Disqus - Latest Comments for dratman

Re: Private: Language Models Finally Show High-Level Linguistic Ability

Ralph Dratman — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 23:40:08 -0000

"[Are] some of the characteristics of human language the result of an evolutionary process that is limited to our species?"

To date we have found no living systems other than humans that can communicate at or near the human level (for example, by using recursion).

But the "only-human-animals-have-language" crowd (to which I belong) has never tried to rule out the possibility that technological devices might gain such abilities.

Re: The New Math of How Large-Scale Order Emerges

Ralph Dratman — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 13:47:14 -0000

As a fan of Ludwig Wittgenstein's later work, I modestly propose that while "free will" is a phrase in vernacular English, it is not actually a thing in itself. Free will, free speach and free lunch each have an occasional walk-on part in everyday conversation, but otherwise have little in common. The question "Did you come here of your own free will?" asks about a lack of coercion. "Freedom of speech" is an ideal embodied in an eighteenth-century document. "Free lunch" gets a mention only when its existence is about to be denied. Beyond that I think one could search for some subtle essence of freedom that those expressions all have in common and never find much of anything beyond a little four-letter word.

Re: Swirling Forces, Crushing Pressures Measured in the Proton

Ralph Dratman — Sat, 16 Mar 2024 18:28:29 -0000

I see your point, but advances in our knowledge about the basic building blocks of atoms could lead to many other more tangible results.

Re: Tiny Language Models Thrive With GPT-4 as a Teacher | Quanta Magazine

Ralph Dratman — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 21:07:53 -0000

Maybe we need to give the language models an even simpler task. Instead of writing children's stories, suppose we ask the neural network to write headlines for newspaper articles. If we keep on simplifying the task, eventually we will get down to something that an ordinary human-written computer program (though maybe a very big and complicated one) can accomplish. At that point we may begin to gain a more exact understanding of how these language models really work.

Re: Tiny Language Models Thrive With GPT-4 as a Teacher | Quanta Magazine

Ralph Dratman — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 21:05:52 -0000

Your story has potential, Mitchell. Have you thought about a career in science -- or science fiction -- or comedy?

Re: Superconductor optimism grows as scientists find more signs that it's real

Ralph Dratman — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 16:46:57 -0000

All of our work should be oriented toward reversing climate change now. To do so may be impossible at this late date, but when has that ever held our species back?

Re: The Physics Principle That Inspired Modern AI Art

Ralph Dratman — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 14:24:48 -0000

I think the correct description has to be "almost reversible", in other words, close enough to equilibrium to be, for example, a perturbed low-order polynomial process. Otherwise the whole thing makes no sense. And that way, parameters and meta-parameters of the perturbation can be changed to steer the result toward images selected by the text prompt. Crucially, the process is done in very tiny increments in each layer, where the steering may be individual and distinct in each layer. The key to all these amazing recent successes lies in those tiny, steerable steps. This can be compared with tiny evolutionary changes year after year for many millions of years. Thanks to these stunningly successful AI models we can finally see, right in front of us, arbitrary levels of complexity reached via many, many tiny and disparate changes. What this means is that to understand what is happening in these systems, each layer has to be intensively studied on its own, at first by hand and eventually by automated or semi-automated analytical systems. We should begin by choosing a single frozen query given to a single parameter-frozen model and study each layer of the inference process separately. Effectively we have to turn each layer into an individual, simplified specification, each layer containing small, describable parts of a gigantic machine, then figure out how that machine works and finally learn how to automate or semi-automate the entire layer-by-layer reverse-engineering process.

Re: Android and Chrome take their first steps towards a blissfully password-free future

Ralph Dratman — Thu, 13 Oct 2022 21:17:56 -0000

What happens if Iose or damage my phone?

Re: This Time the Collapse Will Be Global

Ralph Dratman — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 22:01:49 -0000

Of course you can.
But check the warranty.
One year!

Re: Noam Chomsky: 'Proto-fascism' and 'White nationalism' have become prime ingredients of the GOP’s slow-motion coup

Ralph Dratman — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 23:31:05 -0000

The only way to stop this slide toward fascism is to throttle the flow of lies from Rupert Murdoch's "news" companies to the US public. But to stop Murdoch would appear to violate the First Amendment. I therefore conclude that the First Amendment as it exists now is not an adequate tool to guarantee freedom of expression, because lies inevitably crowd out truth.

Re: We're still missing the truth about what the Jan. 6 attack really meant

Ralph Dratman — Sat, 01 Jan 2022 05:31:47 -0000

If it is true that we are in the midst of "the natural progression of things in a country where branding is the only thing that really matters," where does that progression lead?
Apparently it leads to some kind of collapse.

Re: We're still missing the truth about what the Jan. 6 attack really meant

Ralph Dratman — Sat, 01 Jan 2022 05:19:13 -0000

The despair Trump has channeled is more closely connected to a profound loss of identity, dignity and purpose, especially among Americans who have been left behind – without college degrees, without good jobs, in places that have been economically abandoned and disdained by much of the rest of the country.
. . .
This part of America yearns for a strongman to deliver it from despair. Trump has filled that void. To be sure, he’s filled it with bombast, lies, paranoia, and neofascism. But he has filled it nonetheless.
The challenge ahead is to fill it with a democracy and economy that work for everyone.

But is still possible to reform our democracy and our economic system?

Given the slow pace of US government evolution -- due in part to partisan deadlock -- I suggest the time during which reforms can solve the problem has passed.

Re: Why the Jan. 6 committee's investigation is now giving McConnell a glimmer of hope

Ralph Dratman — Thu, 30 Dec 2021 20:13:34 -0000

Of course if the committee actually accomplishes anything, McConnell will condemn whatever they do.

Re: Liz Cheney's moving with the urgency of someone racing against time. Democrats should take note

Ralph Dratman — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 12:54:07 -0000

My impression is that Democrats (I mean the top politicians, not the voters) do not really want social change any more than Republican politicians. Therefore you will always find some faction ("Blue Dogs," etc.) stopping them from accomplishing much in that sphere. Why? Because the same major donors give to both parties.

Re: New reports says Dallas QAnon cultists are drinking 'industrial disinfectant'

Ralph Dratman — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 12:21:10 -0000

Good quality chemical feedstocks go into making those disinfectants. Pure ingredients, ergo safe.

Re: How 'especially insidious' violence against women is a tool of corporate domination and capitalism: Chris Hedges

Ralph Dratman — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 15:51:22 -0000

"the ruling oligarchs will once again escape justice."

They always do. What is the surprise?

Re: Journalist who predicted Trump’s 2020 coup explains why his supporters’ 'openness to violence' is growing

Ralph Dratman — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 15:30:46 -0000

Gellman said, "I mean, if you have an existential threat to the United States of America — which is what Republicans are saying about Biden — then what remedy would not be allowed to you?”

Back in the real world we Democrats are facing and existential threat to American democracry.
What remedy should we not allow ourselves?
If Republicans are about to destroy our nation's system of government, I think Biden should use every bit of power he can muster to stop them.,

Re: Four Reasons Civilization Won’t Decline: It Will Collapse

Ralph Dratman — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 21:28:41 -0000

"The damage to Earth’s living systems ... is essentially permanent."
Ah, but that annoying word "essentially"... what does it mean?
Will this essentially permanent damage revert after 1,000 years?
100,000 years? 10 million years?
We cannot know.
But... if a person could have faith in only one single idea, for me it might be this: before 100 million more years have elapsed, intelligent life will once again make its home on our planet.

Re: Ana Caraiani Delights in Building Mathematical Bridges | Quanta Magazine

Ralph Dratman — Thu, 18 Nov 2021 12:44:59 -0000

Ana Caraiani looks like an artist as well as a mathematician.
During this uniquely difficult period, people with a foot in both worlds may be essential -- if not to solve our problems, at least to help us retain our sanity.

Re: Peter Thiel’s right-wing bet: Tech tycoon spending millions to bankroll 'Trump wing' of GOP

Ralph Dratman — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 23:34:52 -0000

I can't help wondering what Peter Thiel hopes to can get out of all this.
Is it really to his benefit to help install Trump as the first lifetime president of the US?
Emperor Trump.
What's the good of it?
Will Thiel get to be Trump's Adolf Eichmann?

Re: Of course Bill Maher is defending Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema: They 'have their thumb' on average voter

Ralph Dratman — Mon, 04 Oct 2021 19:30:07 -0000

Anyone who has ever actually taken a pulse knows you never use a thumb, always two fingers. Why? Because a person trying to take a pulse with a thumb is only feelng their own pulse. And that is what Mahr is doing: "taking the pulse" of his own mind.

Re: Single Cells Evolve Large Multicellular Forms in Just Two Years

Ralph Dratman — Fri, 24 Sep 2021 16:46:10 -0000

I'd like to reintroduce oxygen-using cells to see if the macro organism can evolve some form of circulatory system, however crude.

Re: Karen Miga Fills In the Missing Pieces of Our Genome

Ralph Dratman — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 21:02:13 -0000

To what extent are these strange and difficult regions conserved?

Re: One Lab’s Quest to Build Space-Time Out of Quantum Particles

Ralph Dratman — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 16:03:04 -0000

You had me at "you would need a particle accelerator as big as the Milky Way galaxy." How soon can we get the MWA project funded and started?

Re: How Computationally Complex Is a Single Neuron?

Ralph Dratman — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 10:09:55 -0000

The fact that each neuron is individually more complex than expected does not necessarily imply that every element of a neuron's complexity is a "moving part" in brain function.