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The basic idea is this: E. coli “smells” chemicals it’s attracted to with a set of nose-like receptors and decides how to swim. Depending on what it senses, it can either use its flagellar tails to swim forward—this is known as a “run”—or it can spin in a random direction (a “tumble”). By running when the getting is…
Picking up a saw does not guarantee a straight cut. Holding a chisel does not make you a sculptor. Tools can amplify poor judgment as readily as good judgment. Their usefulness depends on the operator's ability to direct them, interpret feedback, recognize mistakes, and make corrections. Those requirements also apply…
Have you ever played Akinator? You think of a character, a genie asks you some twenty questions, and somehow it knows. That’s fingerprinting in a nutshell, except your browser answers the questions for you. Once you understand information entropy, Akinator’s magic turns into a simple trick. Let’s simplify with that…
The common public perception of prompt engineering is purely mechanical: better inputs yield clearer outputs. However, a deeper look reveals that human emotion and tone have become algorithmic variables. LLMs do not “think” in facts; they predict the statistically most probable next word based on the mathematical…
- Napkin math somewhere around 6B people (~75% of the population) have barely come in contact with LLMs at all. - Around 1-2B (~20%) are casual and infrequent users of free-tier ChatGPT-like products. This group sees derpy chatbots and treats them a bit like a better Google search, a writing aid, or etc. Maybe an…
I know this isn’t everyone’s experience growing up in Northern Virginia, but something I’ve realized after living here my entire life is how unusual the baseline expectations can be. Growing up, going to college never felt like a major accomplishment or even much of a decision; it was just what everyone was doing…
Para Žižek, este es el núcleo del problema ideológico contemporáneo. El sistema no necesita que no veas lo que pasa, necesita que verlo no te cueste nada, que la conciencia crítica sea una experiencia disponible, satisfactoria y sin consecuencias. Y acá está el punto que cambia todo. Nombrar la trampa no es escapar de…
Hay una confusión específica que está en el centro de todo esto y que vale la pena nombrar con precisión: la confusión entre ver el mecanismo y estar fuera del mecanismo. Son dos cosas completamente distintas. Puedes entender perfectamente cómo funciona una trampa y seguir dentro. Puedes describir con exactitud los…
A more serious problem arose for Tolkien, especially with apparently wholly evil beings, especially Orcs, but it applies also to others such as Wargs and Trolls. Since in Catholic theology evil cannot make, only mock, Orcs cannot have an equal and opposite morality to that of Men; but since they can reason about their…
The right method of philosophy would be this. To say nothing except what can be said, i.e. the propositions of natural science, i.e. something that has nothing to do with philosophy: and then always, when someone else wished to say something metaphysical, to demonstrate to him that he had given no meaning to certain…
Myth, then, is the form in which I try to answer when children ask me those fundamental metaphysical questions which come so readily to their minds: 'Where did the world come from?' 'Why did God make the world?' 'Where was I before I was born?' 'Where do people go when they die?' Again and again I have found that they…
Obviously, it takes discipline to make any radical change in one's own behavior patterns, and psychotherapy can drag on for years and years. But this is not my suggestion. Does it really take any considerable time or effort just to understand that you depend on enemies and outsiders to define yourself, and that…
...in physiological textbooks, we speak of the brain, or the nervous system, as 'governing' the heart or the digestive tract, smuggling bad politics into science, as if the heart belonged to the brain rather than the brain to the heart or the stomach. Yet it is as true, or false, to say that the brain 'feeds itself'…
Yet the more surely and vividly you know the future, the more it makes sense to say that you've already had it. When the outcome of a game is certain, we call it quits and begin another. This is why many people object to having their fortunes told: not that fortunetelling is mere superstition or that the predictions…
There are many other ways in which the game of Black-and-White is switched into the game of 'White must win,' and, like the battle for survival, they depend upon ignoring, or screening out of consciousness, the interdependence of the two sides. In a curious way this is, of course, part of the Game of Black-and-White…
WHEN WE were taught 1, 2, 3 and A, B, C, few of us were ever told about the Game of Black-and-White. It is quite as simple, but belongs to the hushed-up side of things. Consider, first, that all your five senses are differing forms of one basic sense—something like touch. Seeing is highly sensitive touching. The eyes…
In some circles there is a strong taboo on religion, even in circles where people go to church or read the Bible. Here, religion is one's own private business. It is bad form or uncool to talk or argue about it, and very bad indeed to make a big show of piety. Yet when you get in on the inside of almost any…
“Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.” ― Lao Tzu
I was never chasing applause. Applause is loud, but it disappears quickly. I chose discipline over praise. Because discipline builds when no one is watching. Anyone can shine when the lights are on. Few can stand upright in silence, when recognition is absent. Strength is not aggression. Honor is not weakness. True…
Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without…