NASA Is on the Cusp of a New Era

Are you a tyrant or a servant? Plus, NASA's new era, this week's episode of Behind the Scenes, and more. EDITORS’ CHOICE Newsletter brought to you by: [Wren]( July 17, 2022   Did a friend forward this? [Subscribe here](. Good Morning! This Sunday, read some of our most popular stories this week—and don’t miss our latest episode of Behind the Scenes [READ NAUTILUS](   [PSYCHOLOGY]( [Why Power Brings Out Your True Self]( Are you a tyrant or a servant? BY MATTHEW HUTSON At the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama told the crowd, “Being president doesn’t change who you are. It reveals who you are.” [Continue reading →]( Experience the endless possibilities and deep human connections that science offers [SUBSCRIBE TO NAUTILUS](   [Wren]( [Do Your Part in the Fight Against Climate Change]( Climate change is an urgent crisis, and 2022 is set to be one of the hottest years on record. But it’s hard for regular people to do anything about such a global problem. That’s where Wren comes in. [Wren]( is a website where you can calculate your carbon footprint and offset it with a monthly membership which funds projects that plant trees, protect rainforest, and more! Our favorite project on [Wren]( is a first-of-its-kind carbon removal project. It uses a technology called enhanced mineral weathering, which harnesses Earth’s geochemical processes to turn atmospheric carbon into solid rock—permanently keeping CO2 out of the atmosphere. Signing up for Wren is an easy way to make a difference in the climate crisis. And if you join today, [they’ll plant 10 extra trees in your name!]( [Go Carbon Neutral](   [BEHIND THE SCENES]( When Does Mimicry Become Intelligence? “It’s very easy to be impressed by these models,” says Raphaël Millière. “It almost feels like magic.” Millière, a philosopher of cognitive science at Columbia University, is talking about AI. Specifically the AI models companies like Open AI, Google, and DeepMind have recently come out with. Take DALL-E 2, from Open AI: It can illustrate seemingly anything you ask it to, in almost any style you can name. DALL-E 2 was, in fact, the illustrator for Millière’s recent Nautilus article, “[Moving Beyond Mimicry in Artificial Intelligence.](” Millière used DALL-E 2 to generate an image, in the style of Wes Anderson, of a man looking into a mirror, a robot in the place of his reflection. In [our recent conversation](, Millière talked about the reaction these models have provoked. “People by and large,” he said, “have been extremely impressed, to put it mildly.” DALL-E 2’s prowess can prove deceptive, however. The model is like a black box with no real artistic talent. It’s one thing to say, in broad terms, how DALL-E 2 works. “But it’s more difficult to exactly say how it goes from the text prompt to the image in any specific case,” Millière said. “So there’s a real problem with the opacity of these models, and that feeds into the problem of over-inflating their competence or their capacities.” It’s one tendency he tries to avoid. The other is being overly skeptical of what DALL-E 2 and other models, like Google’s AI chatbot LaMDA, have achieved. Millière told me why he pushes back against the idea that these new AI models are mere “stochastic parrots,” haphazardly stitching together words (in the case of language models) from their training data. Instead, he sees them as more chameleon-like, with “inklings of intelligent behavior.” [Watch here](. –Brian Gallagher, associate editor   [“When people obtain power, don’t expect them to behave dramatically differently from how they did before.”]( [Matthew Hutson dives into the cognitive science of why becoming powerful exposes your true character.](   [Goods With Ethics in Mind]( Shop [Made Trade]( for sustainable and ethical products that put people and the planet first. Discoverconsciously curated]( clothing, shoes, furniture, and more. [Shop Your Values](   [GENETICS]( [Embryo Cells Set Patterns for Growth by Pushing and Pulling]( BY MONIQUE BROUILLETTE One of the longest-standing questions in biology is how a living thing that starts as an embryonic blob of uniform cells morphs over time into an organism with diverse tissues, each with its own unique pattern and characteristics. [Continue reading →](           [TECHNOLOGY]( [The Worrisome Rise of NFTs]( BY CALEB SCHARF Humans are very good at inventing commodities, and we’ve been at it for a long time. [Continue reading →](   [PHYSICS]( [The Joy of Condensed Matter]( BY JOHN BAEZ Everyone seems to be talking about the problems with physics. [Continue reading →](           [ASTRONOMY]( [NASA Is on the Cusp of a New Era]( BY BRIAN GALLAGHER Jennifer Heldmann laughed when I pointed out that she used the word “unprecedented” five times in a recent paper. [Continue reading →](   [REGISTER YOUR EMAIL]( [Dive Deep with Nautilus Ocean]( The Nautilus Ocean newsletter has narrative storytelling about the ocean you won't find anywhere else. These stories take you into the depths of the salty waters and shine a light on the ripples it causes in lives and cultures around the globe. Join a community of 200K+ curious minds connected to science and its power to illuminate culture, humanity, and the universe. [SIGN UP NOW](   [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( Copyright © 2022 NautilusNext, All rights reserved. You were subscribed to the newsletter from nautil.us. Our mailing address is: NautilusNext 360 W 36th Street, 7S, New York, NY 10018 To view in your browser, [click here]( . Don't want to hear from us anymore? Click here to [unsubscribe]( .