The Stargate Project

TL;DR -- Stargate, of late, is an example of so many things. Already, after a few days, the sides are being drawn. We are neutral with our technology focus. Kant, of the western pantheon, will be seen as important contributor to the proper analysis to settle some of the issues. Expected downturns, along several axes, ought to be part of the discussion, as well. We see a major communication gap between marketing (and the world of business) and basic science (including its application via engineering). 

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Note: This goes along with our interest in the 250th of the U.S. plus one of our sons who contributed: Josiah Willard Gibbs. A tie? Gibbs demonstrated the advantage of thinking about vectors. 

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There are many uses for "stargate" as this disambiguation page on Wikipedia shows. Some are related to Sci Fi which deals with technology in futurist or even "meta" sense which means "beyond" (Wikipedia). 

This week, some of the Techbros of SV were behind an announcement by President Trump.

• TheStargate Project --  joint venture with private money artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Many know of AI as it has become a familiar topic due to activities of the past couple of years that brought machine learning to the foreground with mixed results. One example was ChatGPT of OpenAI who, recently, teamed up with Oracle and MGX (company). 

Currently, we are not getting into specifics which will come after we do some looking at the past two years. For us, technology as a focus goes back to a post on 2 Jun 2019 in which we were recapping our technology influence since the start of the Thomas Gardner Society work. In other forums, we have followed and commented on progress in areas like machine learning, especially in the context of data science which is an area of focus. 

Computers and their use? We can trace this through the past few decades. Right now, though, we can point to a former program: Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) The US Department of Defense (USDOD) had been involved in computing from very early times, motivating choices along the way. Even in the 1960s, there was sufficient knowledge on the part of the public about computers for the news to do regular reporting. For example, in the mid-1960s, a film (2001) with an AI computer (HAL) was a huge hit. 

AI got its start in the 1950s. Work in this area has continued since then, even when not publicly known or under some other label. We will look at examples of that. 

But, the SDI was involved with more than computing. Science and engineering of weapons and defense methods were a main theme where the computer was for support. This is from the SDI article. 

• Advanced weapon concepts, including lasers,[4][5] particle-beam weapons, and ground and space-based missile systems were studied, along with sensor, command and control, and computer systems needed to control a system consisting of hundreds of combat centers and satellites spanning the globe. 

We will look at the choices that led to a decline in the enthusiasm for this program. But, there were many artifacts and systems that came out of this work. We will cover those items over time. 

Why did SDI cease? Early on, the computational side of things was seen as more complicated than could be handled by systems of the time. Then, the scientists started to weigh in on the expected physical systems and suggested that they could not be realized within the anticipated timeframe. Yet, there were things that carried on, with some of them available for data collection. 

That is mentioned as AI being taken over by ML (JMS - AI, not solely ML) is not a given with respect to success. The past two years have seen lots of discussion and words written. Many of the faults are obvious. The GenAI approach has not attained general appeal, except for playing around, and has not found any niche as was thought. Though, business has bought into the approach as it allows them to remove people off of the payroll. 

At the same time, there were some noticable degradations, perhaps more than can be documented without further study. But, who has an interest in that? Basic science and engineering were cut out of the process which seemed to have been mainly marketing driven. 

Some might see the Stargate and SDI connections as too tenuous. But, it's not to my old brain who has been involved for 50 years in advanced computing. Then, R&D was still in vogue. That went away. We now have this ca-pital-sino affair which is a chimera (paying only some; pilfering many). The past two decades have more than enough examples to look at in terms off what is important to consider and why that might be so. Psychology and philosophy, in both an applied and theoretic sense, will be brought to bear. And, people? The prime consideration. 

Fortunately, there are positions being taken that will make sure that the pros and cons are kept in mind. Right now, we are neutral as the faults are obvious. Real benefits from adopting AI are tainted by the marketing exuberance that seems eternal. 

 

Maturity? Again. One thing for sure, the world of humans has gone through about 200 years of evolution with technology. On one western line, we can use Kant's Logic and Prolegomena (those condensations point to his more extensive work) to establish a basis that was ignored for various reasons that we can discuss. One huge potential problem will be the results of the fallout that is inevitable just like we see with capital markets where value disappears, overnight sometimes. 

Crypto is there to remind us of how this can be. In the meantime, let's end with a Financial Times article: AI leaders clash over safety and $100bn Stargate project. Name calling and ad hominen was mentioned by Kant as something to avoid. 

Remarks: Modified: 01/25/2025

01/25/2025 -- 

Mary Gardner Boylston

TL;DR -- People. A proper focus. As we will show. The internet will allow this to come forth. On the other hand, records have been kept for centuries across the world. With respect to the U.S. which has its 250th coming up, we can go back to the 400th before. And, for some, back across the waters to the never peaceful Old World. We look at a couple of example families in which a tie-in with the 2nd President is featured. That type of threading can be done across many other countries. The computer? It's more than a seat for generating mania about "abstracted nonsense." 

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This post continues the theme of the 400th and 250th which relates to the founding of the U.S. This year has a major date for the 250th: Lexington and Concord. This battle led to the Boston event a month later. But, leaping forward, the conflict continued until 1783: Treaty of Paris. This type of post will have three topics covered. One will be an event. Another will be some details with respect to people involved. The third will deal with family or as some might argue, genealogy. Now, fortunately, Wikipedia has kept improving over the years, so their pages will feature heavily. This link goes to a timeline that is remarkably demonstrative of how to do things (I may be an editor, but there is no bais here). 

• Timeline of the American Revolution 

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When we started the Thomas Gardner Society in 2010, we knew a little about history and genealogy having started in the work in 2009 after retirement. Our first post was in 2011 (25 Sep 2010) after we had done some work, including a successful application to D.A.R. (DAR) (250th of the Revolution coming up in April) and for a few societies of the Heritage Society Community of the US (HSC) (400th of New England). One might say that we showed what we learned by going through the scrutiny of the organizations. 

But, many HSC applications have more generations to cover than does that of DAR. By our count, we say that the Revolution was done by the fifth generation. Below, we will look at that generation after considering the second generation. Below we will look at two families: Gardner; Adams. For a while, we will do all of our charts using the female side. The reason for this will be apparent at some point. 

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We have looked at the Adams family more than once: 

• Adams cousins -- looks at President John Quincy Adams and his cousin from the frontier, Grizzly Adams. 
• Another Adams -- looks at a generation or two later with respect to the development of Los Angeles and California as well as a tie into several modern firms, such as American Express. Business is a proper occupation of the New World. 

Mentioning the Revolution, the first U.S. President was George Washington (whose birthday is celebrated in February). The second was John Adams. Later, John's son, John Quincy, was President. There will be time spent on looking at the pedigree of many prominent individual as we did with the Harvard President collection (see History of Harvard). We started that after reading of a cousin and decided to go through the list so as to know the lineage of eacn. 

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Now, we would like to look at an example which includes several families. For each, the 1st generation would have come over the waters 400 years ago. Of course, there was a continual stream of immigrants over the centuries. We will look at the complete period from inception to now as we do these posts. 

2nd Generation -- In the 2nd, there were two sisters in the Gardner of Roxbury family with other siblings. Here is a pointer to the WikiTree profile for each. 

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  Tombstone of
  Mary (Gardner) Boylston

  Mary (Gardner) Boylston (1648 - 1722)
• Abigail (Gardner) Wise (1652 - 1735) 

Mary was older and married a Boylston while Abigail married into the Wise family. Abigail's husband, Rev John Wise (1652 - 1725 -- Harvard graduate), is known as one inspiration of the Declaration of Independence. 

5th Generation -- Coming forward in time to the 5th, Mary's line had John Adams (1735 - 1826. Her sister-in-law, Sarah (Boylston) Smith (1642 - 1711), was the forebear of Abigail Quincy (Smith) Adams (1744 - 1818) who was the well-known wife of John Adams. 

In that same 5th generation of John and Abigail Adams, the family of Mary's sister, Abigail Gardner Wise, had Susanna (Wise) Swasey (1744 - 1821) who was married to Major Joseph Swasey (1750 - 1816). Their daughter, Abigail (Swasey) Hodgkins (1774 - 1822) married Joseph Hodgkins (1768 - 1825). His uncle, Joseph Hodgkins (1743 - 1829), was featured in several publications.

• Joseph Hodgkins - Wikipedia: The letters between Hodgkins and his wife, Sarah, have served as an important historical footnotes since the early 1900s[2] for understanding the Revolutionary War and have been featured in such books as the Library of America's The American Revolution: Writings from the War of Independence, David McCullough's 1776, and Ray Raphael's A People's History of the American Revolution.

Abigail Wise (Hodgkins) Graves (1803 - 1879), daughter of Joseph Hodgkins and Abigail Swasey (6th generation) was the 3rd great-grandmother of Alfred L. Gardner (11th generation). 

Nine generations

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With respect to the HSC, John Wise (1652 - 1725)  was the grandson of Alice Freeman Thompson Parke who is the ancestor of many American families of note: Firestones, Fords, McCormicks, Rockefellers, Tiffanys, Whitneys, and J.P Morgan. In Alice's progeny, we can also note Princes William and Harry through their mother, Princess Diana. 

We have an interest in technology which of late has filled the news space with advanced software which is, supposedly, heading toward an artificial general intelligence. Expect that theme to be regularly discussed. Genealogy and history are properly candidates for technology assists. We already see that. This example of a research paper on Alice's children and their offspring is a look at four generations.   

An underlying lack of the sense of foundations is our prime concern where the mathematics involved in the modern systems needs more attention paid to its use. Making decisions about the future using systems and processes that are not understood ought to raise a flag not unlike what Ralph Nader did back in the 60s with regard to an automobile. 

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We expect the next eight years to be fun. One hundred years ago with the 300th anniversay (see Remarks: 01/18/2025 - below), WWI was a damper. We will look at that further. Too, current technology has helped research to improve from what we saw 100 years ago. Hence, we have newer information to incorporate in our database which will necessitate updates of existing documention some of which can be 150 years old. There is no end to the work. 

But, technology brings problems, too. This is an old theme which generates interminable interest. 

With respect to the marketing of AI, there is a cultural split almost everywhere one looks. That is, bifurcations seem to be natural. An important one today is the gap between science/engineering of computing (which spawned GenAI in a troublesome manner) and marketing which has almost diametrically opposed views. 

From a truth engineering sense, both are errant. What is the common ground that if defined can be spread around for more clarity on issues of a complex nature (such as, what's at the bottom? Chaos?). 

Remarks: Modified: 01/18/2025

01/18/2025 --  Pageant of Salem is an exmple of the events from 1924. It provides a good view of the thinking at that time. Now, 100 years later, we know more since we have digitized copies of old documents coming on line. See this post: 250th and more. 

The Carters

TL;DR --  Many families have long ties of family history going back over the 400 years. Then, the Revolution came 150 years later. Recently, President Jimmy Carter passed on. We got motivated and looked at his ancestry and that of his spouse. They have New England ancestors from the early times. They have cousins, too, the singing Carter family one of whose members married Johnny Cash. There are many families that we can consider as we did with the Adams family (of the 2nd President of the U.S.). And, there are other groups and evnts to commemorate. The U.S. has many organizations devoted to keeping this type of history alive. With technology, things will get even more interesting. 

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We have always paid attention to collateral families. With WikiTree, many families can trace a relationship map that goes beyond blood connections and in-laws. One can see cultural ties through time that will become more visible as people become aware, via technology, of them and their importance. 

The 250th of the U.S. (which starts in April of this year and goes until the 250th of the end of the Revolutionary War) will be several years in duration and will generate interest in research. The Carters are an example family that we can pay attention too. Our ancestor, Thomas Gardner, was in north New England. The ancestors of the Carters was of the New England of the South (Virginia, &c.). There are ties between the regions and families that have already been touched upon. We'll pull those together this year as we pay attention to the 400th families who continued here until they helped the U.S. get started.

Just as we did with the Adams family (Another Adams), where we associated Pres. John Quincy Adams with his later cousin "Grizzly" Adams (of TV fame - except that was an actor playing a role - Grizzly Adams was a real dude), we can look at the Carters. Johnny Cash married June Carter (Wikipedia) who was a descendant of Thomas Carter. This family was hugely successful in music. 

These Carters have many cousins in the U.S. and elsewhere. People might talk of the distance of the relationship, but relattionship can have meaning in terms of the U.S.  

Recently, President James Earl Carter (Wikipedia) was in the news, having died in December with a recent Day of Remembrance being held in the U.S. in which there was a service at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. According to WikiTree, President Carter has an interest family tree. His ancestor, Thomas Carter, came into Virginia in 1635. There was major amount of arrivals in the north in that year, too. 

For now, putting that aside, let's look at the First Lady: Eleanor Rosalyn Carter, has a New England pedigree, as well: Wikipedia; WikiTree. We will start with her as she has Patriots that have been proven for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution who has, with others, been working to organize remembrance of the start of the U.S. for several years now. We will look at those activities as well as what is needed to carry on the work. 

The First Lady Carter had these Patriots (quick survey, so not complete).

• Benjamin Jacobs (1747-1827) - D.A.R. record 
• John Jennings, Sr - D.A.R. record 
• Etheredge - D.A.R. record 

D.A.R.'s records represents the work that goes into proving history and genealogy which represents lots of hours spent by volunteers. 

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Additionally, there is an organization that has a broader role than D.A.R. with many other organizations as members. Named The Hereditary Society Community (HSC) of the United States, this collection of groups meet yearly in Washington, D.C. and are another example of continued interest and research. 

Of interest is one historic event that the HSC honors and which influenced the U.S. Namely, we will see a reflection this year on one (in 1225 AD) of several attempts in old England to establish a Magna Carta. 

• Magna Carta (Wikipedia)
• Commeration in 2015 by U.S. and Britain
  
• 25 Sureties 

Most attendees at HSC meetings from the U.S. have heritage back to the 400-years-ago arrival as well as having an ancestor who was at the 1215 event at which King John sealed the deal. These were barons who were to see that John behaved. Up to 2015, there was a major effort to document these folks on Wikipedia. As well, WikiTree had a project to prove the ancestors on this side of the pond. 

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President Carter was a definite technologist. Too, he had different views that we can discuss. His willingness to pick up a hammer at an old age tells a lot about his character. 

The past two years of GenAI have brought to the fore issues needing discussion and resolution. Our take on that matter is that there is a balance to be attained. We would like to phrase it in those extremes of the modern time: screen or hammer. If that does not make sense, we definitely have some work to do to establish the definitions of the imperatives that living successfully and sustainably requires. 

Remarks: Modified: 01/13/2025

01/13/2025 --  

Simmons Foundation, on training AI

TL;DR -- Jim Simmons has been almost a myth due to his success hidden behind the walls of the "hedge" phenomenon. However, his Simmons Foundation is non-profit and open. And, their approach is amenable to what we want to focus on, define, and accomplish. An example of the Foundation's work is shown. 

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I have followed Simmons' work from a distance for a while. Jim Simmons is an example of the mathematics and physics interest in things economic and financial which needs some scrutiny. We have written on that approach which leads to a non-sustainable economy several times. However, Simmons founded a non-profit: Simmons Foundation (SF). 

That caught our attention, as an example of approaches that merits attention and as we noted with the Gairdner Foundation's work. The Gairdner focus is older and bio-medical. SF has a broader perspective which aligns with our technology thrust. 

A news article got us to look at SF a little closer today. This work caught our eye, in particular. But, their overall thrust is appealing. This is an example. 

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  New Datasets Will Train AI Models To Think Like Scientists - example of curating the data prior to training. As well, the specifics will be interesting as this approach would allow heavily accurate machine learning (ML) systems that would be locally expert. 
  

Okay, given that, let's get back to the foundational issues. We use AIn't for very good reason. Too, the emphasis ought to be ML. And, "think like scientists"? That is hugely debatable, and without resolution which we intend to show. 

What is missing is "adult" leadership in the equations underlying decisions plus any understanding that by necessity is imperative. We will get to the expected resolutions, eventually. How and why will not be subject to the extreme attempts at control as we see coming from the "numeric" camp. 

Most of the material has been touched upon in our posts abetted by links ot other sources. So, the work will be more than indexing and determining proper generalizations. We have to resolve open issues which are not new, generally. The means for proper research is there after decades of maturing systems brought by the efforts of many. Processes need to follow suit and will through time and effort.  

Remarks: Modified: 01/13/2025

01/13/2025 --  

Warning, on AI

TL;DR -- The Nobel's can be used to learn the history of science and to discuss choices made plus their ramifications through time. 2024 showed the Nobel focus on machine learning. In general, we can find many types of warnings that are not being heeded or even discussed. 

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We mentioned the Nobel prizes this year, several times, example: Nobel Week. Because of the theme of some prizes in 2024, we finally paid attention. The Nobels can be used to trace the history of science since the Awards started so as to have philosophical discussions about choices. Why related ANN merely to mathematical physics? Wait, physics underlies everything else intellectually, one view says. 

Okay, fair enough. But the mathematical frameworks related to physics go far beyond those used so far in GenAI. This is an empirical matter that can be an ongoing discussion. GenAI came on the scene in 2022. We saw 2023 as a get acquainted time where sides of the issues were established. Cautions were thrown to the wind in 2024 as things went full speed ahead. Yet, the issues of hype continued to exist in public view. 

But, the use of ML (the AI of current mode) has exploded across the land. Repercussions are imminent (which timeframe?). Perhaps, we'll learn something. 

So, Scientific American provided us an opinion that express a "Warning about AI" which compares things to the bomb era and race. The author has a site and partners: Not just Math; Partnership on AI. 

Did the Nobel choices add to the necessary conversation? We have not seen yet anything positive, but it is still early. And the topic is here to stay. 

Along with its machine intelligence focus in the Prizes, the Nobel committee honored a person attempting to end nuclear war. 

Remarks: Modified: 01/10/2025

01/10/2025 --  

U.S. and growth

TL;DR -- The U.S.? We know when it started. We can look back before it was there. And, we can come forward. This post presents an image that covers several decades and the growth of the U.S. through acquistion and depicts some of the details for those major events. 

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This image was in a post on Facebook. Its provenance can be ascertained including the FB post. The title mentions "Western Social Studies" which we can research as well, 

However, from the viewpoint of the 250th, this image shows the partitioning of the U.S. in terms of the acquistion time with some information that is particular to the events. 

We see the area of the colonial period on the right. Florida is below that. The western territories up to the Mississippi are to the left of the colonial. Then, we have the west where huge amounts of land were acquired. This is the list of topics to study:

•  Lousiana Purchase of Jefferson -- represents the largest portion. 
• Texas and Oregon frame the left coast with its interior which was obtained from Mexico. 
• Mexican Cessation - this came from the Alta California portion of New Spain.  

The image show the time and population acquired for each of these areas. It also shows a nice bit of work representing the information and is an example of technology advancement. 

As an aside, on FB, the post got lots of comments some of which voice a difference in view. That type of range of opinion will be sought as people strive to express their viewpoint which is the sort of thing that the internet/web attempts to encourage. 

Our focus will continue with history and genealogy. In terms of history, the 250th can motivate us to learn more about our country. As well as those two subjects, we will be addressing technology.  

Remarks: Modified: 01/02/2025

01/02/2025 --