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Interstellar! If only…

September 26, 2024
MThomas

According to Thorne, who served as a consultant on the science of Interstellar, quantum mechanics could hypothetically explain a way to time travel via wormhole. So far, it’s a thought experiment that leads to the conclusion that you’d lose information along the way—not very practical.

First off, I’m incredibly annoyed at the way WordPress has screwed up the “quotation” function. It seems they are more focused on encouraging bloggers to use AI to write.

Uh. I don’t need AI. I blog. The end. WTH is the point of using AI to write my thoughts? It’s already being trained to USE my blog in the first place! Idiots.

OK. Second, the Popular Mechanics article I’m linking to is entitled “Interstellar travel is possible if we break into a higher dimension, scientists say.”

Only, that is NOT what scientists say. It’s still a thought experiment!

Wow, so realistic! Uh, waitaminute here…

September 2, 2024
MThomas

Footage making the rounds on social media shows what appear to be astonishingly lifelike humanoid robots posing at the World Robot Conference in Beijing last week.

But instead of showing off the latest and greatest in humanoid robotics, two of the “robots” turned out to be human women cosplaying as futuristic gynoids, presumably hired by animatronics company Ex-Robots.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/chinese-company-humanoid-robots-humans

During the World Robot Conference 2024 in Beijing from Aug 21 – Aug 25, 🇨🇳 animatronics company EX-Robot (or EX Robots as reported by some news media) hired 2 women cosplayed as robots to spice up the exhibition.

Hmmm… two human beings mimicked the movements of robots that… pic.twitter.com/hRGxgfe4mD
— Byron Wan (@Byron_Wan) August 26, 2024

Apparently some people were convinced these women were actually robots.

For real? This just seems like another crass, sexist attempt at titillating fanboys.

When Google Gets it Wrong

May 10, 2024
MThomas

Technology is becoming marvellously intuitive. After booking a holiday with friends, we were surprised to discover Google had already added the dates…
When Google Gets it Wrong

Google Maps initially listed our house with the correct address but also my family name —- because it thought it was a company.

It took them half a year after I complained about privacy violations to take the name off…

And they also took off the address!

And there is an abandoned house repurposed as an arts and crafts society event place that has the same address as us!

Annoying.

Not the arts and crafts society folk. They’re pretty cool. 🖼️ 📷 🎨

Trolling trolls rarely works

March 21, 2024
MThomas

On March 13th, someone on Goodreads shelved Bringer of Light, and on March 14th gave it a one-star rating, the lowest possible.

On March 15th, Bringer of Light was finally published online.

I flagged the “review” as violating Goodreads policy, and received an email saying the company would deal with it appropriately.

Six days later, the one-star “review” still stands.

It’s been very tempting to post a comment. But for the moment, I have resisted.

If you don’t like my work, that’s fine. But it is simply mean-spirited to try to judge it without even bothering to read it.

There are lots of trolls out there. They must be starving for attention.

Poor buggers. You’ll have to find food elsewhere.

Booooooring

February 22, 2024
MThomas

What bores you?

What doesn’t?

OK, I guess I’ll play along…

Boring people
People who talk a lot but say very little
Morning “news”
Talk shows
Game shows
Most TV, to be quite honest
Pop music. Of any era.
Dancing
Politicians
Business people
Pointless paperwork
Activities that require no thought or skill
Card games (seriously…sorry, I just don’t get the attraction)
Long lists about boring things (hey!)

When AI becomes actual AI…

October 26, 2023
MThomas

We compared current scientific theories of what makes humans conscious to compile a list of “indicator properties” that could then be applied to AI systems.

We don’t think systems that possess the indicator properties are definitely conscious, but the more indicators, the more seriously we should take claims of AI consciousness.
https://theconversation.com/why-chatgpt-isnt-conscious-but-future-ai-systems-might-be-212860

Last year, an engineer for Google who was working on what was then called “LaMDA” (later released as “Bard”) claimed that the software had achieved consciousness. He claimed it was like a small child and he could “talk” with it.

He was fired.

Bard, ChatGPT, Baidu, and so forth are advanced chatbots built on what’s called “Large Language Models” (LLM) and can generate text in an instant.

But the programs are not AI, strictly speaking. They have no sentience.

UA what?

July 28, 2023
MThomas

US Congress: We want the truth!

Former military pilots: UAP is real!

Me: Wtf is a “UAP”?

Another day, another JAXA failure

April 12, 2023
MThomas

The bankruptcy filing by Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit Holdings Inc (VORB.O) has dealt a blow to Japan’s hopes of building a domestic space industry, with plans for a Kyushu-based spaceport designed to attract tourism on hold for lack of funding.
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/virgin-orbit-bankruptcy-casts-shadow-over-japans-space-dreams-2023-04-07/

Granted, this news is from four or five days ago.

Still, it’s jarring to see TV news about JAXA and NASA doing “joint” explorations of Mars, and then see a constant failure of JAXA to do anything based in Japan.

Something is seriously wrong with this space agency. And I suspect it has nothing to do with the scientists or astronauts.

“It clearly was not Cowboy Bebop”

January 30, 2023
MThomas

It started with a scene in a casino, which made it very tough for me to continue. I stopped there and so only saw that opening scene.
https://soranews24.com/2023/01/28/cowboy-bebop-anime-creator-was-disappointed-with-the-netflix-version-from-the-first-scene-he-saw/

Well, I managed to watch the first two episodes, but I really couldn’t continue after that.

Watanabe is right. Netflix screwed up by doing what all US-based companies do when they try to make scifi: they focus on the violence and forget about the ambiance.

But as he says at the end of the interview, “The value of the original anime is somehow far higher now.”

(Read the original interview in its entirety here, if you can stomach the political pop-ups.)

Think small

December 3, 2022
MThomas

On Tuesday as I was walking back from work, much later than usual, my shoes were bothering me.

They felt stretched, loose, especially irritating on a rainy day.

I had spent too much time polishing them, I thought.

Too much effort making them “waterproof.”

Too much money on these damn useless things.

I resolved to throw them away and get a new pair.

But of course it would take time, and money, and effort to go get them.

Damn shoes. I would have to rearrange my entire week because of you.

The next morning, as I put my shoes on, I realized that the laces were loose.

So I re-tied them, and instantly they felt better.

Sometimes, when a small, insignificant problem arises, there is a simple fix.

Think small.

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