Link Dump 2015-11-30

2015-12-02

Google released Tensor Flow, their AI engine, suggesting that the future of AI is in data, not in code, the argument being that they are giving the code away. I don't disagree with them on this particular aspect, but I do want to point out that they are specifically talking about the kind of AI that extracts knowledge, not the kind of AI that acts.
Every so often I think about what could happen that would ruin my life the most. Blindness always ranks pretty high, but I think a loss of the ability to use language, including the ability to talk to myself, is much scarier.
VATSIM is a multi-player air traffic simulation. People play both pilots and ATC, and they do everything from routine trans-Atlantic flights to engine-out emergency landings. If I had any interest in aviation, I would find this even more interesting than I already do.
Jetpacks. Next to a 787.
This article about software "engineers" has gotten a lot of press, but I actually find its thesis a little confused. The author seems to be arguing that we should stop using the "software engineer" label, while simultaneously saying that software failures can lead to increasingly large disasters - a problem that removing a label won't fix. I have more thoughts on this, that I might put in a longer blog post at a later date.
Race preferential admission may be doing more harm than good. The argument is that students face a gap in ability between them and their peers, and may end up demoralized. Worse, this happens throughout the "pecking order" of universities, leading to a global (instad of local) phenomenon. The article is actually a rather depressing read.
Oxy professor writes about the Oxy student protests. Favorite except: "My only real concern is whether students - at Oxy and elsewhere - can "seal the deal." Students today are so skeptical of people in power (including college administrators) that they sometimes can't take "yes" for an answer."
When celebrating the achievements of someone, should we take into account their negatives as well? If we can object to honoring someone who was racist, can we object to honoring someone who committed adultery (eg. Einstein)?
Has fandom and fanfiction existed historically, or is it a new thing? Short answer: historical.
Together with the student protests on campus, students have also demanded that schools rename infrastructure currently named after racists/sexists. Including Woodrow Wilson.
"Think about the last time you felt stressed or low in mood. Did thinking about it help?" Er, yes. I'm stressed or in a bad mood because of problems I'm facing. They don't just spontaneously come and go (for me; I understand that depression is that way). That is a terrible motivation of mindfulness. Here's a better motivation.
A codex vitae is a book of everything you've learned over your life. I wonder how that's different from keeping a journal, at least one in which more academic thoughts are included.
Do people really believe that the law is politically neutral? This seems obvious to me, and is merely a specific instance of the more general observation that all man-made rules are arbitrary. They should all be considered before being followed.
I am much more enthusiastic about the idea of work-life integration than work-life balance.
With so many things running on software, how do we know that the software is correct? Particularly when the software matches DNA from crime scenes?
The path of science is not straight, or: how a step forward in one area may lead to a step backward in another. As an example, the cause of scurvy.
If everyone knows that psychologists (and their confederates) are lying liars, are psychology experiments still meaningful?
In climbing, a "first female ascent" is the first woman to climb a route. I, too, am ambivalent about whether that's truly an achievement to be celebrated.
Assigning homework may not be useful. This is definitely true of elementary school, but even in high school the effects of homework are small. I would like to see if different types of homework all produce this result, or if "homework" from a flipped classroom are equally useless.