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. 

-- 

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). 

--

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. 

--

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.  

--

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 --  

Machine learning

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

--

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: 10/08/2024

10/08/2024 --  

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. 

---

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. 

--

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. 

--

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)

----

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. 

--

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. 

--- 

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. 

--

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. 

----

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. 

----

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. 

 ---

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. 

-- 

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 --  

Technology - basis

TL;DR -- Trust? Computers? Mathematics? Somewhere and someone is worthy? Or not? We can tackle that in our focus on technology theme. 

--

So, we asked, Trust whom? Since the question is not easily answered, let's discuss a few things about the situation in order to shed some light on alternative choices and how to decide between then. 

To do this, we will mention a source that might be unexpected to some: Emily Noether. Ms Noether came to the US due to WWII and taught mathematics at Bryn Mawr. We will look further at her family and at the contributions of one of her students: Bartel Leendert van der Waerden. After WWII, Mr van der Waerden taught at Johns Hopkins in the U.S. but went back to Amsterdam. 

The theme of the post is "Technology - basis" which goes with our new focus. Mr. van Der Waerden wrote a definitive book on Modern Algebra. In particular, our interest is Volume II (available via archive[.org]) which deals with some of the mathematics being used in computing, especially the advanced methods associated with machine learning.   

Our intent is to cover artificial intelligence from stem to stern and from top to bottom. We started that effort a few years ag and now accelerate due to the recent infusion of AI into the culture everywhere. Despite arguments that deny this statement, we can know what's behind the covers of computing and explain it so as to make it availabe to public consumption. 

And, as we see with the University of Cambridge, AI is everywhere (as this search shows). Now, we picked Cambridge since logs of the early folks in New England were of that institution. Too, Ms Noether figures since the mathematics goes back to the early 1900s. Hence, the studies of her students and their students are apropos for attention. 

On a broader scope, modern physics makes use of the insightts of Ms Noether. This paper by Prof Baez of the University of California, Riverside shows: Getting to the Bottom of Noether’s Theorem. 

Remarks: Modified: 08/25/2024

08/25/2024 --  

Trust whom?

TL;DR -- After doing an extensive sweep of the internet (information universe), especially with respect to technical details, one can ask, whom to trust? GenAI, over time, will make the problem worse. So,our technology focus fits within that scheme of things. Where do we go from here? 

--

There has not been a post since early August as busy with an assessment of technolgy with respect to computing and the GenAI that has been becoming more prominent on the landscape throughout the year. 

My activity has been reviewing the past two decades which saw the internet bloom and had machine learning come back with a vengeance once Job's gift got out and was replicated by other players. 

In particular, I have been concenttrating on database management changes plus the newer modes of accomplishing functionality.  

A post on Quora somewhat summarizes the current viewpoint (worldview, educated opinion) that I have which stresses that technology is now suitable for a regular focus as it runs throughout our lives introducting changes that many times have not been beneficial.

This is the question/answer: As Oracle's CTO, what emerging AI and machine learning advancements are poised to revolutionize enterprise data management in the next decade? The questions was asked by Larry Ellison in his role as CTO of Oracle. 

I created this post for the answer which starts a series of stick diagrams that will be improved later. 

Another bit of activity involves a project that will experiment with a new technique for handling economic resources thereby removing some of the downsides of the ca-pital-sino which will be sandboxed, eventuall.  

 Remarks: Modified: 08/22/2024

08/22/2024 --    

Memory - present, past

TL;DR -- The cloud and such? What's the use? Science was an early motivation for the research and engineering. We're at a crossroad, somewhat. So, posts on technology themes will be a regular occurrence. 

---

Technology is the theme as it has given us a universal memory machine, somewhat. That is, computing and its cloud and the related trackers provide a seemingly endless memory. That digital ocean was one of the things used to train GenAI (ChatGPT, &c). Back in 2015, we had a post (Web/cloud presence) that brought up the choice for us all, ought what we do be forgotten? 

At that time, the cloud was 10 years old (we date it from GSA's decision that the US Government could use the emerging resource). We found out the other day, that Microsoft's cloud is used in the work of 85% of the US Departments. What comes to mind? Single point of failure, for one thing. 

Technology brings changes to which we have to adapt. That neverending affair can be a little offsetting. We do have choices in the matter which will be discussed on a regular basis. 

Today, let's look at keeping something that has value. 

The context is Physics and its rewards. The technology is a blog that quit adding new material a few years ago: Lady Science. There were two contributors from 2014 (see Archive - of their Monthly Issue). The first of these was titled "Delivery Room Drama" (17 Oct 2014). The last issue of a post was 8 Oct 2021. On browsing the site, we thought that it's good that this material is still around dealing with the topics of women, history and science. Some of the earlier posts were oriented toward art. One of the writers went back to school to learn the history of science. 

And, the blog got attention. Fortunately, it's archived at the Library of Congress. After a pause to look at our interest, we will discuss how we found this blog. 

---

So, our technology focus will make use of this material. Too, we like to do some comparisons related to time. In 2014 (see posts from that year), we were working in this blog plus our website which was hosted by a site using Linux as the OS. We started with blogger in 2010 which was picked up by Google. Having started our site with Microsoft, we moved when they went to Office365. After researching content vs configuration, we went with custom development. We have blogged about the technical aspects on the necessary choices and will organize a better summary review at some point. As, right now,we're looking at the future of software from several angles. We can all see the edges fraying. How did this happen? Can we recover without too much pain? Lots off questions. 

--- 

Also, we have paid attention to women and science in posts. See post on the daughter (Geertruida de Haas-Lorentz) of Hendrik Lorentz. We discovered her through the experiment of Einstein that she gave to a museum which represented the facility of small experiments. 

Today, in LinkedIn, we saw a post of The Nobel Prize group about the 1912 marriage of (Margrethe Nørland Bohr) of Neils Bohr. She was actively involved in his research and writing, but that work is not mentioned by the group. A comment provided this post: Crafting Quantum Theory: Margrethe Bohr and the Labor of Theoretical Physics. Their son got a Nobel Prize for his work on the nucleus. 

This blog represents several things. It's content will be apropos to the continuing discussions of STEM and its uses. Too, though, the structure of the content and the approach to the subjects are remarkable. As well, we like how it was designed for several reasons. Which of the various subjects to be addressed will be first is unknown. We're bringing the blog to awareness, in general. 

---

Our new project deals with a redux on AI along several fronts which deals with the timely problems that will emerge soon enough. 

Remarks: Modified: 08/05/2024

08/05/2024 --    

Three weeks

TL;DR -- We take modern travel for granted. To wit, the Delta recoil from the Microsoft fail just a week ago. Now, we can look at the details, and ought to. As well, let's ponder three weeks of travel back in the good old days.  

--

Having just written on Los Angeles and then finding more information on the California Trail to which travelers on the Oregon Trail switched if they were headed to the Great State of California. Per usual, everywhere we look in the US, we seek out connections to New England. 

A recent focus on Bunker Hill West brought to fore lots of information about people from the east coast and their activities on the left coast. For the record, this area in downtown LA is where we now find the skyscrapers. But, under many of those are destroyed records of, at least, two cultural developments. Fortunately, there is an association in LA that has photos and records about the different eras and areas. 

That will be a regular theme along with technology which comes into play due to the potential for mischief. Already, we have seen photos that seem to have been generated by methods other than a human with photoshop or the like. We're not paying close attention, yet, as there are plenty of photos for study from the repositories that are available. 

On the other hand, tales of people abound and mostly are not known. Technology, you see, can be a boon as it will help document the past better than we have ever seen. 

Case in point, in the graphic on the left, I made the connection between a middle piece of the US with a Gardner name. It was on the Oregon/California and Santa Fe Trails. At the same time, I knew of Butterfield for a long while but only paid attention of late as the researching of New England's diaspora came to be aided by technology. Butterfield's stage line went from St Louis MO down through TX into NM and AZ and onto CA and arrived in LA after three weeks. From there, it was another week plus to SF. Nowadays, that is a little more than a five-hour drive.  

In the graphic below, the bottom middle view has two lines in red on the left. Both represent three weeks. Nowadays, that's not so long. But, if you worked 21 days without a break, you would feel it. 

The shorter line goes back to the top of the graphic which is the route from Independence Mo to Ft Larned KS. Nowadays, that's less than a five-hour drive. Earlier, we had a tale of the founders of Lawrence KS, including women, from Massassachuets who traversed that same route in 1854. The trip was to found the town and the University at Lawrence. Most returned to New England after the al fresco meeting leaving a hearty crew to carry on with the settlement. 

And, it was in the summer. They only had to do one fording of a river which is not large (the Wakarusa). Now, following the route to Santa Fe through Ft Larned has lots of these.

Now, on the right, one sees a line from Boston to London. Three weeks. When on things of that time span, what could one do? Well, that voyage took a bit of time in the past. But, nowadays, a week is sufficient for a modern cruise liner to make the trip. So, three weeks would be three trips from Boston to London, a return trip, and then back to London. Let's say after that, one would spend 7 hours or so flying back to New England. We need to think of other examples. 

As the modern analysis show, One can drive the same route from St. Louis MO to San Franciscso CA in about 39 hours. Most of that would be on the U.S. Interstate system. I have driven that a lot. 

That brings up another three weeks. This Butterfield route tied in with one from San Antonio TX. From there to El Paso took about the same amount of time. See, Pre-Civil War, San Antonio to San Diego (2021). This was a combination of two routes. 

Now, the top part of the image is of a wagon train pulled mostly by oxen. In the bottom part is of a coach pulled by horses. Consider the logistic for this, as horses needed to be replaced and cared for while they recovered for their next trip. People had to be fed, and other supplies would have been essential. 

Supposedly, this is a photo of a Butterfield stage arriving in LA. On the first trip. a report rode the whole way. We need to find that article. See this post: Mirror Building (2023). 

Remarks: Modified: 07/27/2024

07/27/2024 --    

Oregon, by land

 TL;DR -- Getting to Oregon, however done, was arduous. Today, we look at the land routes and note that the ordeals are subject of studies and have been for over a century. 

--

Oregon is in the west, nestled above California. They respect their history ought there so preservation of material is a common theme. Recently, the Oregon-California Trails Association had their meeting. 

There were several ways to get to the west coast and Oregon from New England. We covered the water route in several posts and articles: The Gardiner that was (2018). Gardiner's barque left Boston in July of 1849 and got to San Francisco in January of 1850. It had passengers and sold its freight at the harbor. There was a subsequent voyage to New Zealand. In October of 1850, the barque (Bostonian) wrecked along the Oregon Coast. 

Family members went out another route which was descent to Panama, getting across to the Pacific, and taking another ship north. The return trip was as arduous. We'll look at that further at some point. 

We have written a lot about the land route. As, for a while, the trail went through Gardner, KS (3 Trails, 2019) where it split with the Santa Fe Trail. Over time, as people got familiar with the Kansas City area, they ventured north on the Missouri River to where they could cut out KS and go through NE. This saved a few days. 

Young bucks in high fever were in a hurry to get to the gold field. 

On the journey through Nebraska, the traffic went by Scotts Bluff (Facebook). For now, we put in a photo of the new and the old way which is apropos. People still ride the trail; one of the east-west Interstate Highways runs through the area. So, a brief nod to technology. 

Eagle Rock and a solar car, 2022

Now, let's go further west and look at another split. In Wyoming, the US Government sponsored work to shorten the trip to California. Lander Road was the cutoff that was made. This bypass saved 60 miles for those going to California via the southern route through Idaho. 

Lots of trails crossed the countrry. We appreciate that folks keep up attention on these routes and work to preserve the historical aspects. We expect that the coming 250th of the country will see a surge of interest. At the same time, we need to keep technology on the beneficial side of things, especially with regard to its potential for aiding historical work. 

Remarks: Modified: 07/25/2024

07/25/2024 --    

OpEd, again, plus Salem

TL;DR -- We have two changes to explain and process. One deals with the Thomases.The other is about technology. But, we also will catch up with Salem and its 400th preparations. Then, OpEd as an interim device to keep coherence? We'll look at that. 

--

Recently, we looked at the status. Two changes were noted: 1) a new question arose - were there two Thomas Gardners?; 2) technology has become more interesting due to GenAI and will be a continuing focus for us into the future. 

Also, we looked at 2024 in which Chelsea has its 400th, then 2025 where Qunicy is the celebrant, and then 2026 with respect to Roger Conant moving the crew over to Salem. The first two towns are not in Essex County but in the Boston area and consists of lots of families. As mentoned, we will look at all towns with those in the County of Cape Ann getting special attention. 

Salem? We have written a lot about that coming event. For example, we had a post in Pageant of Salem (6 Jun 2018) which had family members playing their ancestors during the time of the 300th. The play was performed in several areas. Dr. Frank was one of the participants. We mentioned that the celebration was not long after the outbreak of Spanish Flu which dampened things a little. 

Sound familiar? We're not not past Covid with many issues (such as vacine, potential for yearly outbreaks, and more) still being discussed. 

We will pull together the posts about the Salem commerations and mark them as the first step of a restructuring. Mark with what? For starters, we will put those posts in the "OpEd" category (30 Dec 2023). We were reviewing the year. One thing that we marvelled about was the gall of releasing GenAI which was premature in so many ways. Right now, there seems to be potential raging. But, there will be a downturn from this hype, including reactions on the ca-pital-sino that is over 40K. 

You know, there is an adage that when one is getting tips on stock from those that are in the daily life, then a downturn is on the horizon. Okay, we had a major downturn in 2008 (thereabouts) which we saw up close. Since then, there have been several drops, but frankly we have going on 20 years of the "bull" side of things. 

A headline today touted at a GenAI era stock trading program is making lots of money. And, it's on the web/cloud for people to use. Remember crypto (of recent vintage - the bank failure)? This is similar. We also saw a pop last year of the stock of a company that was not worth the evaluation that accompanied the rise in its stock. The pop was due to gaming. We can go into detail, but it's the gist of matter that applies here. 

We will touch upon all aspects of computing and its value to our lives including specifics of advanced systems which is where we spent out life's energy. Along with that, we'll emphasize the mathematics that is involved. One good area to focus on would be machine learning. 

-----

Again, OpEd? What's that about? See Current Status (9 Feb 2024). Well, one might talk about fact and fancy. Or in betweeen? Okay, the binary logic is not how real life works. The computer's limits many times come from ignoring that basic truism of life. 

So, measurements, tolerances, evaluations, and such? Yes, all are appropriate. If we assume the two Thomases (pre-1635 and post-1635), we can look at either or both or not at all in our work. If you go back, we said long ago that we didn't know much. See What we know? (22 Nov 2012). 

Too, we found the marriage notice in 2014. So, we have been following the right path. Now, we need to go back through the whole of it and separate out the "fanciful" (even Dr. Frank's stuff prior to 1635) and collect them into a historical view. 

Salem's first fort (1629)

Then, the rest will be what carries to the next decision point. 

Oh yes, terms? We have conjectures and hypotheses that we will document. Too, what is a proof? That's an important issue related to technology as well as to humans and their lives. So, tackling the topics fits well within our mission. 

---

A focus on Salem (Learn about Salem's History - 400th Salem).  We'll get into this more as we go along, but these are links related to our research. 

• Massey's Cove (16 May 2019) 
• Enduring Gloucester (30 May 2021)
• Where was Thomas? (27 Jan 2012) 
• ...

This is "OpEd" just to include it in the list of earlier posts so that we can collect all of the posts which need some revision. That revision might be a foreward, explaining the situation. 

Remarks: Modified: 07/16/2024

07/16/2024 --    

Maturity, mathematics

TL;DR -- GenAI is a hot topic. Has been for more than a year. But, what is there? Some think it's great; others see worries forming. Many don't care. Yet, it represents something important. 

--

For over a year, we have argued that people ought to not exult too much about Gen AI. Here is a summary of the points that were being made.

• Providers - those who let loose immature software without due regard to consequences. This war started right before 2023 in Nov of 2022.
• Users - almost immediately, the launch of a package with "free" access set the world aflame. There were millions (10s of millions, eventually 100s of millions) who signed up. You know, I didn't become aware until 1 Feb 2023. That's two months later. What was the draw? 
• Insight issues - as early as a week after the release, one brain at The Atlantic noted that this stuff was for fun and games; it could not do serious work. That theme played out the whole year of 2023 and even until now. Along with these two camps we saw the scientific minds trying to understand its ways and uses; too, engineers pondered use in a mature sense. 
• Myself - I got involved since people were talking about how badly these things did simple math. I took it further and compared ChatGPT with Mathematica. Yeap. It's not even close. But, Wolfram saw the potential for the thing as an interface; he tied ChatGPT with the langauge of his system and showed that LLM (the other side of this coin) was a terrific frontend to major systems. That has now been done in many situations. Wolfram took it further and increased his work on adding knowledge of physics to his system. My counsel was that these buckets of bits with their novelty were really examples of applied mathematics in action but lead to abuse quickly since the underlying mathematics is complicated. Too, it's easily misused (please keep reading).   

Let's stop there as we want to get to the gist of this post and can expand upon this list as the discussions continue. 

A few days ago, a paper was submitted to arXiv by researchers at several institutions. arXiv is supported by Cornell University and allows quick publication of research results. This graphic was built from the contents of, and is included as a figure in, the article: Beyond Euclid: An Illustrated Guide to Modern Machine Learning with Geometric, Topological, and Algebraic Structures. 

As I have been reviewing the situation plus exercising a few of the GenAI variety of system, I recall my experience with KBE (knowledge based engineering) about which I will be writing further. Also, I wrote articles on the subject: 1st -- AI, not solely machine learning (11 Dec 2023). This seems late, but I wanted to be thorough. I just started the fifth of the series which has no expected ending. 

In several forums, I have argued that we need to lift out the mathematics to public view and scrutiny. Okay, some might see this math as magical. Some will not. In fact, we can explain as needed, just like Einstein said that he could explain his relativity theory to his grandmother (or ought to be able to). This article is an attempt at that and a very good one. 

Let's see that this type of thing becomes an area of research and study. 

Wait, on the other hand, I also argued that we are dealing with buckets of bits that are good at pulling our leg. We can explain the phenomena behind the effects that we see. There is no creature involved that is emerging to take over. GenAI is no closer to a "Singularity" causing issues than anything else that we have seen.  

Heck, we humans can do that ourselves (evidence abounds). 

Next up, I am going to write more on KBE and its history as well as the evolution of CAD/CAE and other computationally assisted systems with computing over the past few decades. 

----

Hint: I may as well get it off of my chest. My focus is truth engineering. There are reasons for that. One is that people are involved with the judgments that involve truth. We cannot compute truth. Nor, can we know it outright, in general. Truth is a private experience. Now, then, computing and truth? Let me just mention a few concepts that we will look at further: homogeneity (this is a strong assumption being taken without a basis many times; and ignored that I can see, many times - lots to discuss); equivariance (yes, fiddling, fudging, force fit - I will use the 777 and its success in attaining "fit" as well as meeting form and function - that is, it was the first attempt at complete (not met) digital design; and the metrics accomplishment, it was real - in this paper, the mention of the concept can be found in references and in one area where Lie algebra plays a role); geometry, topology, algebra (there are more subjects to bring to proper attention, such as category theory, dynamics (various sorts), and more). Essentially, as Poincare noted, mathematics is a huge subject. What's been associated so far with this approach of computing is a small subset, yet it got attention due to the unexpected ability to bring results that got our attention. So, computing got more powerful? We are so far from truth that we have to step back and get more scholarly. 

Remarks: Modified: 07/19/2024

07/16/2024 --

Why is 2024 quiet?

TL;DR -- 2023 saw Gloucester, MA celebrate its founding in terms of arrival of a crew from England. 2024 continues that activity, somewhat. 

--

We have had several posts on Gloucester, MA who did their 400th last year. The Cape Ann crew arrived in 1623, overwintered, and others showed up in 1624. 

So, the modern Gloucester continues their celebration into the 2nd year. What happened to the TGS, Inc. involvement? We support their lookback. Dr. Frank and Ann have ancestors who were with the original crew. Two that come to mind are Conant and Woodbury. There are other families. 

What of Thomas Gardner? In 2018, there was an article that we commented at: The Settlement of Cape Ann: What is the Real Story?

300th celebration of the
Cape Ann arrival

Recently, we commented again. Here is the content of our comment: 

A year ago, we were chasing information related to the appearance of GenAI. That kept us busy. In the meantime, a researcher found the birth records of all of Thomas Gardner’s children in Sherborn, Dorset, UK.

See https://thomasgardnerofsalem.blogspot.com/2023/04/in-summary.html (Apr of 2023).

We added a few more words this year as we absorbed news of a changing world.

See https://thomasgardnerofsalem.blogspot.com/2024/02/current-status.html (Feb of 2024).

The technology work continues. It’s time to get back to Thomas Gardner and Margaret Frier. On WikiTree, the profile of Thomas was split into two. Daughter, Seeth, was born here. So, did they arrive around 1636? That’s the 1st Thomas. The 2nd one is for the unknown Thomas Gardner who was here according to scattered pieces of information that we have seen.

I argue that there was time for Thomas to come over and go back between births of two of the children. There are various ways to continue the research. It’s time to get this on the plate, I would think.

https://thomasgardnerofsalem.blogspot.com/2023/12/thomas-gardner-puzzle.html

https://thomasgardnersociety.org/html/Research.html

....  end of comment .....

So, we have research to do. And, we are reconstructing our sites and blogs to fit the story. 

With respect to Thomas and Margaret, we will be looking for evidence that he came over here alone, at least twice, before he came over with Margaret and the children except Seeth who was born here. 

In the meantime, watch WikiTree for commentary and research results as well as our legacy site. 

Now, Chelsea, MA has its 400th this year. We will look at that shortly since the date is set for September 21. There have been activities so far this year that we can catch up on. 

Also, there are other towns to celebrate over several years: Quincy (2025); Salem (2026). 

400ths for Massachusetts 

Remarks: Modified: 07/14/2024

07/14/2024 -- Aside: the Salem History for the 400th does not mention Gardner. The 300th had a focus on the old planters who were not of the group associated with the Beverly land grant. The 200th would have been after the Revolution and 1812 Conflict and probably muted. The 100th? Worth looking into. And so, for the 500th, will we have something to add? As in, look to fill in some of the missing pieces.