Learning without a gradient (part 2)

Part 1 of this series discussed the difficulties faced by gradient-based approaches to learning:

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No you should not seriously consider whether we are living in a simulation

I’m reading Superintelligence, a surprisingly dull book given its topic is, well, the possibility of a rampant superintelligent AI destroying civilization and what we might do to prevent that sort of thing. Along the way, the author speculates about how a caged hyperintelligent AI (not joking here) might incorporate reasoning about the the simulation hypothesis into its plans to escape confinement.

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Email display names do not need to be LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME now that computers are a thing

I received an email recently from a guy, let’s call him Robert Smith (name changed to protect the innocent), whose email display name was "Smith, Robert" <robert.smith@somedomain.com>.

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Is tech adoption really that random? A VHS vs Betamax redux!

I worry a bit that people are adopting an overly fatalist perspective on tech adoption. This perspective has become almost a reflex–we can’t possibly know or predict what technology will end up being widely adopted and often the “worse” technology wins, so just don’t even try!

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A happier angle on internet debates about programming tech

I’ve been contemplating internet debates and discussions on programming technology and I think the music composers really have the right idea:

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