rapid communication, such as those used in mines in southern Africa, where safety had to be taught to new recruits who spoke many different languages. Instructors used mainly local language words, and consequently the terms now used in South Africa are different to those in Zambia.
Barton on Sea, Hampshire, UK
What do you call a modified salmon?
The US Food and Drug Administration has ruled that a fast-growing genetically modified Atlantic salmon is safe to eat (28 November 2015, p 9). That may be so. But if it grows so quickly, will it provide the health benefits of Atlantic salmon to those who consume it? Will it have the same proportions of omega-3 fatty acids? Will it have the same amount of trace elements such as iodine, selenium and zinc? If not, should it even be called salmon?
Eating fish and seafood is generally recognised as being important for brain development and function because of the nutrients they contain. Unless the modified salmon can match its Atlantic cousins on the brain-health scale, it should be called something else to inform the consumer. Perhaps “nomlas”?
On prostitution and the law
I was disappointed that your article “Safer sex work” (12 December 2015, p 26) did not consider the harm prostitution causes. History shows that people will do anything if they need the money: in the past, parents sent their children to work down coal mines or risked life and limb working long hours in dangerous and unhealthy factories.
Health and safety laws now protect many of us from such exploitation, but society still needs to answer the question as to whether it is acceptable to be able to purchase another human being as an object to sexually abuse.
I would hope the answer to this would be a categorical “no”. In that case it is appropriate to adopt the “Swedish model”, in which the purchase of sex is a criminal offence 鈥� but not its sale. The aim is to reduce demand, discourage sex trafficking and, with funding, enable women to exit the trade.
Those who wish to fully legalise prostitution often claim that it is a job like any other. This is simply not the case, since it requires submission to being physically violated, which is why a high proportion of women prostitutes suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Those behind the plan to legalise prostitution in Scotland seem to have forgotten that laws are meant to protect the vulnerable, not enable the strong to do whatever they like.
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK
Concorde wasn't quite the cash sink
As the person who wrote the costing model used by British Airways in the days of Concorde, could I point out that Joshua Howgego got the wrong end of the stick in calling Concorde the classic example of the sunk-cost fallacy (12 December 2015, p 31)?
While it is true that the governments and aircraft manufacturers made a loss, it’s not true that Concorde “never made any money in all the decades it was flying”.
Swindon, Berkshire, UK
Just a Neolithic street plan, surely
Your news item on Late Stone Age rock etchings (5 December 2015, p 17) called to mind the “cup-and-ring” stone markings which are common here in the north of England and elsewhere. These are typically a circular groove 60 to 100 millimetres in diameter, with a small break where the groove has not been cut. They can appear singly on stones in isolation, or in groups.
My personal theory is that they are Neolithic “street maps”. Could they have been carved to be placed near the tracks into settlements, with each cup-and-ring mark representing a typical hut of the era, and its entrance?
If the Barcelona finds date from 13,800 years ago, they will just predate any such UK carvings, as these can only have followed the retreat of the ice sheet.
Kirkby Malzeard, North Yorkshire, UK
We've seen that Moho before
I cheer the crew of the JOIDES Resolution and hope their drill makes it through the Earth’s mantle (5 December 2015, p 7). They are not, however, the first geologists to try to drill through the Mohorovicic boundary.
From 1958 to 1966 the ran the Moho project to achieve this.
In 1970 the project gave it a shot, only to abandon it in 2006 for lack of funds.
Ballston, New York, US
We've seen that Moho before
鈥� There was no space in that small column to allude to our previous coverage of Moho 鈥� for example, () 鈥� and of the Kola project (5 October 1991, p 15).
Around the world in longer than that
The headline “Around the world in 80 microseconds”, which appeared in your story on internet architecture, was somewhat optimistic 鈥� to say the least (12 December 2015, p 38).
Take Earth’s circumference to be 40,000 kilometres: covering it in 80 microseconds would require travelling at approximately 1700 times the speed of light in a vacuum (300,000 km/second).
The data packets actually take indirect paths through complex fibre-optic infrastructure, so would be travelling even further and at speeds much slower than that of light. An email would be lucky to circumnavigate the world in 0.8 seconds.
Wetton, Staffordshire, UK
Dragnet invention: just the facts
David Hambling’s discussion of less-lethal weapons was interesting and enjoyable (28 November 2015, p 30). It inspired me to make a tongue-in-cheeky “safe-ish” suggestion: why not a net-firing gun?
A net projectile attached to pull cords would cover the culprit when fired. The cords would tighten the net in such a way as to prevent the individual moving arms or legs. Correct me if I’m wrong (and I’m not often wrong) but the above system ought to be safe for police and security personnel to deploy, and for the general public. Discuss.
At my age patenting a device is hardly worthwhile, so regard this idea as a gift… assuming it works.
Market Deeping, Lincolnshire, UK
Dragnet invention: just the facts
鈥� It has been tried, for example by the New York Police Department (3 May 1997, p 7). We note, however, the lack of triumphant updates.
Who or what makes that luck?
Steve Tunn discusses computer algorithms selecting job applicants (Letters, 12 December 2015). This reminds me of the human resources person who would randomly consign half the CVs they received to the wastebasket, with the explanation “who would want to employ anyone that unlucky?” Maybe the same applies in the algorithmic era too?
Taunton, Somerset, UK
<b>For the record</b>
鈥� The wants to contact families, initially in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, that have a son or daughter with autism and an unaffected sister (12 December 2015, p 27).