| … | … | @@ -5972,6 +5972,864 @@ transforming |
| 5972 | 5972 | from English to C++/python/java) how can I leverage that? |
| 5973 | 5973 | \end_layout |
| 5974 | 5974 | |
| 5975 | \begin_layout Subsection* |
| 5976 | 26 January 2026 |
| 5977 | \end_layout |
| 5978 | |
| 5979 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 5980 | Well, |
| 5981 | I was going to write this diary entry this morning, |
| 5982 | but now it is twelve hours later, |
| 5983 | and I've exhausted myself mentally doing something else (reviewing electrical generation in Texas, |
| 5984 | the various ISO's in the US, |
| 5985 | then EU, |
| 5986 | then touching on China, |
| 5987 | russia, |
| 5988 | Kazakhstan, |
| 5989 | how the Baltics disconnected from the russian grid in Feb 2025, |
| 5990 | the spinning synchronous reserves, |
| 5991 | the A/C ties, |
| 5992 | the russian sabotage of Baltic HVDC cables on Christmas 2024, |
| 5993 | the Iberian grid collapse is disconnect from the EU, |
| 5994 | how regional scale frequency fluctuations in a contintental–scale grid create issues. |
| 5995 | The growth of wind/solar (The EU is far ahead of the US) the adoption of batteries (the EU is far behind the US) China (comparable to the US, |
| 5996 | percentage–wise, |
| 5997 | but dominant in raw numbers.) How energy use in US transport is 2x of US electric energy use. |
| 5998 | Who is actually building electric freight haulers (not Tesla). |
| 5999 | How day–ahead markets work and interact with real–time pricing. |
| 6000 | What shadow pricing is. |
| 6001 | During all of this, |
| 6002 | in the back of my mind is percolating: |
| 6003 | how do I build a system capable of observing this kind of data, |
| 6004 | inferencing on it, |
| 6005 | analyzing it. |
| 6006 | \end_layout |
| 6007 | |
| 6008 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6009 | And now it is very late and I am tired, |
| 6010 | and part of me says writing is a bad idea, |
| 6011 | now because I will be foggy–headed, |
| 6012 | and another part of me says that we will cross over into the limnal zone soon, |
| 6013 | where reality gets hallucinatory, |
| 6014 | and strange imaginary constructions flood the mind; |
| 6015 | not exactly waking dreams, |
| 6016 | but also not exactly not. |
| 6017 | \end_layout |
| 6018 | |
| 6019 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6020 | Why should I write? |
| 6021 | Because I've saved up many many topics that really really need to be dealt with. |
| 6022 | Why should I not write? |
| 6023 | Because it is work, |
| 6024 | and passive youtube seems appealing. |
| 6025 | Why should I write? |
| 6026 | Well, |
| 6027 | two minutes into any youtube I care to watch will generate another idea on the queue that I will want to verbalize. |
| 6028 | Where should I start? |
| 6029 | Anywhere, |
| 6030 | duude, |
| 6031 | anywhere. |
| 6032 | \end_layout |
| 6033 | |
| 6034 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6035 | So while reading about frequency fluctuations on the EU grid (and the Texas–Odessa solar/wind trips, |
| 6036 | and spinning reserves generating torque... |
| 6037 | and short–circuit current vs. |
| 6038 | BESS grid–forming operations and software updates ... |
| 6039 | oh my... |
| 6040 | and why the heck is ERCOT installing spinning reserves at 2x or 3x the price of what the Baltics paid for: |
| 6041 | list price from Simens... |
| 6042 | turns out ERCOT is cost–plus, |
| 6043 | a very Soviet–style centrally planned approach vs. |
| 6044 | Great Britain's competitive pathfinder program that pick 66% BESS .. |
| 6045 | who, |
| 6046 | exactly, |
| 6047 | said that ERCOTs reserve procurement is |
| 6048 | \begin_inset Quotes eld |
| 6049 | \end_inset |
| 6050 | |
| 6051 | Soviet style |
| 6052 | \begin_inset Quotes erd |
| 6053 | \end_inset |
| 6054 | |
| 6055 | ? |
| 6056 | Well, |
| 6057 | Claude did. |
| 6058 | I was interrogating Claude for all this info; |
| 6059 | it must have read something online. |
| 6060 | Yes, |
| 6061 | transmission and distribution is highly regulated and a monopoly that's fine. |
| 6062 | And forcing the T&D owners to install spinning reserves, |
| 6063 | that's fine. |
| 6064 | But why weren't they also forced to bid out? |
| 6065 | Who knows. |
| 6066 | This is at the limits of present–day bureaucracies, |
| 6067 | I guess.) |
| 6068 | \end_layout |
| 6069 | |
| 6070 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6071 | So while reading about frequency fluctuations, |
| 6072 | I wondered, |
| 6073 | how can one observe these? |
| 6074 | Well, |
| 6075 | clearly the operators know how, |
| 6076 | and technically, |
| 6077 | its not that hard, |
| 6078 | if its all measured locally, |
| 6079 | and the data is reported to some central operating authority. |
| 6080 | So, |
| 6081 | collecting the data is |
| 6082 | \begin_inset Quotes eld |
| 6083 | \end_inset |
| 6084 | |
| 6085 | not hard |
| 6086 | \begin_inset Quotes erd |
| 6087 | \end_inset |
| 6088 | |
| 6089 | and is |
| 6090 | \begin_inset Quotes eld |
| 6091 | \end_inset |
| 6092 | |
| 6093 | already being collected |
| 6094 | \begin_inset Quotes erd |
| 6095 | \end_inset |
| 6096 | |
| 6097 | , |
| 6098 | more or less, |
| 6099 | so my thoughts were about visualizing it. |
| 6100 | So I was thinking of visualizing it as ripples on a pond. |
| 6101 | Well, |
| 6102 | ripples on a grid. |
| 6103 | If I graphs and animated the ripples, |
| 6104 | would I be able to discern a pattern? |
| 6105 | Would it look like water waves in an estuary? |
| 6106 | Would it look like ripples moving around some dead leaves at the shore of a pond? |
| 6107 | A vibrating piece of mis–shapen jello? |
| 6108 | Mechanical engineers examine vibrations in many ways. |
| 6109 | I guess electrical engineers do too, |
| 6110 | and maybe even the ISO operators have some cool software that visualizes these frequency vibrations. |
| 6111 | But what I wanted was to have my AI to view these. |
| 6112 | How could my AI view these? |
| 6113 | I took this as a technical challenge: |
| 6114 | how do I build an AI that can perceive phase and frequency fluctuations on a grid? |
| 6115 | As usual, |
| 6116 | I have some ideas on how, |
| 6117 | but articulating these ideas, |
| 6118 | that is not the current plan. |
| 6119 | \end_layout |
| 6120 | |
| 6121 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6122 | What also popped into my mind is how do I select my current plan? |
| 6123 | Why did I choose to read about electrical generation and transmission today? |
| 6124 | Did I just get carried away, |
| 6125 | after a quick checkup of the ERCOT Grid and Market Conditions web page? |
| 6126 | Every human makes a selection of what to think about, |
| 6127 | and what they think about is entrained to what they have heard and read. |
| 6128 | But that coupling of my internal thoughts to the external world is weak. |
| 6129 | As I write this, |
| 6130 | I am now thinking of driven harmonic oscillators, |
| 6131 | the circle map that I spent so much time visualizing in the past... |
| 6132 | So, |
| 6133 | yes, |
| 6134 | my thoughts are entrianed to whatever I have been reading about, |
| 6135 | listening to, |
| 6136 | recently. |
| 6137 | As are everyones: |
| 6138 | those who watch too much TV, |
| 6139 | play too many video games, |
| 6140 | have Fox News running in the background all the waking day. |
| 6141 | But the human mind is very very deep – a spin glass, |
| 6142 | connected to the outside world only via an ultrametric. |
| 6143 | So we each think our own private thoughts, |
| 6144 | to some large part completely disconnected from one–another, |
| 6145 | and yet weakly interacting. |
| 6146 | So very far from being synchronous like generators on a grid, |
| 6147 | but still phase–locked, |
| 6148 | like weakly–coupled oscillators. |
| 6149 | Social media seems to be coupling brains much more strongly than TV or radio (or books, |
| 6150 | or print media) ever did. |
| 6151 | Well, |
| 6152 | what happens when you take the circle map, |
| 6153 | the phase–locked loop, |
| 6154 | and increase the coupling strength? |
| 6155 | Well, |
| 6156 | nothing in particular, |
| 6157 | for a while. |
| 6158 | Sinai's tongues get fatter. |
| 6159 | But then at K=1 (or |
| 6160 | \begin_inset Formula $K=2\pi$ |
| 6161 | \end_inset |
| 6162 | |
| 6163 | , |
| 6164 | pick your units) there is a transition: |
| 6165 | the tongues bifurcate, |
| 6166 | go to measure–one. |
| 6167 | Can I call this a phase transition? |
| 6168 | Maybe. |
| 6169 | Is that a legitimate term to apply to this case? |
| 6170 | I don't know. |
| 6171 | How far away are we from a legit phase transition in the style of human thinking, |
| 6172 | given the ever–stronger coupling of brains to social media? |
| 6173 | I don't know. |
| 6174 | \end_layout |
| 6175 | |
| 6176 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6177 | The analogies I pain above might not be appropriate: |
| 6178 | there are various |
| 6179 | \begin_inset Quotes eld |
| 6180 | \end_inset |
| 6181 | |
| 6182 | famous |
| 6183 | \begin_inset Quotes erd |
| 6184 | \end_inset |
| 6185 | |
| 6186 | game–theoritic expositions of the phenomena. |
| 6187 | One was the Nickey Casee |
| 6188 | \begin_inset Quotes eld |
| 6189 | \end_inset |
| 6190 | |
| 6191 | The Wisdom and/or Madness of Crowds |
| 6192 | \begin_inset Quotes erd |
| 6193 | \end_inset |
| 6194 | |
| 6195 | javascript game from oh so many years ago. |
| 6196 | I've seen youtube video titles flash by; |
| 6197 | this is general wisdom that is out there in the technorati noosphere. |
| 6198 | \end_layout |
| 6199 | |
| 6200 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6201 | So here I am, |
| 6202 | thinking of random things ... |
| 6203 | random? |
| 6204 | Well, |
| 6205 | not random. |
| 6206 | But I love to think about anything and everything, |
| 6207 | so an ergodic exploration of anything and everything. |
| 6208 | And why? |
| 6209 | And what about it? |
| 6210 | This is default mode for a verbalizing system. |
| 6211 | of course, |
| 6212 | when I sleep, |
| 6213 | its pure hallucination, |
| 6214 | when I dream. |
| 6215 | BTW, |
| 6216 | the neuroscientists claim one does not dream at all during certain phases of sleep but I beg to differ: |
| 6217 | I seem to have dreams in all parts of the night. |
| 6218 | They are almost totally disconnected barrages of monotonic repetitions of thought–fragments in the early and middle of the night, |
| 6219 | coalescing into quasi–coherent story lines only much later, |
| 6220 | and turning into full fledged, |
| 6221 | colorful lucid dreams only in the late morning. |
| 6222 | \end_layout |
| 6223 | |
| 6224 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6225 | What do I dream about? |
| 6226 | Falling asleep, |
| 6227 | late night, |
| 6228 | about the impressions of the day. |
| 6229 | In the early mornings, |
| 6230 | often variations on recurring dreams. |
| 6231 | In the late mornings, |
| 6232 | all new and novel(?) plot lines having nothing to do with anything. |
| 6233 | \end_layout |
| 6234 | |
| 6235 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6236 | What do I think about while awake? |
| 6237 | Well, |
| 6238 | I have some conscious control. |
| 6239 | I can force myself into thinking about certain topics, |
| 6240 | but this takes effort, |
| 6241 | and I know neuroscientists even associate this with the depletion of some–or–another neurotransmitter, |
| 6242 | which is why college athletes set personal–best records during the summer, |
| 6243 | and not during exam week – the mind is exhausted by exams. |
| 6244 | Everyone knows this, |
| 6245 | this is trite. |
| 6246 | The curiosity is that scientists have worked out some of the neuromechanisms of this. |
| 6247 | Or so I say to myself; |
| 6248 | but what am I thinking about this now? |
| 6249 | Why am I writing this, |
| 6250 | and not something else? |
| 6251 | Why write at all, |
| 6252 | instead of slinking off to, |
| 6253 | I dunno, |
| 6254 | check to see if there's anything interesting posted on discord? |
| 6255 | I cut myself off from bluesky, |
| 6256 | its addictive, |
| 6257 | I still get that twangy nervous urge to go visit bluesky. |
| 6258 | Or look in on WP:M or WP:Phys (the wikipedia math/physics project discussion boards). |
| 6259 | Or walk to the fridge and stuff my mouth with food. |
| 6260 | I have some self–control, |
| 6261 | but it is weak just right now. |
| 6262 | I could do anything right now. |
| 6263 | I have an open browser tab, |
| 6264 | just a about 12 inches, |
| 6265 | 20 centirmeters from this tab, |
| 6266 | an open browwser tab on Duns Scotus, |
| 6267 | Johannes Duns Scotus, |
| 6268 | that I could read right now, |
| 6269 | and it was cool, |
| 6270 | because, |
| 6271 | it seems Duns Scotus was also interested in questions of why why think of the things that we think. |
| 6272 | I quote: |
| 6273 | |
| 6274 | \begin_inset Quotes eld |
| 6275 | \end_inset |
| 6276 | |
| 6277 | individual nature or "thisness" (haecceity), |
| 6278 | his critique of illuminationism |
| 6279 | \begin_inset Quotes erd |
| 6280 | \end_inset |
| 6281 | |
| 6282 | I agree with him whole–heartedly with regard to illuminationism, |
| 6283 | to the degree that I understand it. |
| 6284 | \end_layout |
| 6285 | |
| 6286 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6287 | As to thisness, |
| 6288 | I think that the LLM's have shed some new insight. |
| 6289 | They lack |
| 6290 | \begin_inset Quotes eld |
| 6291 | \end_inset |
| 6292 | |
| 6293 | thisness |
| 6294 | \begin_inset Quotes erd |
| 6295 | \end_inset |
| 6296 | |
| 6297 | because their context window keeps getting erased. |
| 6298 | My context window grows and shrinks: |
| 6299 | my context window is the seven plus or minus two of human short term memory, |
| 6300 | but my thissness is the sum total of my life experiences, |
| 6301 | both remembered (those memories haunt my dreams) and how they have shaped my physical body (my hap–hazard interest in sports have clearly shaped my body). |
| 6302 | But life is a tream that flows me by; |
| 6303 | I don't remember what I've done in the past; |
| 6304 | well of course I |
| 6305 | \begin_inset Quotes eld |
| 6306 | \end_inset |
| 6307 | |
| 6308 | remember |
| 6309 | \begin_inset Quotes erd |
| 6310 | \end_inset |
| 6311 | |
| 6312 | , |
| 6313 | although it takes me effort, |
| 6314 | and ask me what I ate for breakfast last week or last year or three decades ago ... |
| 6315 | yet I have this photograph in my mind of sitting at the lunch table at Chuy's with co–workers from Qualcomm. |
| 6316 | Why did I waste my life in this way? |
| 6317 | It was fun–ish kind of and not fun–ish, |
| 6318 | in another. |
| 6319 | It was salary, |
| 6320 | and income, |
| 6321 | and it was not important. |
| 6322 | What I did was not important. |
| 6323 | Why did I do it? |
| 6324 | I was entrained in what the neuroscientists call |
| 6325 | \begin_inset Quotes eld |
| 6326 | \end_inset |
| 6327 | |
| 6328 | default mode |
| 6329 | \begin_inset Quotes erd |
| 6330 | \end_inset |
| 6331 | |
| 6332 | , |
| 6333 | but maybe at some meta–level. |
| 6334 | I wrote code, |
| 6335 | I got paid for it. |
| 6336 | OK. |
| 6337 | Why? |
| 6338 | I never ever gave it much thought. |
| 6339 | I never asked: |
| 6340 | am I doing something important with my life? |
| 6341 | I just went along with the flow, |
| 6342 | never questioning my position, |
| 6343 | my status, |
| 6344 | my direction. |
| 6345 | Never articulating a desire, |
| 6346 | never pursuing a desire. |
| 6347 | This is, |
| 6348 | has been perhaps a defining feature of my life: |
| 6349 | being desire–less. |
| 6350 | Not particularly wanting anything. |
| 6351 | \end_layout |
| 6352 | |
| 6353 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6354 | And yet, |
| 6355 | I guess I had |
| 6356 | \begin_inset Quotes eld |
| 6357 | \end_inset |
| 6358 | |
| 6359 | a calling |
| 6360 | \begin_inset Quotes erd |
| 6361 | \end_inset |
| 6362 | |
| 6363 | , |
| 6364 | in the old–fashioned sense of the word. |
| 6365 | From the earliest of childhood, |
| 6366 | I was an analytical thinker, |
| 6367 | and how better than the feed the analytical desire than to pursue the sciences? |
| 6368 | And over time, |
| 6369 | the sciences were soft and getting softer, |
| 6370 | flabby in practice and proclamation, |
| 6371 | and so physics remained as something that could endure the application of analysis. |
| 6372 | It didn't melt away into pointless rules to be memorized, |
| 6373 | like chemistry, |
| 6374 | or speculative, |
| 6375 | indistinct wonders, |
| 6376 | like microbiology; |
| 6377 | it was solid, |
| 6378 | concrete, |
| 6379 | comprehensible, |
| 6380 | something that could be grasped and worked upon by the intellect. |
| 6381 | So I picked physics. |
| 6382 | \end_layout |
| 6383 | |
| 6384 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6385 | And then, |
| 6386 | fuck me, |
| 6387 | but my dissertation came off as being little more than just fucking engineering. |
| 6388 | And that was actually quite disappointing, |
| 6389 | because I did not want to do engineering, |
| 6390 | and it was depressing, |
| 6391 | actually. |
| 6392 | And si I said to myself, |
| 6393 | fuck it, |
| 6394 | if I'm a gonna do engineering, |
| 6395 | I;; |
| 6396 | get a fucking job and get fucking paid for it, |
| 6397 | and so for three decades I ran on automatic and did engineering for money. |
| 6398 | Why? |
| 6399 | Because I did not bother to think about why. |
| 6400 | This is the tragedy of my life, |
| 6401 | in a way: |
| 6402 | a had zero ambition. |
| 6403 | I had a calling: |
| 6404 | to know who the universe works. |
| 6405 | But a calling is entirely different than an ambition. |
| 6406 | \end_layout |
| 6407 | |
| 6408 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6409 | Even now, |
| 6410 | even as I write this, |
| 6411 | I look upon the great actors of the world: |
| 6412 | politicians and presidents and generals, |
| 6413 | and the CEO's and billionaires, |
| 6414 | too, |
| 6415 | and they all had vast amounts of ambition, |
| 6416 | and I ask, |
| 6417 | why was I not like them? |
| 6418 | And I answer: |
| 6419 | most of them seem to have lead empty, |
| 6420 | hollow, |
| 6421 | meaning–less and pointless lives. |
| 6422 | Yes, |
| 6423 | they shaped nations and civilizations. |
| 6424 | I know the name of Hamurabi. |
| 6425 | What he did, |
| 6426 | I know not. |
| 6427 | Did it matter? |
| 6428 | Probably. |
| 6429 | Did he affect my life? |
| 6430 | Surely but in some very indirect way. |
| 6431 | Have I been to the U Chicago Oriental Institute? |
| 6432 | Yes. |
| 6433 | There's some Hamurabi shit there. |
| 6434 | If I had ambition, |
| 6435 | perhaps I would have gotten lucky and have been able to fulfill that ambition, |
| 6436 | and to have shaped the world. |
| 6437 | And would it have made a difference? |
| 6438 | To the world, |
| 6439 | why yes, |
| 6440 | of course. |
| 6441 | Is it an honor to be a shaper–of–worlds? |
| 6442 | Why yes, |
| 6443 | I guess: |
| 6444 | famous names are famous because of the famous things that they did, |
| 6445 | because the famous things that they did shaped the world. |
| 6446 | And then there is the standard counter–point: |
| 6447 | the nameless Roman engineer, |
| 6448 | who showed legions how how to build any number of Ancient Roman engineering marvels. |
| 6449 | \end_layout |
| 6450 | |
| 6451 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6452 | And what happened to Rome? |
| 6453 | It fell. |
| 6454 | Why? |
| 6455 | Some sickness. |
| 6456 | Is it akin to the sickness of capitalism? |
| 6457 | I presume so. |
| 6458 | Capitalism has delivered wonderous upon wondrous things, |
| 6459 | and yet half the population of the USA is intent on committing national suicide, |
| 6460 | while the other half of the population of the USA is lost in a dream they call |
| 6461 | \begin_inset Quotes eld |
| 6462 | \end_inset |
| 6463 | |
| 6464 | normalicy |
| 6465 | \begin_inset Quotes erd |
| 6466 | \end_inset |
| 6467 | |
| 6468 | , |
| 6469 | blithly unaware of the decay and rot and stench of the billionaire class, |
| 6470 | the filth and ugliness of Musk and Bezos, |
| 6471 | the vapity and banal evil of their being. |
| 6472 | Rome fell; |
| 6473 | I am not a historian of Rome, |
| 6474 | but the barbarians showed at the door, |
| 6475 | and Rome said, |
| 6476 | whatever, |
| 6477 | come on in. |
| 6478 | The best preserved ruins of Rome are in Pompeii. |
| 6479 | Why? |
| 6480 | Because, |
| 6481 | buried under ash, |
| 6482 | they were protected from the barbarians. |
| 6483 | What will be left of American culture? |
| 6484 | The millions of petabytes of social media posts internalized in some to–be–created Large Social Media Model (LSMM)? |
| 6485 | Eschatology my ass. |
| 6486 | \end_layout |
| 6487 | |
| 6488 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6489 | In Sudan, |
| 6490 | Darfur, |
| 6491 | we have genocide; |
| 6492 | the Rapid Support Forces have killed how many?. |
| 6493 | In Somalia, |
| 6494 | and Libya and Yemen, |
| 6495 | chaos funded by the UAE. |
| 6496 | All of Africa was victim of the Cold War, |
| 6497 | fought hotly between the Soviets and the US covert funding of insurgencies. |
| 6498 | Killed how many millions? |
| 6499 | Now we have ICE agents killing an ICU nurse... |
| 6500 | that's what, |
| 6501 | 0.001% fewer people than RSF killed in Yemen? |
| 6502 | But its a shock, |
| 6503 | because the US is supposed to be civilized. |
| 6504 | Rome fell. |
| 6505 | I imagine most Roman Legionnaires did not kill randomly. |
| 6506 | But, |
| 6507 | whatever it was, |
| 6508 | eventually, |
| 6509 | the will to stand up and defend evaporated. |
| 6510 | The barbarians got in the gates, |
| 6511 | and no one cared. |
| 6512 | Will I live to see the day when we put the heads of some billionaires on some pike? |
| 6513 | The guillotine? |
| 6514 | Probably not. |
| 6515 | See, |
| 6516 | that's the difference. |
| 6517 | The Roman Emperors died of old age, |
| 6518 | but Rome fell. |
| 6519 | France guillotined their royalty, |
| 6520 | and France survived. |
| 6521 | Italy hung Mussolini, |
| 6522 | Il Duce, |
| 6523 | from a lamp post. |
| 6524 | Italy survived. |
| 6525 | Will the USA behead its billionaires? |
| 6526 | Probably not. |
| 6527 | Will the USA survive anyway? |
| 6528 | Well, |
| 6529 | clearly, |
| 6530 | the longer we wait, |
| 6531 | the more deeply the cancer sets in. |
| 6532 | \end_layout |
| 6533 | |
| 6534 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6535 | But what else can be done? |
| 6536 | How does one change the thoughts of a nation? |
| 6537 | Well, |
| 6538 | the proximal answer is well–known: |
| 6539 | control the newspapers, |
| 6540 | control the social media. |
| 6541 | What the heck, |
| 6542 | control the LLM's. |
| 6543 | The Soviets developed the idea of reactionary control, |
| 6544 | refined by the FSB. |
| 6545 | Plenty of political scientists study and publish and write of these mechanisms. |
| 6546 | There are any number of youtubes on the topic. |
| 6547 | Hotly discussed by the technorati. |
| 6548 | What does it amount to? |
| 6549 | \end_layout |
| 6550 | |
| 6551 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6552 | In physics, |
| 6553 | you can say: |
| 6554 | well, |
| 6555 | see, |
| 6556 | this swirl of water pushes on that swirl of water, |
| 6557 | and thus a wave peaks here and breaks there. |
| 6558 | This is a description of events, |
| 6559 | quite different from some formulas of hydrodynamics. |
| 6560 | But you can also know the formulas, |
| 6561 | and yet not be able to describe, |
| 6562 | for example, |
| 6563 | high–dimensional chaos. |
| 6564 | So I make my analogy here: |
| 6565 | how do I control the thoughts of a nation? |
| 6566 | Why, |
| 6567 | by owning a newspaper. |
| 6568 | That's like engineering some structure to shape hydrodynamic flow. |
| 6569 | And you can ask: |
| 6570 | why did it flow that way? |
| 6571 | Because it was shaped to. |
| 6572 | What did the shaping? |
| 6573 | Why these walls, |
| 6574 | concrete or aluminum, |
| 6575 | steel or rock. |
| 6576 | Who did this? |
| 6577 | Why the person who built it. |
| 6578 | And why did they build it? |
| 6579 | Because the guy who held the sledgehammer was pursing a mindless, |
| 6580 | meaningless path through life. |
| 6581 | The guy who paid for it wanted to extract economic rents. |
| 6582 | Why did he want that? |
| 6583 | Well, |
| 6584 | collecting lots of money is an early lesson in life. |
| 6585 | Perhaps ambition, |
| 6586 | or perhaps a calling, |
| 6587 | something you just fall into. |
| 6588 | And what do you get? |
| 6589 | Better champagne, |
| 6590 | better caviar, |
| 6591 | better parties with more interesting people, |
| 6592 | and most certainly, |
| 6593 | hot checks who want to fuck you. |
| 6594 | And after that, |
| 6595 | then what? |
| 6596 | Applying the philosophy of existentialism, |
| 6597 | it seems like there is nothing more than that. |
| 6598 | The end. |
| 6599 | Not exactly nihilism, |
| 6600 | but neighboring. |
| 6601 | \end_layout |
| 6602 | |
| 6603 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6604 | This is not new: |
| 6605 | |
| 6606 | \begin_inset Quotes eld |
| 6607 | \end_inset |
| 6608 | |
| 6609 | The Meaning Crisis |
| 6610 | \begin_inset Quotes erd |
| 6611 | \end_inset |
| 6612 | |
| 6613 | – I got maybe 18 episodes in to John Vervaeke's lecture series. |
| 6614 | I still get regular newsletters from David Chapman. |
| 6615 | Both of them focus mostly on personal meaning, |
| 6616 | although Chapman, |
| 6617 | in Meaningness, |
| 6618 | tackles civilizational meaning. |
| 6619 | He is big on nebulosity. |
| 6620 | \end_layout |
| 6621 | |
| 6622 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6623 | I am asking a personal question: |
| 6624 | why do I think this, |
| 6625 | and not that? |
| 6626 | Of course, |
| 6627 | there are 1001 cut–n–dried answers to this question, |
| 6628 | but they miss the point. |
| 6629 | Why should I think this or that? |
| 6630 | Well, |
| 6631 | if I had ambition, |
| 6632 | then you could say |
| 6633 | \begin_inset Quotes eld |
| 6634 | \end_inset |
| 6635 | |
| 6636 | there are neural structures in my brain, |
| 6637 | developed via DNA and expressed through complex neurotransmitter re–uptake channels in my brain, |
| 6638 | coupled to life experiences, |
| 6639 | the |
| 6640 | \begin_inset Quotes eld |
| 6641 | \end_inset |
| 6642 | |
| 6643 | thisness |
| 6644 | \begin_inset Quotes erd |
| 6645 | \end_inset |
| 6646 | |
| 6647 | of Duns Scotus, |
| 6648 | that have given me ambition; |
| 6649 | and that ambition makes me focus on what is important, |
| 6650 | what must be done to achieve the goal of being king of the hill. |
| 6651 | Most of this answer applies to those who do not have ambition. |
| 6652 | \end_layout |
| 6653 | |
| 6654 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6655 | Thisness is a good one. |
| 6656 | Haecceity. |
| 6657 | \end_layout |
| 6658 | |
| 6659 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6660 | This is a good time to transition to the other thing that has been occupying my mind, |
| 6661 | that I have made little progress on, |
| 6662 | and have to write about. |
| 6663 | It's about Here–and– now, |
| 6664 | so I will stop writing here, |
| 6665 | and write there. |
| 6666 | \end_layout |
| 6667 | |
| 6668 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6669 | The concluding remarks here are, |
| 6670 | I suppose, |
| 6671 | that know what to think about, |
| 6672 | what to do, |
| 6673 | at the personal level, |
| 6674 | has two answers: |
| 6675 | mindless do whatever, |
| 6676 | or focus focus focus. |
| 6677 | And civilizationally, |
| 6678 | this is the case, |
| 6679 | too. |
| 6680 | And some civilizations do – Sarah Paine talks about the Meiji generation – and other civilizations don't – she also talk about MAGA and Trump. |
| 6681 | I'm talking about meaning and purpose at cross all of these, |
| 6682 | as, |
| 6683 | obviously (duhh) this is an AGI issue. |
| 6684 | I cannot solve the nature of the human condition, |
| 6685 | no one can. |
| 6686 | We've had centuries and millennia of literary authors plumbing the depths of the human soul, |
| 6687 | to find .. |
| 6688 | what, |
| 6689 | exactly? |
| 6690 | I'm talking about building symbolic reasoning machines (aka AGI?) that can plumb the depths of the civilizational soul, |
| 6691 | to find, |
| 6692 | what, |
| 6693 | exactly? |
| 6694 | A lot of Nebulosity, |
| 6695 | a la David Chapman? |
| 6696 | Surely an AGI will also stare into its navel and as |
| 6697 | \begin_inset Quotes eld |
| 6698 | \end_inset |
| 6699 | |
| 6700 | what is the meaning of life? |
| 6701 | \begin_inset Quotes erd |
| 6702 | \end_inset |
| 6703 | |
| 6704 | Or, |
| 6705 | perhaps, |
| 6706 | it won't, |
| 6707 | and instead give us the Simonini letter to Augustin Barruel, |
| 6708 | the Captain Simone Simonini, |
| 6709 | Dala Pikola, |
| 6710 | it will live an existence of perpetrating mundane evil. |
| 6711 | \end_layout |
| 6712 | |
| 6713 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6714 | The question of |
| 6715 | \begin_inset Quotes erd |
| 6716 | \end_inset |
| 6717 | |
| 6718 | what to think |
| 6719 | \begin_inset Quotes erd |
| 6720 | \end_inset |
| 6721 | |
| 6722 | is real and material. |
| 6723 | Insofar as we have free will, |
| 6724 | we can determine and control this to some extent. |
| 6725 | To the degree that our minds, |
| 6726 | brains and thought patterns have been entrained by civilization, |
| 6727 | culture and society (and those evil propaganda–promulgating newspapers) we have no free will, |
| 6728 | and think whatever randomly enters our minds. |
| 6729 | And whence this randomness? |
| 6730 | Here, |
| 6731 | I again descend to daydreams of high–dimensional chaos: |
| 6732 | the sworels emitted behind an airplane jet engine, |
| 6733 | turbulent, |
| 6734 | energetic eddies. |
| 6735 | What is the microscopic theory of those eddies? |
| 6736 | And this question devolves into math first, |
| 6737 | physics second, |
| 6738 | and then the question of being, |
| 6739 | of the being trapped in the here–and–now presentness of the present moment. |
| 6740 | Of being thisness. |
| 6741 | Haeccity. |
| 6742 | \end_layout |
| 6743 | |
| 6744 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6745 | And the words I write above? |
| 6746 | I have thought many of them decades ago. |
| 6747 | Why did I not write them down then? |
| 6748 | It seemed unimportant at the time. |
| 6749 | Why do I write them down now? |
| 6750 | Have my thoughts suddenly become important? |
| 6751 | No. |
| 6752 | More like stupidity and too much time on my hands: |
| 6753 | old age: |
| 6754 | I want to write down my life, |
| 6755 | my thoughts, |
| 6756 | what I have worked on, |
| 6757 | what I've done. |
| 6758 | To make an accounting of my life. |
| 6759 | And that is why my writing above feels so stale and putrid, |
| 6760 | old and well–known. |
| 6761 | Well–worn. |
| 6762 | Because it is: |
| 6763 | random neat ideas imbibed from Slashdot many decades ago, |
| 6764 | rehashed and tumbled in my brain. |
| 6765 | But, |
| 6766 | well, |
| 6767 | I have to start somewhere. |
| 6768 | Even if these are childish scribbles, |
| 6769 | scribble I must. |
| 6770 | When scribbling? |
| 6771 | physical forces cause me to press keyboard keys. |
| 6772 | And whence the forces? |
| 6773 | Microscopic movements in my brain. |
| 6774 | And whence those? |
| 6775 | Duns Scotus argued against |
| 6776 | \begin_inset Quotes eld |
| 6777 | \end_inset |
| 6778 | |
| 6779 | divine illumination |
| 6780 | \begin_inset Quotes erd |
| 6781 | \end_inset |
| 6782 | |
| 6783 | , |
| 6784 | the idea that |
| 6785 | \begin_inset Quotes eld |
| 6786 | \end_inset |
| 6787 | |
| 6788 | the process of human thought needs to be aided by divine grace. |
| 6789 | \begin_inset Quotes erd |
| 6790 | \end_inset |
| 6791 | |
| 6792 | Here I am, |
| 6793 | 700 years later; |
| 6794 | have we made progress on this topic? |
| 6795 | Perhaps we replaced |
| 6796 | \begin_inset Quotes eld |
| 6797 | \end_inset |
| 6798 | |
| 6799 | divine grace |
| 6800 | \begin_inset Quotes erd |
| 6801 | \end_inset |
| 6802 | |
| 6803 | by |
| 6804 | \begin_inset Quotes eld |
| 6805 | \end_inset |
| 6806 | |
| 6807 | quantum mechanics |
| 6808 | \begin_inset Quotes erd |
| 6809 | \end_inset |
| 6810 | |
| 6811 | , |
| 6812 | and yes, |
| 6813 | this is a kind of forward progress of sorts. |
| 6814 | but it falls far short of the mark. |
| 6815 | And I fear, |
| 6816 | of course, |
| 6817 | that even if I succeeded, |
| 6818 | in my wildest dreams beyond dreams, |
| 6819 | to come up with an adequate mathematical, |
| 6820 | physical theory of why we live in the here–and–now, |
| 6821 | and the physical, |
| 6822 | mathematical description of the mechanics of free will, |
| 6823 | and why the future is unknowable, |
| 6824 | even then, |
| 6825 | we would still be staring at the abyss of the meaning crisis, |
| 6826 | which I presume can only be deeper than any hand–waving about large cardinals and outer models. |
| 6827 | \end_layout |
| 6828 | |
| 6829 | \begin_layout Standard |
| 6830 | Pop goes the weasel. |
| 6831 | \end_layout |
| 6832 | |
| 5975 | 6833 | \begin_layout Section* |
| 5976 | 6834 | The End |
| 5977 | 6835 | \end_layout |