BBC World Service – Heart and Soul, The Church’s slave plantation

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What are the consequences of the Church of England’s historic slave plantations in Barbados today? Theologian Robert Beckford considers why and how the Church’s missionary arm, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, got involved in the slavery business. He travels to Barbados to hear from a range of voices who tell the story of how in 1710, the Church turned the Codrington Plantation into a missionary experiment. The original mission failed but later generations did eventually adopt the Anglican faith. However, spurred by the country becoming a republic, some are now questioning the Church’s historic role in slavery. For some, it has turned them away from Christianity; for others, there is a need to decolonise or Africanise Anglican Christianity in Barbados. They say the religion’s only hope of survival on the island is to make it relevant to the black majority populace. Through the voices of Bajan Anglican worshipers, Robert interrogates what the future of the Church now looks like in terms of practice and governance in Barbados.

Presenter: Robert Beckford
Producer: Rajeev Gupta

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Professor Robert Beckford explores the Christian understanding of reparations. He speaks to Christians in Barbados who say reparations from the Church are now both justified and necessary.

But their perspective is only one side of the story. In England, representatives from the Church of England and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel articulate their understanding of reparations and why they believe it is unnecessary. Robert looks into Christian scripture to explore if there could be a theological case for the payment of reparations.

Presenter: Robert Beckford
Producer: Rajeev Gupta

BBC World Service – The Inquiry, Will AI decide America’s next president?

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Next year Americans will go to the polls to choose their next president. For many, the race has already begun. Digital electioneering in US elections has been steadily developing over the last 15 years, but this time around, advancements in artificial intelligence could be a game changer.

There have been huge strides in generative AI in the past year. One of the most accessible AI tools now available to the general public is the software known as ChatGPT, which can scour the internet for information, producing text for speeches and essays. Generative AI is widely used to produce social content around image and text, but what will happen when full on AI video becomes more readily available to any user?

AI systems will be able to reach voters with messages targeted specifically to them, but will they be able to trust them? There are concerns that voters will have an increasingly tough task working out which campaign messages are genuine and which are not. To date, there is currently little regulation of a system which has already been used to create deep-fake manipulations of people and what they say, provoking questions over authenticity.

So do we all have to be more aware of how much we allow AI to shape our democracies?

This week on the Inquiry, we’re asking: Will AI decide America’s next president?

Contributors
Betsy Hoover, Higher Ground Labs
Prof Hany Farid, University of California Berkeley
Martin Kurucz, CEO, Sterling Data Company
Nina Schick, author of ‘Deepfakes’

Presented by Tanya Beckett
Produced by Jill Collins
Researcher: Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty
Editor: Tara McDermott
Technical producer: Richard Hannaford
Broadcast coordinator: Brenda Brown

Image: Unused privacy booths are seen at a voting site in Tripp Commons inside the Memorial Union building on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus in Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin, November 3, 2020 (Credit: Bing Guan/Reuters)

See related:

• BBC World Service – Newshour, 02/05/2023 13:06 GMT\
• Beauty or The Beast : The True Cost of ChatGPT
• ‘The Godfather of AI’ Quits Google and Warns of Danger Ahead – The New York Times
• BBC World Service – The Inquiry, Will AI decide America’s next president?
• Beyond ChatGPT: Stuart Russell on the Risks and Rewards of A.I.
• Letter signed by Elon Musk demanding AI research pause sparks controversy | Artificial intelligence (AI) | The Guardian

as well as:

• How artificial intelligence is being used to create ‘deepfakes’ online
• Noam Chomsky: On China, Artificial Intelligence, & The 2024 Presidential Election.
• Artificial Intelligence is not neutral | James Bridle
• Next 10 Years What To Expect In Chinas Artificial Intelligence Future
• An artificial intelligence battle is coming between the U.S. and China
• China 2017 – Artificial Intelligence Unleashed
• Scientists: Artificial Intelligence Can Be Harmful and Helpful to Humans

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BBC World Service – Pick of the World, What are the chances of finding alien life?

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What are the chances of really finding alien life out there….? We say goodbye to Newsday legend Bola Mosuro, and the world’s first labradoodle dog.

BBC World Service – CrowdScience, What’s living inside my gut?

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Inside our gut lives an entire ecosystem of bacteria and microbes, called the microbiome. In fact, the human body contains trillions of microorganisms, which outnumber our cells by ten to one. This means that technically we are more microbe than human. But not only do these microbes rely on us to survive, we also rely on them for some vital bodily functions. So what impact do these trillions of microbes have on our health? That’s the question that’s been bothering CrowdScience listener Russell, from Canada.

Presenter Caroline Steel investigates. She visits the only museum in the world dedicated to microbes to ask exactly what they are, what they do and why we have so many of them inside our bodies. And she visits a microbiology lab filled with model guts to find out what impact the microbiome has on our physical health and if there is anything we can do to help our microbes function better.

Caroline finds out what impacts our microbiome, what we can do to improve our inner ecosystem, and how our microbes can take a disturbing turn on us after we die.

Produced by Hannah Fisher and presented by Caroline Steel for the BBC World Service.
Editor: Richard Collings
Production Coordinator: Jonathan Harris

Contributors:

Professor Glenn Gibson – Professor of Microbiology, University of Reading

Jasper Buikx – Microbiologist and Head of ARTIS Micropia

David Good – Doctoral Candidate at the University of Guelph

Image Credit: Microbiota of the human intestine/CHRISTOPH BURGSTEDT/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

BBC World Service – The Documentary, Living in space

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A long-held human ambition may soon become reality – human settlements on another planet, or in a floating space station. People could fulfil their hopes and dreams among the stars.

David Baker has been discovering what those settlements in space will be like, who will be there and how they will be organised. He has been hearing from the people shaping human life out in the universe, about their extraordinary plans and ambitions.

Presenter: David Baker
Producer: Jonathan Brunert

(Image: Life on Mars illustration. Credit: Getty Images)

BBC World Service – The Documentary, Harry Belafonte: A life

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Harry Belafonte was known for his singing, acting and for his prominence as a civil rights activist. Following his death aged 96, we look back on his life.

(Photo: Event honouree Harry Belafonte attends the 2016 Library Lions gala at New York Public Library. Credit: Gary Gershoff/Getty Images)

African American Woman Encourages Fellow Blacks to Emigrate to Ghana

Voice of America – Apr 30, 2023

Chaz Kyser has built a support system helping fellow African Americans, especially women, to connect with their roots and nurture their ideas for business

Chomsky vs Buckley

Patrick Steinkuhl Feb 10, 2006

Two political super-powers go head to head in this 1969 debate

Chomsky and Ellsberg on the Present Danger

theAnalysis-news – Mar 13, 2023

#nuclearweapons #russiaukrainewar #taiwan

Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg discuss American objectives in the Ukraine war and the preparations for war with China.

Please donate at https://theanalysis.news/donate/ – we can’t do this without you. To find more interviews with Daniel Ellsberg and Noam Chomsky, here is a link to the series/playlist – • Noam Chomsky and …

To view part two of this interview, here is a link: • “Take Arms Agains…

Come visit us at https://theanalysis.news

See related:

• Chomsky and Ellsberg on the Present Danger (1971)

See related:

• We ask #RightLivelihood Laureate Daniel Ellsberg: What were the #PentagonPapers?
• Indict Us Too: Daniel Ellsberg & Cryptome’s John Young Demand US Drop Charges Against Julian Assange
• Hijacking Catastrophe – Blueprint for Empire
• NEVER FORGET Bush/Cheney War Lies
• 20 years on, should George W. Bush be on trial for Iraq? | The Mehdi Hasan Show
• “On our watch,” Yale ’68, the world was hijacked.
• Noam Chomsky Interview with Bill Moyers
• Noam Chomsky – The Crimes of U.S. Presidents
• The Co-Presidency of Bush and Cheney (Stanford Politics and Policy) : Shirley Anne Warshaw
• Wilkerson on the Real “Vice” – Cheney’s BP Disaster (2/4)
• Col. Lawrence Wilkerson responds to Dick Cheney lies
• Bush & Cheney Should Be Charged with War Crimes Says Col. Wilkerson, Former Aide to Colin Powell

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A Sleeping Giant: Why Permafrost is a Climate Threat | The Agenda

The Agenda | TVO Today – Jan 17, 2022

Permafrost covers a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere’s land and stores twice as much organic carbon as Earth’s atmosphere currently holds. What happens when it starts to thaw? The Agenda examines the climate threat of thawing permafrost, and why northern roads and communities find themselves on shaky ground.

See related:

• Is PERMAFROST the Climate Tipping Point of No Return?
• Tipping Points in Permafrost Systems: Impact of Local Tipping Points
• A Sleeping Giant: Why Permafrost is a Climate Threat | The Agenda
• Edge of Extinction: Arctic Permafrost Thaw
• Global Warming Thaws Ancient Viruses From Permafrost
• ‘This Is Truly Terrifying’: Scientists Studying Underwater Permafrost Thaw Find Area of the Arctic Ocean ‘Boiling With Methane Bubbles’ | Common Dreams News
• The Current State of Arctic PERMAFROST THAW
• Melting Arctic Permafrost Set to Cost the World $70 Trillion
• Could thawing permafrost unleash long-gone deadly viruses?

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