[NEWS] Four science and technology links: exoplanets seeing Earth, encyclopedias, robots, gaydar

[rfmcdonald]

• At least nine exoplanets now known to us could detect the Earth if inhabited by civilizations with our tech levels. Motherboard reports.


• Ernie Smith examines how the CD-ROM, that ephemeral media preceding the Internet, killed off the classical encyclopedia of our youth.


• Are robots, and roboticization, practical solutions to falling working-age populations? Joseph Chamie is unconvinced, at the Inter Press Service.


• The Volokh Conspiracy looks at the remarkable new algorithms which can distinguish between straights and LGBTQ people via facepics.