When beliefs interfere with identity

This article is not about God existence or non-existence. I grew up reading a lot of technical books and, like a lot of kids, I tried to understand Things with a big T: universe, creation… So at first when having religious courses, I asked a lot of questions. Then I felt my questions caused the…

On being in love with an AI

A couple of years ago, I used to spend time biking with people who were riding horses. After a couple of minutes, if I was riding ahead, the horses would follow me on my bike as if I were a horse. One explanation for this behavior is not about the horses thinking I was one…

On using soda to clean soda

Imagine you are at home drinking a glass of soda and suddenly your glass falls off. So you go to the kitchen to use the brand new sponge you have just bought. Before using it, you take a look at the instructions. It says you should wet the sponge before the first use. So you…

Survival instinct and training

One definition of survival instinct is to do things in a dangerous situation that will save us from dying. This is linked to the instinct of self-defense and self-preservation in dangerous situations. Now let’s take a look at our performances in sports. How often did we feel exhausted, but we still were able to continue?…

In favor of an artificial president?

What if AI could solve political issues? In May 2017, France struggled in finding the right candidate for the presidential election. The opinions vary, but almost everyone seems to agree: there isn’t one candidate that suits everyone’s tastes and values. It’s a tough job to do as everyone’s tastes and values are a mix of…

About being omnivore

I am not here to advocate a specific diet because it is an entirely personal choice. I just would like to underline an evidence. What matters here is to understand how an omnivore eats and how a carnivore eats. Keeping it simple: an omnivore eats a lot of food categories, a carnivore eats mostly meat….

Human and android motion from the sky

We live in a 3D world, but we still use paper and screen to learn. So our brain is used to analyze in 2D. Often, when someone wants to observe and analyze a motion, the horizontal point of view is chosen. This choice is simply the natural way for humans to see the world. The…

Tourists and mums for the sake of disables

A couple of years ago, I was working in expert groups about urban standards. I tried to give some valuable inputs about how our cities should be designed in order to increase the autonomy of the disabled. When using a wheelchair, going outside to buy a sandwich or taking the subway to go to the…

Expectancies about robots

The more we know someone, the higher are our expectations We want them to deeply understand our habits and our wishes. We would like them to react and be a little bit more like us. The same applies to robots: the more they will look like human beings, the higher will be our expectancies. This…