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I wonder if what consciousness actually is eludes us because we are trying to make too much of it. Could it be that self-awareness, i.e. consciousness, has the primary function of keeping us motivated, so as to keep us alive? Without sensory input, to which we react, we would starve to death, succumb to danger …

I read Karmela Padavic-Callaghan's article on storing data in glass with interest, but I couldn't help but feel that such research is misdirected. In my long life, I have used many "ultimate" methods of long-term data storage, from wire recorders in the 1940s to floppy discs. Now, it is virtually impossible to recover data from …

Encoding information in glass isn't such a new idea. In the 1998 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "In the Pale Moonlight", glass storage serves as a key plot point. A recording of an AI-generated meeting intended to convince the Romulans of an impending sneak attack by supposed allies is stored on an "optolythic data …

In your report "AI can't stop recommending nuclear strikes", you quote a researcher who says "The nuclear taboo doesn't seem to be as powerful for machines for humans". Surprise, surprise! I also noted with interest the discovery that, in the fog of war, accidents happened in 86 per cent of the conflicts. As 19th-century general …

Your short piece on the apparent willingness of AI models to deploy nuclear weapons without the usual human reservations doesn't indicate whether the AI involved had been made aware of the possibility of nuclear winter. The bombs themselves have been tested and their destructive capabilities are well known. However, the nature of a nuclear winter …

If Stone Age people did indeed use the flight of wild birds as a tool for navigation, could they also have taken their own birds? If these were unable to land on water, e.g. eagles or corvids, when released they would fly ever higher looking for distant land. If they saw land, they would fly …

I have thought of an analogy that best describes the confusing situation in cosmology today. Imagine going on a camping trip with a new tent. You haven't had time to practice erecting it, so you assemble the tent from the rather limited instructions. On completion, you find there are poles sticking out and bits of …

I enjoyed Chanda Prescod-Weinstein's article about a subject that has had us all confused: "What makes a galaxy?" We do have this powerful need to put everything into boxes and, alas, it doesn't always work. For example, is Pluto a planet? This is a subject that seems to cause endless anguish. Another example is the …

I'm not against categorising things, because it helps with understanding, but we need to accept that there will always be things that don't quite fit the model, rather than trying to force them into one box or another. From Sam Edge, Ringwood, Hampshire, UK The debate over whether certain collections of stars should or shouldn't …

Whiteson proposes that there may be multiple equally valid explanations for the workings of the universe. I have often wondered how differently our scientific outlook would have developed if Benjamin Franklin had picked an alternative convention for the flow of electrical fluid, leading to the electron being regarded as positive and the proton as negative.