Wednesday, November 8, 2023

New and Improved!

 

This Old House

Ain't got time to fix the shingles Ain't got time to fix the floor Ain't got time to oil the hinges Nor to mend no window panes
Ain't gonna need this house no longer

I’m gettin' ready to meet the saints

But if it ain’t broke, DON’T fix it!

A basic rule in engineering is “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.  Doctors follow the same instructions in the Hippocratic Oath but it sounds better there,  “First, do no harm”.  Unfortunately beginning with Thomas Watson, Jr., IBM and all tech companies, have been violating these rules.

Tech companies have constantly “improved” their offerings with frequent updates.  While this was supposedly to benefit the users of these programs, all too often it is at the expense of dropping features that were previously included, or putting features that peviously existed behind a pay wall or other “protections”. Also there is always a user cost to these improvements.  There is a learning curve to unlearn the old ways, and learn the new way, of doing things.  The more you know, then the more you have to unlearn, so the cost is borne particularly by long-time users.

Does anyone remember the “New” Coke marketing fiasco of the 1990s.  Coca-Cola corporate honchos though it would be a good ideas to introduce a “New” formula for their soft drink.  There was nothing wrong with the Old Formula.  They just wanted to improve it.  Their customers revolted and forced the reintroduction of Classic Coke and eventually New Coke disappeared.  

I could do without the new upgrades that are made by tech companies where they are forcing their users to accept that it wasn’t broke, but they fixed it anyway.  Thanks for nothing tech companies.  I guess the tech companies had the time because they aren’t “gettin’ ready to meet the saints.”

Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Christian Nationalists?

 

Onward Christian Soldiers

Onward, Christian soldiers!
Marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus
Going on before.

“Christian” soldiers is about as accurate as the “Freedom” Caucus! 

In George Orwell’s novel 1984, there is a warning about the lies that those in charge can use to try to deceive us, such as “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”  The “Freedom” Caucus is more about slavery than freedom, and “Christian” Nationalists are about themselves, not Christ.

Would Christ say that he came to ensure that the laws of the Old Testament were enacted as the law of the Land? I believe that he said that “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven”.  What is important is righteousness, NOT the law. 

If the Christian nationalists say the Rapture is imminent, then how can that be squared with Christ's own words “no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself"?

If we are supposed to turn immigrants away from our border, then isn't that in conflict with the Parable that Christ told of the Good Samaritan?

If we are supposed to eliminate the national debt, bury our wealth,  then how can that be squared with Christ's Parable of the Talents?

Christ would have told the Handmaid’s Tale as a warning, not as a blueprint.

It sounds to me like “Christian” Nationalists are not very Christian, but that sounds so much better than "Satanic" Nationalists.  Not as true, but we are living in the world of "alternative" facts, aren't we.

Flat?

Bare Footin’

Hey little gal with the red dress on
I bet you can barefoot all night long
Take off your shoes and throw them away
Come back and get them another day
We're barefootin', we're barefootin'
We're barefootin', we're barefootin'

 What about Flat- footin’?

To an individual human on the earth, the surface looks flat.  However, this is only because the distances that the individual enounters are probably much smaller than the radius of the Earth.  To an ant on the surface of a beach ball, its surface may also appear flat. But just like the beach ball, the surface of the Earth is actually spherical.  If it WERE flat, then a stick perpendicular to the ground at the equator would cast no shadow at noon, and that same stick at a higher latitude, say London, should also cast no shadow. ( The shadow in London would be shortest at noon, but there would still be a shadow.)  If the Earth were flat, then the highest points (e.g. the mast) of a ship on the horizon would NOT ALWAYS be visible before the rest of the ship.  These, and other apparent paradoxes, can be explained if the Earth is round but can not be explained if the Earth is flat.  Thus the perceptions of an individual are NOT the truth.

It is assumed that space is flat. This, however, is also just an assumption. If the surface of space is hyperbolic, curved, then any conflict betwwen the age and distance of the universe, the Planck Length, the rotation of galaxies, the inflation of the early universe, etc. may all be explainable.  But that requires giving up the perception that the space is flat.  Space may be bare, but that does not mean that it is flat.


Monday, November 6, 2023

AI

 

They All Laughed

They all laughed at Christopher Columbus When he said the world was round They all laughed when Edison recorded sound They all laughed at Wilbur and his brother When they said that man could fly They told Marconi Wireless was a phony

Is AI a laughing matter?

AI is no different than: a written alphabet, the printing press, a camera, or copy and paste.  Each of these were accompanied by social upheavals, so why should we expect AI to be any different. AI is a tool invented by humans to make it easier to tell, process, and preserve stories.

But as a tool it is perhaps misnamed.  IMHO, it should be Artificial INFERENCE, not Artificial INTELLIGENCE.  It is only making inferences from the data that it processes, and it is only as intelligent as those who wrote the algorithms in the AI to do that processing.

So what is the difference between an inference and intelligence?

Before Copernicus, it was inferred that the Sun and the planets revolved about the Earth.

Before Kepler, it was inferred that the planetary orbits were perfect circles, not imperfect ellipses.

Before Wegner, it was inferred that the continents did not drift and that what we observed were the fixed position of the continents.

Before Darwin, it was inferred that life was created and while evolution can destroy species but it can not change them.

Before Einstein, it was inferred that the speed of light could be exceeded.

In each of these and other instances, INTELLIGENCE only means OBSERVATIONS, as in military intelligence, not that the observations, or the inferences from those observations, were intelligent and correct.

And because AI is an inference from observations, anything that was not observed is NOT part of the AI.  If there is confidential or copyrighted information that is being observed, then those inferences otherwise might be theft/a security breach/copyright infringement.  If that protected information, or any information, is being excluded from an AI, it does not mean that it did not happen, just that it was not observed and considered by that AI.

It is important to remember each of these when using AI so that people will be laughing with you and not at you.

 

Sunday, November 5, 2023

Moving Pictures

 

Pictures of Lily

And then one day things weren't so fine
I fell in love with Lily
I asked my dad where Lily I could find
He said, "Don't be silly".
"She's been dead since 1929"
Oh, how I cried that night
If only I'd been born in Lily's time
It would have been alright
There were always pictures of Lily to help me sleep at night
Pictures of Lily to help me feel alright

And even better today we have moving pictures of Lily.

Ginger Rogers passed away in 1995. Lauren Bacall passed away in 2014.   Audrey Hepburn passed away in 1993.  But whenever I want, I can see them dancing in “Swing Time”, whistling in “To Have and Have Not”; or eating “Breakfast at Tiffany's”.  While I was born in their time, you might not have been. While I am still here, thanks to the movies it will always be their time, so it is always all right. And it is more than just their pictures.  It is their moving pictures.  "Mona Lisa" move over, and "Hurrah for Hollywood".

Saturday, November 4, 2023

Math

 

All About The Bass

Because you know I'm all about that bass
'Bout that bass, no treble
I'm all about that bass, 'bout that bass, no treble
I'm all about that bass, 'bout that bass, no treble
I'm all about that bass, 'bout that bass (bass, bass, bass, bass)

Actually it’s all about the MATH!

Most people are familiar with Pythagoras’ Theorem, c=√(a2+b2), where c is the hypotenuse of a triangle with sides a and b.  This is actually only true for a flat, Euclidean, surface.  It is true because of the identity of a circle, cos2+sin2=1. For a triangle on a flat surface, the hypotenuse can also be expressed as

 cos(c)=cos(a)*cos(b).

For a triangle on a spherical surface, the formula for the hypotenuse of a right triangle is based on a similar principle, but it is

cos(c/R)=cos(a/R)*cos(b/R)  or c=R*cos-1(cos(a/R)*cos(b/R))

where R is the radius of that spherical surface.  As R approaches infinity, it becomes identical to Pythagoras’ Theorem.

For a triangle on a hyperbolic surface, the formula for the hypotenuse is

cosh(c)=cosh(a)*cosh(b) or c=cosh-1(cosh(a)*cosh(b)).

This is true because of the identity of a hyperbola, cosh2-sinh2=1.

What is true for any surface, regardless of its shape, is only that c2=a2+b2. 

For the cylindrical coordinates (r, θ, z), of a point (x, y, z) in rectangular coordinates, it is true that x=r*cosθ, y=r*sinθ, z=z, and θ=tan-1(y/x).  However the solution of r as √(x2+y2) is only true if x and y are on a flat surface. On any surface it is only true that r2=x2+y2, and the solution for r depends on the shape of that surface. 

Additionally, hyperbolic trigonometric functions are defined in terms of exponentials such that

cosh(x)=½*(ex+e-x)

In this case, if the surface is hyperbolic, then the formula for the hypotenuse of a triangle is

c=cosh-1(½*(ea+e-a)* ½*(eb+e-b))

From Euler's formula, eix=cos(x)+isin(x), it is also true that ei0=-e.  Thus it is suggested that Pythagoras’ Theorem, taking the imaginary axis into consideration, is better simplified as  

c=ln(-cosh(a2+b2)±sinh(a2+b2))

rather than the conventional

c=√(a2+b2).

However it is also acknowdged that, when a and b are much less than infinity, just as Pythagoras’ Theorem can be used on the surface of the spherical Earth where its radius, R, is much greater than a or b,  Pythagoras’ Theorem is still a reasonable approximation. In fact there is virtualy no diffence between the two until a and b are more than 20% of the absolute/infinity.  The difference between the two does not become appreciable until after a and b are more than 7%[1] of the absolute/infinity.

Euler’s formula, eix=cos(x)+isin(x) can also be viewed as the rotation of Minkowski’s spacetime, reality, on an imaginary axis to create cylindrical coordinates. If, in Eulers’ formula, x is taken to be θ, that is  e=cos(θ)+ sin(θ)*i, this can then be viewed as a complex number in rectangular coordinates, a+b*i, where sin(θ) can be viewed as a rotation of the imaginary axis, i, by θ, and cos(θ) is the real portion of this complex number. However, while sin(x) is cyclical, and sin(0)=sin(π)=0,  the cosine, the real part of the complex number in rectangular coordinates, is out of phase with the sine such that cos(0)=1 but cos(π)=-1.  Thus it is proposed that if a surface passes through an origin of a two-sheeted hyperboloid such that sin(0)=sin(π)=0, that in one sheet of the two sheeted hyperboloid, cos=1, while in the other sheet cos=-1. This implies that if our universe, reality, is on one sheet of a two sheeted hyperboloid, that at its origin it must have undergone a phase change such that a hyperbola in one sheet, our universe, is a reflection of a hyperbola in the other sheet, and that one sheet is also a phase shift of π from the other sheet.

Setting the coefficient of the imaginary axis to 0, does not mean that the axis is eliminated, only that its coefficient is zero.

[1] Actually the mean of a choice of one, squared, multipled by π squared divided by threeis 0.52π2/3 , which is equal to the variance, or 82.2%.

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Speaker of the House

 

Sympathy For The Devil

So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politnesse
Or I'll lay your soul to waste, mm yeah

Republican “moderates” in the House appear to have had a “Come to Satan” moment.

By picking MAGA Mike Johnson as their Speaker, the moderate Republicans appear to have selected him because he seemed so polite, compared to Jim Jordan.  Uh, the devil is also polite.

The devil is NOT equal to God.  Believing that life is a contest between God and the devil is to believe that the devil is EQUAL to God.  If you have chosen God, then denying anyone else a choice is tantamount to handing that person over to the devil, because you won’t let that person choose God for themself. It does not count that you are afraid they might choose the devil.  Someone can choose God or no-God, but that same person can not choose the devil, unless the devil is equal to God.

No-God is the ABSENCE of God.  This is NOT the devil, although the devil is also absent of God.  Since MAGA Mike wants to eliminate the ability to choose your gender, your partner, your reproductive freedom, your religion, etc. he is apparently against many choices.  It makes no difference if he is polite in doing so, that is the way of the devil. Those moderate Republicans who voted for him have had a "Come to Satan" moment.  They are confusing tolerance with acceptance.  God help us all.