Friday, July 31, 2026

Alchemy

TL;DR -- For three years now, we have seen a chase after several things: AGI; scaled computing; lots and lots more. Alchemy was respectable for a long while. It still ought to be. 

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The title? Some say that Aristotle so loved by science and pupil of Plato was the cause of the rise of this discipline. Heard of it? If not, alchemy is more than attempting to turn copper into gold in search of riches. Though, modern physics has altered matter. 

We are following another thread, though. You see, the search for AGI which we witnessed of late with the AIn't and tAIn't occupying our minds and computers while wasting gobs and gobs of resources is a modern example. And, it's here for us to study. 

On the other hand, wise engineers respect the efforts of alchemy which some say changed into modern chemistry. Here is an example reference from a College of Engineering. 

The Engines of Our Ingenuity (Cullen College of Engineering)  

The page starts with a quote from George Meredith:  

See ye not, Courtesy Is the true alchemy, 

Turning to gold all it touches and tries?

From asking if character (transformation thereof) might be an example of a proper pursuit for alchemy, the article looks at the history. Too, quantum mechanics is referenced as a modern example. For us, the work on quantum computers will be discussed under the guise of this post. 

We are also pursuing this since the LLMs seem to be falling apart. Companies pushed to bring this bad boy into the process of their company. Many times? Not finding the expected gains. 

Reminder, our theme is technology since the U.S. has lead in this area and will continue to do so. 


Alchemy has many concepts of note. For now, we can mention the active/passive pair. We will have a post about a new approach to designing Radio Frequency boards such as those in a phone. In that sense, the pathways of metal are passive with the flow and its control by components is active. One does not dominate the other. In another sense, geometry can be used as an example of the passive state; but, then one brings in the  algebraic parts of the system and active (via function) arises again. 

The search for AGI got lost. We will look at that. 

Note: As we proceed in discussing the complexities of STEM stuff, we will make use of the SEP. Here is an example in this context: Philosophy of Chemistry

Remarks: Modified: 07/31/2026

07/31/2026 -- 

Saturday, July 25, 2026

Ah, gaming as progress

TL;DR -- We picked technology. GenAI/LLM came along and offerer itself for analysis. Okay. But, let's drop to the chip level in order to set some groundrules prior to serious discussion. 

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Gaming? That which wastes time of the youth. The lure of Hollywood. Busyness and the machinations that are to take money from your pocket. Which of these? 

We have to set the ground rules first. That will take some time. And today, we look at technology. 

We need to get a discourse going with respect to GenAI/LLM and how to handle the messes that have accumulated over the past three years. A discipline that has been ignored will get some attention. Namely, knowledge based engineering (KBE) and its high-performance computing cousin (HPC). These two need to make up in order to bring peace and order to things computational.

Our human cousin, DTG, will serve as the master due to his 50+ years of researching the topic of All things Gardner. DTG brought us clarity with respect to the dynamics of history related to King Richard III of England. Too, he has ventured along the long threads of Gardner as a name. 

But, technology first. Browse and ask us to clarify the relationship or whatever of the following:  


This is one of the progressive steps beyond what Nvidia is trying to wrought upon the earth. Notice that there are several subjects that we will be covering in more depth. "graphics" is obvious to the gaming crowd; our technology focus will concentrate on the geometric aspects of such. That is, structure is at the core of all things related to knowledge. 


How is this? To be discussed will be a patent in the context of this post. Essentially, it demonstrates modeling for filtering and smoothing data in areas requiring high precision. The above link mentions this topic too, as well as both GPUs (graphics unit) and HPC

The discussion will stress "jerk" and the differences being ignored by the biologist as they pursue power without proper insight. That is written thus to be a hint. 

Remarks: Modified: 07/26/2026

07/26/2026 -- Input links. 

Saturday, July 11, 2026

2,000 years of history?

TL;DR -- DTG has been releasing under Gardner Family Trust. This post announces a recent one that has a long historical view. This hypothetical work has a basis that is beyond the current influences of SciFi that are so problematic. But, we have work to do in this area. 

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With the U.S. government buying into what I have been calling 'tAIn't, and the DoW diving in big time, can we go wrong following them? Well, we ought to be be aware. So, here is an example that I have been paying attention to. 

David Todd Gardner contacted me in the early 2010s, about the time that the body of Richard III was discovered. Briefly, people reading historical documents used modern techniques to pinpoint where the body would be if it had not been moved according to contemporary accounts. 

That's the key here? Are there records that will influence the historical view? Suppose some might have been found in Wales? 

Let me make a comment with respect to the 250th. Last year, we went to reference the papers of General Nathanael Greene which were just recently published. The first efforts (about 1/2 of the amount) were published after the 200 (1976). The research began a few decades after the Revolution was over. Slowly, people gathered documens which were mostly related to northern New England. The rest of the material related to Greene's term as General was mostly about southern New England. 

And, Greene won the war by cornering Cornwallis in 1781. The treaty was not signed until 1783. And, this guy got no notice for about 200 years? Washington was the one who put him in charge of the Southern Campaign

As we go through the six years of the conflict after the Delcaration celebrated lately, we will find research pulling out lots of interesting information. 

Unfortunately, the likes of Grok will add huge amounts of uncertainty, of a new type. More on that. 

So, DTG published this post under Gardner Family Trust. 


Using Grok for certain functions, DTG has pulled out and published information that had been largely stored in Wales. Grok was great at transcribing, it looks like. DTG, used OCR for the text processing. Then, having trained his system, DTG had Grok match up his material with known material. 

That is the point. What is published is generally a small set of the total information. Additionally, the profession of history, like any other, puts efforts into finding generalizations that work. Too, as this type of work progresses, algorithms come to fore, many through identification of patterns. 


But, taken too far, there is no provenance trace for the majority of this work. So, the caveat would be to consider the work as conjecture. But, pay attention as it may provide something useful. We cannot handle that type of judgment a priori. 

And, if that is not understood, we, at TGS, will go into that as necessary. There is reason that some companies are hiring philosophers. But, my counsel to them is that they are looking for good old autodidacts who have waded through all of these fields looking for the nuggets. And, finding them. 

As such, DTG's Grok work deserves some attention which we intend to provide as we go forward. For one thing, auxillary topics will be discussed. One example, the hype of recent vintage seems to have been driven by marketing or even SciFi interest. Whereas the preferred modes ought to relate to science that has sloughed along for over a century.  

Remarks: Modified: 07/04/2026

07/04/2026 --

Saturday, July 4, 2026

Iron roads

 TL;DR -- Rails. Iron roads. Puffing motion. The early view. 

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Wall Street Journal has had several articles on the 250th. Two days ago, they covered their view of the top inventions. We will go over this list. One issue had an image that we used in a post a while ago. Be mindful of the first year which was 1860, prior to the Civil War. By 1870, there was one thread out west. Then things boomed. 

Pace of change (29 Jun 2021)
Note comparison with the U.S. Post Office

Meanwhile, here are a few links to WSJ material. 

 As we have noted, the 250th needs to be in mind over the next few years, until the 250th of the 1783 peace treaty was signed with Britain. 

Remarks: Modified: 08/08/2026

07/04/2026 --