In 1941, science fiction writer Isaac Asimov stated the Three Laws of Robotics. These laws come from the world of science fiction, but the real world is catching up. A law firm gave Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University $10 million to explore artificial intelligence. Peter Kalis, chairman of the law firm, K&L Gates, said the development of technology had led to questions that were never taken seriously before. What will happen when you make robots that are smart, independent thinkers and then try to limit their freedom?

    Researcher Kalis said, “One expert said we'll be at a point when we give an instruction to our robot to go to work in the morning and it turns around and says, 'I'd rather go to the beach.'” He said that one day we would want laws to keep our free-thinking robots from running wild.

    With the law firm's gift, the university will be able to explore problems now appearing within automated industries. “Take driverless cars for example,” Kalis said. “If there's an accident concerned with a driverless car, what policies do we have in place? What kind of insurance policies do they have?” In fact, people can take a ride in a driverless car in Pittsburgh where an American online transportation network company uses the city as a testing ground for the company's driverless cars.

    The problems go beyond self-driving cars and robots. Think about the next generation of smartphones, those chips fixed in televisions, computers, fridges, etc., and the ever-expanding collection of personal data being stored in the “cloud”. So can Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics be used in reality? Is it necessary to have a moral guideline that everyone can understand? Whatever it is, doing no harm should be the very first one.

    It seemed like a typical November day, a month after my grandmother had passed away. I was frustrated by everything that was going on around me.

    I was mad and confused about everyone especially when I saw a young girl walking through the store holding her grandmother's hand. The little girl was begging her grandmother for ice cream just like I used to when I was young. I was jealous of the little girl, because she had something I didn't have anymore — a grandmother by her side.

    I had to force myself to ignore the little girl. She was just too happy for me and that was unacceptable at that time in my world.

    I went to the cash register to pay for my things. It was then that my anger quickly shifted from the little girl to the cashier. She took my things to another register. When the cashier gave me my change I didn't say thank you. I simply took my change and left.

    Feeling tired and hopeless, I began walking to my car. As I stood in a public parking lot a million questions formed in my mind. Why did this happen to me? Aren't we supposed to get signs from the people that passed on? Why didn't I feel her presence anymore?

Suddenly, a woman driving right by my side rolled down her window. "Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me," she said loudly. Thinking she was going to ask for my parking spot, I simply pointed to my car. "No, excuse me," she said again.

Then I felt I had no choice but to see what this annoying lady wanted. She reached to the very bottom of her bag and handed me a three-page booklet. "It looks like that you need this," she said calmly with a smile on her face.

I looked down at the used booklet and there were some big bold letters on the front cover reading, "What Hope for Dead Loved Ones?" By the time I looked up she had gone.

    I felt a sense of relaxation as I read the first page. It explained how people pass on and that their spirit remains with us. It was the first time since my grandmother passed away that I had felt her with me. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but I knew that I finally felt happiness from a stranger.

    With at least a dozen wildfires going through western North Carolina in the fall of 2016, it would take more than one local fire department to fight the flames. In early November, the federal government sent over a team of firefighters from the Interagency Hotshot Crews.

    Most of the Hotshots stayed at Hinton Rural Life Center in Hayesville, North Carolina. The center reached out to the media and community groups, hoping to get four volunteers per day to help things run smoothly for their firefighting guests. They didn't expect a response quite so unbelievable.

    Within two days, over 200 people—about a third of the town's population—reached out to offer help, according to the center's website. Meals and accommodation were already being taken care of, so they went above and beyond the basic things. Community members donated over 1,000 goods, including sports drinks, snacks, eye drops and so on.

    Even the kids in Hayesville participated, sending thank-you cards, pictures and signs to motivate the Hotshots. The team received over 2,000 thank-you notes. After the fires were put out and the firefighters were preparing to go home, the town threw a parade（游行）to thank them and wish them well.

    The firefighters were at a loss by the generosity from Hayesville. They put together their own thank-you in a YouTube video.

    “You guys don't know how much you mean, all the support you guys give us, '' says Ron, a firefighter from Oregon, in the video. “Out of four years when I've been fighting fire, this is about the most hospitable（好客的）state and county I've ever been in. And it brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it.”

How can I exhibit in the Atrium Gallery

    The Atrium Gallery provides a space for exhibiting a range of creative work, especially the work of our students and staff.

    We aim to promote a programme of high quality art exhibitions which reflect creative activity and research interests.

    Proposals to exhibit

    We select exhibitions by proposal submission. Selected exhibitions showcase innovative, ambitious new work that contributes to the School's learning and research activities, and is a source of pleasure and inspiration to students, staff, visitors and the wider LSE community.

    You must be a student or member of staff at LSE at the time of the proposed exhibition. LSE Arts has no dedicated source of funding, therefore we will ordinarily expect proposals to come with a minimum level of funding, to cover core exhibition costs.

    Proposals will be judged termly for exhibition the following academic term. There is a high demand for our gallery space  so please list your first choice of dates and any alternate dates that would also work.

    Proposal Submission Timescales

    The deadline for exhibition proposals for Summer term 2019 is Friday 18 January 2019. The committee will review applications and successful applicants will be notified (通知) by the week informed on Monday 11 February 2019. Exhibitions will be on display from 29 April to 14 June 2019 inclusive.

    Not all applications will be successful. Successful proposals will generally be exhibited the term after receiving the proposal.

    Complete our exhibition proposal form by downloading the exhibition proposal form and sending to arts@ lse. ac.uk with accompanying images.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us at arts@ lse.ac.uk.

    I owe my father a huge thank you! Sure, I need to thank him for all those years of paying my bills, fixing my bikes, and providing a shoulder to cry on. But this year I realized that his contributions to my childhood were much more than that.

    I grew up as Daddy's Little Girl. If I had a problem that needed fixing or a question that needed answering, he was the one I ran to. He helped me get through everything from math homework as a high school student to career choices as a young adult. He always expected that I do my best in whatever I did, and he believed I could succeed in anything I put my mind to. As a result, I learned to hold myself to those same standards. He always showed me unconditional love, which helped me learn to love myself. It was something I'd taken for granted until I realized from talking with my friends that they had no similar view of their self worth. Having fathers that didn't believe in them left them to grow up not believing in themselves.

    As I was growing up, my father also modeled how a woman should be lavished. He treated my mom with love and respect. As a result, I grew to expect nothing less than that from the men I dated and from the man I would eventually marry. Dad was a living picture of godliness (虔诚), honesty and responsibility. It was only recently that I realized what a deep effect fathers have on their daughters' lives. That is why I want to thank my dad for the godly example of love that he has been to me throughout my life.

We've all heard the advice to "get out of your comfort zone" by taking on a new challenge. A recent study goes a step further: Make discomfort a direct goal. That's more likely to motivate you {#blank#}1{#/blank#} if you only focus on what you hope to learn.

In the first of five experiments, the researchers assigned several hundred students training at Second City Chicago {#blank#}2{#/blank#}（participate） in a small-group improvisation（即兴） exercise, and then instructed half of the group that their goal during the session was "to feel awkward and uncomfortable." The rest, {#blank#}3{#/blank#}（that） in the control group, {#blank#}4{#/blank#}（tell） to "feel yourself developing new skills." Members of the first group kept at the exercise longer than the others did and took {#blank#}5{#/blank#}（great） risks.

Experiments {#blank#}6{#/blank#}（involve） other dimensions of personal growth—engaging in expressive writing, learning about gun violence, and hearing about opposing political {#blank#}7{#/blank#}（belief）—produced similar results.

Reframing anxiety as excitement has been proven a way to improve singing in front of strangers, and thinking of stress as {#blank#}8{#/blank#} means to boost achievement demonstrated a stress-management technique.

"When people reinterpret negative experiences as {#blank#}9{#/blank#}（function）, they are more willing to engage in tasks that call forth those experiences," the researchers explain. "Instead of seeing discomfort as unrelated to the goal {#blank#}10{#/blank#} a signal to stop, they will start perceiving it as a sign of progress toward their goal."