Gary Bergeron

My usually retort to “being born a Catholic” is “No, I was born an atheist, without no beliefs in any gods, just like you were too”….

and….

“Please explain to me why children need to pray? Better they to go to a church where they can learn to fly”.

I was recently told by a student warrior that I cannot be a Zionist because I was an “Irish Catholic by birth” and “obviously I could never be Jewish”.

But I am a Zionist, I replied, and gave no more information. This bothered him greatly. His friend asked how was it possible for me to be a Zionist.

I replied “By using my right to…[Read more]

**INTERNATIONAL BAR, DUBLIN — NIGHT**

A crowded bar. REG is standing beside two women, CLAIRE and AOIFE. The conversation has reached the dangerous point where someone has asked what he is interested in.

**CLAIRE**

So what do you do when you’re not working?

**REG**

I think about why England survived Napoleon economically while Holland did…[Read more]

Yes, but you can install a local LLM on you home pc and ‘train it’ to be something like a “Feynman  Teacher”. The teaching system needs a policy that treats the student’s demonstrated understanding rather than the completion of the immediate problem, as the objective.

EG “Discuss the impact of the rapid economic development of the country af…[Read more]

Yes, I think so. It think that is a very good question. An AI trained only on pre-1905 knowledge might be less capable than one trained today, because modern AI can challenge classical assumptions partly because its training already contains Einstein’s challenge. When present-day AI suggests questioning absolute simultaneity, it is not i…[Read more]

I guess we could call on Feynman again with his cure for ‘metacognitive laziness’ and get students to learn the Feynman Technique first?

Explain the idea in plain language.
Notice where the explanation becomes vague.
Return to the source and repair the gap.
Explain it again without hiding behind jargon.

AI could be built into that process rather…[Read more]

Einstein’s originality did not emerge from knowing nothing that had gone before. He ‘stood on the shoulders of giants’ like Maxwell and Lorentz and others. Much of his work was reorganizing existing ideas around problems they had not fully resolved. For years Einstein clung to the prevailing cliché that the universe must be static. He later called…[Read more]

Thanks, Reg 🙂

Have a great week everyone!

A somewhat curtailed post today.

Jake – you might enjoy reading some of works by John Banville. He can have an unusual way with words that catches one off guard. His imagery is great. The landscape is being filtered through memory, grief, vanity, jealousy or desire. A cloud, a reflection in glass, a room at dusk or the surface of the sea tells us as much about the observer as…[Read more]

I hope it clears up soon. Going to spend the whole day hikingwalking. Jake – Reading Dubliners as a ‘wee lad’ is an achievement.

Last couple of days Reg. Tuesday it was sepia coloured outside. Felt I was in the 1890s. Today’s been a bit iffy. Tomorrow it’s going to be clear. We have local smoke trackers on our weather apps at the moment. It must be awful at the source.

Anyone impacted by the wildfire smoke? Folks in NY say it is a problem. Looks like it is in VT too.

Jake, people have been pointing out they’re very familiar with the traditional digestive disasters from Taco Bell and that this new explosive upgrade is of a completely different nature.  🤷‍♀️

Jake. “Dya thinnk those Trump guffaw producing fuck ups are real or AI?”

The real tragedy is that we even have to ask.

Yes, McCain of course. When I hear people ask if someone “has come out yet?”, I ask them “When did you come out as heterosexual?” or “When did you decide you were heterosexual?” depending on how concerned they seem to be about someone else’s sexuality. If they get all riled up I say “Oh calm down man, nobody here cares if you are straight or not”.

I haven’t yet had the time to think about the impact of his passing. I don’t fully agree with the sentiment that he became a MAGA Trumpist. I think he was clever (or diplomatic) enough to learn how to ‘speak Trump’. He remained in the Cain camp with foreign policy He was an interventionist in that regard while Trump instinctively does not see any…[Read more]

The occam soccam obsccurantism blocker knocker is smoking.

‘member, we don’t talk foolishness we talk trut’