Nobel, Chemistry, 1901

TL;DR -- Significant to us were the Prizes for Physics, Chemistry and Medicine. In this post, we point to the 1901 award. As such, that is a good start with van der Walls and Hoff for physics and chemistry. 

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We mentioned the 2024 Nobel Prizes earlier with more references to the Physics award which dealt with  machine learning. At the time, we emphasized the importance of the one for chemistry and for medicine. 

This post looks at the 1901 prize. It can be categoried as dealing with theoretical chemistry. After studying the advance of science and pondering what might bridge the gaps that are currently found in knowledge as we see observe the problems of technology, we settled upon theoretical chemistry as a central theme. Looking at the first Nobel prize in Chemistry is a good place to start. 

Nobel, Chemistry, 1901

In Physics, van del Waals was the first Awardee for his work in thermodynmics but focused on his PhD thesis from 1873. Contemporary with van der Walls in doing the early work in thermodynamics was Josian Willard Gibbs who was an American and who we wrote of as a descendant of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Fryer through their son George. 

In Chemistry, Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff (Wikipedia) was the first Awardee for his work in the "the discovery of the laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions" and demonstrated the importance of physical chemistry. 

Tying back to the 2024 Prizes, we see that the mathematical aspects of physics and its kin has advanced tremendously with an acceleration that accompanied the growth, recently, of computing prowess. Both the physics and chemistry prizes acknowleged advanced computing which applied knowledge brought forth by studies in mathematical physics. 

Another topic that will be constantly at hand is the Philosophy of Physics. Wikipedia provides a good overview, except the material is rated as "original research" as an indication of value, improperly source information, and perhaps even viewpoint. There is also an article on the Philosophy of Chemistry (Wikipedia) which does not have the problem. They quote Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling as their first philosopher. One interesting twist? Is it thing or action that is important? That issue resonates to this day. A resolution was to accept both and make the situation the focus. 

BTW, philosophy of science is important by default, almost, to the upcoming discussions. 

Note: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Chemistry; Modeling and Chemical explanation).  

Remarks: Modified: 12/20/2024

12/20/2024 --

Battles of Lexington/Concord, MA

TL;DR -- This post has a 250th theme. Our work of fourteen years has generated a lot of data. With this anniversary, we will go back and connect with that done over 100 years ago. 

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The title refers to the conflict in Massachusetts in April of 1775 between the military forces of England and the militas of New England. One might say that the 250th of the U.S. celebration can use that as a starting point. England's troops were pushed to Boston. And, later were allowed to leave that area, too. 

Now, in a real sense, the 250th started before. There were meetings several years in advance. We will name names as we look at the historical/genealogical aspects. Some events were well known: the Boston Tea Party. 

Where could the English troops go? North to Canada, for one thing. BTW, "troops" would include several types of military resources that the old country had. The whole of the time of the Revolutionary War has been researched and written about by historians. Our interest goes further as we have the genealogical and family historical aspect to cover, too. 

For instance, one of our tabs is "TMM" (The Massachusetts Magazine) which was an effort of a Thomas Gardner descendant. As an MD, he was a medical officer with a group in Salem MA; but, he did a lot of research which was done during the time of the late 1800s and early 1900s. We honor his work and will continue referring to it. 

On looking at the first issue of the TMM in 1908, we counted the number of refernces to Lexington. Every Issue (Quarterly) had an article on a military group (Regimental History Series, background and motivation) that had been at the Boston Siege. Most of these were at the earlier event, as well. 

• See TMM tab and look at TMM, Vol I, 1907 provided by archive[.]org. Each Volume had four Issues. 

So, over 100 years later, in 2025+, we can continue the research with lots more facilities available. For one, the computer is now quite capable. We have more sources that are digitized (offical records; eye witness accounts; &c). In terms of personal experience, pensions were offered. Much of the data consists of application data. 

Regimental History Series, background and motivation

In terms of interest, the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. has a mission related to honoring the start of Massachusetts, particularly after the establishment of the Plymouth colony. That is a 400-year view about which we have spent time and effort doing our own research. Now, we have the 250th arrive related to the Revolution and the start of the U.S.

At the same time, we have added Technology as a special interest. In particular, computational systems in all of their aspects will be the focus especially with respect to knowledge systems dealing with particulars from the specifics of mathematics up through the 12-floors of science using physics as an example, such as Gibbs and thermodynamics. 

Remarks: Modified: 12/18/2024

12/18/2024 --  Put in a link to the Gibb's post. 

Josiah Willard Gibbs

TL;DR -- Josiah is a descendant and a well-known contributor to the development of a major theory in physics: thermodynamics. We will look at both his work and his pedigree. 

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In our studies related to the Science of Technology, we will be running into many names. Some will not be American (such as Noether). Some will be American, and, of those, we will look for New England associations. The series on the Harvard Presidents is an example. We started this when we ran into a New Yorker article on James Bryant Conant. That got us to looking at all of the Presidents. 

Recall, one motivator for this work related to technology is machine learning (ML) masquerading as artificial intelligence (AI). But, in general, we want to follow the evolution of STEM along with the advance of the U.S. whose 250th is coming up. 

The Nobel prizes this year were a motivator,as well, with the focus on computation: Physics (neural nets); Chemistry (protein folding); Medicine (microRNA).  

Now, back to New Englanders, some will be descendants of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Fryer. We ran into one this week. Josiah Willard Gibbs (Wikipedia; WikiTree). How did we get to him? In our technology studies, we are looking at the foundations of science. In that regard, thermodynamics is important. There are many other types of dynamics. Right now, we are considering those related to science and engineering but will broaden the scope as we go along. 

A well-known treatise on the subject was written by Max Planck (archive.org). Planck references several prior researchers, such as van der Waals. But, Gibbs is a frequent reference. On looking further, we found his association with James Clerk Maxwell (well-known contributor to mathemattican physics) and one of his detailed books on entropy that published his experimental work: On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances. We will use this work to leverage several discussions about knowledge and machine learning. 

So, Josiah will feature in future posts. He is a descendant of Thomas and Margaret via their son George. He is mentioned in later edition of Dr. Frank's book (1933: pg 63). 

Postnote: It is fortunate for us that we can use a Thomas descendant to scrutinize machine learning along several frameworks in our technology research. As such, this focus will cover both the U.S. and European contributions, indexed according to the times of the Nobel prizes with Planck's efforts as central to the discussion. 

Remarks: Modified: 12/14/2024

12/14/2024 --  

Science of technology

TL;DR --  We will be more technical and explicit about such in 2025. Our slogan: Unsafe at any locale or use. What? Yes, AI. 

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Note: this is cursory and will be edited over the next few days.

As 2024 winds down, we are closing out some activity while preparing to continue our work in 2025 and beyond. We have several irons in the fire and stop to look at two in this post. 

• The 250th is closer but has been approaching with notable reflections for a while. Lexington/Concord will come into view in April of 2025. At some point, Bunker Hill will be the focus. We have been researching an area of Los Angeles, CA that was named Bunker Hill West. 
• Gibbs of New England was a serious thermodynamics researcher. He worked with Maxwell. Our emphasis, in part, is technology. So, let's look at science's role. 

.Gibbs and Maxwell  

Maxwell's 3D model (scuplted by hand) of Gibbs' thermodynamics equations in action. ... 

As many have said, AI is not safe. We can think back to the time of Nader and his look at the Corvair. That was a case of design trumping engineering. We have seen that over the decades of progress. The past two decades of computing (as driven by the west coast) can be seen in this light. 

Gibbs and Maxwell were way before computing came on the seen so their work is of interest to an approsch that looks at human abilities. This is to lay out some basis to establish a means of comparison. 

Oh yes, statistical mayhem? That is part of the problem. 

Also pedagogy will get a look or two. Education seems to forget that science is provisional. Gibbs is a perfect example as he laboriously wrote 600+ pages of calculations which were related to numeric review of ideas that were about measurable processes and results. As opposed to? Russell and Whitehead's long and drawn out look at logic which they stopped. 

Basically, if we looked at the guts ot AI, we would see millions and upon millions of lines of code. Perhaps, we ought to use billions (there isn't an exasy way to establish this - but, it will be important in the future with the obvious waste of the AI approach of untethered machine learning. 

Back to human learning which is culture. Look at the photo from a 1946 cover of a Fortune magazine issue: Maxwell and Gibbs.  

Remarks: Modified: 12/14/2024

12/14/2024 -- 

Nobel, Physics, 1901

TL;DR -- Let's spend some time using the Nobel prize to track the history of advances in science. After all, people do the science. And, some factors related to people come out of genealogical and historical (cultural) studies. 

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We have paid more attention to the Nobel prizes this year than ever before. This might become a habit since the 2024 prizes referenced, indirectly, the bugaboo of the modern world, AIn't. The Physics Prize was for machine learning; the Chemistry Prize was for protein modeling. In looking at the Nobel material, it seemed obvious that the material presented about the work of het honoree was remarkable. We can follow the prize over the year to obtain material for analysis.  

As an aside, we mentioned a Balch descendant who was a Peace Prize honoree: Emily Greene Balch. But, we need to get more particular. 

Looking at Physics, first, the inception of the prize was in 1901: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen. Here is the link to the Award Ceremony Speech. There are many years to cover. 

With the 2024 Prizes for Physics and Chemistry dealing with computational approaches which is our technology interest, we have a natural categorical framework with which to start. We will not do a linear search but will follow some interesting parallels. For instance, the 1918 Prize for Physics went to Planck for his work in quantum mechanics. Who we have referenced him in several place. In 1922, Einstein got the award for his work with blackbody radiation in 1905. Einstein presented his relativity theory in the meantime; the committee felt that there was not enough proof for an award. We'll go more into that later. 

This thematic bit of research will cover a lot of ground. Well, with respect to machine learning, we are talking the sum total of knowledge that can be handled using computational means. 

Switching to the Chemistry Prize, we thought to look at how many awards dealt with the computational in Chemistry. We expect this in Physics. Wiley published an essay that lists prizes, both Physics and Chemistry, that will be of interest to us: The Nobel history of computational chemistry. A personal perspective. 

We looked an early Chemistry prize, 1910, which was for an 1893 thesis: Nobel Week. The theme was remarkable for several reasons, one of which is the history of science as it is unfolded through human effort.Johannes Diderik van der Waals (Wikipedia) showed that elements are molecularly the same as they go through phases. We will get more into that topic as we go along. 

A final note provides a summary by Gemini of Google via Chrome. After all, the Nobel committee opened this door; we ought (actually, must) to use it. 

Courtesy, Gemini of
Google via
Chrome

Remarks: Modified: 12/07/2024

12/07/2024 -- 

Deadly consequences

TL;DR -- Metaphor? That's about all that we can do more. How to change the situation? 

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We got used to the blue screen of death. It represented billions and billions of costs that were never recovered. And, that mode became the norm. Unfortunately. 

It's a new day. With AIn't and GenAI, we now have real death lurking (hence, the title). Oh? Is that right? You bet. We would not have to take you far to show you this and try to discuss with you how it came to be. 

Try? Yes, lots of information is cloaked. We can only surmise or try to reserve engineer which might actually be considered illegal in some situations. 

It's mess, folks. We at the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. say, wait. Stop (like William F. Buckley argued somewhat tongue in cheek). And consider. John knows how to do this. 

So, a metaphor. This photo represent, supposedly, some bit of American life. North Dakota. Here is the photo. As said, it was unknown in provenance but appeared on Meta/Facebook. 

GenAI depiction

This is John's response on LinkedIn which points to the FB post (which might disappear which is why we captured the image). Too, there is a comment taken from the FB post. 

There's work to be done. Let's use 2025 to get it started. 

Remarks: Modified: 12/14/2024

12/14/2024 -- We will be back to work, on a regular basis. 

Review, restart

TL;DR -- The past two years has seen some tremendous changes. Some of this was predicted. Much was not. So, 2025 will be a review year as we settle into the grove after fifteen years. 

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A recently read post provided an interchange with ChatGPT in early February of 2023. The realization of OpenAI's release was late, as that event was in November of 2022. 

Now, one month later, there was a post about recent findings of documents that gave more information about the early years. There were several posts, such as this one: Square One? Well, in our view, this is not the case; rather, there is more research to be done: Current status. 

Also, we started an OpEd category with which to mark post since 2010 that dealt with events which turned out to have less strong support than thought. So, this all has to be ironed out. 

This year, 2024, has been heavy into research but along several lines which has kept us busy. But, TGS, Inc. will have priority in the future since it will provide the framework for handling discussions about technology and the science behind such. 

See the Nobel posts, for an example. 

Remarks: Modified: 12/14/2024

12/14/2024 -- We will be back to work, on a regular basis. 

Nobel Week

TL;DR -- Nobel week looms. Their website will be a proper fount of knowledge about human culture through time in a technical sense. 

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The Nobel week is coming. This year, the prizes bring attention to new types of modeling: Nobel, Medicine, 2024. 

Their post today, on a 1910 Prize for the 1873 doctoral thesis of Johannes Diderik van der Waals (Wikipedia), shows how far we have come in 120 years and how we can use the Prizes to track progress which will become more important as we establish a basis for computational decisioning. 

We will continue the historical look under our technology theme.

Remarks: Modified: 12/14/2024

12/07/2024 -- Changed "edit" link to the Nobel website. 

12/14/2024 -- van der Waals was instrumental in going from the past to now; this was done by diving into the work of Gibbs of New England. 

Nobel, Medicine, 2024

TL;DR -- This is the third of three gifts from the Nobel Committee. Starting with the math of machine learning and then with the chemistry work with proteins, there were heady responses with respect to the applicability of the technological insights. Ah, but wait. The Medicine prize brings us back to complexity and the reality of such. Now, one topic that will be continually on the table is this: has computing been a boon or a bane? 

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This is the third post on the 2024 Nobel. The earlier two were: Physics; Chemistry. 

This post looks at the Prize for Medicine which reports on increased insights into cell regulation. 

These three can be thought of as gifts. Let's use them correctly. All things that can come from this will be discussed and utilized over the next few years. 

1. Physics - ANN and mathematical physics. I might say AIn't, but it is to the hype and misunderstanding (managers, something from nothing? - perpetual motion - need you a reminder?). Nope, the solution to the issues is right before us. It's that thing between the ears which has been allowed to go astray as it deals with complex things (yes, Mathematics - let's discuss). 

2. Chemistry - We see the hubristic side of Google (unfortunately so) tamed plus acknowledgement of lab work which is far from application (with respect to several proposed notions). At the same time, we see feedback into the thing mentioned in 1) with respect to interpretations (which is human and very much on display in the current mess) and changes that can come when empiricism works (busyness? your money focus is deleterious). 

3. Medicine - Back to reality. We now see that genetics is not under our thumb (note prizes the past few years). Insights to be gained there will play into better understanding of the computational (applied) mathematics that allows these freaky/magical moments (busyness people, look up Minsky - not Marvin, btw). Yes, complexity in another light (looking forward to seeing this generally known). 

And so, we proceed. Where we know that we are more than brain. What we need to look at further is that we can describe the necessary maturity for computation. If only, we can look at the past two decades and discuss what not to do (again) based upon our analysis.

Remarks: Modified: 11/18/2024

11/18/2024 -- 

Miscellany

TL;DR -- We will have several of these. We bring back a couple of images and point to several themes, one of which is technology. 

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Just updated this image at a 2014 post (Status and focus). 

Arrival of immigrants
by year, Plymouth context

The image had moved around over the years. This was our fourth year of doing the blog for the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. 

About this time, there were new attempts at what is called machine learning (touted as AI, known as GenAI) for several reasons. One was that the web was 20 years old or so. This caused lots of data to accumulate for both good and bad reasons. It was also 2 years after MicroSoft decided to move to the cloud pushing people off (see post (2012) thomasgardnersociety.org). In 2017, we moved the portal (to truth) to TGSoc.org to ease typing. 

Back to the image, it was used in a post (Vita Brevis, NEHGS, 2014) about what years the colonial ancestors of a group of people arrived. Another image relates to the length of the 5th generation of the Mayflower folks. When did it start and end? See the post (2019): About genearations. 

How long is a generation?

Finally, something about technology. The latest ACM Comm had an article on the problem of science that results from computer science not doing its job. This has to do with supporting needs of properties such as repeatability and such. The situation is dire and noway solved by GenAI which is more of a contributor to noise than not. But, we'll get into that as it's on the plate for the TGS to tackle problems of this sort. 

We have been at this blogging since 2010 and have collected a lot of data. So, with technology in mind, we need to reorganize everything. While we do that, we'll bring in changes with respect to two Thomas Gardners as suggested by the folks at WikiTree. While, at the same time, expecting that the two were one gentleman which we will discuss. 

Note our new Category: OpEd. 

Remarks: Modified: 11/13/2024

11/13/2024 -- 

Nobel, Chemistry, 2024

TL;DR -- We provide a link to Nobel Prize material that goes into the detail of the Chemistry prize and its computational framwork. 

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Going forward,we can pay more attention to the material from the Nobel committeee with regard to the technology behind the selection. This image is from a page that looks at the history of the 2024 award for Chemistry which helps us document progress in GenAI (machine learning). 

How does AlphaFold2 work?

Advances using computational assists that reduce time and costs for experiments have been expected from the beginning, decades ago. What changes is the complexity. Fortunately, the domain of this research can have lab support as well as the use of physical experiments. 

We will discuss possible issues as we look at the topic. However, that there are those considerations on the table is beyond doubt. How we might attempt to rectify them is not so clear. 

Remarks: Modified: 11/04/2024

11/04/2024 -- 

Bunker Hill and the Library

TL;DR -- Bunker Hill steps down to the Central Library. The most important building in a city? 

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In this season of political BBQ, we wanted to look at things more neutral, from an Independent viewpoint. Today, The Atlantic published an editorial with their endorsement. Many have done so. Some publications, such as the Washington Post, have stayed neutral. But, that's bucking the normal, of this time very four years, which has been to take a side. 

Let's see, sides? Well, the Dodgers won in New York and are 3-0. It'll be two more games before the World Serious goes back to LA in an area not far from Bunker Hill. So, the 250th of the Revolution is coming up, a little over a year. We were trying to ignore LA for a while but blame the Dodgers. 

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We cannot mention the Yankees and Dodgers without mentioning Reggie Jackson who played at three Series games between the two teams. He called the two teams as being part of the 'American fabric'. Yes, a few more might be mentioned such as the St. Louis Cardinals. Reggie was featured in an article in the USA Today. 

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Now, to the Central Libary. We have had other posts mentioning the Library: Past and Present (showing DTLA - several eras - from a point on Bunker Hill; Eighty eigth (about the year, 1888). Today, on FB/Meta, we saw a quote from Einstein:

"The only thing that you have to absolutely know is, the location of the library."

Now, that I can relate to. And, courtesy of the Los Angeles Converancy, we have a nice view of steps put in that lead from Bunker Hill to the Central Libray which was at the foot of the hill. The text mentioned a rise of five stories, but the Hill was a lot higher and was scraped into submission. 

Bunker Hill steps
Los Angeles Conversancy

Let's put another, to discuss later. 

Library tower, 
built using the Library's air rights
2nd largest building in LA, 
visible in lots of shots of DTLA

Remarks: Modified: 10/29/2024

10/29/2024 -- 

Semantic scholar

TL;DR -- Paul Allen and his work has led to a phenomenal advance in query support. We will go on about and further look at this application of machine learning. 

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Our focus, outside of those related to history and heritage, deals with technology. Of late, we have been looking at GenAI and the changes that we can see in the world since OpenAI let loose their premature "omniscient, omnipresent" whatever. ChatGPT was the name; it had 100s of millions users within a short period of time. That set the stage for several developments are were mostly reactionary. 

We, basically, analyzed the situation and the various cohorts of the new type of thing. And, found where things were wanting. On the other hand, GenAI made a hit in fiction and chicanery. Of the later, "fake" this and that. In our interchange with the things (several), we noted its superior attitude. Now it all, essentially. Telling humans what they ought to know. 

When, mind you, it could not do simple algebra or even arithmetic. There were other obvious failures. The industry (OpenAI and its cohorts) bragged of  80% success. Oh yes, of all of the flights in a day, how would you like to have 20% of those fail. Well, there are types of failures. So, the matter could be discussed usefully, in this case. But, for one maker of planes, the evaluation criterion was 99.999% success which was applied throughout all of the process. The effect was something that could regularly fly millions of miles with no incident. 

Then, things happened. Well, we'll see more of that at GenAI (and other types) get put into the world due to the lack of ways and means to contain the hype or to handle the proper analysis. But, we will get there. Have seen progress. Yesterday, in one quorum, ChatGPT said that it was a tool and that it wanted to help me, a human, with my research. Okay. More on that later. 

Now, let's look at one of the many ways that mature minds have applied this stuff. I spent the afternoon using Paul Allen's Semantic Scholar. Well, not his; rather, it is the work of the Allen Institute and the University of Washington and other contributors. The experience was encouraging with respect to getting a proper framework going for this type of technology. 

Here is their website: https://www.semanticscholar.org/ (we will look at this further). Based upon their query facility, it is a huge step forward. 

As mentioned, there are other examples. One of these is Wolfram's use of GenAI with his computational mathematics system.  

Remarks: Modified: 10/26/2024

10/26/2024 -- 

Alice, of the Nantucket bunch

TL;DR -- Alice of the show (Brady Bunch - not that of Carroll nor of the others that we will look at from time to time) gives us a serious New England family history to study. Hang on as we put technology to proper use guided by the "true" spirit of the American experience which we will look at (again and again). 

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Better late than never, one can say. With our technology focus, we have to look across the board, including the chain from marketing (those who would have us believe enough to spend money) down to fictional shows as we see on TV (those who would have us believe their story and spend money as led to the decision by the marketing folks). 

I have been slowly collecting descendants of Thomas and Margaret, as they become, more or less, proven, that is, their lineage. See Thomas and Margaret (Fryer) Gardner; Joseph Gardner (youngest son); Thomas Gardner II (eldest son); ... Notice, recent research (see Comment, this day) shows that Seeth was born here whereas the other children were born in Dorset, UK. 

Now, let's take one show that was heavy on the cultural horizon: Brady Bunch. Alice was a well-known figure due to her role. She was portrayed by Ann B. Davis (Wikipedia, Wikitree - to be researched). She passed on in 2014, as many may remember. Today, I saw that Famous Kin had a profile of her; here is Ann's link to Thomas Gardner through son, John who married Grafton. She has a serious New England background, including lots of families of Plymouth.  

The show did a good job of presenting the U.S. from the viewpoint of a city on the west coast. Too, it aired from 1969 to 1974 which puts it right in the middle of lots of cultural transformations. 

It might not need saying, but we are seeing something similar now with AIn't and its manifestation through GenAI with all of its faults. The next two years will be fun. 

In the meantime, we'll be researching the scope of associations for descendants of Thomas and Margaret in order to tie technology and its pretenses with the phenomenal aspects of people and their long history on the planet. 

Generations and their dynamics? Lots to learn on this folks. Perhaps, the computer can help. It can serve as an ultimate objectifier, as we watch the wannabe try to attain some state which we do not even know how to describe yet. Whether we can or not (attain what AI seems to have accomplished, by the estimate of ts purveyors and supporters) is a basic question needing attention. 

Remarks: Modified: 10/21/2024

10/21/2024 -- Lewis Carroll was a logician, mathematician (influenced by Boole). 

Native Americans

TL;DR -- In the past, Columbus had a day where we celebrated one arrival event. Today, we are cognizant increasingly of the Native American culture that was here prior to the incursion of European influence. We have a lot to learn. 

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Today is a Holiday (Federal) for some, Earlier, Columbus was the main focus of the day. The view of the day has changed over the years to the current status of this being called The "Indigenious Peoples" Day. As such, the day can be used to learn more of the cultures and people here before we saw the "News" come to be (England, France, Spain, ...). 

This post at Facebook asks the question: Why isn't This Map in the History Books?. We liked the graphics which can be found in seveal places and will be looked at further. 

Native American Knowledge

There will be a lot to look at. For one thing, we can continue our work on the Awareness Months. 

Remarks: Modified: 10/14/2024

10/14/2024 -- 

Computational Chemistry

TL;DR -- Machine learning and its use of physics was the focus for the Nobel award. This was followed up with the chemistry award being given to protein research. This is a step forward for various reasons. Ultimate consequences are not really known at this time. Research deals with the future.  

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Yesterday, we noted that the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2024 was given for work in machine learning. ML which is usually known as AI (artificial intelligence) deals with the technology of a computer systems taking as input huge streams of data and reducing these through various techniques into information that people can understand and use. But, this information can feed back into the computer model itself. 

The emphasis is on modeling which is accomplished through computational techniques. "computational" goes along with "theoretic" which deals with analytic and quantitative means applied to a field of study in order to effect desirable effects such as design, prediction and continuing analysis, generally in support of scientific endeavors. If one surveys the STEM discplines, one sees a huge influence of computational modes. With respect to some of the harder problems such as life and intelligence, one could very well suggest that theoretical chemistry will play a huge role. So, this is a necessary step; but, we have huge problems yet to resolve. 

Along with that of Physics, the Prize for Chemistry in 2024 was given to researchers who used a variant of ML from Google (AlpaFold). This work portends to future benefits that have been elusive using other means. Needless to say, the success is heavily dependent upon the researchers who are working now as well as the continually developing frameworks of their disciplines. 

A technical paper explains some of the details: COMPUTATIONAL PROTEIN DESIGN AND PROTEIN STRUCTURE PREDICTION. The following is a quote from the paper:

In summary, the achievements of David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper in the

fields of computational protein design and protein structure prediction are truly profound. Their

work has opened up a new era of biochemical and biological research, where we can now predict

and design protein structures in ways that had not been possible before. Hence, a long-standing

goal has finally been met, and the impact of this will have far-reaching consequences. 

As it says, this is research and applies to the future. We will look at some recent applications of the techniques and discuss the matters that relate. 

The use of AI is somewhat unfortunate. The work is an example of applied mathematics, computational modeling of such, people who are in the position to exploit the facilities in their work, and long years of work captured various ways as science has been doing for the past 200 years or so. 

AI deals with intelligence which we know is mostly associated with living forms. Now, we can look more closely at modeling these by using improved protein analysis plus a whole lot of other information. Like with physics which is strongly using normals in order to reduce problems to a proper scope, we will see this with other scientific domains. 

At we see with GenAI, what are the costs of this research in comparison with other work that is necessary, in terms of the resources used (say power), or the potential for misuse given our proclivity to not know how to manage complexity? 

Congratulations to the Laureates. Looking forward to watching things unfold. 

Remarks: Modified: 10/09/2024

10/09/2024 --  

Nobel, Physics, 2024

TL;DR -- Good old mathematics behind machine learning gets some respect. That is good news. 

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New directions pend. We have talked AIn't for a while. There's no critter in the buckets of bits. There may be patterns. Now, the Nobel Prize folks say that this is physics and a result of its mathematics. 

Okay, that's great. We argued anyway that the focus ought not be intelligence which goes with life, and its study - biology, as far as we know. We stressed the mathematical connectsions, but having physics now in the game improves the chance of lifting awareness to things that matter. 

So, this post goes with our technology focus which we are trying to define and foster.   

Remarks: Modified: 11/18/2024

11/13/2024 --  Added Nobel Prize, to the name. 

11/18/2024 -- So, we now have Physics, Chemistry and Medicine, connected. Expect further discussions. 

Birthplace of the US Navy

TL;DR -- Where was the U.S. Navy born? Several sites have reason to make the claim. there was a discussion this year about the topic. Turns out, though, that the U.S. Navy has decided. It was not in New England, proper, though Philapelphia is close enough. 

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In 2015, there was continued discussion of a controversy in New Hamphsire history, who was first? That is, which site could claim the earliest settler? This question might have been resolved for the 2023 commemoration that did not get the attention given to the arrival of Cape Ann's crew (Gloucester 400). 

• Rev. Hubbard (2 May 2015): In the Remarks for 4 May 2015, we mentioned that Dover and Portsmouth were candidates. 
• Evidently, Portsmouth came into the lead. 

Coming up is the 250th of the U.S., so comparative themes of this sort will continue. This year, in May, discussion of a "great debate" was sponsored by the Essex Heritage Society pertaining to who could be touted as the birthplace of the Navy. This graphic shows some detail about the occasion. 

We can use the Navy's opinion for the answer: Birthplace of the U.S. Navy. The official answer is Philadelphia, PA since that is where the Continental Congress was in session, making decsions, and providing for funds. In their write up, the Navy diplomatically mentions the other towns and their contributions. 

Early on, while looking different categories of descendants of Thomas and Margaret (Fryer) Gardner, we considered the Sarah Balch family (see post, See Descendants of Sarah). Her descendants were Chaplains of both the Continental Navy and the U.S. Navy.  

Remarks: Modified: 09/30/2024

09/30/2024 --  

Past and present

TL;DR -- The 250th of the U.S. will allow lots of research to get some air, as the attention goes to the history of the country. We will follow that thread several ways, including a deep look at technology of computing with respect all aspects that we know, to date. We can compare different areas. One of these one-up looks will be NYC and LA, in order by age. LA is comparatively a youngster. The dynamisms of the two difer quit a bit, too. 

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Some locations kept good records via photographs of their change through time. At the same time, we have temporal issues such as Los Angeles being younger than New York City. Then we have technology bringing in abilities that can be pinpointed in time. For instance, we know that Gardner, the photographer, was active during the Civil War. We posted several photos from his era, including one from Lawrence, KS. We called the post with the photo "Frontier century" (April 2021); its themes were several: the great expansion in the middle after the revolution (deed done primarily by the 5th generation); families being lost in time as they escaped the heavy hand of documentation; and modern efforts at recovering evidence of their existence). 

We will continue to focus on the middle of the country but have, of late, been looking at Los Angeles and its Bunker Hill (west, we call it) that mainly appeared in the late 1800s and went away a century later to be replaced by high-climbing things that cast a long shadow. We have had lots of photos of the LA area and can be more intimate as we find older photos to match up with something recent. 

LA and NY City
across time

In this photo, the left side shows part of the train yard in LA at two different times. Reminder, LA was Old Spain and Mexico until the latter part of the 1830s. LA claims a start in the early 1780s which is associated with New Spain. The area settled is known, now, as Down Town LA (we'll use DTLA). A church built in the area in 1784 later burned. At that site, the Old Plaza Church (still standing) was built built in 1814.  

On the right of the photo, we have snaps of NYC's Manhattan starting with a photo from 1876. This an old area and was part of the colonies prior to the U.S. Revolution. With the 250th of that event coming up, we will have time to cover stories about all areas of the U.S. 

One of our themes will deal with the long reach (Mirror building; Settlements, temporary and otherwise; NEHGS events) of New England. There will be others, such as technology. 

Before moving on, we know that NY City has tall builidngs. Lots of them. The tallest now is the One World Trade Center at almost 1,800 feet. Wikipedia has a list of buildings taller than 600 feet (110 buildings). 

In DTLA, the tallest building is only 1,100 feet). The LA City Hall is 454 feet (it's shown on the left in photo) and is the 42nd largest building. The smallest (53rd in the Wikipedia list) stands at 352 feet. 

We mentioned Bunker Hill west. It got its name, of course, from the site of a Revolutionary battle. We will be looking more at that area in DTLA as it represents changes over time, as influx of population changes the dynamics of a location. With a great collection of photos from different periods, we find people taking photos from that same area and focus of direction. 

Related to Bunker Hill west is this one that show 101 early on and then later. In the meantime, St. Vibiana's was closed as a church (became an event's center) and moved up the hill from Main Street to the summit. Parts of that area had been lowered early. Houses and dirt were taken away to have proper foundation for buildings. One story to look at is the Central Library which experienced two fires by arson. During the time of recovery, maneuverings got the building limit raised from that related to the height of the City Center. So, the first one went up to cast a shadow over the library. The library sold its "air rights" as one means to fund getting back to its work. They had to replace $Ms in burnt books, for instance. 

LA Central Libray with its
"twin" (to the right)
U.S. Bank Tower

On the list of tallest, the "library tower" now is #2. 

Reminder: with respect to photos (such as we see from Water and Power Associates of CA), provenance needs to have special attention, always. How all of this influence from Gen AI plays out will be a thing to watch. The ease with which fakes can be generated will make the problems more diffficult to resolve, albeit there are known ways to attempt to obtain stable and safe environments. Technology will provide the means many times for its managment; a key choice concerns human involvement. Yes, we humans can handle the complexity. Unfortunately, we could have known more; that is to be discussed.  

Remarks: Modified: 09/27/2024

09/27/2024 --  

HD Thoreau, Minnesota

TL;DR -- One persistent theme will be Native Americans and the future of the U.S. We will start a series in New England and follow its long arm across the country. Too, we look at Concord which brings up Thoreau and his friend, Emerson. The latter has appeared here more than once; let's take time to know more about HD. 

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One obvious theme that the TGS must pursue is nature versus technology. It has been a theme of increasing complexity over the past two decades. Though lots of subjects pertain to this theme, we merely touch upon a couple of major aspects in this post. One in particular will be "intelligence" as it has been associated with life (not with buckets of bits or whatever configuration we might conceive). 

Last time, we mentioned one of the native tribes (Nipmuc) of the New England region where the European culture of the U.S. got its start some 400 years ago. Although there are tribes over the entire continent, we will start in New England and learn about Native American culture with respect to the U.S., its past and its future. 

In the map shown in the prior post, the region of the Nipmuc tribe included an area called Concord where the English settled. We have several families under study who were associated with the middle and western parts of Massachusetts. We'll pick HDT who was friends with our cousin (Ralph Waldo Emerson) who spent his years after his father died in the environs of Harvard. RW Emerson has been mentioned in several posts. 

Today, we consider Henry David Thoreau (Wikipedia, WikiTree). HD was influenced by RW's little tract on Nature. Two of our favorite sources provide the full text of this RW take on matters: Transcendental web; archive[.]org   

Venturing further, we can quote a Harvard study published during the time of HD's 200th memorial. The study found this quote of HD, who BTW was a graduate of the Institution. 

Instead of helping Harvard, he said, men should consider giving money to their towns to preserve and protect a huckleberry patch.

The “commercial spirit” of the day, he said, rested on a love of wealth that made people selfish and greedy. The world would be a better place, he said, if people “made riches the means and not the end of existence.”

For the most part, HD was in New England. Later, in poor health, he ventured out to Minnesota to look for a better climate in which to live. He had struggled with TB. During his time in the St. Paul region (1861 timeframe), HDT was impressed. 

To be brief, we provide links to material on DT and his life. 

• HDT's Final Journey: Minnesota - Mayo took note of HDT. They provide this quote: “For my part, I could easily do without the post-office. I think that there are very few important communications made through it. To speak critically, I never received more than one or two letters in my life — I wrote this some years ago — that were worth the postage.” 
• Thoreau and the Minnesota River - being a naturalist, HD would have wandered under the MN skies. 
• The Life of HDT - one bit of activity by HD was forming a school with his brother. HD had taught at Harvard and wanted to spread the good joy of learning. We will be looking at this type of thing in depth, as New England, from its start, emphasized universal education. 

Information on his supporters.

Samuel Hoar (Wikipedia, WikiTree) 

Nathan Brooks (Papers, WikiTree)

John Keyes (Autobio, WikiTree - brother George)

R. W. Emerson (our post)

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Back to Harvard, we see that they recently performed an experiment with GenAI and classwork. The topic was Physics so that provides a wonderful grounding affect due to the empirical nature of the study. Reminder, back in HD's time, this field of study would have been (actually, was) known as Natural Philosophy. 

• Professor tailors AI tutor for Physics - one encouraging result is that this effort followed the theme of increasing human insight using the tool of the artificial tutor. Test results indicate that those in the study who used the AI mode scored better. There is a lot to look at, but this work has to consider psychological and social factors with respect to the tutor experience. 

Remarks: Modified: 09/17/2024

09/17/2024 --  

The Nipmuc's influence

TL;DR -- Technology is only part of our focus. People are prime. Technology will learn that people in the loop is the key to truth maintenance. 

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We have mentioned technology as a focus a few times. In doing so, we were not forgetting people and their 400 years of  history. Of late, technocrats have run after the idea that people are not important. What John calls AIn't and its hype are an example. 2024 has found the experience with GenAI over the past two years as motivation for managers (executives) of many companies to bring AI whole-hog into their processes. 

Okay, John has been mostly silent on this for the past two years are he re-evaluated everything that he knew with respect to emerging information from the machine learning work, including the technical aspects of applying mathematics as was enabled with the advancement of computing. Too, he reviewed robotics as it has been seen as an opportunity to web sensors with smarts and thereby create some creature worthy of our attention beyond our usual reaction to technological marvels of bowing to their developers. Language has become the domain of the artificial; John's put to that is the mindless/meaningless pursuit of optimatiztion of rules never was what language was about. Tsk, on the English departments of Universities. So much to research and discuss. 

Okay, backing up, technology is how mathematics finds its game It has not been properly attuned, yet, to what humans are about. That will change. We will discuss how to pay attention. 

Aside: for the past few years, as AI can to be more known (okay?, doubt that?, let's just take IBM and Google's winning of games in a very public atmosphere - with the ultimate being Go (so what?, never played it nor most of the other games), John has watched. Quality? Declining. Mood? Becoming more mean-spirited and stupid with respect to the culture that the US has been trying to put into place with regard to justice and equity. Look around, computers driving people like the computer is the master of we humans who have to slave to its/their owners. 

Back on track. Mathematics is the key here. So, that will be an important discussion. 

Too, toys have always been a focus. Now, we have adult toys of note. I don't have any, myself, except for some computational types. Puritan? Perhaps. It fits. 

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With the 400th of Plymouth (that off-course vessel - Mayflower), there was an effort to know more of the native populations that were here prior to the arrival of the Europeans. That's today's message. 

• In conversation with Cheryll Toney Holley - she is of the Nipmuc tribe. One factor that we see with respect to taming the ill-begotten aspects of technology is to know people and their history. 
• Nipmuc - mentioned in 1631 by Dudley, this group led the efforts to establish an awareness of their existence, generally. 

Tribal territories, 

southern New England

This review starts in the northeastern regions of the U.S., but it will cover the areas of the large interior of the country over the time of the expansion. Too, we will look at the extreme west (arrived at by land and sea) and the southwest. 

Remarks: Modified: 09/17/2024

09/17/2024 --  Nipmuc cultural area included the Concord region. We stop to look at one influencer from that region: HDThoreau.  

Restart, somewhat

TL;DR -- Two events in 2023 were seminal; these carried over into 2024 which is 8 months old. The two relate to each other. And, pending changes to our material has been pending. Time to start that process. 

--

In 2023, Gloucester has its 400th. Some felt that it would be 2024. We will look more into that as the closes out. 

Since early 2023, we have adapted to two things: possibly, there are two Thomases; GenAI came on the scene and changed the world in ways that can be taken positively or negatively. Let's look at these two.

• The first was the result of research that the TGS has been doing. In March of 2023, we were looking to have Margaret Fryer Gardner as a focus. But, on looking at WikiTree, we saw that in February of 2023, we saw that research had identified birth records of the children in the records of Sherborne, Dorset, England. Those who discussed the findings decided to split the Thomas Gardner profile into two with the first Thomas being here for the start of the effort by Dorchester Company while the second Thomas was the husband of Margaret and father of the kids. See the post (New not old planter). After a little more reading, we decided that we see these two as one. However, we will make the demarcation (two profiles) now, in our records and websites. Further research then will be documented. At some future point, the hope is to have sufficient information to make a decision. In the meantime, we can discuss why we think it's one guy. 
• In November of 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT to extreme acclaim and got millions of people to sign on. We missed that event for several reasons that might be of interest. It was not until February of 2023 that we became aware of ChatGPT. In our first session, we told ChatGPT about Thomas Gardner and Roger Conant (at the same time, the research at WikiTree was progressing). Since then, we have interfaced with various GenAI systems (we like Bard and still are using Gemini for testing), reviewed the mathematical basis for the claims, discussed means to get maturity brought to the action, and a lot more. Basically, this goes along with our decision to focus on technology.  
  
  
  

So, now, we will restructure. Per usual, we will continue to have the FAQ which will be brought up to date. Also, we will release issues of Gardner's Beacon periodically, hopefully with more of a regularity. 

Remarks: Modified: 09/015/2024

09/15/2024 -- People will always be the focus, rather than technology. 

Shoebox and its uses

Tl;DR -- Shoebox and its uses? We start with a 1992 book. 

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At one manufacturing environment, there was a tool kit that was flat and cushy with outlines of tools needd for a job. If assembly, it would also have the parts to be put together. The machinist/assembler would take the kit(s) to the machine/workstation which included everything needed. At one time, one would go to a tool crib when a need cropped up. 

So, optimization and savings were the goal for the change. 

Now, we're into the digital age and having the pains, growing type and other. What does it all mean? A book from the early 1990s had an interesting take on the matter. This list identifies the book and the author and points to other material. 

•  Mirror Worlds: or the Day Software Puts the Universe in a Shoebox... - fortunately, Google has somewhat of a preview.
• David Gelernter - the author was son of Herbert Gelernter, early AIer.  
• Wikipedia: Mirror world (on the book); Mirror Worlds (a company following the idea). 

Why is this important? Several reasons. "shoebox" itself has been used several ways. We'll trace down those related to AI, in particular.

 

Remarks: Modified: 09/07/2024

09/07/2024 --  Add image. 

von Neumann, Hopper

TL:DR -- von Neumann influenceed us all over a long period of time. Hopper was there, in the beginning, contributing to what we have now. Times have changed. Lessons learned need to be re-evaluated. Options, in the future, will have greater potenttial to be wise or not. Our choice. 

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Last year, I started to work with an associate at Sperry Univac on looking at the history of computing, from the perspective of the people involved. Of late, I have been working on a project with respect to the future of computing which took time away from that effort. 

Our notes are at the TGS site: https://tgsoc.org/papers/. Larry Walker was the Director of Sperry's Knowledge Systems Center where I worked prior to going to Boeing Computer Services, in Wichita KS. With the advent of GenAI in 2022, we both agreed that this untimely event was like referenced by Alan Kay after his intitial review: a train wreck waiting to happen. 

Larry was involved with the development of the early operating systems (Control Data, Sperry) and played a leadership role through several decades. He has written of his work at Sperry's KSC and later. 

Well, lots of topics can be discussed. This blog has many posts on the subject: machine learning; science of information; mathematics. For now, we'll be posting reading material. 

Today, we see more evidence of mature presentations coming to fore. ACM's Communications has had several articles, recently. Today, we look at the Myth of the Coder. The authors start during the time of von Neumann who was a prominent mathematican and who was influential in several fields. In computing, he left us with the model still being used. 

His thought was that there were four stages (levels) involved with computing. 1st - the mathematician was involved with the problem and solution being written in a format that emphasized the formality of the situation. In other words, the algorithm then was a real thing to behold. Heuristics and other formats were for the less formal presentation. 2nd - this level took the mathematical view and converted it into a flowchart. We all need to witness that and how it worked. 3rd - this is where the actual coding was done using the language of the computer. We'll skip over details until a later date, but every manufacture had their own notions ited to the underlying hardware (circuitry). Finally, 4th - worried about the specifics of computing (binary representation) and rescource allocations (memory, et al). 

Stopping for a moment, those who deal with C or C++ (of course, there are others at this level) is familiar with those types of choices. Coming forward to the realm of Python, lots of this type of considerations is not usually on the plate. In between, we find other approaches. And, today, a whole new realm exists at the HTML/CSS level. 

Reminder? We will emphasize domains which is where knowledge is accumulated and utilized. von Neumann was dealing a lot with Physics which has a close tie with numeric mathematics which is in vogue (way to much, as John will explain). Mathematics has many other limbs and roots, and we will look at these from one perspective to note for the future: category theory. 

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Wait, the article steps forward. By the time John got his start, FORTRAN was the focus in the type of engineering computing that he did. But, COBOL was prime in business. It wasn't long, though, that various types of offshoots appeared. Lisp, for example, which we will use as the paragon modeling. There were methods to parametrically specify requirements. Some approaches were tabular which could handle fairly sophisticated situations. 

Think of the modern spreadsheet whose presence is everywhere, it seems. 

Grace Hoppe and COBOL saw 2 levels - analytst, programmer. Those lower steps which were specific to the machine (say, IBM or Sperry or ...) were handled by the compiler and its after proceesses (a huge one was the linkedit step that created the executable. 

Now, with Python or JavaScript, that happens almost automatically. But, reminder, Lisp was doing that type of interpretative approach way back. 

There are other varieties of roles over the years. One key fact is that this article does not consider the domain requirements which will be more importantly handled now with the fiasco of GenAI. 

Considering the historical distinction
between coder and programmer.

Remarks: Modified: 09/04/2024

09/04/2024 --  

Hugging Face

TL;DR -- Old company, IBM, has entered the AI world with a code-sharing effort. This is an example of recent technology changes. 

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IBM got wise and decided to open up machine learning with a code focus. We have mentioned GitHub a time or two. This post is meant to bring this effort to attention, as we will be paying attention. They have tens of thousands of companies signed up. 

So, let's start with an image an a link. 

IBM's new User Camp
related to the Granite approach

This is for code sharing which we may get into. Basically, our focus is analytic, for now. 

Remarks: Modified: 08/30/2024

08/30/2024 --  

Geometric Science of Information

TL;DR -- Two basic pieces of mathematics are algebra and geometry. There are others. But, the geometry folks have met over the years and are presenting what they know in a manner that needs attention. Hence, we'll look at that before going on to general modeling. 

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We write of technology. But, we have to look at mathematics, as well. From several senses, as it is the basis for parts of STEM and has operational use as well as being involved with the more esoteric notions.

Of late, I have been reading of the Geometry of Information. In terms of knowledge, one thinks about logic or machine learning which has many aspects. But, core to our being are two facilities that we use of many others. I stress these two due to the topics related to things going awry when the understanding is insufficient to prevent misuse or creation of lures that lead to disaster. 

For instance, when ChatGPT was looked at by an elderly AI person, he said: train wreck waiting to happen. We have written of GenAI (the overview concep) a lot this past year, including examples of using the systems. And, we talked about our leaning toward Gemini. 

But, we are going to be more specific about mathematics as we look at knowledge systems (from the '80s) as being of importance for trying to balance the potential harm of machine learning with human considerations about their future. Our theme will be (like we read in a DOD paper) that humans (and their intuition) are the focus, and the artificial is a tool to be applied by humans. Of course, that is hard to see given the configuration that provides us a bully (another one - we have had those forever) that is a know-it-all or wants to be (wannabe). 

Okay, we will do this on a regular basis. Let's leave with an image from the GSI folks. 

Remarks: Modified: 08/29/2024

08/29/2024 --