New Scientist

Features Interview

The hidden
costs of AI

Beyond the headline
breakthroughs, artificial
intelligence is a planet-wide
industrial complex that is
already reshaping our world,

Kate Crawford tells
Timothy Revell

46 | New Scientist | 27 March 2021

ARTIFICIAL intelligence is everywhere intrinsically linked to power structures. The engage with us as autonomous entities. He said
these days, from the Alexa virtual way it is made involves extracting resources there was a trap we would fall into, in that we
assistant in your kitchen to the from people and the planet, and the way it would focus too much on technical innovation
algorithms that decide on your suitability is used reflects the beliefs and biases of those and not on the deeper social impacts these
for a job or a mortgage. But what exactly is it? who wield it. Only when we come to terms systems would have. Weizenbaum wrote
The definition matters because to a great extent with this, says Crawford, will we be able to about these issues in the mid-1970s and
it dictates how we think about AI’s impact. chart a just and sustainable future with AI. we still haven’t learned that lesson.

ROCIO MONTOYA If AI is something that outperforms humans Timothy Revell: What is AI? You say in your new book that AI is neither
by definition, it seems logical to trust it to Kate Crawford: I think of it in three ways.
identify people who should be stopped and Technically speaking, it is an ecosystem of artificial nor intelligent. What do you mean?
searched via facial recognition, say, or to make techniques that we can put under the banner
judgements on which offenders should get of machine learning. Secondly, it’s about social Often when people think about artificial
probation. If it is solely about algorithms, practices: who is designing the systems and intelligence, they’ll think about binary code
it becomes a lot easier to sweep aside issues who is deciding which problems to solve. And and math, or something that’s ethereal and in
of bias and injustice as mere technical issues. finally there is infrastructure, the process of the cloud, or they might think about a series of
massive data harvesting and where it is going. corporate products like Alexa, Siri or Google’s
Kate Crawford takes a broader view. search algorithm. But none of these things are
Co-founder of the AI Now Institute at New York Why do we tend to focus on the technology artificial – in fact they are profoundly material.
University and now a researcher at Microsoft itself rather than its effects? They only function because of large amounts
Research and the École Normale Supérieure There’s a tendency to be blinded by innovation. of data scraped from the internet and an
in Paris, she has spent the best part of two In the 1970s, Joseph Weizenbaum, who created enormous extraction of resources, including
decades investigating the political and social the first ever chatbot, called Eliza, noticed that minerals, energy and the human labour that is
implications of AI. In her new book, Atlas of AI, people were completely prepared to be taken in necessary to label the data used by AI systems.
she also looks at the global infrastructure that by the powerful delusion that AI systems were In this sense, AI is a material system that is
underpins the rise of this technology. entirely autonomous technical boxes that could very much coming from humans, created
by humans, and more widely from the earth.
She argues that AI, far from being something
abstract and objective, is both material and Then we think about intelligence. There’s >

27 March 2021 | New Scientist | 47

a trap, in which ever since the very early days HOWARD LIPIN/TNS/ALAMY sizable carbon footprint and we need to Are we also seeing government pushback?
of AI we have assumed that computers were contend with it. Combine that with the labour Like when the Australian government drafted
like the human mind. The writer and engineer exploitation that happens on digital piecework legislation for big tech firms to pay for content
Ellen Ullman once wrote that the belief that services like Amazon Mechanical Turk and from news organisations and Facebook
the mind is like a computer, and vice versa, you can start to see the ways in which AI can responded by briefly turning off all news
has infected thinking in the computer sciences be understood as an extractive industry. for Australians on its platform?
for so long that it has become like an original It was horrifying to see that. This was a signal
sin. We don’t look at how these systems are You say that it is inherently political too. How? being sent by Facebook to the world that says:
different to human intelligence. They’re Artificial intelligence is politics all the way “If you pass laws that we don’t like, we will
doing statistical analysis at scale and that’s down. From the way in which data is collected, simply take our toys and go home.” And given
very useful for some things. But let’s be really to the automated classification of personal how many countries right now are looking
clear: it’s not like human intelligence. characteristics like gender, race, emotion or to produce much stricter forms of regulation
sexual identity, to the way in which those tools on the tech sector, it seems like a troublesome
How does thinking of AI like human intelligence are built and who experiences the downsides. type of strongman tactics.

cause problems? Time and time again we’ve seen that Are tech companies any different to powerful
One phenomenon I discuss in my book is people who are already marginalised are the companies that have gone before them?
the idea of enchanted determinism, the belief ones who experience the worst harms from Tech companies have taken on the roles of
that these systems are both magical and at large-scale artificial intelligence systems. states in terms of things like providing civic
the same time can provide insights about all We’ve seen communities of colour targeted infrastructure. Facebook, for example, has
of us in ways that are superhuman. This means by predictive policing systems, immigrants spent huge amounts of money to convince
we’re not expecting these systems to produce surveilled and tracked by deportation tools, populations that they are the place where you
forms of bias and discrimination. Nor do we and people with disabilities cut off from can communicate with family, where student
focus on the ways in which they’re constructed support services due to poorly designed groups can put up their information. This is
and their limitations. healthcare algorithms. where you connect with your communities.
What was so extraordinary to see was that this
What have you learned about how products I’m optimistic when I see people starting civic infrastructure can be switched off any
to demand greater justice, transparency minute. The power of technology companies
that use AI are made, and the impact that has and accountability. We’ve seen widespread has in some ways leapfrogged the power
student protests in the UK over algorithmic of states and this is very unusual.
on people and the environment? mismanagement in the education system
One of the most eye-opening projects I’ve and we’ve seen substantial public pushback What can we do about that?
worked on was “Anatomy of an AI System” around facial recognition in the US. We have a long way to go, but I’m actually
with Vladan Joler at the University of Novi Sad optimistic. Think about the car. Cars didn’t
in Serbia. We traced the life cycle of a single AI-powered virtual have safety belts for decades, but now laws
Amazon Echo, the voice-enabled AI system. assistants are mandating them have been passed around
It was remarkable how difficult it was to track harvesting your data the world. You can also think about the way
where all of the components came from, to that some countries have extremely strong
study the ways in which user data is harvested food safety regulations that have a real impact
and processed, all the way through to the on people’s lives. We have to come up with
devices being disposed of in e-waste tips similar policies to control the harmful impacts
in countries like Ghana and Pakistan. of artificial intelligence.

That project inspired me to look deeper In terms of the bias built into AI and the unjust
into the full logistical pathways and supply outcomes it produces, are we just seeing the
chains of the AI industry. AI requires a lot tip of the iceberg?
of industrial infrastructure. When I started If you think about the biggest stories about
researching the book, I began by focusing bias in AI over the past decade, they’ve
on hardware. But the past few years we’ve come because an investigative journalist,
all learned a lot about the large energy a whistle-blower or a researcher has discovered
consumption of AI. If you look at cutting-edge
systems like OpenAI’s GPT-3, a language
model that produces human-like text, they
are extremely energy intensive. There is a

48 | New Scientist | 27 March 2021

AI companies are marketing
emotion-detection technology
to spot potential criminals

SEFA OZEL/GETTY IMAGES “Artificial
intelligence
is politics all
the way down”

a particular issue. But there is a myriad of at every single paper that’s ever been written to have conversations about how we want to
issues that have never been made public, on this question and found no correlation live. These conversations have often been quite
which is why we need to shift our focus from between the expression on your face and segmented. If you think about conversations
the idea that bias is a thing that requires a tech your internal emotional state. Which, frankly, about labour rights, climate justice and
fix to looking at ways in which discrimination is known to anyone who has had their picture data protection, they’ve primarily been in
is built into the DNA of these systems, such taken by a photographer who said “smile”. very separate silos, but right now artificial
as in the data sets used to train them. intelligence touches each one. This is the
What is really interesting is how the moment to bring those issues together.
What are the most problematic uses of AI assumption becomes ingrained in a field like
you can see coming down the track? machine learning. It is a case of the theory So the detrimental effects of AI, which is still
One I find particularly concerning is so-called fitting the tools. Machine learning can look in its infancy, can be reversed?
emotion detection. There are companies that at movements of the face, so if the theory The important thing to remember is that
use this in hiring tools so that when you’re says there are universal emotions that can no technology is inevitable. Just because
doing a job interview, the micromovements be detected from microexpressions, then AI something is designed, doesn’t mean it has
in your face are being mapped to all sorts of can be used. Or misused. And it can end up to be widely deployed. And just because
interpretations of what you might be thinking being applied in something as important something has always been done a certain
and feeling – often in the context of previous as education or criminal justice. way, doesn’t mean we can’t change it.
successful applicants. One of the problems
with that is that you end up hiring people who When it comes to the future of AI, are you That is the most important thing when we
look and sound like your existing workforce. think about labour exploitation, environmental
an optimist or a pessimist? degradation and the mass harvesting of data,
There was also a tool that has been marketed I’m a sceptical optimist. I am optimistic about all of which can be profoundly detrimental.
for shopping malls that looks at people’s faces the ways in which we think about the next These are all practices that can change, and
to see emotions that will indicate that you generation of civic infrastructure. How do we the great legacy of industry over the past
might be about to steal from shops. What make sure infrastructures are going to really 300 years or so is that industries have changed
was the training data for that, and what are serve us, and in ways that can’t just be switched once regulated. We can remake these systems
the assumptions about what somebody off in the middle of a political negotiation, and there’s profound political hope in that. ❚
looks like when they are shoplifting? as we saw with Facebook and Australia?
Tim Revell is comment
Does the underlying technology of emotion The conversation about climate change and culture editor
detection work? has reached a point that means we are at New Scientist
It has been almost entirely demolished. going to think about the impact technical
Psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett looked systems have on the planet from an energy
and natural resources perspective. I’m also
optimistic that, in some ways, AI allows us

27 March 2021 | New Scientist | 49

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The back pages

Puzzles Almost the last word Tom Gauld for  Feedback Twisteddoodles
Try our crossword, Could we genetically New Scientist Experiential units for New Scientist
quick quiz and engineer cats that A cartoonist’s take and rhinos on rails: Picturing the lighter
logic puzzle p52 don’tkillwildlife? p54 on the world p55 the week in weird p56 side of life p56

Science of gardening

Wonderful nectar

Some pollinating insects are in decline. Gardeners can help by
growing flowers rich in nectar in their gardens, says Clare Wilson

Clare Wilson is a reporter MOST people are aware that SHUTTERSTOCK/RUDAK HANNA
at New Scientist and bees are in trouble. Due to factors
writes about everything including habitat loss, use They found that the nectar dahlias, look gorgeous but lack
life-science related. of pesticides and a mysterious supply from urban areas was nectar because the reproductive
Her favourite place is her phenomenon called colony actually better than that from parts of the flower have mostly
allotment @ClareWilsonMed collapse disorder – when most of a farms and nature reserves because been converted into extra petals.
hive’s workers just buzz off – many it was from a more diverse range
What you need bee species are seeing downturns of plants: gardeners tend to stuff In “semi-doubles”, only some of
in their numbers worldwide. their flower beds with a broad the reproductive parts have been
Plants, mainly with flowers range of non-native species. made into petals. Usually, if you
that are single varieties. Avoid There have also been declines can see the yellow-topped anthers
too many double flowers, in other pollinating insects, such This is good for insects as it in the middle of the flower, insects
which lack nectar as hoverflies, which, like bees, helps ensure nectar is available can reach the nectar.
rely on sugar-rich nectar from throughout the year, and there
Science of gardening flowering plants. The amount are options that suit different Some large, exotic flowers
appears every four weeks of nectar in England and Wales species. “If you have a lot of normally pollinated by birds
fell by about a third in the past different plants, all pollinators are too deep for insects to be
Next week century, mainly due to changes will be able to find something able to reach the nectar. However,
in farming practices, such as the they like,” says Tew. smart bees and wasps have been
Citizen science growing use of weedkillers and spotted stealing the nectar by
the loss of hedgerows. People who want to maximise cutting holes at the base of the
nectar in their garden should mow flowers. “Pollinators are very
But it isn’t all bad news. In the the lawn less often, use fewer ingenious,” says Tew.  ❚
UK, big changes in farming had pesticides and avoid too many
mostly petered out by the 1970s; frilly “double” flower varieties. These articles are
nectar availability stopped falling These showy blooms, such as posted each week at
and has even risen slightly since. some varieties of roses and newscientist.com/maker
On average, the UK’s towns and
cities have as much nectar
available for pollinating insects
per square hectare as farmland
and even nature reserves and
parks, according to a recent study.

The nectar bounty of such areas
is down to home gardeners. “The
decisions you make as a gardener
really do make a difference,” says
ecologist Nicholas Tew at the
University of Bristol, UK, who
led the research.

Tew’s team analysed the nectar
supply from urban areas, farmland
and nature reserves by gathering
existing data and also by
measuring nectar production
from more than 3000 flowers by
sucking it out in fine glass tubes.

27 March 2021 | New Scientist | 51

The back pages Puzzles

Quick crossword #79 Set byRichard Smyth Quick quiz #94

Scribble 1 When did the largest geomagnetic storm
zone recorded on Earth occur?
2 What plants do galanthophiles collect?
3 Seahenge, an ancient timber circle in Norfolk,
UK, is believed to have been built when?
4 What trait of elephants, manatees and
kangaroos is unusual among mammals?
5 Who holds the record for the longest time
spent continuously in space?
Answers on page 55

Puzzle

Answers and set by Tom Rainbow
the next cryptic
ACROSS crossword next week #106 Having a dart

9 Component in the irresistible DOWN Where should I aim to maximise my score
force paradox (9,6) when I play darts? If I were a pro, I should aim
1 Zn (4) at 20. However, I tend to miss, so maybe I’d
10 Unit of energy (7) 2 ___ nitrite, C₅H11ONO (4) be better off aiming at 19, with its higher
12 Medical study of the ear (7) 3 Means, perhaps (8) scoring neighbours. Or close my eyes and
13 Microsoft co-founder (4,5) 4 Entity (6) aim randomly? I tried an experiment.
14 Fly without thrust (5) 5 Mid-sized joinery tool (5,3) Throwing three darts in a turn, I had six turns
15 Negatively or positively charged (7) 6 Rectangle (6) with each of those strategies. My scores:
18 Power (7) 7 Plant genus that includes speedwell (8)
21 Forged; staged (5) 8 Alkene, C₂H₄ (8) Set A: 76, 13, 18, 83, 38, 40
23 Concerning colour (9) 11 ___ acid, compound important Set B: 49, 19, 57, 14, 78, 20
25 Brought about deliberately – of Set C: 41, 85, 45, 20, 19, 59
in animal biology (5) All darts scored, and when not blindfolded,
coma or childbirth, perhaps (7) 15 Airborne (2,6) my darts always landed on the number I
26 Glass apparatus used in titration (7) 16 The ___, 1967 anthropology work aimed for or one either side, sometimes
29 Doctors’ pledge (11,4) hitting a double or treble. Can you work out
by Desmond Morris (5,3) which strategy I was using with each set of
17 People or machines that convert or decrypt (8) darts? Do you have any advice for me?
19 Tree also known as red larch (8) Answer next week
20 Grain for milling (5)
22 MD or PhD (6)
24 Droids or Transformers, perhaps (6)
27 Streetcar (4)
28 E, in the NATO phonetic alphabet (4)

Our crosswords are now solvable online

newscientist.com/crosswords

52 | New Scientist | 27 March 2021

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The back pages Almost the last word

Feline fix HYDROMET/GETTY IMAGES What is the minimum
population needed to
Is it possible, or desirable, This week’s new questions sustain a good lifestyle?
to produce a genetically engineered
cat that doesn’t have an urge to Popular support What is the minimum population needed tangle of life on the planet, but
kill wildlife? to sustain me in a comfortable life in the US, in terms of the I am confident our superbeing
people who create and maintain infrastructure, goods and descendants will be capable of
Tilly the cat, services? The combinatorial explosion of dependencies reprogramming the world.
transcribed by Pat Sheil boggles my mind: for instance, I enjoy New Scientist, so its
Camperdown, journalists and all their dependencies would have to be This isn’t a new idea. For
New South Wales, Australia added in too. And so on… Bill Hay, Lacey, Washington, US thousands of years, many religions
I am more than happy to be part of have questioned how a benign
any experiment that involves the On time Since I was a child, most measurements have been God could create and oversee
genetic modification of domestic decimalised. Why not time? Ruth Garrod, London, UK so much violence and suffering.
cats to reduce their desire to attack The Bible refers to a future time
endangered wildlife, but on one inclined to kill wildlife. However, and the only way it can spread when ravenous beasts become
condition: that I, Tilly, highly this might come at the risk of to cats is via the ingestion of an peaceable, in which “the lion will
evolved carnivore that I am, be losing desirable features like infected animal, typically a rodent. eat straw like the ox” and “the wolf
part of the unmodified control playfulness and independence. and the lamb will feed together”.
group, given free and equal access, Without the predatory
24/7, to the same wildlife as my Maurice Pitesky behaviour of cats, T. gondii couldn’t Pull the other one
CRISPRed fellow research subjects. University of California, Davis, US reproduce and the infection rate of
Without predatory cats, I suspect toxoplasmosis in humans (which If there are other universes, would
Any results obtained without that poultry farms throughout the can be up to 50 per cent in some our universe feel their gravity?
such controls would clearly be world would have a much bigger populations) would decrease.
meaningless. Agreed? Well, rodent problem. Historically, barn Mike Follows
count me in. cats have played a role in hunting Brian Stewart Sutton Coldfield,
rodents that eat chicken feed. Elgin, Moray, UK West Midlands, UK
Anne Barnfield I have long believed that we should We can’t be certain. Recent
London, Ontario, Canada One upside if cats didn’t hunt intervene to suppress the hunting astronomical evidence supports
A simpler solution to this problem wildlife would be a reduction in instincts of predators. Nature is the view that the universe is
may be environmental rather than the disease toxoplasmosis, caused unthinking, and indifferent to the infinite in extent.
genetic. Recent research shows by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. suffering of sentient creatures.
giving household cats engaging The only place that this pathogen At the same time, Einstein’s
play opportunities and a diet high can reproduce is the gut of a cat, Clearly this would have wide- general theory of relativity
in meat protein significantly reaching consequences for the suggests that our universe is finite
decreased predation by the cats but lacking a boundary or outer
studied (20 February, p 21). Want to send us a question or answer? edge. As an analogy, imagine that
our universe is the surface of a
Saif Ahmad Email us at [email protected] sphere; this would give it a limited
Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK Questions should be about everyday science phenomena size without a boundary.
Humans first domesticated Full terms and conditions at newscientist.com/lw-terms
animals thousands of years ago. This ushers in the possibility
that parallel universes exist
“I, Tilly the cat, am “beyond” our own. If this were
happy to be part of a the case, we might expect to see
genetic experiment peculiar motion of galaxies
to reduce the urge in our universe as they are
to attack wildlife… pulled towards a massive
on one condition” neighbouring universe.

Back then, the main reason why Using the European Space
was to aid human survival. Cats Agency’s Planck spacecraft,
were probably domesticated to scientists have looked for evidence
help get rid of pests. It is only in of this in the cosmic microwave
very recent times that cats have background radiation, but have
been kept as pets rather than for found no sign of it.
their killing abilities.
Quantum mechanics, however,
It may be possible to genetically hints at a multiverse. The famous
engineer them to make them less double-slit experiment shows
that an electon behaves both as a
wave and a particle, and can pass
through a pair of adjacent slits at
the same time.

54 | New Scientist | 27 March 2021

Tom Gauld Answers

for New Scientist Quick quiz #94

Answers

1 In 1859
2 Snowdrops
3 In the Bronze Age
4 They are polyphyodonts – their
teeth are continuously replaced
5 Valeri Polyakov

In 1925, Erwin Schrödinger “Our universe could such other universes could Cryptic crossword
never form the basis of a #53 Answers
came up with his eponymous be an insignificant scientific theory since it is
equation to describe this wave-like dot in a multiverse of unfalsifiable. It can never ACROSS 7 Beluga, 8 Purine,
behaviour. The equation implied billions of galaxies of be more than speculation. 9 Silt, 10 Obsidian*, 11 Kilauea*,
that many different states are universes, and could 13 Bends, 15 Terms, 17 Furtive,
possible, even if only one is feel their gravity” Shake it off 20 Cinnamon, 21 Sole,
seen. This was “solved” by the 22 Portal, 23 Parrot
Why do dogs like to shake DOWN 1 Gemini, 2 Suet,
Copenhagen interpretation, themselves dry besides a person 3 Baloney, 4 Spasm, 5 Gradient,
rather than doing this as soon as 6 Inward, 12 Ammonite,
which holds that the act of imagination. Therefore, any they get out of the water? 14 Turnips, 16 Epizoa,
(continued) 18 Volvox, 19 Smelt, 21 Surd
observing the particle banishes meaningful discussion of
Eric Kvaalen *Apologies, two Across clues were
all the other states. “other universes” requires Les Essarts-le-Roi, France wrong. They should have read:
Previous correspondence on this 10 Igneous rock formed of silicon
Later, Hugh Everett III a more restricted definition. topic, describing the physics of detective found in Scottish town;
the motion that dogs use to shake 11 Krill manure occasionally
devised his many-worlds One such definition is water off their wet fur, referred to dropping next to a volcano 
the “centripetal” force caused by
interpretation of quantum that “our universe” includes the movement. #105 Mastermind

mechanics, suggesting that all everything whose existence “Centripetal” means seeking Solution
the centre, whereas “centrifugal”
the states not seen in our universe we can verify – in other words, means fleeing the centre. The first two rows confirm the
colours are four of red/orange/
are seen in parallel universes. everything that is capable of When a dog, for example, yellow/white/pink/blue, but not
shakes off water, it is the green. Row 4 confirms two are
A phenomenon called quantum interacting with us, even if, centrifugal force that causes the red/orange. Row 3 eliminates
water to go away from the dog. pink and yellow. The four colours
entanglement would allow all the like dark matter, it only does Centripetal force is what holds are red/orange/white/blue (grey
the water on the dog.  ❚ is the “white” peg, brown is
parallel universes to act in unison, so gravitationally. Anything that “black”). Blue must be position C
or D. If red is in the wrong spot
each exhibiting a different state. affected us gravitationally would in row 1, its right position is C,
but that means orange must be
But the jury is still out on therefore be a part of our universe. right in row 1, leaving nowhere
for blue. So red is right in row 1
whether we live in a multiverse. It is possible to conceive of and orange must be position B,
white D and blue C.
the existence of a form of dark
27 March 2021 | New Scientist | 55
Roger Savidge matter that doesn’t even interact

Shoreham-by Sea, West Sussex, UK gravitationally. Such matter and

The term “universe” is widely anything composed of it would

accepted to mean everything truly occupy another universe,

that exists, which would clearly even if contiguous with our own

exclude the possibility of other in space and time.

universes existing, except in our However, the existence of

The back pages Feedback

Units of experience Twisteddoodles for New Scientist headline on The Guardian
website, in a further entry to the
“Imagine an adult African male Got a story for Feedback? suboptimal phrasing of the week
elephant suspended from a rope competition. (You will find our
that’s the same diameter as a table Send it to [email protected] or write up of this study on page 19 of
tennis ball.” Yes, we’re trying very New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ES this very issue.) Reader David Marsh
hard to imagine this scenario as we Consideration of items sent in the post will be delayed asks whether this is referring to
read this passage from an article in “the half-forgotten days when we
The Wall Street Journal sent in by “Did you know a Newcastle tram Deer oh deer could gather at conferences”.
Peabody Bradford. Sadly, the effort is as hard to stop as a herd of thirty
is failing to help us grasp much rhino?”, it asks. Never – 20 at the Never mind the rhinos, “How Can It might not be quite what you
meaning from what follows, that most! Further examples of units Suburbs Control Deer Populations?”, had in mind, David, but Feedback
the “tension in that imaginary rope from outside your own experience Smithsonian Magazine asks on was privileged once in the
is about equal to the tension at to the usual address. behalf of its readers (“You’ve got Before Times to have attended
the center of a typical piece of questions. We’ve got experts”). We a conference of the American
tempered glass”. Our mental Rhinos on rails agree with our reader Jane Monroe Physical Society when, thanks to a
imaging software is busy from Arcata, California – which looks triumphant miscalculation, it was
elsewhere. How exactly is the Slightly puzzlingly, Newcastle beautifully non-suburban on Route held in New Orleans during Spring
elephant suspended? Is he entirely Transport’s website also states that 101 – that the answer “Scientists Break. Some sort of clumping
happy? Should we be worried? “[S]imilar to a herd of charging have developed contraceptive darts mechanism was very much in
rhinos, trams can’t divert from for areas densely populated with evidence as laptop-clutching
Feedback has had much the tracks to avoid an obstacle”. humans” doesn’t make it as clear physicists braved the mass of
cause in recent weeks to muse as we might like who the darts are hula-hooping humanity in the
on the enduring popularity of We recall this esteemed being aimed at. Beware people streets of the French Quarter.
measurement units such as the Burj magazine asking “Why don’t lurking behind hedges with
Khalifa (20 March) or the massed wildebeest have wheels?” not too clipboards and tranquiliser guns Rather than blastoids, it
ranks of the northern hemisphere long ago (19/26 December 2020). when next out in the ‘burbs. reminded us of the sardine run,
blue whale (30 January). Now, what The better, perhaps, to dart when massed migrating fish
we might term “experiential” units out of the path of the fearsome Conference clumping leaving their spawning waters
seem to be emerging as a distinct steel-wheeled rhino-tram hybrids off the coasts of South Africa form
journalistic sub-genre. our mind’s eye now sees careering “ ‘Blastoids’ – Scientists form tight defensive bait balls as they
across the savannah of New human cell clumps that act like run the gamut of their predators.
The key to a good experiential South Wales – a majestic and early-stage embryos”, read a Nature very much in the raw.
unit is that it should be rooted in an awe-inspiring sight indeed.
experience that no one could ever Crab bytes
be reasonably assumed to have
had. Ideally, an excess of detail Of which, Twitter has recently
should make it a very exact been crawling with the rediscovery
unrelatable experience: not for of a paper from unconventional
nothing are the sex and life stage computing researchers Yukio-Pegio
of the elephant clearly stated. Gunji, Yuta Nishiyama and Andrew
Adamatzky. In “Robust Soldier Crab
As highlighted by many of you, Ball Gate” from 2012, the team
various UK media had clearly got showed that, in a constrained
the memo when they reported that environment, swarms of soldier
a fatberg “with the same weight as crabs formed compact propagating
a small bungalow” had been cleared groups that, guided by “intimidation
from a sewer in the east of London. plates” mimicking the shadows of
Clearly, this is a hefty weight – aerial predators, can be made to
although for those of us who have operate mechanical logic circuits.
felt the crushing load of a medium-
sized semi-detached bearing down From the starting point of 80
on us, it’s not quite as much as that. soldier crabs to operate a logic gate,
eight logic gate operations per byte
Or there is the “Beware of the and an average data consumption
Rhino” campaign run by Newcastle of about a kilobyte, Twitter user
Transport in New South Wales, Ethan Mollick now calculates it
Australia, sent in by Ian Dawes. would take an army of about
A brief rootle in our piling system 640,000 crabs to curate one tweet.
reveals that this is an iteration of
similar campaigns run in recent Impressive, if slightly unnerving,
years in Australian cities blessed stuff. We’d like to know how many
with light rail transit systems, clumping physicists it takes to
but not necessarily rhinocerotids. operate a logic gate. ❚

56 | New Scientist | 27 March 2021