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By JOHN BOS

One cannot avoid the local, national, or worldwide focus on/obsession with this thing we call leadership. Those running/grasping for office and the rest of us looking for legitimate leaders. How do we determine what legitimate leadership is?I think we...

By JOHN BOS

‘Truth or Consequences” was the name of a game show created by Ralph Edwards, a popular American radio and television host. The show first aired on radio in 1940 and later made its debut on television in 1950.The concept of the show was that...

By JOHN BOS

I have mixed feelings about the fact that I will not be writing this column, much less breathing, seven years from now in 2030 when Massachusetts has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 33% compared to 1990 levels.But today, I am in the...

By JOHN BOS

We are facing a third threat to humankind in addition to nuclear warfare (short term) and climate change (long term). Artificial intelligence (AI) is a fast-evolving technology that can speed up the possibility of both of these threats.I asked this...

By JOHN BOS

Professor Lawrence Doner is probably the most brilliant man I ever met. I was working in Washington D.C. in 1966 and a bunch of us had traveled out to NASA’s Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt, Maryland for several lectures.We wanted to find out if it...

By JOHN BOS

My column today is about something that is “smarter” than I am. It is called artificial intelligence (AI). Many people who work in artificial intelligence believe that AI is a thousand times smarter than we are. And that AI can digest information a...

By JOHN BOS

There were 64 people, sitting at eight round tables in groups of eight deep in conversation at the Second Congregational Church in Greenfield this past Monday. They had responded to an invitation from the Interfaith Council of Franklin County to...

By JOHN BOS

The theme for National Women's History Month 2023 which ended yesterday, was “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories.” The Recorder won a trifecta on March 29 by betting the “stories” by three women would engage its readers.My Turn essays by Margo...

By JOHN BOS

“Let music charm me last on earth, and greet me first in heaven.”One book I am reading right now is “Staring at the Sun” by Irvin D Yalom. He affirms that self-awareness is a supreme gift, a “treasure as precious as life. This is what makes us human,”...

By JOHN BOS

Two mornings ago, my first order of the day was to complete this column. I awoke, as most of you did, to a fresh blanket of snow. It was an inescapable reminder that my 10-day birthday celebration in the sun in Naples, Florida was a thing of the past....

By JOHN BOS

Our embattled planet’s capacity to sustain humankind’s “lifestyle” is about to run out.Global warming has increased the number of extreme weather events around the world by 400% since the 1980s. Countries really do know how to stop these events: just...

By JOHN BOS

“You are intelligent,” he said. “That’s the newer of the two characteristics, and the one you might have put to work to save yourselves. You are potentially one of the most intelligent species we’ve found, though your focus is different from...