For R&D Using Machine Learning Now is the Time

There are areas of knowledge that are of great interest to me.  And of course, there are similar or different areas of interest to other people.  I really could not care much about basketball, or soccer/football, but there are many people in this world who care passionately about them.  It turns out that in the history of these topics, there are periods when people are able to make progress in understanding and other periods of time that are less productive.  Whether that matters to you is for the most part a matter of personal taste. 

There are many examples of this in the history of culture.  One of my favorites is in the world of astronomy.  It turns out that the history of astronomical thought is tightly bound to the invention of instruments.  So, for example, when a clever grinder of glass for spectacles, or eyeglasses, put some of his work together and invented the telescope, a whole category of astronomy was discovered and advanced.  Soon after Hans Lippershey did this, others could look at bright lights in the sky and realize that those lights were not points, but disks, and that they had other, smaller points that seemed to move around them.  Today every time a new telescope is invented, or a planetary probe lands on a distant object and sends back data, there is a burst of activity in that field. What fun!  And how exciting it is to attach your name to this new knowledge. This is not to say that timing is *everything*, of course not.  Connections and money are also essential.

Therefore, you must act fast because these periods of time are short and time is fleeting.  So if you care and you want to be a part of it, then you have to act, or forever hold your peace.

But shame on those of us who do not have the money and connections because we may see the opportunity but not be able to do anything about it.  Too bad, Chucko, history seems to say.  You lose.

And now,  AI or as we might call it, machine learning has opened up a hundred doors, or a thousand doors, all at once.  And everyone is running through those doors and if you dont, well too bad, there is still work to do but it wont be as easy and may not be possible.

This explains why in part I am so frantic and desperate.  I see the opportunities, or some of them, but I cant act on them because I am a bad person.  Because I am poor in America.

After Listening to What They Say

OK I am just very negative.

There is no point in having a constitution if one is not willing to fight for it.

The Good News About US Science

According to a friend of mine who is a full professor of Computer Science, other countries see the destruction of the NSF and the authoritarian takeover of the US as a once in a lifetime opportunity permanently improve the science in their countries at the expense of the USA.  Therefore every professor of serious science is supposedly being offered impossible-to-refuse opportunities at world class universities in other countries.  Of course this also includes financing for their graduate students and research associates as well.

Those few of you who know the history of the Cold War might recognize this as the Brain Drain in reverse.  

With luck, this will have a permanent effect on American science, or at least a generational effect.

An Interesting Discussion with a Trump Supporter

I enjoyed my conversation at a stoplight with a Trump supporter (30 something, male) in his truck flying a big trump banner.  What I concluded was that as long as people live in a fox news bubble, it will never be possible to change their mind.  This self-inflicted problem can not be fixed, and therefore I want out.

Special Thanks to my Fellow Americans

Exactly as predicted, Trump and friends are attempting to destroy American democracy and doing a good job of it.  Apparently all that self-serving rot about checks & balances was all "just kidding". In the history of the world, short of a major war, there has rarely been a national decline so precipitous and self-inflicted.  

We can be proud of failing better than anyone else.  But I want to acknowledge that we could not have done it without the willful cooperation of my fellow Americans, the little people, who voted that idiot into office.  They could not be bothered to vote for a qualified woman of color if it saved their life and their country, which it very well might have.

The Hitler analogies just keep on coming.  My favorite is that after WW2 many Germans said that they had no idea that Hitler "would do that", you know, murder the Jews and invade Russia and so forth. But the problem with that argument is that had they bothered to read the first 30 pages or so of Mein Kampf, then they would have known what Hitler was planning to do because he talked about it.  So it is with our Moron King, Trump and the Republicans were completely clear that they planned to destroy voting rights, betray our allies, destroy the world order created after WW2,  destroy the admittedly corrupt economy,  condemn millions of people to death and disease, oppress women, and turn America into a white theocracy.  You would either have to be stupid not to have known this or, alternatively, wanted it because you thought it was neat.

I doubt many MAGA swine will read this blog, but in the case that they might, they should know that winning a tiny share of the popular vote is not the same as a mandate and furthermore, even if it was, the President took an oath of office and is expected to obey the law and support the constitution.  Read those words again, idiots, you know, "obey the law" and so forth.  Read it until you get it.

Even if we are able to depose this malignant narcissist and put him in jail where he belongs, and elect a legitimate government, America will have been diminished thanks to you wankers.  

Good job!