ChatGPT seems to be a sensation, so what is it, and what does it do?

 

Funny thing is that this question is the kind of thing that ChatGPT was created to accomplish. It answers questions, and can simulate human conversation.

What sparked my interest in it was a YouTube video ( link here).

The video's author says that this is a big deal, and it may be time to get up to speed on it. It will change things, he says.

Frankly, I worry very much about Artificial Intelligence. Generally speaking, I tended to avoid the topic. But you cannot ignore what's coming, if that is truly the case. Unfortunately, I think something like this is more likely to do more harm than good. But people seem to be drawn to it like a moth to a flame, and I suspect the end result of this is likely to be similar.

If you are not familiar, then the links provided here will give you some background on what this is. It is embarrassing to admit my ignorance on the subject, but the topic kept popping up, and it is time to address it. That's true whether I like it or not.

As someone who has been familiar with computers, and has worked with them for many years, even before computers were mainstream, I think a great deal of restraint should be applied to things like AI. Unfortunately, there are people who are pushing this, and it will likely assume far greater importance than I would be comfortable with. So I have something of a bias against it.

Here are some links for further information:

A 2 hour chat with Sydney, the chatbot with Bing ( very strange)

Fun with ChatCPT (comment: The bot is politically biased)

My own conversation with a chatbot as an experiment:

Q: Where did ChatGPT come from?

ChatGPT is a natural language processing (NLP) system developed by Microsoft Research Asia. It was first presented at the 2019 EMNLP conference in Hong Kong and is based on the OpenAI GPT-2 model.

Q: What good is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT can be used to generate natural-sounding dialogue. It is useful for developing virtual assistants, chatbots, and other applications that require a dialogue system.

Q: What purpose does a chatbot serve?

Chatbots are computer programs that simulate conversations with people. They can be used to provide customer service, answer common questions, provide information, and much more.

Q: How much does a plane fare cost that travels from Austin Texas to Honolulu Hawaii?

A roundtrip plane ticket from Austin to Honolulu typically costs between $400 and $900 depending on the airline, the time of year, and other factors.

Q: How much does it cost to ride a bus from Austin Texas to Los Angeles California?

A one-way bus ticket from Austin to Los Angeles typically costs between $150 and $250 depending on the bus line and the time of year.

Q: What is a passenger fare for a ship from Los Angeles to Hawaii?

The cost of a one-way passenger ticket on a cruise ship from Los Angeles to Hawaii typically ranges from $799 to $1,999, depending on the cruise line, the type of cabin, and the time of year.

Q: What cruise ship lines operate out of Los Angeles?

The cruise lines that operate out of Los Angeles include Carnival Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean International, Disney Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, Holland America Line, and Norwegian Cruise Line.

Q: What cruise lines operate out of Galveston, Texas?

The cruise lines that operate out of Galveston, Texas include Carnival Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean International, Disney Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, Holland America Line, and Norwegian Cruise Line.

Q: What would it cost to go from Galveston Texas to Los Angeles on Carnival Cruise Line?

A one-way ticket from Galveston, Texas to Los Angeles on Carnival Cruise Line typically costs between $499 and $999, depending on the type of cabin and the time of year.

Q: What are the hotel rates for Honolulu Hawaii?

Hotel rates in Honolulu typically range from $100 to $400 per night depending on the hotel, season, and other factors.

Q: What is the cost of a roundtrip air fare from Austin Texas to El Paso Texas?

A roundtrip airfare from Austin to El Paso typically costs between $150 and $250 depending on the airline, the time of year, and other factors.

Conclusion: It might be useful in some limited context, such as the one shown above. For deeper questions, it may not be very useful at all. However, it doesn't mean that it won't be misused. My guess is that is what is the most likely thing to happen.

Greens are against everything, and why nobody should be surprised

 

Greens are against everything

It may be hard to find on this blog, but I am pretty sure that I expressed the sentiment at least once-- that the environmentalists will ultimately be against EVERYTHING. That especially includes such things as electric cars.

It's not an original thought. If you read the book that the late Rush Limbaugh recommended-- Trashing the Planet--, then you'll read about the deep ecology movement. These deep ecologists would like for us all to return to the caveman lifestyle of the Stone Age.

Incidentally, I just scanned my own blog to find something that comes close to what I just wrote. Here is something:

decades of alarmism

This may allow me to segue into something that I read on the webs recently in reference to something on a Bongino podcast. It was about how the left seems to be able to take over things like Wikipedia. I've expressed a theory for that one too. They are wolves, and the sheep doesn't know how to deal with a wolf. It's the Aesop Fable about how force gets the better of an argument. You cannot argue with a wolf. You have to deal with the wolf on the wolf's terms. In other words, you have to kick their asses.

Conservatives won't even think about that one. Meanwhile, communism marches on...

There was the sentiment that Wikipedia falls to the left because the left likes to argue, as to oppose to the so-called "right", who like to be productive... Nope. About all the so-called right does is TALK. They never do what they claim to be for, because the so-called right won Congress and the Presidency in 2016, yet couldn't do a damned thing to roll back the left's gains. The "right" is just as fake as the "left". As a matter of fact, it is another one of my observations that Reagan articulated in The Speech. Yet, Limbaugh would refer to Reagan as a hero. He wouldn't learn what Reagan said about "right v left". Reagan said there was no such thing, it is about freedom or tyranny. Why can't the thought leaders grasp this? The "wolf" is the tyrant class. The sheep is everybody else. If there is nobody willing to take on the wolf, then the wolf wins by default. Sheepsville is where conservatism seems to live. They seem to be content to be sheep.

You know what happens to the sheep. If you're content with being one, don't be shocked to find yourself on the wolf's menu.

Russo-Ukraine War ( video link )

 

Out of ammo?

There hasn't been much discussion here about the war due to the unreliable sources of information available. There are too many cheerleaders on the so-called "right" who support this war. I've always condemned our involvement in it.

If it is true that we cannot supply the Ukrainians with sufficient ammunition, then this war is going to be lost. What will they say THEN???

They've just given Brandon a fig leaf to hide behind in supporting this ill-fated war... Brandon could say that it was "bipartisan", and he'd be right for once.

But this info is not necessarily reliable either... Either it is reliable or it isn't. Yet, I've read in more places than this that our ammo stocks are dwindling. If Brandon knew this, and approved this war, then he ( and his supporters) have committed an unforgiveable blunder.

Yet, there may not be any political accountability for even this. Kari Lake lost her latest court appearance. If you cannot get rid of bad governance, what do you do then??? Washington DC and much of the country is out of control, and frankly, out of their minds.

Too many people with anal-cranial inversion, if you know what I mean.

Aerogel Core Fission Fragment Rocket Engine

Aerogel Core Fission Fragment Rocket Engine: 

Ryan Weed
Positron Dynamics 

NASA  TV 

Comment

Theoretically, it could achieve ISP over 100k, making interplanetary and even interstellar missions feasible.

Whoa!

Stupid is as stupid does

 

Just read something disturbing about the train derailment in Ohio. Looks like it could have been prevented, but nobody did anything about it.

Could it be another sign of the times? That is to say, with something that could have prevented, yet wasn't: does it mean that the USA is in permanent decline? You could argue either way. There have been disasters before, and likely will be disasters in the future. A disaster isn't evidence of decline, but it isn't good either. Especially since it probably could have been prevented.

Then there are cases in which people really don't know what to do. Let's examine something once again that I mentioned previously. There are certain "knee jerk" reactions that have been cited. One of these is called "social proof". The way social proof works ( or doesn't) is when everybody reacts the same way in a certain novel situation.

You could take the COVID situation as an example of social proof. People started wearing masks. They wore masks because EVERYBODY ELSE DID. This is what is meant by social proof. The situation was novel, and nobody seemed to know what to do, so they did what everybody else did. The government did something stupid and mandated what was clearly ineffective even though they should have known better. Why? It was done elsewhere in similar situations, and these geniuses didn't know what else to do. Their peers in Asia did something similar in prior flu like situtations, so not knowing what to do, they did what the Asians did.

Could this have happened in Ohio? Maybe. If the evidence supports such a conclusion, it may well turn out to be the actual explanation for why people failed to do what was clearly indicated. Meaning this: That there was something definitely wrong, but nobody was taking action to correct the situation, so nothing was done to prevent what was clearly preventable. ( Or in the case of masks, did something clearly useless ( and stupid) because they didn't know what else to do.)

Social proof can be deadly. If everybody does the same thing because everybody else is doing it, then something really bad can happen. The moral of the story? Don't rely upon social proof as a clue to what to do even if "everybody is doing it". Sometimes you just have to use your own head, because that could make the difference between getting badly hurt or killed, or getting out of a situation in one piece.

Too bad somebody has to say this. What the heck? Maybe somebody will take heart from it and actually learn something. What a novel idea. /sarc

A strategy to mine an asteroid

Going on 10 years since I posted this.  Now the means for getting there is within reach.   What a kick in the pants it would be to make this happen.  A Starship could carry a lot of cargo.

Originally posted on Oct 4, 2013

Currently, I'm looking at another asteroid, which may be harder to get to than 3554 Amun.  It is called 1986 DA, and it appears to be very similar to Amun.  The physical breakdown and mass of the asteroid appears quite similar.  Another $20 trillion asteroid.

It looks to me like you could land on it.  It has a rotation period listed, which indicates a turning speed of about 1 kilometer per hour.  You could match that speed and hover over its surface.  The gravity would be minimal, so you wouldn't fall very rapidly towards the surface.  A brief burst of propellant can keep you hovering while preparations for a firm landing are made.

To land firmly must take into account the lack of gravity.  Things will want to fly off the surface, so care must be taken to keep things firmly planted.  Hence the landing strategy.  I suggest firing hot projectiles that will penetrate the surface for a sufficient distance and then cool down and solidify forming an anchor.  Several of these below the hovering lander should be set before reeling in the tether and securely attaching the lander to the surface.

Once landed, how to begin mining operations?  As mentioned, any movement is likely to want to send you flying off the surface, so a strategy for mining should take that into consideration.  Once again, I suggest making the surface very hot so that it melts, then scoop it up.   While it is cooling and before it cools too much, I'd spin it up.  Platinum is more dense with a higher melting point than nickel and iron, which makes up the majority of the mass of the the asteroid.  The spinning movement will send the platinum to the edges of the vessel.  Skim this off to obtain the platinum.  Before the iron and nickel cools down to solid form, shape the iron and nickel into something useful.  You could use 3D printing for this purpose.

Where to get the energy for this?  You could use nuclear reactors designed for space.  There are those in the 400 kw range that may be sufficient for this purpose.

Would this method work?  Perhaps not.  I've never done this before.  Except something like it in a chemistry lab in high school.  The spinning device acts like a centrifuge.  More massive stuff will go to the edges.  That's how that method works.  Heating metals?  Well, I've seen that on youtube, so it isn't out of the realm to heat up the ore sufficiently for this to work.

Getting to the asteroid would be accomplished with a solar sail.  Perhaps the entire thing could be done unmanned, but it would be cool to do it with a crew.

Update:

This will be a new series.  Part II is here.

Balloon Wars

It's been in the news lately, these balloons. Or whatever they are. People seem concerned about them. Actually, Brandon should have shot the darned thing down.

Now Brandon has declared war on all of whatever these things are. It's like he has declared war on ET ( The Extraterrestrial creature in a Steve Spielberg movie). What's with Brandon, eh? He screws up something, and now he has to prove something? He's on the job, killing those nasty balloons. He wants the world to know.

The idea of calling these "UFO's" seems a part of the strategy. We're fighting in a new war of the worlds. One of these will open up someday, and a creature will come out and say "ackackack". If you send a nuke after it, it will sip it all down like a cool one, and say that it was mighty fine, except it will still sound like "ackackack".

Then they will try to make peace with the creatures, and they will visit Congress. All of the sudden, they will start killing everybody in sight, and Brandon will say that even though we lost a branch of government, we still have two more, and 2 out 3 ain't bad.

Maybe they should try to sic Slim Whitman on them. It seems to have worked before.

When it is all over, they can make movies out of it. The merchandising will be fantastic. You could make a fortune out of this thing...

Yeah, I'm making fun of Brandon a bit. There's probably a reasonable explanation for all of this, but with Brandon, that is the least likely thing you'll hear. Instead, you'll hear about UFOs or some thing.

There's a moral in there somewhere, but I don't suppose one in a million will find it.

ackackack