Author Archives: alan

The word “woke” is either real or imagined Afro-American “slang” for figuratively having awakened from a previous state of sleepwalking through life unaware (or in denial) of differences of privilege between ourselves and others. As such its use by me … Continue reading →

According to commenter ‘Gabe’ on Nate Silver’s latest post: Model held pretty well (using NYT website for result numbers): PA: Model R +.1, Result R +1, Difference .9 MI: Model D +1.2, Result R +1.4, Difference 2.6 WI Model D … Continue reading →

At the end of an unrelated article, Steven Levy responds to a question from one of his readers (not actually me despite the name coincidence) Ask Me One Thing Alan asks, “Why can’t we choose how to pay for online … Continue reading →

There is a lot of talk these days about encouraging creators of AI tools to tag the work they produce so people will know that it is fake; but the idea that this would prevent the spread of misinformation is … Continue reading →

We are frequently asked these days to confirm that the state of Israel has a “right to exist”. Well, I’m afraid that I have to say NO! No state has the right to exist because states don’t have rights. People … Continue reading →

Yes! AlphaFold does appear (at least to this non-expert) to actually advance Chemistry. But I have seen nothing that I would call evidence that Hinton’s work on the “Boltzmann machine” has contributed anything to understanding of the physical models that … Continue reading →

After reading this article twice, and yet again the paragraph where the author purports to show that “it’s wrong to think that Bergson’s idea of duration can be assimilated into the idea of psychological time”, I am still unable to … Continue reading →

It’s a shame when those who claim to be “Fact Checking” resort to willful misinterpretations, distortions, and exaggerations of their own. For example this Fact Checker from The Washington Post starts with “We’re the cleanest economy in the entire world.” — Vance (False, … Continue reading →

People often ask questions like “Why does a mirror reverse things horizontally but not vertically?” – which is odd because a mirror does not always “reverse things horizontally but not vertically”. For example if it is lying on the ground (or … Continue reading →

I don’t actually think that the prospective nuclear standoff is any more dangerous than the first one. There are currently five nations with the capacity to build unmanned nuclear powered submarine launch platforms which could crawl undetectably to within just … Continue reading →

Both the citation of projected GDP increase as a justification for UBI and the use of carbon taxes to fund it strike me as wrongheaded. GDP is a poorly defined quantity with only a loose relationship to the more relevant … Continue reading →

The recently published results of the Altman-funded study on a limited trial of UBI by direct payment have been getting a lot of attention. My own take is similar to (but less polite than) that of Scott Santens (at https://www.scottsantens.com/did-sam-altman-basic-income-experiment-succeed-or-fail-ubi/?ref=scott-santens-newsletter). … Continue reading →

What is touted these days as AI (Artificial Intelligence) is not that at all. It’s actually AII (the Artificial Illusion of Intelligence) -something that is made painfully obvious by the ad being complained about in Shelly Palmer’s article below. Source: … Continue reading →

Roger Pielke Jr. has a long history of what some see as casting doubt on the need for prompt reduction of our CO2 emissions but which he categorizes just as exposing false and/or misleading claims (and sometimes even scientific malpractice) … Continue reading →

 In what way does Schrodinger’s cat experiment represent morality? Many people consider that an experiment which eventually kills half its subjects should not be performed on anything as cute as a ca Some suggest that it is not the experimental … Continue reading →

Much as I hate to admit it(*), and despite ongoing concerns about the possible risks even when gas extraction is not the objective, I have to agree that there is significant promise in the idea of using fracking technology to … Continue reading →

I side with those who feel they must agree with Elon Musk that Yann LeCun is full of shit when he claims that nothing that is not published counts as “science”. Among the respondents to a Quora answer that I … Continue reading →

Biden doesn’t need to drop out if Harris and her supporting team can be integrated into Biden’s core group in such a way that she can genuinely be seen as a co-leader ready to step in whenever Biden falters. (With … Continue reading →

This article seems to suggest that the author’s experience with academic philosophy has contributed nothing of value to his practice of doing philosophy in the real world. If so, I think it agrees with what the Harvard professor he quotes … Continue reading →