Category: this modern world
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Chatbots / AI / LLM
“Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all. “When a chatbot gets something wrong, Read.
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knee bends
I went for a walk along the causeway to the arboretum last Sunday. It was a lovely warm sunny day for a walk. What I love most about walking in the arboretum is there are places where you can just about convince yourself that you’re not in the middle of a city. It’s not that Read.
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what we can do
During a conversation I had with my Mom in which we lamented the epidemic of shootings in schools, theaters, and other public places, she eventually sighed and said what everyone usually says, something to the effect of “there’s nothing we can do.” “But there is something we can do,” I said. “What?” she asked. “Ban Read.
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tired, poor
I was today years old when I learned (or, probably, re-learned) that the statue of liberty was conceived and built as a monument to the end of slavery. I may have learned that before, but if I did it was an idea that was drummed out of my head by hearing for years and years Read.
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failing
All on January 22nd, 2023: Monterey, CA: 1 man killed 10 people & wounded 10 more Baton Rouge, LA: 1 man wounded 12 people Shreveport, LA: 1 man wounded 5 adults and 8 children; 2 are in critical condition. Read.
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egg noodles
My Darling B sent me out to get egg noodles. I don’t know what egg noodles are. “They’re wide and flat and curly,” she explained. “They’re flat and curly?” “Yes. They’re flat. But they’re curly.” I couldn’t even imagine what that looked like. “How wide are they? An inch wide? Three-quarters of an inch?” “They’re Read.
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loaf
I had to stop at Kwik-Trip this morning to gas up the car. The sign out front said they were selling a loaf of bread for seventy-nine cents, which I’m pretty sure is about what my mom paid for bread back in the late 70s. The cost of baking bread hasn’t gone down in fifty Read.
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excel
One of the things I do for my day job (I don’t know why I call it that; I don’t do anything else for pay) is a routine audit of the daily reports of customers who have logged in to the Wisconsin DOT web site to order ID cards or driver’s licenses. I’m looking for Read.
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rite of passage
Adam Savage has been posting videos of his visits to the Smithsonian where he meets with conservator Lisa Young, who specializes in preserving historic objects connected to the U.S. space program. In this video she’s telling Adam how teams of women spent weeks and weeks building up the heat shield on the Apollo crew capsule Read.
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spaced
This is a terrific video, not because Adam Savage nerds out over the Mercury capsule behind him but because astronaut Cady Coleman talks about how it felt to go to space in a very small space ship and what it meant to her. She’s really great at communicating that feeling. Read.
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