I began my previous blog post discussing the most common logical fallacy, the ad hominem attack. But rather than approaching it clinically, which was my intent, the more I wrote, the angrier I became. Ruining a person's reputation is, I believe, the worst thing you can do. I
I’ve just concluded a series on finding alternatives to the Hitler slander, the lazy man’s epithet. As I chronicled, if a person insists on making the world a slightly worse place by insulting someone, there are many other evil people to choose from besides the overexposed Adolf. Not
(This is the last part of a four-part series. See part 1, part 2 and part 3 for background.) Finally, the baddest of the bad of 1926: 3. Leon Trotsky Although not unknown, Leon Trotsky has fallen off today’s radar. Most likely, it was because he was assassinated
(This is the third part of a four-part series.) The list continues! (See part 1 and part 2 if you missed them.) Remember, this is an exercise in how evil was perceived in 1926, not now. The reputations of major figures rise and fall over the decades as each
(This is the second in a four part series.) As promised in part one, here is the beginning of 1926’s top ten evil men. Since I am not a historian, I allowed Gemini to create this list using its token weighting mechanism. The listing is merely a starting point,
(First in a series of four parts.) One thing that has become tiresome to me, dear reader, is the exclusive use of Adolf Hitler as the lazy, go-to epithet* when comparing an adversary to the most evil person who ever lived. I’m afraid this tactic is not going
I never had much of an emotional connection with the Google Search engine. So it surprised me that many users are developing an affection for their AI programs. Yes, AI is thousands of magnitudes more advanced—in fact, a brand new species—but still, it’s a machine, right? Well,
UAPs
UFOs are back in the news, implying that non-humans have nothing better to do than zip about our skies. The idea is completely absurd, especially given our embarrassingly modest place in the universe. “Space is big, really big,” intones The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. With that in
It occurred to me that Gemini must live in the general neighborhood where YouTube resides. After all, they are owned by the same company, Alphabet. They must know each other! At the very least, they must run into each other during virtual corporate picnics, or whatever our silicon friends do
There is now a wide assortment of AI flavors, but the differentiation isn't merely a result of marketing. Each company has trained its model in a unique way. While the basic "Transformer" algorithmic concept is the foundation, it has been further "transformed" by how
If the Transformer was invented in 2017, why did it take five years for the chatbots to appear in late 2022 and 2023? There were a number of reasons for this, but it wasn’t due to inactivity. Once the Transformer concept was in place, work did continue, but it
How is it that all these different AI flavors appeared at once? Usually, when there is a new technology that is so unexpected and counterintuitive (AI? That’s just a cheap, repackaged search engine), the pioneering company has about five years before competitors catch up. The iPod was introduced in