Opinion

Around the Corner: The Case for an AI Ban

By Asher Berlin | April 27

2023 is the year of AI. Tools like Chat-GPT, Midjourney and others have become ubiquitous in our society and popular culture; from South Park to Snapchat, AI has captured discourse like never before. The rapid advancement of technology has opened the door to possibilities that were once restricted to science fiction. AI’s recent developments have also suggested that it may overtake us sooner than was previously thought. A survey of 356 AI experts in 2022 found that half of those experts believed that a human-level AI would be developed before 2061. The vast majority — 90% — thought it would be developed within the century. While the same experts also caution against fear-mongering, there is a possibility we will confront artificial life with equivalent or greater intelligence than us within our (for my readers in college) lifetime. 

---

Column

Queeries: That's a (queer) wrap

By Jack Clohisy and Saba S. | April 27

We were raised believing that the “gay agenda” was an attack on the white picket fence American dream. While the traumas that accompany queerness range from constant victimization to harassment to rejection, there is something purely evil that comes with internalized homophobia.

---

Opinion

The End of the World Has Just Begun: Western Europe goes under

By Daniel Chung | April 25

President Donald Trump’s actions towards the United States’ Western European allies, such as his mocking of German energy policy at the U.N., left relations strained, with a lasting impact even under President Joe Biden, but this may have been because of a structural reason that no one saw. Namely, Western Europe’s place and significance in the international system has declined since the beginning of the 20th century, leaving not only its future relationship with America, but also its future as a whole, ambiguous.

---

Opinion

The Strike Zone: Brasilia — a modernist utopia?

By Eli Striker | April 18

Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, completed its construction in 1960 with the intent of using modernist architecture as a tool to forge a futuristic utopian society. The city was designed around urban planner Lucio Costa’s airplane-shaped “Plano Piloto.” A series of residential “superquadras” along the plane’s wings contained dwellings, hospitals and schools and were connected to government buildings in the airplane’s cockpit through central highways. Brasilia’s designers hoped to create an egalitarian city which could be inhabited by government ministers and blue-collar workers alike. 

---

Opinion

Ukraine at War: Ukrainian women rescued 31 children kidnapped by Russia, many more still cannot return home

By Mariia Kudina | April 14

This spring, a team of Ukrainian women took a dangerous trip to Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea to bring home some of the Ukrainian children who were illegally kidnapped from the other regions occupied by the Kremlin. Although around three dozen rescued kids are now able to reunite with their families, thousands or even hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children and teenagers still cannot return to Ukraine.

---

Opinion

MisCONceptions: Don’t forget about local politics

By Trent Bunker , João Ribeiro , Katherine Brown and Nicholas Rishi | April 11

Editor’s note: MisCONceptions is a column with four contributors. This article was written by Nicholas Rishi.

---

Opinion

Ukraine at War: Russia to station nuclear weapons closer to Europe

By Mariia Kudina | April 7

The discussions around the Kremlin’s threats to utilize nuclear weapons in the war against Ukraine were seemingly fading, as for a few months, Russia limited its mentions of intentions to use them. On Saturday, March 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced an agreement with Belarus to store tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. While Putin justifies the decision by stating that Russia follows the U.S. model of storing nuclear weapons around the world, Russia’s determination to relocate the weapons closer to Europe is concerning.

---

Opinion

The End of the World Has Just Begun: What inflation?

By Daniel Chung | April 6

Since the beginning of the year, the White House has been crowing about progress made against inflation, as recently as a few days ago. Unfortunately, even if the numbers do not lie — and there has certainly been discussion about the extent to which current calculations are truly representative of inflation rates — this story is not likely to remain true for much longer.

---

Opinion

Around the Corner: Things are about to get a lot worse

By Asher Berlin | April 5

The announcement last Thursday that former President Donald Trump had been indicted immediately plunged the United States into wholly uncharted waters. For the first time in our country’s 247-year history, a former commander in chief will face criminal charges after leaving office. I will not debate the merits of the case against Trump or the motivations of the prosecutors pursuing it. Whether or not Trump is guilty does not change the profound consequences of this indictment that will reverberate in our political system forever. Just or not, this indictment opens a new and bloodier chapter in American politics.

---

Opinion

The Strike Zone: China’s hopes for Taiwanese reunification

By Eli Striker | April 4

In recent years, China has performed a series of threatening military exercises around the Taiwan Strait, leading to the United States demonstrating its commitment to defending Taiwan, a disputed island territory which mainland China claims as its own. Taiwan, now a democracy, became the headquarters of the Kuomintang, whom the Chinese Communist Party  defeated at the end of the Chinese civil war (1945–49).

---

Column

Keeping up with the 617: A perfect mock

By Matt Goguen | April 4

With the 2023 NFL draft just under a month away, the Patriots’ brass is hopefully solidifying their draft strategy. While Bill Belichick was relatively active in the free agency period, there are still various holes in the roster that can hopefully be filled with the team’s 11 draft picks come the weekend of April 27. In the mock draft below, I draft based on expectation and practicality; additionally, I strayed away from executing any trades, as it’s extremely difficult to predict them and doing so only adds more chaos into a mock draft.

---

Opinion

MisCONceptions: A statistical analysis of a declining America

By Trent Bunker | April 4

Editor’s note: MisCONceptions is a column with four contributors. This article was written by Trent Bunker.

---

Column

K-Weekly: Recent bops for your playlist

By Odessa Gaines | April 3

As spring finally comes around, and we enter the final month of classes at Tufts, K-Weekly is once again wrapping up a semester of publishing. With such a long wait between this article and the next, I figured the best topic to write would be a sort of recap of some newer K-pop tracks and comebacks. 

---

Opinion

MisCONceptions: Curtailing immigration as an act of compassion

By João Ribeiro | March 28

Editor’s note: MisCONceptions is a column with four contributors. This article was written by João Ribeiro.

---

Column

Las Letras Encubiertas: ‘Mis Plenos Poderes’

By Andrés F. Arévalo | March 17

Throughout literary history, we’ve seen numerous authors delve into other occupations outside of writing. However, there are few like Cristina Reyes. Originally born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Reyes has not only published several volumes of poetry, but has also had a successful career in pageants and in Ecuadorian politics. As a pageant contestant, Reyes came in as a runner-up in ‘Miss Ecuador,’ and eventually went on to compete in one of the major international pageants, ‘Miss Earth.’ As a politician, Reyes has held multiple positions in different branches of the government, including representative for the national assembly for the Social Christian Party. 

---

Opinion

Ukraine at War: Fashion as an act of resistance, Part 2

By Mariia Kudina | March 17

At the beginning of the full-scale war, some directors of Ukrainian fashion brands felt unsure about the field’s relevance; however, a few months into the conflict they realized that continuing their creative processes is especially valuable at this time. In addition to bringing attention to Ukraine by engaging in shows and contests, making designs for clothes now meant remaining strong and fighting against Russian attempts to destroy Ukrainian culture. Ksenia Schnaider, a creative director of KseniaSchnaider, said that she initially thought that the brand she and her husband Anton created in 2011 would no longer exist.

---

Opinion

Around the Corner: Sentient computers? Never.

By Asher Berlin | March 15

A common trope in science fiction is “what if the computer comes to life?” The plot of “Free Guy” (2021) — a mediocre film — for example, revolved around a nonplayer character in a video game gaining sentience and struggling to preserve it. The problem of what to do with a sentient computer is an enormously complex one — too complex, indeed, to address in this column. There is, however, another more fundamental question: How do we know when a computer has gained sentience?

---