Nudge judged

OPINION LETTERS Nudge judged From John D. Long Nudging – the subtle manipulation of our behaviour by those who govern us – is, you say, “widely assumed to work best when people aren’t aware of it”. You then say “nudgers must be held accountable” (22 June, p 3). Who is to monitor these   secret nudgers and hold them to account? Sounds like another   case of governments saying “trust us”. I think we’ve had more than enough of that. Is there any reason why we cannot just have open and forthright governments and allow responsible citizens to make informed decisions? Casselberry, Florida, US From Paul Dove Cass Sunstein, author of the   2008 book Nudge, hails the success of an “automatic enrolment in retirement savings” in the US (22 June, p 35). Based on my experience of a similar move in the UK, this is more a shove. When I heard that automatic enrolment into the UK’s National Employment Savings Trust was planned at my workplace, I looked into its ethical credentials and how to opt out. I was told that everyone would be enrolled. The only way I could opt out was to wait until after the first contribution was taken from

my pay and then ask to leave the scheme and for my money back. That’s a shove, not a nudge. Subtle nudges are compelling, but given human nature I suspect that in time they will all become shoves. The world won’t be better, just more coercive. London, UK From Martin Islam The fuss about nudging is surprising; it is merely the refinement of the art of manipulation. That this is based

on the application of science will not be news to the psychologists and cognitive scientists employed by the advertising industry. As for the view that a nudged choice ultimately remains a free one, the very purpose is to skew the odds in favour of particular outcomes, that is, to ensure a choice is not free. It is irrelevant whether or not

Enigma Number 1756

Two triangles RICHARD ENGLAND I have drawn two triangles. The lengths of their sides are six different single-digit integers. The triangles have one angle in common. What are the lengths of the sides of the two triangles? WIN £15 will be awarded to the sender of the first correct answer opened on Wednesday 31 July. The Editor’s decision is final. Please send entries to Enigma 1756, New Scientist, Lacon House, 84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS, or to [email protected] (please include your postal address). Answer to 1750 Navigating the grid: There are 32 numbers in the list The winner Paul Young of Yarrawarrah, New South Wales, Australia

28 | NewScientist | 6 July 2013

the person in question is aware of their lack of freedom. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

High life From Gerald Legg I read Ed Douglas’s article on human physiology at high altitude (15 June, p 38) while dipping into my copy of English polymath Francis Galton’s 19thcentury book The Art of Travel. In it is an account of the symptoms of altitude sickness. Of particular fascination were the remarks on cats: “The symptoms are described by many South American travellers… oddly enough, cats are unable to endure [high altitude]: at villages 13,000 feet above the sea… they cannot live. Numerous trials have been made with these unhappy feline barometers, and the creatures have been found to die in frightful convulsions.” Has the vulnerability of cats   to hypoxia been the subject of further research? Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex, UK From Alex Bowman I have long suspected that the health risks of long-haul flights may be only partly caused by sitting in cramped conditions. After reading your article,   I’m even more convinced that hypoxia plays a role, as the body responds to reduced cabin air pressure by producing more red blood cells, which makes the blood more prone to clotting. Glasgow, UK

Painful truth From Martin Balluch Regarding New Scientist’s exploration of consciousness (18 May, p 30), the ultimate feeling of consciousness is surely pain. Toothache, for example, easily fills your conscious awareness. The hard problem is explaining this all-pervading subjective

feeling. Can you simulate it on a computer? I guess AI developers would ask what that should mean, which proves that they have not yet approached the hard problem. And feeling pain, the essential condition for moral respect for other beings, is common to all animals. So there is no place here for setting humans apart when it comes to consciousness. Vienna, Austria

Syntax error From Philip Robinson Michael Brooks describes many of the problems with modern software but decries the tribalism that is endemic to programmers. Choosing a computer language is a religious choice (8 June, p 36). Languages fall into a small number of groups, but within groups there is very little to choose between them. Choice is arbitrary but once made requires a huge investment. It is completely natural to construct a tribe of like-minded individuals to help you believe that you made the right choice (especially if you made the wrong one) and to defend that choice. I use mainly Java, my son uses mainly C# and naturally thinks it better (faster, cleaner, easier). I naturally know he is wrong. Stalybridge, Cheshire, UK From David Holdsworth Brooks rightly points out that commercial pressures lead to the inclusion of pointless features in software requiring lots of code. When an Intel executive was told his new processor architecture would make for voluminous code, he replied: “Yes, I know. We make memory chips too.” Settle, North Yorkshire, UK

Let them eat bugs From Jim Ainsworth You say that eating insects could make a major contribution to our