【推荐3】A machine can now not only beat you at chess, it can also outperform you in debate. Last week, in a public debate in San Francisco, a software program called Project Debater beat its human opponents, including Noa Ovadia, Israel’s former national debating champion.

Brilliant though it is, Project Debater has some weaknesses. It takes sentences from its library of documents and prebuilt arguments and strings them together. This can lead to the kinds of errors no human would make. Such wrinkles will no doubt be ironed out, yet they also point to a fundamental problem. As Kristian Hammond, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Northwestern University, put it: “There’s never a stage at which the system knows what it’s talking about.”

What Hammond is referring to is the question of meaning, and meaning is central to what distinguishes the least intelligent of humans from the most intelligent of machines. A computer works with symbols. Its program specifies a set of rules to transform one string of symbols into another. But it does not specify what those symbols mean. Indeed, to a computer, meaning is irrelevant. Humans, in thinking, talking, reading and writing, also work with symbols. But for humans, meaning is everything. When we communicate, we communicate meaning. What matters is not just the outside of a string of symbols, but the inside too, not just how they are arranged but what they mean.

Meaning emerges through a process of social interaction, not of computation, interaction that shapes the content of the symbols in our heads. The rules that assign meaning lie not just inside our heads, but also outside, in society, in social memory, social conventions and social relations. It is this that distinguishes humans from machines. And that’s why, however astonishing Project Debater may seem, the tradition that began with Socrates and Confucius will not end with artificial intelligence.

【推荐1】Despite being connected online, no matter what state you’re from, each city still retains its own language and slang. At my public high school in Los Angeles, we had our own secret language. A party was a “yart”. A beer was a “brewsky”. If I tried to use these words in front of anyone that didn’t live in Los Angeles, they would have no idea what was going on. When I came to college and used these words around my roommate from the East Coast, she would look at me with a blank stare.

Teenagers are often blamed for pulling apart standard linguistic patterns. The way my parents used to talk isn’t the same way that teenagers talk now. But it reflects the dynamic nature of language, which evolves over time due to various influences, including generational shifts and technological advancements. Teenagers, at an age when they are actively exploring their identity and seeking to differentiate themselves from previous generations, often play a significant role in this evolution.

It’s interesting to note that people around the world all have different terms for everyday things. Last year, I came across a British show called Love Island, which is a reality show that mixes people from different parts of the U. K. in a “villa”(another word Americans don’t typically say) for about eight weeks. As a bystander, the way they talked felt so elegant and fun, but to them, it was just normal.

Whether the way we talk is regional or from online, the soul of communication lies in its power to connect people, foster understanding, and facilitate interactions that shape our personal and social lives. I have often found it’s the way we connect with the people we live around.

【推荐2】Bacteria are an annoying problem for astronauts. The microorganisms（微生物） from our bodies grow uncontrollably on surfaces of the International Space Station, so astronauts spend hours cleaning them up each week. How is NASA overcoming this very tiny big problem? It’s turning to a bunch of high school kids. But not just any kids. It depending on NASA HUNCH high school classrooms, like the one science teachers Gene Gordon and Donna Himmelberg lead at Fairport High School in Fairport, New York.

【推荐1】Steven Stein likes to follow garbage trucks. His strange habit makes sense when you consider that he’s an environmental scientist who studies how to reduce litter, including things that fall off garbage trucks as they drive down the road. What is even more interesting is that one of Stein’s jobs is defending an industry behind the plastic shopping bags.

Americans use more than 100 billion thin film plastic bags every year. So many end up in tree branches or along highways that a growing number of cities do not allow them at checkouts(收银台). The bags are prohibited in some 90 cities in California, including Los Angeles. Eyeing these headwinds, plastic-bag makers are hiring scientists like Stein to make the case that their products are not as bad for the planet as most people assume.

Among the bag makers’ argument: many cities with bans still allow shoppers to purchase paper bags, which are easily recycled but require more energy to produce and transport. And while plastic bags may be ugly to look at, they represent a small percentage of all garbage on the ground today.

The industry has also taken aim at the product that has appeared as its replacement: reusable shopping bags. The stronger a reusable bag is, the longer its life and the more plastic-bag use it cancels out. However, longer-lasting reusable bags often require more energy to make. One study found that a cotton bag must be used at least 131 times to be better for the planet than plastic.

Environmentalists don’t dispute(质疑) these points. They hope paper bags will be banned someday too and want shoppers to use the same reusable bags for years.

What does the word “headwinds” in paragraph 2 refer to?