Through the initial part of the second of the #RoyalInstitution #ChristmasLectures this year, I was preparing to moan that they had focussed on the possibility of life on the (major) Solar planets, and missed the idea that #ArthurCClarke popularized via _2010_.

I should not have been so pessimistic.

They went full throttle into the idea of the possibility of extra-terrestrial life not only on #Europa, but also on #Enceladus and #Titan.

Excellent.

Interestingly, since two of the three criteria for IAU Solar planets don't apply to the moons of Saturn and Jupiter *either*, we don't get to entirely rule out dwarf planets like #Ceres yet. They didn't get into that, though.

And like the first lecture was marred by the repeated use of 'criteria' as a singular noun, the second was marred by Maggie Aderin-Pocock repeatedly asking whether people thought that there might be 'life in the Solar system'. 'Criteria' is plural and Terra is in the Solar system, Maggie. (-:

#astronomy

It was sad to see a 17-year-old girl in the #RoyalInstitution #ChristmasLectures this year preaching that billionaires have given us access to space and that Elon Musk is a great guy who will take humanity to Mars.

The reality is that it is governments who gave us access to space.

Billionaires, on the other hand, have given us space *pollution*, the shuttering of NASA and NOAA, wasteful vanity projects, and the extension of the category of 'astronaut' to encompass #KatyPerry.

#ElonMusk is meanwhile recycling 20th century boy's fiction sci-fi fantasies about techno-feudal rich-equals-superior inventors-cum-capitalists, not the least of which is E.E. Smith's 'Skylark' series.

In these male fantasies the rich industrialist hero's girlfriend sometimes does indeed get to be a passenger in his rocketship.

Juvenile pulp sci-fi was not supposed to be the roadmap for the future.

#astronomy #SciFi #SpaceTravel

Watch the live recording of the #RoyalInstitution #ChristmasLectures before they are shown on BBC! Featuring Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock. WMG at #WarwickUni hosts a FREE livestream 11 & 16 Dec, for ages 11+.

Register here: https://warwick.ac.uk/wmgoutreach/opportunities/richristmaslecture/

#Space #STEM #ScienceForAll #STEMeducation

Watching the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on AI.

They're doing a good job of explaining AI/ML for kids and non-techies and not getting too sensationalist.

But they are following the modern trend of "an algorithm with data is AI". I wish we could still distinguish "machine learning algorithm" from "more generalisable intelligence".

#RoyalInstitution #ChristmasLectures #RiChristmasLectures #AI