I WAS at the conference. It was intimidating- so many brilliant scientists. But it was also diverse... men and women of color (including an African American astronaut) and I’m guessing 40% women. The science fair and airplanes the article depicts was wacky but the presentations were serious scientific advancements and worthy of exposure and funding.
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There is not a single woman genius in the entire USA that was able to attend despite the fact women now make up over 50% of those in Universities & have better grades? Not one was free, never mind 50%?
Utter disgrace.
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Dana Randall is a woman
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Of the 200 attendees, how many were women?
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I hate Jeff Bezos so much its hard to read anything postive about him. Look what he does to his workers. I mean come on. This is horrible.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-rules-a...
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That's exactly why I detest him, too. He treats his warehouse employees like slaves. And he treats the M-Turk workers even worse than slaves, encouraging them to work for pennies an hour. Bezos is the Emperor of Dystopia.
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When I finished this article I was feeling pretty happy: people who actually are smart and talented, as opposed to people who think they are smart, getting together and enjoying the company and conversation with other similar folks. Would love to have been there. As usual I then went to read the Comments because in the New York Times they are often as interesting as the article. Imagine my surprise to find envy, vengefulness and spiteful bitterness in no short supply! A lot of folks apparently believe a university is some sort of trade school; being smart is just plane wrong. The usual and disappointing indignities about gender and social diversity were layered onto a genuinely good experience. Well, I will happily state the whole event seemed “jolly good fun”, please keep me in mind for next year!
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Well, maybe the fact that it appeared that it appears that, for the most part, only wealthy white men were allowed to attend this exclusive event contributed to the antagonism. If you attend any kind of open AI conference (the alleged theme here), you’ll see very different demographics.
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The new boys club. Write about people working to cure something, end child hunger, fund education, then we readers will be impressed. This is just a bunch of rich guys pretending they are important. It's kind of pathetic.
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“Intelligent, wearable strength,” he said. “This is a new clothing paradigm.”
If I had a nickel for every paradigm....
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You would have a quarter each time.
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Terrific to see my brother-in-law who was one of the invited guests and speakers present his company and their inspired concepts. He was in brain heaven and made several new friends. He's even made the NYT photo of folks entering the festivities. A fun time was had by all!
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Was there any upshots from the meetings, any new and exciting technology or understanding? Or was this meant to just get the top tech people together? Otherwise I fail to see the point of the meeting. As a retired PhD in applied science I am very interested in the world of science and engineering and would like a follow up on the meeting as to what where the scientific and engineering high points that where reached if any.
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FWIW, I wasn't there, but we will know if there were any productive meetings there only a few years from now.
It's merely a private, opulent event for a privileged few, self-proclaimed saviors for the remainder of humanity: an old, tired play that will be replayed, no doubt, for eons to come. Pity those who admire such "history-making" trifles.
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This piece doesn't belong in the technology section. It's a gossip piece in which the report effuses over all the "cool" people he got to hobnob with.
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There's nothing dumber than talking about who is smarter than whom.
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Just remember folks this is how your tax dollars are spent when clueless Oligarchs don’t pay their share!
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Tax dollars? It's not tax money until the government takes it from you. Until then, it is legitimately earned income. Jeff Bezos is clueless? He created Amazon, one of the most popular and respected companies on earth, also Blue Origin, the rocket company, based on rocket science, and he's clueless? Don't pay their share? I'm not aware that his tax returns are a matter of public record, so how would you or anyone else know that one way or the other? You seem to be having a bad hair day. Better luck tomorrow.
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What percentage of attendees were women?
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In the party photo, it looks like a good smattering of women. Missing are people of color.
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Judging by the less-than-diverse crowds, a more fitting name for this thing would be "White Mars".
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How many H-1B holders were invited? As the NYTimes keeps reminding us, they provide all of the entrepreneurial talent in this country.
The cocktail hour looks like a United Colors of Benetton ad.
I saw that dog on an episode of Black Mirror recently.
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You failed to mention that the 130 billion dollar man, Jeff Bezos, has refused to respond to Parkland student’s criticism of his ties to the NRA—namely streaming NRA-TV on his Amazon streaming service.
He has already destroyed millions of retail jobs and mom and pop stores. He has amassed enough wealth to give every man, woman and child on the planet twenty dollars. But rather than following Bill Gate’s lead, he continues to disrupt markets and now he’s going all in on AI. What could go wrong?
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I completely agree with you rb. People overlook what he has done. Most are oblivious to what Amazon has done. As long as they get their packages lickety-split, and can talk to a robotic tin-can, all surely must be well...
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I can't say this is the support I had in mind, when I chose to subscribe to the NYTimes...
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I was impressed until I read that the Mythbusters guy was invited. Makes me wonder just where the bar is set.
I’m so glad to learn that Bezos treats the academics to a luxury weekend, though!
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The Mythbusters guy is relevant to these sorts of things because in addition to being a showman he is actually doing practical work on his show. If I was making a suit to wear on Mars, I would invite a bunch of professors, but also a bunch of hackers who make costumes for ComiCon or movies or TV shows because those folks have spent a lot of time testing what suits are theoretically wearable vs what are practically wearable. That is years worth of testing results obtained in a few conversations. Leonardo Da Vinci did not have a PhD.
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How about, instead of "Mars", "Ocean", which happens to be in need of some major maintenance, is "here", affects life on this planet right now and also includes many opportunities for technological development?
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Decadence at its best!
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I guess my ticket got lost in the mail. No problem. I am totally psyched for next year.
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It's a good sign that Bezo's MARS has replaced similarly star studded Werner Erhard (EST) celebrities' Forums !
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So this is how 21st-Century oligarchs and Robber Barons unwind: a playdate for billionaires. Next year, maybe they could take a 1-hour break to ponder the best way to end homelessness.
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I might be more impressed by billionaires and their self-congratulatory conferences if I didn't know that ending global hunger would cost a paltry $30 billion. We're only as impressive as what we do to help the least among us.
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Somehow during my lifetime, we have cut the top tax rates and allowed a new ultra-wealthy class to form. This new guilded era has its salons in Palm Springs or Davos instead of ornately decorated rooms in the Palace of Versailles. But as more and more wealth flows up, I become much less comfortable with the down branded jackets given as door prizes and dancing robotic dogs.
These billionaires look more and more like Bond villains and less and less like the solution to our planets issues.
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