In the last seven months or so, artificial intelligence has taken a large step forward. You may have noticed a sudden surge in media about these systems. Something that has surprised me, though, is how few people I know have actually tried them. So I thought I would share an example of why they’re so powerful. Example: Researching electric cars There are a lot of things to consider when buying a new car, but for me the most important elements…
It’s important to me that we create an inclusive society. Though this website is but a small part of the greater internet, I want to make sure it can be read by everyone, whether they have difficulties discerning colours, use a screen-reader or other assistive technology, or if they have dyslexia or other impediments. If you fit into any of those groups, or none, you’re welcome here! Until recently, if you tried to have my site read out loud, it…
I have a controversial opinion – the Federal government of the USA should have more power, and the local governments (state, city, other regions) should have less. This is my opinion as an American. As a European by birth, I think the same is true of the EU. My friends moved from England to Belgium when England was still part of the EU. They had to register with all the Belgian government’s myriad tax and other authorities. Social security was…
If you’re reading this, you’re probably a Christian or in a Christian-majority country. If so, this post is for you. If not, then I don’t know enough about your God to reject him so easily. In this post I want to set forth my reasons for not believing in the Christian / Jewish God. This includes the pantheon of Catholicism (Mary, God/Jesus, and the saints), as well as the newer Christianities that rely on the Old Testament / Torah and…
I have made my last blog post into a video. It incorporates some extra information and utilizes the video format. See it below:
I recognize that most of the impacts from climate change can only be mitigated by governments making regulation changes. Without those regulations, landfill might continue to be cheaper than recycling, single-use plastics will remain cheaper than more sustainable alternatives, and gasoline (UK: petroleum) vehicles and machinery will continue to be easier to use than alternatives. A few companies are responsible for most of the world’s carbon emissions, and Americans are by far the largest polluters per head. This article is…
Everything I know is learned. It’s an important thing to remember – it’s easy to forget and believe that everything you know is true in some fundamental and foundational way. Everything you know is learned too. Let’s unpack that. What do you know to be true? I know that I am writing this at the moment. Well, I think I am. Some dreams are pretty vivid, and hallucinations can be so vivid that people genuinely don’t know what’s going on….
I am reading The Selfish Gene at the moment. It’s a very good book, and beautifully written, as you would expect from Dawkins. This pair of sentences, though, stood out for their disappointing relevance to anti-vaccination, anti-mask, and otherwise anti-scientific individuals’ behavior. In the next paragraph, “ESS” means “evolutionary stable strategy”. In (too simple a summary), ESS means the strategy that evolution ‘settles upon’ which is most effective at reproducing the genes that regulate that strategy. “It is possible for…
I don’t know much. Nor do you. Every minute more knowledge is gained by humanity than any one person could learn in that minute. And the rate at which knowledge is being gained is accelerating. It has been argued that the last person who knew all that Western science knows died in 1829 (Source). By 1950, human knowledge was doubling every 25 years, and by 2000 human knowledge was doubling every year. By 2018, it was believed that human knowledge…
I am a big advocate of using research to improve our daily lives. Some research is tangible, such as the invention of a device or machine that you can buy and use, but others is less so. A recent piece of research was completed by Shaver-Troup where she found that the font that some text is written in has a measurable impact on how easy it is to read. With Thomas Jockin’s help, she created a font named Lexend which…