OpenAI, the company that owns ChatGPT, has all the hallmarks of a classic Silicon Valley flameout. Silicon Valley history is littered with the corpses of well-funded, but underproducing startups. I have been testing and using several AI services over the last three years, and I was very impressed with ChatGPT in the beginning. However, recently…
Category: Science Technology
Monkey Business
This video depicts a modern issue concerning smartphone addiction. It compares lab experiments with our primate cousins to human “experiments” with human children. Here is the direct address for this video: https://youtu.be/VO1uRMTZB_E
Our March of Progress
With the twin themes of history and truth matters, this video explores the coming crisis posed by the impact of artificial intelligence and robotics on American society. However, America has a strong tradition of resistance to collective action, which often leads to dysfunction and chaos. Paraphrasing Winston Churchill, America tries everything else before doing the…
What are you feeding your neural network?
Neural networks…that sounds pretty geeky! It may sound geeky, but it is at the heart of how the universe works, particularly for all humans. Around 1984, a physics professor at Brooklyn College told me I should study “neural networks.” I was then an associate vice president responsible for academic and administrative computing, and I thought…
We have been watched…
In honor of the memory of one of the world’s greatest primatologists, Jane Goodall, we examine the creatures that have been watching us for hundreds of thousands of years. Dr. Goodall devoted her entire adult life to studying and promoting the preservation of life on this planet. Her particular expertise was in the study of…
The Passing of American Conservatism
Most of us thought conservatives wanted to keep or conserve the world more or less as it is. The dictionary definition is “Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values.” Until recently, conservatives had the reputation for being somewhat dull but reliable,…
The MAGA Energy Future
Make America Like Yesterday (MALY) This article focuses on the MAGA-led march into a potential economic disaster. Ignore Trump’s tariffs, immigration, and deficit spending. A longer-term danger lies in how America acquires and distributes energy. Over the last year or so, I’ve read several articles about the energy policies in various countries. As much as…
Keeping up with the Joneses
Artificial Intelligence is the new gold rush in the world economy. Investors and governments are salivating and promising all sorts of benefits and riches coming from AI. AI is a significant technology, but before we become intoxicated by all the hype, let’s take a breath and think about our collective actions. Virtually everyone will be…
Everyone Believes What They Want to Believe
Beliefs about Artificial Intelligence How does everyone feel about artificial intelligence (AI)? AI has been around since the mid-1950s. I asked my tech guru in the 1970s to define AI, and he responded, “It’s using a computer to do things we haven’t done before.” In the beginning, one of the goals of AI was to…
The Tortoise and the Hare
America’s economy and society are at a critical juncture. Like an energetic bunny, America dominated the twentieth century. The American Puritans in the North and West used technology to industrialize, electrify, and computerize the country. The Southern Cavaliers provided most of the fossil fuels needed to energize our progress. The USA developed a diversified economy…






