I Guess we are all Dumb

 As the current President has noted regarding Data Centers:

"The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor," Trump on Truth Social. "If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign." And if people "kill the Golden Goose" by successfully resisting AI data centers, "you will only have yourselves to blame," Trump continued, adding "China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement. Actually, they can't believe it is happening!"

Frankly, not one is saying to band Data Centers in toto. What people are saying is to think first then act afterward. I know, thinking is hard some times, I have been at it for nine decades, so I have a tad of the experience.

As I noted before, there are issues worth discussing. The statements regarding jobs is fallacious. The jobs are in construction, a passing issue, not in ongoing operation. There will be massive facilities filled with thousands of processors, using lots of electricity. Perhaps some staff to swap failed units, but no more. In fact the more people the greater the risk of human error.  

So what am I to blame for? Thinking? Perhaps, but that is frequently a useful act.  

I still have questions regarding the usefulness of LLM. As I sit here and write this I am also trying to compare several cancer therapeutic options. The driver is the recent paper on T cell attacks on cancer driven by sequencing gene changes in the cancer cell. Asking questions is the most critical stage. One examines the papers, looks at the alternatives, then goes back and repeats the process as the sources of data expand. I am driven by questions, not by just reading what others wrote. That is LLM, not me.

Thus I question the fundamentals. Have the papers flaws, can I find it, have others? 

Data Centers have use, measured use. There is plenty of land, devoid of beneficial human use, that can be employed. But building them in the back yards in Louden County is not for real! 

Or to paraphrase one of my business quotes: "If all else fails, list to the voter!" 

Almost Gold

 The 20th century used enormous amounts of copper; telephone, electrical, plumbing, etc. Now much of the telephone wiring is abandoned; almost.

As The Guardian notes: 

 BT is on track for an estimated £2bn-plus windfall over the next decade from selling off old copper cabling, as it cashes in on soaring prices amid the AI market frenzy and switches the UK’s network to full-fibre broadband. Copper is one of the main beneficiaries of the “electrification of everything”, essential for the rapid growth of AI data centres, electronics and the fast-growing renewable energy industry. The metal hit its highest-ever closing price of $14,294 a metric tonne on Friday, close to the record intraday high of $14,500 reached earlier this year amid global shortage fears.

 

 

Here it Comes!

 Some three years ago I wrote about the evolution of AI, from just communicating in words to actually manipulating machines, in the broadest sense, and ultimately making these machines but better and even being able to order and build parts to make them. Ultimately AI systems can eliminate humans after we have foolishly educated them in all that we know! Yes, gonzo!

Now one of the next steps has been taken in the Lab as noted by the NY Times, as usual. They note:

 On a recent afternoon, scientists buzzed around a lab in Cambridge, Mass., performing experiments. Their equipment was standard: a lab hood for working with dangerous chemicals, an incubator for growing cells. Their procedures were identical to those in biology labs everywhere.  A closer look revealed some oddities, though. Along with lab coats and gloves, most of the scientists wore miniature cameras on headbands. Three additional cameras peered down at each work station from a shelf. Lab notebooks were strangely absent. Instead, the scientists quietly narrated their work, murmuring into microphones. A team huddled at one end of the lab, inspecting videos of the experiments. This was the real research taking place in this lab. With a system of sensors and software intended to capture science as it happens, down to the millisecond, scientists were training artificial intelligence models to recognize every object the scientists used and every action they performed. The A.I. even composed its own narrative, describing every few seconds of video with sentences like, “The operator resuspends the pellet by pipetting it up and down 10 times.” The technology is the creation of a start-up called Transfyr, which came out of stealth mode this week with $25 million in seed funding. The company is tackling an age-old challenge in science: the hidden factors that make some experiments succeed and others fail.

This system is training the AI entity to do what it does. Of course the AI entity will soon improve this process, albeit devoid of the human. 

We seem so anxious to "train" these entities but fail to consider the results. As I noted recently, an AI entity generated new viruses. The entity may then go directly to the Lab and make them! Without any restrictions.

 Should we be fearful of this result. This is not an Asimov robot tale, but a 21st century Terminator!

Me and Dolly

 In August of 1981 I started work at Warner Communications at 75 Rockefeller Plaza. I did not have to arrive until about noon, so by 11 AM I was entering into the building on the south side. My elevator was to the 24th floor. Traffic was low in the lobby so I just walked into an open elevator. Now I am 6' 3" and inside was this 5' buxom blond, wig most likely. It was Dolly Parton! I had now joined the entertainment industry starting day one. I was in my pin striped blue suit from Brooks with a vest! What a contrast.

She looked up at me as if I were the empire state building, I wanted to push the button for 24, but she slapped my hand and said: "I'll push the button young man."

Now at the time I did not realize I was older than her. My first "star", up to the 24th floor. Frankly I was terrified, I had no idea how to deal with these folks. KGB officers were fine, but music folks, not so fine.

Some 25 or so years later when writing a book on my fathers ship, I went to Tennessee and instead of going to the left and Dollywood, I went to the right and visited a retired minister and shipmate of my father's. It was the land where she had come from, before the dress, hair, and glitter, poor but honest folks.

Sad to see her pass, my prayers for her, great person. 

 

 

Kropotkin and Anarchists

 Kropotkin was a driver for many of the early 20th century anarchists. For them, property was delimited at best if not totally abandoned. It is worth reading him to understand where many of the current anarchists are coming from.

The so-called socialists are really Kropotkin anarchists. The proposed abolition of the Senate if a prime example of what makes an anarchist. Property is eliminated, nit controlled by the state as a socialist would demand.

Kropotkin is a step beyond Marx, but today's so-called socialists, whether they know it or not, are in line with him. 

Ben Hur Redux

 I guess today the Emperor will have a redo of the famous chariot race but this time with autos of some repute. It is bad enough to get around DC not to close off its heart for this automotive chariot race may be a bit over the top.