The Economist - USA (2019-11-30)

18 The EconomistNovember 30th 2019

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Letters

Allinclusive

Theadviceyougavetomake

companiesmorediversedid

notmentionpeoplewithdis-

abilities,evenonce(“Diversity

memo”,November9th).As

Diversish,a satiricalcampaign,

putsit,“Ifdisabilityisnoton

youragenda,neitherisdiv-

ersity.”Researchshowsthat

hiringpeoplewithdisabilities

confersthesamekindsof

benefitsmentionedinyour

article:increasedcreativity

andinnovation,improved

productivity,decreasedstaff

turnoverandimprovedjob

satisfaction.A reportbyAccen-

turein 2018 lookedat 45 Ameri-

canfirmsthatemployedthe

disabledandfoundthatthey

hadhigherrevenuesandprofit

marginsandoutperformed

theirpeersintermsofshare-

holderreturns.

Globally,oneinseven

peoplehasa disability.Yetthe

employmentrateforpeople

withdisabilitiesisonlyhalfof

thatforpeoplewithoutdis-

abilities,andthegapiswid-

ening.Disabilityisseldom

discussedinboardroomsand

executivesrarelyornever

discussit intheirworkplace.

yazminelaroche

Canada’sdeputyministerof

publicserviceaccessibility

Ottawa

Fora “Hard-headedguideto

diversity”,youhadverylittleto

sayonwhattargetsareneeded,

orwhy.Thesupposedbenefits

tocompaniesorthereduced

groupthinkare,asyouadmit,

unconfirmedhypotheses.And

youdidnotconsiderwhether

theskillsandattitudesthat

businessesneedareequally

commoninalltargetgroups.

rasmusfogh

Cambridge,Cambridgeshire

Planting the seeds

In “The lap of luxury” (Novem-

ber 9th), Les Standiford attrib-

uted the rise of Palm Beach to

the Florida East Coast Railway

line, built at the start of the

20th century. Palm Beach’s

beginnings go back a little

further. Palms are not endemic

to that part of America, but in

January 1878, a 150-tonne Span-

ishbrig,theProvidencia, car-

ryinga cargoofcoconutsfrom

theCaribbeantoSpain,foun-

deredsoonafterleavingCuba.

It finallyranagroundonthe

Floridacoast,spillingitscargo

alongthebeach.Localresi-

dentsfeastedoffthenuts,and

thenplantedthehundredsthat

wereleftover,givingthearea

itspalmsanditsname.

robinlaurance

Oxford

Sugar-coated wars

America’s military is in many

ways a self-licking ice-cream

cone, and this exacerbates the

problem of political account-

ability (Lexington, November

9th). It serves functions sep-

arate from whether it wins or

loses wars, or whether there is

any clear mission in the first

place. Many see the armed

forces as part of the social

safety net, providing recruits

with a sense of belonging,

discipline and educational

opportunities. Veterans serve

as mascots for citizens, poli-

ticians and sometimes them-

selves, in order to validate the

national civic culture and

patriotism. Group identities

require myths, myths require

epic struggles and heroes.

A war’s legitimacy and

efficacy matter comparatively

little. The marine corps’ birth-

day message, promulgated by

top brass in 2015, was: “You

fight for the corps first...God

may come second. Country can

come third.” How do you hold

that kind of institutional self-

idolisation accountable to any

external criteria? Voter apathy

is only part of the puzzle.

dan brendel

Oceanside, California

One way to re-establish citi-

zens’ links to the armed forces

would be to require national

service for all residents in the

age range of the previous draft.

This would apply to both sexes

and could be in either the army

or civilian service. The latter

might involve programmes

like Volunteers for America,

the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps,

and so on, as well as ideally, a

reincarnation of the Civilian

Conservation Corps from the

1930s.Thatprogrammemadea

significantimpactonalleviat-

ingunemploymentduringthe

Depressionandcompleted

manyinfrastructureprojects.

gregoryfirman

Captain,UnitedStatesNaval

Reserve(Ret.)

Springfield,Massachusetts

Creative writing programs

In his column on computer-

generated writing, Johnson

took a jab at a favourite punch

bag: post-modern academics

in the humanities, and how

they were fooled into accepting

handwritten bogus papers in

their journals (November 2nd).

However, Naturereported in

February 2014 how publishers

had to withdraw “more than

120 gibberish papers” in the

sciences. “Computer-generat-

ed papers” apparently found

their way into 30 published

conference proceedings be-

tween 2008 and 2013. Sixteen

appeared in publications from

Springer and more than 100

were published by the Institute

of Electrical and Electronic

Engineers. The works were

generated by scigen, a comput-

er program that three students

at mitcreated to generate fake

computer-science papers.

As a computer scientist, I

take a certain perverse pride

that computers can clearly do a

better job at generating bogus

research papers than humans.

eric haines

Somerville, Massachusetts

Johnson claimed that artificial

intelligence can’t emulate

creativity. This hasn’t been my

experience. I have used

Openai’s gpt-2 to interview

hundreds of fake humans.

Each “human” has something

important to say about their

unlived lives. True, these in-

terviews had some human

input; I edited and curated the

content myself. But this isn’t

much different from how

literature is delivered now. ai

text generators produce a lot of

meaningless dross, but so too

do humans. In both cases we

rely on humans to curate the

prose that is worth reading.

Artificial writers will occasion-

ally say something poetic or

insightful, and are worth read-

ing even if they didn’t emerge

from a human brain.

julian koplin

Research fellow at the Biomed-

ical Ethics Research Group

Murdoch Children’s Research

Institute

Melbourne, Australia

Macron’s Balkan mess

Emmanuel Macron labelled

Bosnia as Europe’s ticking

time-bomb (“Emmanuel

Macron in his own words”,

November 7th). That is in-

flammatory, unfounded and

hypocritical. Mr Macron

forgets that France is the larg-

est single source of European

fighters in Iraq and Syria.

Although there are Bosnians

who have unfortunately made

the same decision to fight,

Bosnia has imprisoned the

returning fighters. Mr Macron

was behind the recent decision

at the European Union to block

membership talks with

Albania and North Macedonia.

His statements about Bosnia

and the Balkans in general will

only serve to increase dis-

illusionment about the eu

among the Balkan countries,

and in turn further embolden

bad actors in the region and

other powers vying for influ-

ence, such as Russia, China

and Turkey.

The Balkans may well be a

problem on the eu’s doorstep,

but not for the reasons Mr

Macron highlights.

nedim bazdar

London

Europe “is on the edge of a

precipice,” says Mr Macron. In

the 1960s the leader of then-

communist Poland, Wladyslaw

Gomulka, proudly announced

on television that “A year ago

we were on the edge of a preci-

pice. Since then, we have made

a great leap forward.”

jerry czarnecki

La Habra, California