Dee W Hock

Moral: Look at a non-capitalist banker. 

Just ran into this guy's work. Will tell the tale of that odyssey at some point.

This is a quote by him on X (formerly, twitville).

   On Universities 

He started Visa and was an inspiration for crypto and blockchain.

So, we’ll see what this is about. Dee died in 2022. 

Review by The Practical Polymath. 

Remarks: Modified: 03/21/2024

03/21/2024 -- There is a video of him talking to a colleague. Dee says that his net worth is only $2 million or so. What this a remorseful lookback? Too, later, after Dee retired, Visa went and made themselves a stock company. What was Dee's reaction to that? ... You know, we're on the wagon for the truly sustainable economy in which the billionaires and their type are constrained and hugely so. Fools' gold? Nope. Fairness and justice will rise into a mature balance. 

New Year, 2024

Moral: Another year. Lots to do. 

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Notice our decline in activity here when we move to Quora (2015). 

Here is a list of posts. 

We will be active in 2024.  

Remarks: Modified: 01/01/2024

01/01/2024 -- 

Alchemy lives

Moral: Machine learning's recent splash brings Herbert L. Dreyfus back to the conversation. Let's look at that. 

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I first heard of Dreyfus while listening to a discussion about artificial intelligence and databases at a conference that was sponsored by the "very large-database" group. The meeting was in the 1980s and was held at Kyoto, Japan. The reactions were varied, but one could see the positions being taken. He didn't seem to have many friends there defending him. 

Okay, leap forward. Looking further, I agreed with the guy. However, at the time, my focus was on implementation of algorithms for knowledge based systems (and, later, knowledge based engineering modes) that were highly effective in providing solutons that mattered. Needless to say, subsequent work involved a broader scope for computing that suggested its potential. 

Ubiquity? The concept was not unknown. However, the release of IP changed the whole tone. That was in the mid-1990s. Since then, we have had several cycles of boom and bust. The first one? Go look up the tech bust of 1999/2000 to read about one. 

There were others before and after 2000. A couple of the ones before related to artificial intelligence. This post provides a brief summary of Dreyfus's involvement in the discussions. 

•  Alchemy and AI  

Now, the theme of this post. Here is a little blurb from Bard (Google's xNN/LLM)  with respect to Dreyfus's importance.  

• Business is often seen as a way to make money, and in some cases, this can lead to people trying to get something for nothing. For example, some businesses may engage in deceptive or fraudulent practices in order to make a profit.

Oh, was this prompted? Sure. The idea was to tell it that the ca-pital-sino (coined in this blog in a post on Tuesday, 26 Jan 2010 - Shell games) deals specifically with this issue. 

Remarks: Modified: 08/23/2023

08/23/2023 -- 

What comes around

Moral: Wherein we declare that our doors, once again, are open for business. 

Two major incidents happened. There were more. These are sufficient. 

• ChatGPT - ah, what idiocy. We'll weigh in, deeply. One theme will be Silly Valley and its dumb experimenting on us, who are we, the poor little folks. Wise up, guys and gals. 

• 

  Ben and
  the taper

  Fed grew some cojones and we're back to 18 Sep 2007. Oh gosh, we have two other blogs on the idiocy that took place the past decades and one-half. 

This will be fun. For now, a link to the Forbes History of the rate. 

You know, it's been tedious watching this stuff from afar. And, feeling the impacts of wrong decisions even from a distance. Talk about entanglement? Ah, yes, kept the faith. Now, look for the old posts to be resurrected and updated. 

Remarks: Modified: 03/26/2023

03/23/2023 -- Added an image from this post: Ben and the taper (from 2013). He threatened to taper. The addicts to the ca-pital-sino rebelled. Back and forth. Did he taper? Nope. Several times. Until Janet came to be, there was no challenge to addicts. You hear them, even now. 

03/26/2023 -- The Tablet Magazine has a good article: How the Bank Collapse Goes Nuclear. 

2009 until now

 Moral: Wherein we do a quick recap. 

This blog started in order in 2009 which was about when the last recession was over. The topic tells it all; we watched the Fed's reaction to the downturn. And, were posting in the 7'oops7 and Truth Engineering blogs. But, that was extraneous to those two topics. We needed something financial. 

Two motivations? One deals with MIT and their clever development of the concept of financial engineering. I ask them, engineers mostly. What science is behind this bit of shenanigans? Okay, 2009, that was the timeframe. Now, messes. Even the supposed financial bots are supposed to be smarter than MIT folks (well, perhaps we ought to start there; they never had claim to all of intelligence). Now, another motivation (there are several more, btw)? As the financial stuff unraveled, the Fed seemed to react in an old mode and then just capitulated to those who push the ca-pital-sino. Oh yes. As I said, in 2009, it'll be worse the next time. We have not seen this yet, but people who consider these matters worry.   

In the meantime, follow discussion at Quora. It has been at Quora where most of our attention has been given and most of our energies spent since 2015

Remarks: Modified: 03/23/2023

12/30/2022 --

Grand Challenge

 Moral: Wherein we explore a Grand Challenge. 

This is cursory as we have just become aware of a video that provides an important viewpoint. See the "Grand Challenge" post at the TruthEngineering blog for details and for further work on the subject. 

FutureLaw presentation
Stanford Law School 

Remarks: Modified: 12/31/2021

12/31/2021 --

AIn't

Moral: Wherein we note what could be our logo and some of its implications. 

AIn't? Means what? 

Notice, AI is bold. Usual meaning. Though, there are many; of late, something called DL ('deep' learning) has taken hold on the imagination. Ain't? Grammar police baiting? 

This post is a reminder of important topics to be discussed in the future. 

Now future? Let's say, the one being touted by Peter Schiff (Dr. Doom) who has been even more vocal of late about the policies to ruin. I only listened to a minute's worth. 

Has anyone noted that people yak, others listen (or pretend to)? Have you sat through a video of a mathematical proof? Sure, some semblance. 

The point is that reading/writing is how deep (the real sense, not the wannabe of DL) knowledge gets conveyed across generations. 

Now, deep? The whole phenomenal events related to grokking is an example. People pursue this by several means, one of which is finding a guru. 

Why mention this? Not only do we have a false AI, robotics is becoming seen as an economic savior. You realize that some of the AI folks bragged about the fake faces being generated by their systems, none of which have any link to something real? 

Robotics? The past year plus, many more companies have sought to use these. Mostly, they do some task that can be harmful for humans (Bezos types of actions). But, call a company. Chances are that you deal with a bot of some sort.   

It's irritating for many reasons. Some companies have made it impossible to talk a person. And, chat? Bots, to boot.

Back to Peter. We're getting back into a regular posting mode. After all, this blog came from one that started in 2007 for reasons of writing of business silliness, some of it was motivated by stupidity while there were other things that are more malfeasance in nature. 

So, AI can be used as a metaphor. It really is a type of 'umbrella' notion. Whereas in reality? We are talking advanced mathematics abetted by computing. And, there we can be more scientifically oriented than has been tried in the past. 

Remarks: Modified: 11/13/2021

11/13/2021 --