Robert E. Wright

And keep in mind that the guy's neighbors kept hogs and other critters that shat a lot, and not down a hole.

In 1657, James Farr was prosecuted "for making and selling a drink called 'coffee,' whereby in making the same he annoyeth his neighbours by evil smells."

@GautiEggertsson "and us into batteries" = in the original, people were not batteries, which is nonsensical, but rather parts of the literally neural network creating The Matrix.

I'm constantly surprised by the paranoia of a certain segment of the academic community when it comes to AI and LLMs being used to write text. I understand the fear of evil AI overlords turning earth into the Matrix and us into batteries — that's a separate conversation. But the hyperventilation about AI being used to communicate scientific ideas is puzzling to me. We are not in the business of writing poetry. We are trying to resolve unanswered questions, accumulate knowledge, explain mysteries that remain unexplained, cure cancer. If a researcher finds that an LLM helps them communicate their results more efficiently — results that deepen our understanding of the universe in any field — then what, exactly, is the problem? The substance is what matters, not the tool used to polish the prose. I am still narcissistic enough to prefer my own text to what an LLM produces. But I have no philosophical objection to using one, and I don't see why anyone else should either. One serious concern is pedagogy. Writing is a thinking tool. Struggling to put an idea into words forces you to sharpen the idea itself. If students outsource that process entirely, they may not learn the cognitive discipline we are trying to teach. But this is hardly a new problem, nor hard to solve. We have known the solution for thousands of years: An exam. Paper and pen in a controlled environment. Oral examination. Socratic dialogue. What is surely a losing battle is policing students with unreliable commercial "detection tools," creating an atmosphere of suspicion and paranoia, and pretending we can preserve a pre-AI world. It's lazy. There is no going back. AI will only get better, and our students' success later in life may largely depend on their ability to use it. The question is not whether they will use it, but if we adapt our teaching to ensure genuine learning — both in the traditional sense and in mastering this new power.

Radical insight! Students should understand what they are studying: theconversation.com/why-business-s…? Now if we can only get them to take a field trip into climate.

@besttrousers Right, yet Wilma Soss (and other women but I'm most familiar with her due to my book Fearless with Jan Traflet) was able to make a small fortune in the PR game during the GREAT DEPRESSION by running her own business.

Bad analysis. You should not control for these factors, because they all are downstream of gender on the causal pathway. Think about Mad Men S1. There was no pay gap between men and women when you controlled for gender - because women were prohibited from high paying positions.

@CreacyHarold @amjuster @RBrookhiser Prolly that Hugo Black wasn't qualified when added and never grew into the position.

@amjuster @RBrookhiser What is your point.

Who were they?

@DividendBreeder They will fold if there are not enough people like you. Assuming you actually bought something and didn't use it like a library.

I could roam around a Barnes and Noble for hours. So many books. Every topic and genre imaginable. Brick and mortar stores should never go away.

@damianplayer What is to prevent the creation of neurodivergent LLMs? Robots that can work in the construction trades?

Palantir CEO, Alex Karp says only 2 types of people will survive the AI era..

@ick_real Yes.

When people get in their 50s and 60s and up, do you start thinking about how many years you have left? I’m curious

The country's infrastructure ... hollowed out. Grammar is in short supply, too.

There is not one major city in the United States that is better off now than it was 15 years ago. The decline is a reality. The countries infrastructure is outdated, the population looks unhealthy and defeated. Is this war going to change the fact that America is being hallowed out?

@1iam_mark_G Too cheap. The higher the cost, the more that can be safely skimmed. (pun unintended)

Scientists create Liquid Trees; a tank full of water and micro-algae that could be an alternative to trees in urban areas.

“In engineering, you are peer reviewed by reality”. From Rory Sutherland, in this week’s Spectator.

@CooperationWins @scottsantens Actually, the US implemented a UBA in response to 19th century mechanization. The A was land that anyone could claim, iff they worked it. Today, it could be cash. O/c many will fritter it away due to the deplorable state of our educational systems.

@scottsantens This should have started the minute we developed tractors, trains and other technologies that increased productivity. But is never too late!

To become ready, we need to institute a Universal Basic Income floor of any size. We should make sure to protect EVERYONE from the downsides of technological displacement, and WE SHOULD ALL BENEFIT from AI-driven productivity growth because WE ALL TRAINED THE AI W/ OUR WORK/DATA.

@DavidHeadPhd At least that is actually YOUR book. I get these all the time extolling the virtues of other people's books.

Oh how I wish this invitation from the HALF ASS BOOK CLUB were real! What an honor it would be....

@jeffkoperski @DDoroshow Editors who know how to manage simple email accounts, like in the good old days, would eliminate the need for these portals.

@DDoroshow Half my kingdom for a solution to this.

What kills me about reviewing manuscripts isn't not having time and doing them for free. It's spending 20 minutes trying to figure out my EditorialManager username and password and resetting them 6 times before I can even enter my review. #academia

@FergHodgson Alberta, Texas, and the states in betwixt should spend their minutes creating a confederation with shared defense, internal free trade and movement, a gold-based dollar, free speech and arms bearing, and everything else left to local discretion.

@coreyhoganyyc Every minute spent on independence is a minute devoted to a glorious future for Alberta. Every minute devoted to remaining under Ottawa is a minute nailing the coffin for Alberta.

As Albertans, every minute spent on separatism is a minute we're 1) dividing families, 2) scaring away investors, and 3) not building our province and our country. nationalnewswatch.com/2026/03/27/alb…

@col_a_buendia More like since March 1933 ...

I hate them for taking the 250th from us. Nobody wants to celebrate, everyone just trying to survive. What should've been great collective joy is mourning by actual Americans and apathy from 100 million strangers. What a shit show we've made of this place since 1776.

@JustPlainSmith So Thanos ... halfinated the universe?

"Decimate" derives from Latin and the Roman practice of killing every tenth man in a military unit that showed cowardice. Strictly, it still means to destroy a tenth of something, but many use it as a synonym for "obliterate." I prefer the stricter usage because of its etymology.

@DanielGullotta Never would have thunk it!

I took the theology quiz and I am pretty happy with the results.

@karpathy Does it ever ask "instead of talking in circles, how about coming up with a testable hypothesis?"

- Drafted a blog post - Used an LLM to meticulously improve the argument over 4 hours. - Wow, feeling great, it’s so convincing! - Fun idea let’s ask it to argue the opposite. - LLM demolishes the entire argument and convinces me that the opposite is in fact true. - lol The LLMs may elicit an opinion when asked but are extremely competent in arguing almost any direction. This is actually super useful as a tool for forming your own opinions, just make sure to ask different directions and be careful with the sycophancy.

@NASorg They are called commissars and they are absolutely essential to ideological purity.

Our trust funds to help the elderly and poor are nearly broke. Why, then, are we providing incentives for schools like Stanford to hire hundreds of unnecessary and expensive administrators?