Thatcher Montgomery Contributing Editor

Class of 2017

Articles

  • Pugwash: Should sentences depend on statistics?

    At last week’s Pugwash meeting, we discussed the use of statistics in the criminal justice system. Inspiration for the topic was drawn both from the science fiction movie Minority Report, in which crimes are predicted before they even happen and would-be criminals are jailed before they commit the act, and from real life, as a proposed Pennsylvania law aims to determine probabilities of criminal...

    SciTech | November 2, 2015
  • New technology raises questions about the future of war

    Imagine a war where the only soldiers on the ground are made of metal and plastic. They rove the terrain, scanning for enemy combatants with infrared sensors and shooting to kill when they make contact. The other side has a similar army of electronic brains, and the winner is decided by who has the most robots standing. It might sound a little absurd, but wars don’t need to be completely post-huma...

    SciTech | October 19, 2015
  • Peeple app lasts despite disputes

    Peeple, an unreleased app that’s been called “Yelp for people,” would allow users to give 1–5 star ratings to other people, along with comments, without the consent of the person being rated. Although the future of the app is uncertain — after public outrage, including death threats, the app’s online presence went dark and the founders restated the app’s purpose to be spreading positivity — Pugwas...

    SciTech | October 12, 2015
  • Pugwash: Technology has positive and negative effects in education

    At Pugwash, our discussions regarding ethics in science and technology can cover a lot of ground. Some of the topics are removed from our day-to-day lives, such as discussions of cryonics or space junk. Other topics have a little more personal involvement, like last week’s regarding technology in the classroom.

    SciTech | October 5, 2015
  • Raw emotion and raucous humor at Trans-Q Live! at Warhol

    Instead of staying in and watching Netflix on Friday night, I decided to venture out to find some of Pittsburgh’s culture. I had been invited earlier in the week to Trans-Q Live!, “a queer evening of performance, dance, poetry, comedy, resplendent fantasies, music, and so much more,” and I was not disappointed with my experience.

    Pillbox | September 21, 2015

Art and Photos