gilleain

3 ms·

1.
by gilleain 9d ago
Consider that 'calculator' used to be a title for a role a human used to do. That went away, which is probably fine as there were other jobs and likely it was tedious. Then consider that "just adapt" could be "adapt
2.
by gilleain 9d ago
No, obviously not ... I'm pointing out that the way Mathematics works as a discipline is that a new proof builds on existing proofs. If we have a bunch of machine-generated proofs, then a human Mathematician has to decide whether to re
3.
by gilleain 9d ago
The Math community can "not use" a proof? How would that work? It's a little like coloured functions (async etc) - you have 'human proved' vs 'machine proved'?
4.
by gilleain 11d ago
Sadly my group theory knowledge is rudimentary, and rusty. Probably you could? No idea.
5.
by gilleain 11d ago
There is a way of understanding all this through group theory. eg: https://arxiv.org/html/2607.20669 'Counting, Symmetries and Equivalence Classes of Sudoku Grids' where an 'equivalence class' is a
6.
by gilleain 12d ago
Interesting. I can replay or simulate other people's voices (real people, obv) and can 'hear' music I know by replaying it in my mind. Of course, not perfectly if I forget the words, it might fill in with some tum-te-tum, or
7.
by gilleain 12d ago
Yes, but also viruses do not actually have goals as such - maybe 'replicate' could be their only goal. So a virus _could_ come up with a mutation that kills all its hosts, it just dies out as well in the process. Not very reassuri
8.
by gilleain 12d ago
Going to church, you say? :D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ltoAcZrjBw (Faithless : 'God Is A DJ', Live at Alexandra Palace)
9.
by gilleain 12d ago
The first English civil war started in 1642, Charles I was beheaded in 1649 and his son Charles II would not be king in England before 1660 at the restoration. So in 1653, a 'royalist' was against the 'Commonwealth', whi
10.
by gilleain 13d ago
Ok, I suppose I understand but I really do not agree. Modern criticism of the US president is so far removed from medieval criticism of a female monarch as to be nearly irrelevant. To address your question, though, yes I absolutely read &qu
11.
by gilleain 13d ago
No idea, but from this handy page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_monarchs it seems like the rest of the world (India, China, Thailand, Egypt, ...) had female monarchs of various sorts ('queen regnan
12.
by gilleain 13d ago
Evidence such as this quote? > an extremely arrogant demeanour instead of the modest gait and bearing proper to the gentle sex That is, the 'Gesta Stephani' is claiming that she should not be arrogant because it is not proper,
13.
by gilleain 13d ago
Further, there were specific reasons why Elizabeth I was treated differently to her father. For example, Henry VIII used to meet with counsellors when he woke up in the morning, still in bed. For obvious reasons, this was not done when his
14.
by gilleain 16d ago
It's a fair question - my concern is 'shallow' analogies. I can best describe this with an anecdote paraphrased from memory from one of Hofstadter's books. He described a piece of AI research (in the 60s?) where they set
15.
by gilleain 16d ago
> Protein folding and narrative/storytelling have strange homology Hmmmmmm. While I get what you mean, and I don't disagree, please be cautious when making analogies between biological systems and more distant fields. Yes, fold
16.
by gilleain 16d ago
Not sure what you mean by "an artistically symmetrical piece observes no mathematical symmetry" - as in, the underlying structure has a (set of) symmetries but the 'decoration' on top is asymmetric?
17.
by gilleain 18d ago
About a minute and a half.
18.
by gilleain 21d ago
Thankyou for the correction, and for continuing the analogy. Unfortunately when the peasants get their pitchforks and torches, they may not distinguish the Dr Waldmans from the Dr Frankenteins either. Hopefully they will. Anyway, that was n
19.
by gilleain 22d ago
But it is the very people who warned us about rogue AIs going out of control that set up a system that enabled and failed to conrol it. It is as if Dr Frankenstein continually warned the villagers about monsters then said "Look! See wh
20.
by gilleain 22d ago
Syndicate!! Actually, this one feels especially appropriate to use an LLM for.
21.
by gilleain 23d ago
>>> len("[(x%3<1) 'Fizz'+(x%5<1) 'Buzz'or x for x in range(1,101)]") 57
22.
by gilleain 23d ago
This can be great - Tom from the Yogscast has run a few of these, and they can get pretty wild. It's a simple premise but works well.
23.
by gilleain 24d ago
A vanadium one, which (as mentioned in the piece) is symmetric. The 'Just Have a Think' channel did a video on the Swiss battery here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPAFeTvjVzY
24.
by gilleain 28d ago
There is the saying "the empty vessel makes the loudest noise". This was part of the reason I eventually left Reddit, as I was getting sucked in to the habit of making empty meme-like responses to posts. Some of the worst places f
25.
by gilleain 28d ago
Yes, dimethyl mercury is terrifying stuff - it killed Karen Wetterhahn from a few drops that went _through_ the gloves she had on: > The case proved that the standard precautions at the time, all of which Wetterhahn had carefully followe
26.
by gilleain 29d ago
Both are fine, but I also prefer 'furnish', as in put in the main parts of your CV. In a way, 'burnish' is more like 'polish', suggesting an extra layer on top, rather than the fundamental parts.
27.
by gilleain 1mo ago
> Your comment has three hands Also sometimes known as 'The Gripping Hand' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gripping_Hand
28.
by gilleain 1mo ago
Huh: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helter_skelter_(ride) First known appearance on Blackpool Pleasure Beach in 1906.
29.
by gilleain 2mo ago
Great soundtrack. My favourite scene that uses music in the film is when 'Search and Destroy' plays when shooting pirates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQbhuxiyv5c Great article actually. Mirrors the mournful t
30.
by gilleain 2mo ago
Some of the confusion here is from our history. This is my (likely confused) understanding: James VI/I ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_VI_and_I ) was king of _both_ England and Scotland and only later did the

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