The Flesh-and-Blood Chatbot
Donald Trump doesn’t think — he responds. He’s a flesh-and-blood chatbot. That’s not an insult. It’s a structural description. He operates like a predictive-text system built out of muscle memory, appetite, and grievance. He takes inputs, measures what gets attention, and outputs words calibrated for maximum reaction. He doesn’t reason, he completes. The Algorithm Wearing…
I Kept Journals
Off and on throughout my life, I have been a writer. I guess you could say that I am a writer. Among other things, I kept journals. I still keep journals. I just don’t write in them as much as I used to (although I’m working on getting back into the habit). Snoopy, the Red…
Testimony to the Payment of a Debt
Genesis of a Poem I wrote the poem (below) when I was young. I think I was about 16 or 17, but I’m not positive now. I had been looking in the thesaurus for synonyms for the word “death” for something I was writing, and I came across the phrase “payment of a debt which…
Language Contact & Historical Linguistics
I The common methods of historical linguistics for the reconstruction of previous stages or states of languages are the Comparative Method (CM) and Internal Reconstruction (IR). Both of these methods break down in cases involving contact between differing languages. This is due to the primary assumptions requisite to each of these methodologies. According to Jeffers…
Guido Cagnacci
“Ohhhhhh……..,” I rubbed my head. “Where in the world am I?” The irony of that question would be some time in making itself known to me. The last thing I remembered was sitting in O’Hungry’s in Old Town, San Diego—Earth. “Earth?” you ask. Now you may be thinking “where else would you be?” As I was…
Department of Motor Debacles
So about a week or so ago, I got a letter in the mail from the DMV, the Department of Motor Vehicles, or, as it appears is the correct name, “The Department of Motor Debacles.”
The Oracle & the Zettelkasten
I have been on a journey pretty much my entire life to learn. And that has also required focusing on learning how to learn. Lately, I’ve gotten a great boost by making a determined study of two areas: AI, and zettelkästen. Since the primary AI programs I use are ChatGPT-4 for discussions, and an index-card-based…
Bugs
Have I ever mentioned that I hate bugs? Well, let me tell you. From the wascally wabbit, Bugs Bunny, with his carrot-chomping grin to the uninvited guests at every picnic, those backyard bugs. Even the notorious Bugsy Malone, with his splurge gun antics, can’t worm his way into my affections. Those invisible flu bugs? They…
This Blog, That Blog & Other Writings
I just realized (today) that I’ve had a button hanging out on the main page for a long time with nothing linked to it, so I figure I better talk about this blog, my other blogs, and my writing generally. I built and maintain most of my websites, and they always include blogs. Read on,…
How I Use My Sourdough Starter
Introduction: More Right Ways Than Wrong Ways I’m writing this note on how I use my sourdough starter because a friend started a starter, and then contacted me with questions. Among other things, she had become confused by the fact that there are so many different “recipes,” or directions for how to start a starter. …
End of content
End of content