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.