We do have free will, just in case you were wondering. We are responsible for our decisions, at least in part because we can choose otherwise. But our free will doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Some choices are so easy to make that they barely feel like choices at all; others are so difficult to…
Only a minority of high schoolers enjoy solving complex math problems. I was not one of them. Usually, the best I could do was tinker with different variables and plug them into formulas on a trial and error basis in the hope of reaching a solution. Over time I became competent enough to use quadratic…
About 1200 years ago, a Persian scientist wrote two important texts about computation and arithmetic. Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī worked at the Grand Library of Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age, and was one of the most famed scholars of the period. Although there are few recorded details about his life, we do know where he…
It’s rare for a week of my life to go by without someone grumbling about how technologymakes our lives better, until it doesn’t. Within the world of health care where I work, we’ve become remarkably dependent on it. When our charting system threatens a shutdown, we’re laden with anxiety about how to carry on. And…
Libraries / librarians / books /
teachers / moms / grandmas /
scientists / laboratories / cells /
crows / forests / oceans / orcas /
research stations / kindergarten
classes / therapy sessions / your
brain / my brain / humanity
A preacher’s daughter, raised in Saskatchewan, Molly Thomas is now the host and senior producer of TVO’s show Big [If True]. Winnipeg journalist John Longhurst interviewed Molly in Toronto at the Canadian Christian Communicators Association conference in May. Big [If True] will be back for a third season this fall. John Longhurst: Tell us a…
Would you take a university course about ethics and artificial intelligence that was built by an algorithm? How about if the professor was an avatar and the marking was done by a machine? In 2024, six graduate students at Acadia Divinity College in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, said “yes” to these questions and embarked on a…
. . . Livea three-dimensioned life;stay away from screens.Stay away from anythingthat obscures the place it is in.– “How to Be a Poet,” Wendell Berry I woke early, and in the blue dawn my mind began to trace the contours of this editorial – my take as an educator, parent and interdisciplinary artist on the…
Online sports gambling is the new “cigarette” problem in Canada. Sports gambling is promoted as entertainment, while gambling addiction is fast becoming a major public health issue. Seductive, aggressive advertising makes gambling attractive and socially acceptable, while the well-known high risk of addiction is not acknowledged. Algorithms hook users into addictive gambling behaviour that affects…
I’ve always thought of algorithms as those sneaky things that monitor my every move online. Oh, it’s for a noble purpose – to filter the information and conveniently present the most relevant material, right? There’s no denying it’s easier than ever to find answers to burning questions like, “Who invented ice cream?” or “How old…
A few months ago, Eric Almon joined my Bible study group. Almon is a 25-year-old entrepreneur, Canadian Armed Forces reservist and lifelong Toronto resident. As we got to know each other, Almon shared his unique testimony: his father was a non-practising Anglican, his mother came from a New Age Buddhist background and faith wasn’t a…
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