"You Don't Need Regulation to Stop Typing"

Yanno, I don't know what to think when it comes to artificial intelligence.

I do know I'd rather not see my students use it to write every assignment they turn in. But part of me also thinks AI could have some good uses.

Where we run into trouble is where human neuroses and, well, that little green monster (Pugsley) comes into play: Greed.

So I love what YouTuber Patrick Boyle says in this video after he first explains how AI brought a bit too much ersatz human emotion into the mix and decided it needed to cheat before it was found to be "poisoned" and be shut down or whatever.

First, the video:

After this debacle, it seems the heads of three major US AI players have asked for government regulation. But Boyle points out a few things I thought were interesting:

"An agreement between the dominant firms in an industry to limit output and hold back competition already has a name: It's a cartel. And anti-trust law exists specifically to stop cartels, because restricting output happens to be the perfect way to protect the profits of the market leaders and pull the ladder up after them."

So sure. Regulation *could* be used as a curtailment. Or as a curtailment against any competition as these big companies figure out in a continued safe space how to be profitable outside of accounting tricks.

Just an interesting thought as AI companies seek "regulation" before AI does something worse that what's discussed in this video when, as Boyle says, "You don't need regulation to stop typing."

Also important:

The cynic in me has alarm bells going off.

Things That are Fun

1. Threads links showing up in Facebook that are unreadable in full unless I download another app. Which I am not going to do.

2. People who insist the oddities you're pointing out in their work weren't there when they sent it to you, but you confirm after the fact that yes, indeed, the oddities were there from the start.

3. Finding oddities in your own work.

4. Seasonal depression.

5. That dream I had Wednesday night that I will not describe further except to mention it started with me soiling my trousers.*

6. Finally getting a few nights where I had confirmed REM sleep.

7. Watching two of my children deal with identity theft. Thanks, JC Penney information technology folks.

*I kept pooping and pooping and pooping and had NO WAY of disposing of any of it. I tried to hide some of it in my coat and used some handfuls of it to repel the curious but eventually found a tall building I could poop from onto the populace below. The dream disturbed me so much I woke up to confirm a) I had not indeed pooped my pants, and b) The dogs had not pooped the bed.

Maybe Take Your Own Advice

 

So I finished reading Ben Carson's "Take the Risk," and I echo my previous comment that the book is strange.

He really does gloss over the value that assets and connections have in taking risks. Especially in the latter half of the book as he discusses his ideas of risk analysis (which I think is valuable, so the book isn't a total waste) I don't get the feeling that he considers the assets and connections he has in making his risk analysis a lot easier to answer than those of the unwashed masses in similar situations.

In part of the book he discusses the idea of taking one's self out of the middle of risk analysis to help some decisions be more rational. That's something he certainly needed to do more of as he wrote this book. Taking himself out and bringing in more real-life examples from people less advantaged as him might make his risk analysis look a lot different to him.

Anyway, this is a good book on the general concept of risk-taking and risk analysis, but it's got enough flaws I don't think I can really recommend it.

Google Can't Index! On No!

Google seems very, very concerned that some of the pages on this blog aren't being indexed.

So concerned they sent me an email with a link to all sorts of interesting and colorful charts that do a lot to show me how bad the indexing crisis is at my blog, and what may be causing the crisis.

One thing they fail in telling me: Why this is bad.

Oh, maybe it's there somewhere. I don't care enough to keep poking around in the charts and explanations to find out why it's bad.

Thing is, this blog is mostly a journal of things that happen to me, or things that I think, or things that I think happened to me. I don't really care if the indexing isn't being done correctly, and I certainly can't be bothered to find out why the indexing isn't happening or what their explanations of why it isn't happening are telling me about my blog.

Because, you know, they haven't told me why I should worry.

This is the Dacia Sandero of problems.

Take the Risk -- with Advantages?

I'm trying to read Ben Carson's "Take the Risk," and it's a bit strange.

While I appreciate his discussion of risk and how we should evaluate the risks we consider taking in life, I can't help but feel he's glossing over something else that plays in favor of risk-taking: Assets definitely make a difference.

Maybe he touches on this later in the book. But it's clear, for example, that his mother took risks in making decisions to raise her boys properly, she had advantages that other people in similar situations might not have had. When she needed family to step up to help with her boys, they were there. When he needed self-awareness, he had it. When he needed mentors, they were there. Yes, the risk still had to be weighed, but there was certainly more of a safety net in many of the cases he cites than others might have had.

As I mentioned, I'll keep reading. I hope he discusses these assets and advantages as part of the whole, because someone without those assets would look at the same risks differently.

13 September 2026

 13 September 2026

Hello Isaac,

Just to get you up to date: The Red Herring keeps sinking into a deeper hole.

We got it back from Kevin last week with instructions to get a wheel alignment done so he could continue working on it. Seemed sensible enough. Having the wheels aligned would help him know what parts were questionable.

I took it to Bybee’s Wheel Alignment on Friday, and they reported that the rear upper control arms were so worn out it wouldn’t hold an alignment. So I drove it straight back out to Kevin’s. He hadn’t mentioned the rear upper control arms in his list of items that needed fixing. When Mom talked to him later, he sheepishly admitted he was concerned enough with the front that he hadn’t even looked at the rear components. So he’ll get all of that stuff fixed and back to us, hopefully by the end of the week. We’ll see how much that is going to cost us, but it still seems worthwhile to fix it all, rather than try to replace the car with something that would have other problems that need fixing.

I did find a nifty Nash Metropolitan on Facebook Marketplace for only $12,000, though:

The photo pretty much shows the car as actual size. I imagine it would be a lot of fun to try to fold myself into this thing every morning, but wouldn’t it be a lot of fun to drive around until you had to repair it and can’t get the parts anymore. That’s the kind of car you have to buy two or three of so you have one that’s working and two others you can cannibalize for parts.

Mom taught her first Sunday School lesson today on the short schedule, and ended right on the dot, prayer included. She was pretty happy about that. I get to try to do the same thing next, week, but with the first 12 chapters of Isaiah. We both think we should just spend the next few weeks sharing highlights from Handels’ Messiah which, of course, uses Isaiah as inspiration. I’ll have to remember that as I prepare my first short lesson. Handel saw a lot of inspiration in Isaiah, so I should try to do the same.

We hope you and Elder Pixton are getting along and working hard. I remember my trainer, Elder Smith. He worked me like a dog. I remember we got a challenge from our mission president that we should just keep contacting and contacting and contacting until we could give away one Book of Mormon (France was a challenging place to be a missionary). As I recall, we worked hard for more than a month, skipping lunches and working as early and as late as we could, before we gave away one book. I remember being pretty dog tired and a little discouraged during that time, but I also look back on it as probably the most productive time I spent on my mission. We tried that trick with later companionships, and though we never really saw much “success,” we did plant a lot of seeds. I hope someday to find out one of the seeds I planted helped a missionary further down the line see the kind of success we were hoping for.

If, for some reason, you’re missing home, I’ll fill you in on the excitement so Arizona seems a lot better by comparison. This weekend, I accomplished five things:

1. Fixed the step in the garage. The particle board was starting to cave in, to the point even your sister noticed it when she stepped on it. I replaced it with some redwood I had left over from the back porch project.

2. Drained the fresh water from the camper. Now it won’t freeze come winter.

3. Stripped, sanded, and repainted the trim around the back door.

4. Took some junk to the dump.

5. Got a haircut.

I know. I am a wild and crazy man.

We look forward to hearing from you, and hearing your missionary stories.

We love you.

Love, Dad

A Constellation of Honey-Dos

This weekend, five items fell off the list:

1. Repair step in the garage.

This is the after picture. I always forget the before. But this step had a 40-year-old bit of particle board as a tread, and for the past few weeks it's been caving in. Finally replaced it when our daughter, a small person, said she was afeared it was going to collapse under her nonexistent weight.

So I fixed it, but not necessarily how I wanted to. Two of the boards are redwood, while the third is pressure treated lumber. I wanted to use wood I had rather than buying any more. So I had to do it this way. I may eventually replace the pressure treated lumber later, but not now.

2. Hazardous waste, gone.

Not that we had a lot, but it is nice to have that Body Armor bottle with about an ounce of bad gas in it off my shelf, along with an AC recharge bottle and a massive lithium battery from the camper.

3. Back door trim stripped and repainted.

Again, no before picture. But now the trim has two coats of primer, ready for the finish coat. I also replaced the threshold between the stairs and the house. That needs to be stained.

4. Camper fresh water drained 

A simple task, but one that does take time as the tank was nearly full and took a long time to drain.

5. Haircut.

Which I had not have done since May. So very needed. I had to go to a barber since I couldn't talk Liam into shaving my head. Would have been cheaper and lasted longer. Alas . . .

Remember September 12th

Remember September . . . 12th.

I remember people helping people.

I remember friends checking on friends, family checking on family.

I remember messages of hope and courage and resolve from politicians and pundits and ordinary people.

I remember people putting differences aside to unite in  prayer to whatever deity they deemed appropriate.

The messages didn't ring hollow. They were not filled with backhanded snipes, exclusionary talk, me-better-than-youing.

September 12, 2001, was much closer to tragedy.

Today, we are much closer to the ugliness that causes tragedy.

A Definite Weirdity

 

So a day or two ago, blogging along as I do, I was unable to upload photos to a post.

I eventually figured out a workaround -- I had to upload the photo into Google Photos in order for it to appear. I couldn't load it directly from my desktop.

That got me to thinking that since both Google Photos and this blogging platform are Google products, that they were forcing us to us Google Photos for photo uploads.

That theory was shattered today as I posted this and uploaded this photo directly from my desktop. But maybe it's already in Google Photos.

I just know there are strange happenings at the Circle K.

Nichification Proceeds Apace

I recently joined, and then left, a Facebook group touting the Scholastic books I used to read and enjoy and occasionally buy in elementary school.

Those of the Gen X vintage likely remember this -- getting a book pamphlet; some called it a catalog but that's a bit grandiose -- and trying mightily to convince your parents to part with a few bucks to buy some books. I recall buying a few. I still have at least this one:

Seeing some of the covers of books I read as a kid, remembering I have some of them on my shelf, and seeing a few I remembered passing over time and again was fun.

But the group was, well, a bit anal.

If someone posted a vintage book but it wasn't of a specific Scholastic era, the posts were removed. Someone made a post about Newberry Award winning books, and it was taken down as it was only distantly-related to the specific Scholastic books the page was dedicated to.

There were some fun discussions. A lot of potential to discuss books we enjoyed. But it all came with a rind of prissiness.

I guess I can see the reasoning -- open up too much discussion, not limited to these specific Scholastic books, and you'd lose the flavor of that specific niche. Maybe you'd have a fun page that a lot more people would like to visit and share and enjoy, but the message would be muddled, and in this day and age we can't have that, apparently.

So I left them to their niche. I can babble about books on my own. But it's a shame to see that political balkanization get into books, no matter the reason.