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‘Oppenheimer’ offers
parallels with AI threat
Here’s an interesting exercise as you watch the new movie “Oppenheimer.” The looming AI crisis has a lot in common with the rush to weaponize atomic energy during WW II. The latter quickly and profoundly altered history, while the former promises to do the same.
Think about the cast of characters: Robert Oppenheimer, Louis Strauss, Leslie Groves, Albert Einstein, Hans Bethe, Niels Bohr, Ernest O. Lawrence, Werner Heisenberg, Klaus Fuchs, Vannevar Bush, Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi, Harry Truman and Henry Stimson, the roles they played, their conflicts and tensions, their hopes and fears. Has history proven them right or wrong? Tragic or foolish?
One wonders if the same will be true of our new Masters of the Universe.
Jim Wolpman
Walnut Creek
Column attacking court
is the height of elitism
“Affirmative action decision is height of judicial activism” (Page A9, July 2) could easily be retitled “Erwin Chemerinsky’s column is the height of liberal elitism.”
Chemerinsky denounces the court because the court failed to “pay attention to the judgment of university educators that diversity in the classroom matters in education.” That is elitism writ large. As a society, we do not want university educators to dictate to us what is legal and what is not legal. For that, we prefer people experienced with the law, Chemerinsky’s anecdotal reminiscing notwithstanding.
Bill McGregor
Berkeley
Court ruling unlikely
to affect admissions
Re: “Court’s affirmative action ruling OKs racial imbalance” (Page A7, July 7).
The writer contends this case is just another example of America “clawing back hard-won progress” in eliminating racism. But I suspect that college admissions won’t actually change significantly as a result of this case.
Naming an individual’s race in a college admission may be forbidden, but race can certainly be considered. In the oft-forgotten words in the majority opinion of the chief justice: “Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise.”
Daniel Mauthe
Livermore
Supreme Court aiding
creeping authoritarianism
History is replete with examples of authoritarianism where a minority of citizens infringe upon the civil rights of a population. The Supreme Court’s making it harder to vote by reversing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and women losing the right to choose are just two examples.
Within the last ten days, hard-won gains by the LGBTQ community and communities of color were lost. Businesses can refuse service to LGBTQ people. Affirmative action and debt relief were taken from communities of color. While members of the Supreme Court claim America is colorblind, the average White household in the United States is worth 7.8 times more than the average Black one. Admission to college and debt relief are two means of equalizing the playing field.
The court doesn’t care. Many of us do. We should be in the streets to let the court know we are watching.
Laurie Grossman
Oakland
Source: www.mercurynews.com