M. Thomas Apple's Blog, page 17

AI “loses its mind” when fed AI-created drivel

Source: https://twitter.com/tomgoldsteincs/status/1677439914886176768 (@tomgoldsteincs)

In other words, without “fresh real data” — translation: original human work, as opposed to stuff spit out by AI — to feed the beast, we can expect its outputs to suffer drastically. When trained repeatedly on synthetic content, say the researchers, outlying, less-represented information at the outskirts of a model’s training data will start to disappear. The model will then start pulling from increasingly converging and less-varied data, and as a result, it’ll soon start to crumble into itself.

https://futurism.com/ai-trained-ai-generated-data

So, as more and more lazy people ask AI to “write” for them, the programs get less and less accurate…

Or, as the authors of the study conclude, “…without enough fresh real data in each generation of an autophagous loop, future generative models are doomed to have their quality (precision) or diversity (recall) progressively decrease.”

I.e., the use of AI-generated content to train AI doesn’t work, and since there is already way too much AI-generated garbage all over the internet, it’s almost impossible to sort out which is which when the AI-creators “scrape” data from the web.

So…

See, machines can’t replace us entirely — their brains will melt!

But then again, that might not be so hopeful after all. When AI takes over the world, maybe it won’t kill humans; perhaps it’ll just corral us into content farms… 

At least we won’t wind up as batteries.

Yet.

PS. I find it both hysterically amusing and disturbing that my blog program offers an “experimental AI assistant.” Granted, the program does let you know that AI-generated content accuracy is not guaranteed, but wth would I want to use AI for a personal blog? The whole purpose of a blog is to WRITE. AI-generated text is not writing. It is intellectual property theft.

Everybody I know needs it!

If you were going to open up a shop, what would you sell?

OK, OK, in all seriousness, I would probably open a jazz café / restaurant. But only on the weekends.

We live at the foot of a mountain trail, and it’s really popular with retired folks and young families.

My wife and I have already begun thinking about our “second life” after retirement, and I’ve been frankly bored with the whole EFL teaching thing for a while now.

But pizza and the Duke? Yeah. That’d work.

Supermassive black hole found spitting a giant, high-energy jet toward Earth

A NASA mission has observed a supermassive black hole pointing its highly energetic jet straight toward Earth. Don’t panic just yet, though. As fearsome as this cosmic event  is, it’s located at a very safe distance of about 400 million light-years away.

https://www.livescience.com/space/black-holes/supermassive-black-hole-found-spitting-a-giant-high-energy-jet-toward-earth

Gee. So reassuring.

FWIW I had never heard the term “blazar” before reading the linked article.

Sounded like a cross between Happy Days and late 1970s Japanese anime.

And it just so happens there’s a new Ultraman Blazar “live action” on Japanese TV from this past July…

Seriously. It’s called Ultraman Blazar. Honestly, I can’t make this stuff up… (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27560594/)

“Cosmic unicorn”! Two planets in the same orbit?

The two planets are in circles that kind of look like, er….let’s just call the whole thing a cosmic donut (the outer “halo” is the protoplanetary disc of gas and dust from which planets eventually coalesce).

We already know that more than one object can share the same orbit; Jupiter has a collection of 120,000 asteroids following its same path around the Sun, for example. Earth has one, too. But although it’s theoretically possible, astronomers have never discovered two whole planets sharing the same orbit around a star before.

https://www.inverse.com/science/astronomers-discover-cosmic-unicorn-two-planets-on-the-same-orbit

Hmm…the language here is a bit misleading. The two objects are technically not both “planets.”

The article comments later on that the object in the dotted line circle is “a cloud of debris about twice the mass of our Moon trailing a bit behind the innermost gas giant” in one of its LaGrange points (where “Trojan” asteroids follow gas giants such as Jupiter and Saturn). So it’s way too early to say that “two” planets formed in the same orbit.

Still, this is the first time that astronomers have spotted two such objects this close to one another in the same orbit. Who knows if both will remain viable (the debris cloud could become partly or mostly absorbed by the gas giant with the rest either being expelled or thrust into separate orbits).

So why is this called a “cosmic unicorn”?

Apparently because although such Trojans “are allowed to exist by theory, but no one has ever detected them.”

Um. OK.

So, like, totally NOT at all like this? Kind of a bummer, really…

“Superconductor”? Color me skeptical

Superconductors are materials that allow electrical current to flow with no resistance, a property that would revolutionize power grids where energy is lost in transmission as well as advance fields such as computing chips, where electrical resistance acts as a speed limit.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/superconductor-claims-spark-investor-frenzy-scientists-are-skeptical-rcna98123

I’ve heard claims like this before.

The hallmark of science is replicability. I.e., can two independent teams of researchers, using similar means, methods, and materials in completely different settings, replicate the findings of the original team?

So…

Researchers from at least three Chinese universities have in recent days said they produced versions of LK-99 with varying results. One team from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology posted a video purporting to show the material levitating over a magnet, which is important because true superconductors can float over a magnet in any orientation, without spinning like a compass.

But…

…another team, from Qufu Normal University, said they did not observe zero resistance, one of required characteristics of a superconductor. A third, from the Southeast University in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, said they measured zero resistance, but only at a temperature of 110 Kelvin (-163 degree Celsius).

And…

The possible bad news for LK-99 is that the superconducting field is full of materials that hold promise at first but fall apart under scrutiny. Researchers even have a handy name for them — unidentified superconducting objects.

A.k.a “USOs.” As the linked article points out, plenty of smart, hardworking researchers have claimed to have found a “superconductor,” but then their claims simply fall apart under scrutiny.

Be careful of finding what you seek.

UA what?

US Congress: We want the truth!

Former military pilots: UAP is real!

Me: Wtf is a “UAP”?

Bringer of Life, Chapter 41: United Mars Colonies (Weng) Part 1

The next three posts about the future of the United Mars Colonies may feel a bit disjointed. But that’s by design. We’re reaching the end of the journey for Clarissa Kragen and “Sam” Weng. Yet the future of Mars remains wide open…

Weng knew this had been a bad idea. He motioned to Martin to keep his head down, then strained to hear the conversation in the next room. Through a partially closed door in the hydroponics lab, he thought he could catch a few words.

“…didn’t catch that.”

Ah, that would be the head agrologist, Dr. Huynh.

Taking to someone else. The voice was muffled. From the tone, probably one of the Artemis crew. Maybe the geologist who had just tried to call him via intercom.

“…no idea,” Huynh was saying. “Have you called the Overseer’s office?”

Weng couldn’t hear the rest. He waited patiently.

Martin squatted next to him, absentmindedly fondling one of the kale plants in the feeder row. After a moment, the door opened.

“Overseer, he’s gone now. You can stand up.”

Martin said nothing. He continued to caress the plant.

Weng sighed. “Thank you, Dr. Huynh. Have you heard from the others?”

The scientist shook her head. “No. As you heard, colonists are somewhat…apprehensive, shall we say. Rumors are that a very important message was relayed from off world. No one knows what to expect. Or to do.”

Likewise, Weng thought.

In the past few weeks, he had not spent much time with Riss. Or with her crew, for that matter. But naturally it was Riss’s seeming lack of attention to him that bothered him.

At first he assumed that she was simply too busy to talk with him. Or have lunch with him. Or even take a short stroll to—anywhere, really.

He longed for the days when they could walk hand in hand along a lunar pond, staring idly into a space that was filled with endless amounts of stars.

She no longer was that carefree, spirited asteroid hunter he knew. She had turned into a leader.

Was that what bothered him the most?

He looked back at Martin, who continued to run one hand along the tops of green leafy vegetables. No wonder the Overseer—the former Overseer, he corrected himself, no matter if the science staff still call him that—seemed so gloomy.

Riss and Sanvi held daily morning sessions to train settlers who wanted to learn more about the changes they experienced. It seemed unbelievable that the two of them could continue to train everyone, though. Weng was positive that Riss had something in mind, some sort of hierarchy or mentorship system. If she did, she hadn’t confided in him.

But that wasn’t the most concerning issue for the United Mars Colonies.

Roughly one-quarter of the population had somehow resisted drinking the infected water, demanding “natural” water condensed from regolith and reclaimed from deep under the Martian soil. Grudgingly accepting the new state of things—such as the command structure formed by the Artemis and settler faction heads—they agreed to help distribute supplies, provide labor for the regolith plants and assist the 3D printer robos in  the construction of more habitats, more hydroponic facilities. In almost no time, two new factions of settlers had coalesced, replacing those run by nation-states on Earth that no longer had the ability to control their supplies, their communications, or their politics.

The Awakened, with increasing power and control over that power.

The Traditionalists, who refused to share food, drink, or living space with colonists they considered “infected” by the alien RNA.

To all appearances the two groups got along, despite the occasional grumbling of people in both camps. It had taken awhile to reorganize the living quarters for the now close to 2,500 colonists, but things seemed relatively calm compared to the initial meeting with the Artemis crew. Even Martin had helped, albeit sullenly. Weng knew the man surely was scheming something.

Riss and her crew evidently were confident that the new Declaration and planetary government they had all worked on would provide inspiration for all, as they prepared to announce a new country, free from Earthly interference.

But Weng sensed the grumblings might be building to something else. Soon.

He checked his wrist.

Text scrolled across it. Ah. Riss had contacted the others and arranged a meeting in the Martian Secretariat’s office.

The message quickly cut off. It was quickly followed by three emoji of monkeys.

He grimaced. They finally suspected.

It was Martin who had asked him if there was a way to keep tabs on the Artemis crew. Weng was no computer engineer, but simple electronic snooping hadn’t been too difficult to figure out.

Initially he balked at the idea, then decided it would keep him in Martin’s good graces. He planned to inform Riss later, but something held him back, prevented him from ratting on Martin.

She insisted on separate quarters for herself and her crew. Resisted Weng’s attempts to woo her into a joint capsule. Smiled but kept her distance. Almost like a stranger to him, he who was her fiancé.

The infection had changed her. It was he who hadn’t changed.

Or had he?

He had helped to construct the declaration they were about to announce. Laid the groundwork for the future Council of Mars. Martin insisted there be a Governor (obviously, himself). Riss insisted there be a rotating Council Minister on a biannual basis. With the long Martian year, that would still be a fairly long time. But Martin no doubt had expected to be in charge a bit longer.

Weng was stuck between them. And he was finding it harder to follow either.

But it was he who had wanted to play the part of the politician. The part of the negotiator and go-between. The mover and the shaker. For their future home on Mars.

Yet Riss showed no interest in him.

Their engagement was off. An unspoken agreement, but true nonetheless.

Is that why he hadn’t opposed the proposal?

“Overseer,” Huynh said, “are you one hundred percent sure that you want to go through with this?”

Martin let his arms drop motionless to his sides.

“Dr. Huynh, we have no choice.”

“I cannot guarantee they will all be undamaged by the procedure.”

“Yes, of course, for the tenth time. I—”

A voice suddenly filled the room. A deep, rich baritone that Weng thought he might never hear again. And once the speech ended, he knew never would.

As Sergey Bardish’s words continued, Weng began to feel a certain numbness. It started in his gut, spread down his legs and across his shoulders, reaching his fingertips.

No tears. No emotions. Just…numb.

Weng remembered the first time meeting the old man. The surprise in Bardish’s face at discovering his adopted daughter’s choice for a husband. He remembered the plans they’d made.

No. The plans that he had made. Clarissa had agreed to marry him, eventually. After one more run. After cementing her place in Hunter lore. After that…

Then he asked Bardish to find a way for them—for him—to move to Mars.

It seemed like years ago. He could still picture the scene in his mind:

Next: Bringer of Light, Chapter 41 (Part Two): Weng reminisces on the past, and what (in his mind) should and could have become…but can’t…)

Chandrayaan-3 to the Moon!

I love the helpful explanation about the scale…

“If we want to develop the Moon as an outpost, a gateway to deep space, then we need to carry out many more explorations to see what sort of habitat would we be able to build there with the locally-available material and how will we carry supplies to our people there,” Mr Annadurai says.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66185565

Chandrayaan-1 was India’s first successful Moon launch in 2008 — it deliberately crashed in order to measure the amount of water at the South Pole.

Chandrayaan-2 was only partly successful, as it did put an orbiter around the Moon, but the rover crashed. (The orbiter is still there, sending back information on a regular basis.)

Now, Chandrayaan-3 aims to finally land a rover and do some research exploring.

Let’s hope they can get it to land safely this time…

10 things I know to be absolutely certain

List 10 things you know to be absolutely certain.

1. I know it to be certain that the wording of this prompt is a bit odd. Is this meant to mean “know to be true”?

2. I know it to be absolutely certain that there are many things about which I am far from certain.

3. I also know it to be absolutely certain that at least one of the things I know to be certain will annoy at least one person who reads this.

4. I also also know it to be absolutely certain that at least one of the things to know to be certain will amuse at least one person.

5. One of these things I know to be absolutely certain may even irritate and amuse the same person ( maybe even this one right here).

6. I even know it to be absolutely certain that writing a list of ten things that are absolutely certain takes a considerably longer time than I had initially anticipated.

7. Just to be sure I irritate someone, it is absolutely certain that the world is a warmer place than it was when I was a kid 40 years ago.

8. The fact that June 2023 was the hottest month on record is absolutely certain.

9. I know it to be absolutely certain, however, that we have only been keeping records on temperatures worldwide since the late 1880s, and records were measured using different instruments

10. But the most important thing to be absolutely certain that I know is that Sony says they have the technology to make humanoid robots but can’t figure out what to use them for. I have an idea or two about that…

Dr Strangelove adaptation in the works

Check out this screen rant page if you have no idea what I’m talking about…

Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb…

“During the adaptation, Stanley ran into a wall: it was impossible to make a successful film about the end of mankind since nobody, himself included, would want to see it. The answer was satire…”

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/jul/15/stanley-kubrick-dr-strangelove-stage-adaptation-armando-iannucci

Dr. Strangelove itself was an adaptation of a novel. So I wonder how adapting an adaptation to the stage will work.

How many new lines will they allow? Peter Sellers basically ad libbed everything and Kubrick rewrote the script to match the ad libs.

Probably including this one:

(Btw I hadn’t realized the film won a Hugo Award…along with many other awards…which goes to show how little we actually need Hollywood studios to get great stories in the end…)