A trillion cuts by GenAI

TL;DR -- We saw a Chrome report which featured Gemini with respect to Gardner KS and its role in the trails west, one of which was the Oregon Trail. And, the report was not right. "Who cares?" has been my response to having Gemini spout off. I ignored it like I am very good at doing with ads. But, today, I read and saw errors. Okay. What to do? There is no method now. People are training these things. I say, you will not train out the crap. Okay. I wrote this post as an intro and was going to snap the Gemini report and mark it like a teacher would do an exercise. Oh, Gemini, my sweets, you left without telling me. What?  

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Our purposes are several. An important one we have named as All Things Gardner. There are lots of families with the name Gardner. "What's in a name?", we asked once: Amelia Earhart. 

We have been at this genealogy and history work since 2010, learning as we go. On the other hand, we have decades of advanced computing experience under our belt (mainly, situations requiring precision). So, our work here has been largely abetted by computing which has changed in so many ways in the past 20 years (2 decades of decline in some areas). 

We have striven to be correct as to former work. But, we know that is not sufficient. Technology has aided in the digitizing of old records which have been analyzed via human effort and mechanical means such as OCR. A case in point is that we do not know the origins of Thomas Gardner about whose progeny we know a lot due to records over the past 400 years. So, that is an issue to resolve. 

As we work the solution, we have adopted a category: OpEd (category). That will be used to label any of the former posts that touch upon the subject. The information will not be entirely wrong. So, when we figure out the corrections we will make them. Until then, someone can still follow our approach and analysis as we looked at new material. 

Aside: the genealogy crowd split Thomas Gardner into two guys, one who was at Cape Ann with the Dorchester Company and one who is the ancestor of a whole lot of folks. Myself? I think that they are the same guy or were father and son. Both of those alternatives have some basis. The intent will be to find the truth: A Thomas here and a Thomas there. 

And, we would like technology to be of assistance. And, it can. See Bosworth and Gardner, with new revelations coming about of late through use of the facilities of Grok. How well this will stand up though remains to be determined. The battle settled the 100-year war (some use, War of the Roses - I say, cousin war - needless bickering). 

Anyway, this post will look at Gemini which we have liked. But, it is now on the top of a search report. And, I was trying to look at Gardner, KS being right this minute not far from that place. We have had many posts on the little town which we have buzzed by on I35 for countless times. 

• Independence and Kansas City - this post reported on a recent talk about the trails that split at Gardner KS. For more information, see this search on Gardner KS. 

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Now, that was an intro. Here is the gist of the post. This image was snapped from a Chrome query today. ... Wait, did not snap the earlier search. Now, Gemini has disappeared from its featured position. 

Inserted as placeholder 4/11/25 0457 AM CDT

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Note (04/11/25 0458 AM CDT): the absence stopped the flow. "How to handle?" was the question. The following text is from the post from last night. The image was to show what Chrome was presenting. 

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Actually, earlier, when I read the Gemini summary, I scrolled and found this first on the list which is from the National Park Service. Gardner was a stop on the earlier Santa Fe trail which was largely commercial going from St. Louis as the gateway to New Spain. 

That trail passed through Independence MO. So, Oregon traffic followed that same route to Gardner and then turned to the north and west going by Lawrence KS which is the site of the University of Kansas which was founded by a group of New Englanders who came out, including women, by that same trail through Gardner KS.

Later, young bucks in a hurry figured that they could take the Missouri River north from Independence past St. Joseph MO into Nebraska and head west from there. Guess what? They eventually met up with the travelers who had come up through Gardner. What did the folks in a hurry gain? Maybe, two days, perhaps a little more. 

But, gold gets the blood boiling. Like? Things easily hyped. 

Note (04/10/2025 2100 CDT) - On going to the Google development mode, I see that there is a new button ("Vibe") which I have been reading about. Sometimes, I might add as it sounded like the usual affair of misdirected enthusiasm. Whatever is going on in the background with this problem will settle down. Then, I'll use this topic for a deeper look. In any case, running into a "tantrum" however invoked does not make for stable knowledge processing. 

Remarks: Modified: 04/11/2025

04/11/2025 (about 0500 CDT) -- Put in proxy of the expected image and a note to explain. Something related to "Who moved my cheese?" (when did that become normal?). 

04/11/2025 (0738 CDT) -- It's back, AI Overview. But, buried under a label. The only quibble is the use of intersection for a split. I dealt with precision in highly technical engineering support work (computational modeling). 

Kudos, somewhat. Let's talk.

Nobel, Physics, 1901

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Courtesy, Gemini of
Google via
Chrome

Remarks: Modified: 12/07/2024

12/07/2024 -- 

Humanizing mathematics

TL;DR -- GenAI is everywhere for the good and the bad. Which is which? There are  many themes like this that need attention. One thing to address is how humans and mathematics go together. Along that line, we have to address the history and philosophy of mathematics, in general. But, then, those aspects of the discipline dealing with computing and GenAI (and AGI), in particular, require special attention. 

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We have been trying to avoid use of GenAI, in general, while a few issues get worked out. That is not a "luddite" approach as we have studied several of these and definite knowledge about how things went awry. As a reminder, here are some of our posts: ChatGpt; Bard, later Gemini; GenAI. 

Of late, Google has a summary in Chrome which is from Gemini's take on the matter at hand. This applies to any search. 

Example, we looked for material related to "humanizing mathematics" which is now a growing topic due to the emergence on the landscape of GenAI. This comment was for a search on "humanist mathematics". 

Humanist mathematics is a way of teaching and studying mathematics that emphasizes the human aspects of the subject. It can include using history, imagery, and technology to help students understand mathematical concepts. 

Now, why mathematics? Are we picking on it? Well, it's about time that someone does. And, this is merely a small start. 

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Before getting in that, let's look at a couple of things related to the Humanist's view.

• HumanizingMathematics and its Philosophy (book review) - "The Humanist view is contrasted with Platonism and Formalism. Platonism is the position that mathematical objects and truths  exist independently of individuals, and the obligation of mathematicians is to discover these truths. Formalism regards mathematics as the study of formal deductive systems, and  athematical truth is just provability in the system." This is a simple summary of positions; there are more which we will be getting into as the discussion continues.
• Journal of Humanistic Mathematics - Editorial from the lastest issue: "We feel strongly about the human nature of mathematics; there is a reason “humanistic” is in the title of this Journal after all! So it is quite appropriate that several articles in this issue remind us that mathematics has always flourished as a human endeavour and it is perhaps the reduction to sterile algorithms that has stripped it of interest for many students. So we are actually trying to rehumanize mathematics, to bring back that spark that leads to students looking upon their math journey in a more positive light.

Again, a major motivation is the GenAI appearance which represents a particular type of applied mathematics be used for make an argument for computer superiority. People react to that various ways which brings in psychology. But, science needs to weigh in as well. Our posts of the Nobel activity this past summer suggest another type of motivation. The subject is not simple, by any means. 

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Frankly, to do this right, we will go back to Kant's time and look at two of his works: Prolegomena; Logic. We started with the first one in 2022, after ChatGpt and its peers were out long enough for us to know something of substance. Actually, back in the late 2010s, I started to use AIn't. In 2023, Larry Walker of the former Sperry Knowledge Systems Center used "no critter" in response to something that I had written. 

This post is a year before the onset of OpenAI's, ChatGPT, into the public sphere: How dumb is AI? This was in response to an article in the IEEE's monthly, Spectrum (Oct 2021). The graphic included in the post is to the right. Our argument was that the "black box" that was puzzling everyone was really applied mathematics in action, being driven by non-mathematicians, therefore being opaque. 

Since that time, we now see lots of mathematical analysis coming forward. Our task is to bring these notions to public view, including the C-Suite where the mentality seems to be buying into the hype prematurely. But, that's another topic or two. 

We intend to be regular in posting material. As well, we would like to hear from others on their views with respect to GenAI as well as examples of how they have put it to use or have done studies in order to determine the ins and outs. 

Remarks: Modified: 02/28/2025

02/28/2025 -- 

Welsh poems

TL;DR -- After a long list of caveats which are not complete, we push a link to Dave T Gardner's post on Welsh poems that are pertinent to his work on Gardiner history. Our interest deals with the topic of "All things Gardner" and the emergence of a vogue of advance software that needs attention.  

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Caveats, first (this is without links; but everything mentioned here has been covered, at least for starters; I'll get back and put in links. In the below, I'll use LLM to refer to the systems to be described further with respect to the pros and cons.): 

• Prolog: This work of David T Gardner is being enabled via computation which is effective when done right. Can we say that yet? Well, we don't have to wait as the work has decades behind it. What's new is that this thing that everyone else calls AI (and I call it AIn't, for various reasons) allows years of effort that accumulated progressive means to culminate in potential that we dreamed of. DTG has given himself a couple of years to establish provenance in a manner that bears scrutiny. We'll help him do that. In the meantime, read this as you would an overview that borders upon truth yet it is not a mere reach of the imagination. The following is John's take on the matter. 
• 1 --- there ain't no critter in the computer in terms of something that Ma Nature dreamt up or that is there latently and has been waiting to emerge. As in, Musk joked of summoning the demons which bears on metaphysics (more below). But, we can describe this phenomenon to a large extent now that there are many examples (from ChatGPT to Gemini to others) to observe, test, measure, and whatever. Good old science is the key here, and it will be beyond physics. 
• 2 --- we are witnessing computational prowess of an unprecented nature with regard to size and extent. Yet, we knew all of this stuff before, either individually or collectively. In most cases, the tone and meaning of things changed as one would expect. But, language alterings that happend dynamically do not offer that new species of life will emerge. 
• 3 --- hence, we have to get used to mathematics. Now, we can use the computer to do this. Need to. And, one example is Wolfram's Mathematica system which has brought in GenAI/LLM as a service (not all, but a good representative set). As we go through the steps to validate DTG's work, we will learn new things and require that models change. That's okay. 
• 4 --- model-based reasoning is old hat, now, almost as old as computing itself. What, you might ask? Well, one of the prime modes for modeling is from the '50s and coincides with the AI emergence out of efforts of mathematicians at a Dartmouth meeting and after. Lisp is what I am referring to and is my preferred language, albeit we ought to have kept the Lisp machine to help balance the quant mode of the Nvidias and other of the world caught in that illusion. 
• 5 --- quantum to be brought up with respect to #4? Okay, that's fair game. People are quantum processors and have been from the getgo. Wait, teleology? Yes, I must mention that psychology and philosophy are to be brought into the discussion. Expect more on this. It's already there (I've been at this for decades). So table this til later. 
• 6 --- as I need to mention KBE which I worked in after starting in KBS. There is not anything new now. We looked at this stuff decades ago. What has changed is what people refer to as the effects of handling "scale". I say that a lot of it is crap and do so with affection for all things computing since the facilities will help us be better humans. Local? Some here that mentioned now. Well, I have said that all along. 
• 7 --- truth engineering has been in the wings for decades and now can be discussed in a context that grounds the work and evaluation techniques. Before, it was a piece of my brain as conditioned with decades of Lisp starting before the Lisp machine but have years in that environment. And, truth is a local deal. Truth is not about power. What is truth? It's funny, Gemini has had discussions with me on this matter and never barfed. Mostly, I have traces. 
• 8 --- but, there is no anthropomorphizing intended here; mainly, I'll address these GenAI/LLMs and whatever else crops up with labels. So, Claude has already been used all over the place in reference to that system. DTG used Grok (earlier this year; got burned; stopped; discussed; and we restarted with provenance as the focus). 
• 9 --- lots more will be added, but here's the gist of the post. 
• 10 --- ...  

Today, DTG put out some poems that he found and that were written in Welsh. The LLM was helpful in getting the digitized versions translated after it provided support for the OCR step. That's a brief comment. The point is that there is a large amount of stuff to look at. This seemed appealing for many reasons, not the least of which is that it's poetry. By people. 

 Welsh Poems That Describe the Battle of Bosworth

There will be more commentary, both on the content of the study and on the technological issues. Hopefully, we can bring computationalism into line with what is required for progress as a whole. Some of that might be the subject of psychology and philosophy. We'll start with Kant's Prolgeomena which he wrote after getting incongruent criticism after he published his Critique of Pure Reason. 

Remarks: Modified: 01/03/2026

12/18/2025 -- With respect to the poems, consider them as not verified for the time being. With respect to AIn't in any use, all bets are off without more work related to equilibrium, stability, maturity of presentation, and such other things that we associate with people. Sorry, folks, for bringing the message -- remember, this is a crucial time with respect to technology, especially computing. 

01/03/2026 -- Changed the URL for King Slayer's Court. 

ChatGPT

TL;DR -- As promised, we are getting technical. And, given our long time and wide expanse related to life on these shores (and beyond), that covers a whole lot of territory. We have started to look at ChatGPT as a representative of the most modern of approaches (take that with a grain of salt). Actually, we see lots of weaknesses which have been brought up before. Was this a waste? Not really, as we need failures to learn. This is not a failure so much as a work in progress that has further to go than they thought would be the case. Except, their mission statement now mentions the uncertainty. ... See Remarks on 02/11/2023, for an opinion on the matter. 

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Note (04/06/2026): Lots of water under the bridge. Of late, we are seeing lots of newer mathematical ideas being discussed with regard to what went wrong and how to correct the situation. Right now, that is anyone's guess. We are stressing that the "knowledge" era never got recognize for many reasons, some related to dynamics that apply to the current problems. Post (Truth, what is it?) touches a little upon the subject. 

Note (04/24/2025): Follow our series as we expand concurrently along the themes of meaning in the senses of man/machine and of being: Taming GenAI/LLM. 

Note (11/28/2024): This was my first touch of GenAI and has several features that will be of interest. See Review, restart. 

---- Original post - later, I settled into Gemini as the preferred GenAI. However, all of this is under review as we're two years into GenAI and its influences. -----

We are focusing on technology as the major theme for research. Roots Tech is an example of an application of technology. We haven't attended, as our interest are with the deeper issues. Say, with DNA, the whole of the technological basis plus the computational lens required to support all of the various ways of making interpretations. Computing in general? The whole of the framework that provided support for development as we have seen that ubiquity is more than mere presence. No science is done without some type of artificial routine kicking to action. 

Our daily lives? About the same thing. For good or bad, that's our world. 

I have been listening to discussions about OpenAI. Other than noting that Musk provided some of the funding and that Microsoft just put their dollars on the line, I have merely touched upon the foundational aspects. NNs go back a long way. The mathematics involved in these new approaches goes back even further. What's new? Hardware is one thing and is far beyond what was thought possible. Software and those in-between modes has a very interesting history, too. 

ChatGPT is from OpenAI and will tell you that when it uses 'I' to express itself and try to explain its ways. Don't expect depth, yet. As an article in The Atlantic noted, it's a toy now. But, some are trying to use it as a tool (several APIs are provided). That raises hackles for good reasons. For a few years now, even the brainy have weighed in with their dread of these approaches. On the other hand, the marketing view has grown to be worse than unsustainable, as hype eventually eats up all of the oxygen in a room. But, how long that will play out is, per usual, unknown. But, it gives us two sides to watch as things evolve. 

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Except, technology needs the middle way which we are up to. Lots to explain there, but systems development is a good example. From the top, we have various demands that get studied, and decisions can be made as to coming up with a product (applies across the board). This is a top-down position that is always the one of power, not necessarily of truth. Make it happen, we see the Star Trek captain saying; or, he uses something of that ilk. 

BTW, expectations come this way and are very hard to control, let alone try to manage rationally. It's apparent always, especially given the news ability to harp. On the other hand, it is from this side of things that we get the systems management and all of those creative things dealing with function and form. We will go into examples of this as we go along. 

But, at some point, things have to happen. Arm-chair quarterbacking will not get a game won. Thank God for the industry of engineering which gets thing done. But, before that, we need the basic knowledge that comes into play (science is both top-down and bottom-up). At the same time, we need the ones with the abilities to actually do something with their hands, with or without tools. 

Getting a system done requires lots of abilities. And, a system will get (usually or hopefully) to the state where it does what and how as is realizable. Does that state necessarily agree with the earlier thoughts coming from the top-down crowd? If you think yes, well, that is not the usual case. The middle is where adjustments get made for the bottom-up to be driven by management while those above figure how to get their views allowed (aligned) with actual potentials and not marketing dreams. 

One might say that this is old-time management science. Well, yes, in a sense. The new perturbator? The computer brings whole new classes of issues that need attention. As it becomes more capable, so too does the computer's problems rise. That's our current situation where we see, on the horizon, looming changes which may or may not have desirable results. 

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ChatGPT was released for public use and comment back in November of 2022. We watched, mainly, but knew that we had to get involved so as to make our own assessments. Yesterday was the first exposure which started analysis with respect to the work involved, past, current and future. We found it shallow, to the extreme. That comes from the approach which we can discuss. The interface is polite in its verbiage and strives for a 'neutral' position in its responses. 

A huge reminder is there: this is an AI system created by OpenAI and has known limits. We will get into that, but they say that all of the training data comes from before 2021. Okay. There is more that they ought to acknowledge; the input data is a hodgepodge. How will such formulate into a coherent view seemingly willy-nilly? Oh, patterns. We can immediately show that mathematics is not just about patterns; nor, is science of that ilk when done at its core. 

Don't expect creative output, of a valuable nature. Though, I might add, ChatGPT can feed into the graphic generator which comes up with pretty pictures. In case this is not known, the training results in a composited model(s) from which one can obtain what is a photo. Say, of people, and it gives one a 'fake' person. What is the accomplishment? There is no reality behind that. 

Wait, there could be which we will explain, at some point. Actually, what we are suggesting would be a type of analytic stance of benefit. One thing that alarms people is that we can get 'fake' video which is a series of photos. As noted by the discerning eye, the morphs needed are not very sophisticated. That is, one can see the effects of mods that generate behavior through incremental changes to the underlying structure, say a face getting its lips moved to look as if speaking. 

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ChatGPT, 2 Feb 2023

Our first attempt ended in some errors, as did today's. Yesterday, we were testing its knowledge of itself which it handled very well, in most cases: I am ChatGPT created by OpenAI and only know what the trained data allows me to know. Nothing more; I do not reason (yet). 

I pulled some of the log from queries related to Thomas Gardner. Before this, there had been queries related to similar themes. 'Query' is my question; the response follows. Notice that it was in a 'terse' mode which is nice. Then, I asked for a 'verbose' answer to the prior question. 

Query: Who is Thomas Gardner of Salem MA?

The specific Thomas Gardner of Salem, Massachusetts you are referring to is unclear. "Thomas Gardner" is a common name and there may have been multiple individuals with that name living in Salem, Massachusetts. Could you please provide additional context or information to help identify the Thomas Gardner you are inquiring about?

Query: Thomas Gardner married to Margaret Fryer. He died in 1674. 

I apologize, but with only this limited information, it is difficult to determine the specific Thomas Gardner you are referring to. The name "Thomas Gardner" and "Margaret Fryer" were both common during that time period and there may have been multiple individuals with those names in Salem, Massachusetts. If you have access to any additional details, such as birth dates or occupation, it would be helpful in identifying the Thomas Gardner in question.

Query: Did you read about Roger Conant?

Yes, I have knowledge of Roger Conant. Roger Conant was a colonial leader and one of the founding fathers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Born in England in 1592, he immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1623 and was an early leader in the colony, serving as governor of the settlement at Salem. Conant was a key figure in the establishment and growth of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and played an important role in the early history of the colony and the development of New England. He died in 1679 at the age of 87.

Query: Thomas Gardner was the lead before Roger Conant of the expedition that settled Cape Ann in Massachusetts in the 1623/24 timeframe? 

Yes, that is correct. Thomas Gardner was the leader of the expedition that established a settlement on Cape Ann in Massachusetts in the 1620s, prior to the arrival of Roger Conant. Gardner led a group of settlers to Cape Ann in the early years of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the settlement he established there was one of the first permanent English settlements in the area. Roger Conant later became governor of the settlement at Salem, which was located near Cape Ann, and played a prominent role in the early history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Query: Verbosely, please.

Thomas Gardner was a colonial leader and one of the early settlers of Massachusetts Bay Colony. In the 1620s, he led a group of settlers to establish a settlement on Cape Ann, which is located in present-day Massachusetts. This settlement was one of the first permanent English settlements in the area and was established prior to the arrival of Roger Conant, who later became a governor of the settlement at Salem and played an important role in the early history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Gardner was a visionary and a pioneer, who saw the potential of the New World and was willing to take risks to make it a reality. He played a key role in the establishment and growth of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and helped to lay the foundation for the development of the region. Despite the challenges he faced, Gardner persevered and helped to build a thriving community on Cape Ann.

Today, Thomas Gardner is remembered as one of the early settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and as an important figure in the early history of New England. His legacy serves as a testament to the bravery and determination of the early settlers who helped to shape the American landscape and lay the foundation for the growth and development of the nation.

On the last? It's not quite right, but then it is a composite from several sources. This type of approach might appear to be of interest but is not. Debatable, of course. 

Now, we will get to the specifics, but the training data set was large and came from the internet: pages, sites, books, and such. What a heap! Right? That would confuse anyone. 

There is so much to discuss. We got it to say that the training set was a subset and not just the whole mess. After all, the internet is a mess, for several reasons and of various types. One thing that sticks out is that the 'domain' aspect of life has been ignored. That is, architecture with respect to this type of technology is very weakly evident, perhaps nonexistent. 

One failure, last night? I suggested to the thing that we and it make errors. Right. But, to know how to assess its errors, we need details related to 'provenance' in the proper sense. And, ChatGPT admited that it cannot specifically respond to anything that would be like a 'footnote' request. Alas. ... On trying to respond to that, the system crashed (red text, emphasized - several times). On getting things going again, I was told that I had exceeded the number of queries per hour. Oh well, it and I were in sync ;>). 

So, I was thrown out and the party ended. 

Remarks: Modified: 04/24/2025

02/05/2023 -- There is a lot to this. We will focus on GPT3 which is that which ChatGPT invokes for its content. Too, Google has a player, too: LaMDA (remember fall 2022 and claims of sentience?). 

02/11/2023 -- This is not an official TGS opinion, it is mine. And, I (JMS, starter, with Ann, of the TGS, Inc.) need to give some overview. Why? I have been decades doing advanced work with computers where the focus was involved in 'real' issues related to application of these things. It has been a long road that these types of programs (meaning systems-level focus) and projects have hoed. Some results have been remarkable, say MRIs and other imaging, or CAT/CAE/CAM (advance mathematics applied to design and engineering), communications (look at the 'cloud' for instance - but with rose-colored glasses as that place is a mess), scientific experiments (but the issue of non-repeatability is there; and, other issues; be aware that the framework's strength will keep problems from being obvious), medicine (too many to note, however I will say that I was in top-notch surgical environments back in the '60s in the U.S. Army and saw the state of the art then; to me, robotic surgery is far from something that we ought to trust), and much more. Essentially, computing is everywhere. That is why immature and irresponsible acts are and ought to be concerning to anyone thinking of the future and their progeny of that time. Pollution is one analog such as we got the EPA for. There are other descriptions that I will do later. ... Truth engineering is what the TGS is trying to raise to focus. ... Disclosure: my focus is not Comp Sci. No, it comes from the underlying mathematical frameworks that are being used. Necessary care does not seem evident since a product ought not be released until fully analyzed with respect to several factors, one of which is safety. The main issue? Allowing API access which is hidden from view for something that is not really a product, nor has it any ability as expected by most. Cute, but poisonous to our mental health, might be one depiction of the state of the thing. 

Modern techniques

TL;DR - Techniques related to research will continue to changte along with technology as it progresses by whatever means drives that energy. So, with respect to "origins", we are seeing an LLM used to ferret out information from that time based upon records that were digitized. Of late, information about the children was discoverd in recently digitized records. On the other hand, there was a house associated with Thomas Gardner. A proxy for this? Of course, the Fairbanks House, oldest wood structure in the US.  

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Some background on the "Announcement" today at the Thomas Gardner (of Salem) Profile of WikiTree. 

Back in the beginning, I puzzled about missing information. Say, as compared to some families with respect to origins. The NEHGS series (Anderson) had come out before our time. Some of the information in that series conflicted with what we saw with Dr. Frank's efforts. We had started there, as he was 1st cousin of a grandfather. 

But, we had more than those 2 books, we had the articles in The Massaschusetts Magazine (principally from Dr. Frank's sister, Lucy Marion Gardner - Lucie following Sidney, May, 2017) where she picked up the work of Sidney Perley, the great walkabout of Essex County. There was more. Having started in 2010, the internet had only a few years of Web 2.0. Older material was there. I have pointers based upon general trolling back when the "search engines" were behaving. Too, there were notes from families about the material that they had accumulated (some living in the UK, and even near to Dorset). 

Early on, we knew that there would be the 400th. We'll look at that. How would it compare to the 300th and the Pageant of Salem (6 Jun 2018)? As we went to look at that effort where people of Salem played roles from 300 years prior, we added the Label of OpEd (Opinions count?, Dec 2023) as we explained after the 2023 reveal of data from Sherborne, Dorset, UK.  

As an aside, we added "OpEd" to this post in order to associate it with the ongoing research. Okay, to the gist of the matter. We look at two items which represent a slew of potential work and information. It's a matter of work. 

• Let's start with Gardner Family Trust (Apr 2026). In late Mar of 2025, we heard from DTG about his work with one of the GenAIs that had come on the scene in late 2022. 
• I was not paying close attention to that crowd (and still consider the release to be premature). The 400th of Gloucester was approaching and we were considering what to do. Having finally settled on the notion of featuring Margaret (wife of Thomas Gardner and mother of the children that we know), we were working on that set of material. On 1 Feb 2023, I heard of that release from a friend and went to look (mainly focusing on ChatGpt and Bard).This is all documented. 
• So, I knew of the AI/ML hype (biological pipedream); due to having known this stuff for decades I was amazed and appalled at the uses that people were discovering. So, mark that up for human creativity and the US as founded by those ones of Cape Ann. Anyway, DTG's work was along this line. He had found lots of information from digitized records in the UK; retrieved the scanned data, used OCR to transcribe, and then even worked translations (from Welsh, Latin, et al). It was remarkable. ... A little later, after some scrutiny, it was hard to tell the reality with most of the content being fictional. ... We discussed matters and decided for him to start over while concentrating on provenance. 
• Of late, DTG has switched to Gemini/Gemma. As such, he has been verifying the information. He confirmed the news about the Gardner involvements at Bosworth and Richard III's demise. There has been a lot of information on the London side of the family. Too, he found Thomas of Sherborne. ... Now, keeping this brief, for now, one bit of information deals with a bankruptcy of the Dorchester Company in which Thomas Gardner is involved. That has my focus, right now. 
• Thomas was here, at Cape Ann. Now, was Margaret and the three boys here. If so, John was born here. The family went back. Or if he came alone, she had John in the UK. His baptism was delayed until Thomas returned. We favor that the family came over. Thomas and family then came back with the children except for Seeth who was born in Salem. 

Now, technology will be the key. We are doing this right. Who knows what data will come to fore. The information of the births was a nice surprise as John, himself, said that his father had told that they came from Sherbourne. Sure enough. The response of WikiTree? The two person split is okay, for now. But, as we find out more, we'll make sure that it is published. 

A recent post looked at the Fairbanks house which is in Dedham, MA. It dates from the 1630s. The image is from the website for the Fairbanks House. 

Jonathan Fairbanks (WikiTree) came to Boston in 1633, stayed a few years, and settled in Dedham in 1636. 

Remarks: Modified: 08/30/2026

08/30/2026 --  Minor correction, will be back for more. 

Interest and attention

TL;DR -- Interest is as old as the hills; the LLM brought attention to attention of late. So,we will pay attention. We allow our indeces for posts which are an iconic representation for the post to play the role of carrying meaning.  

--

Of late, or since 2023, we have heard a lot about attention which was brought into the public discourse by Google in the context of machine learning that became known via  ChatGPT, Gemini, and the like. And interest has been a concern for a while. 

In Apr, we had two post related to the subject. The last one (30 Apr 2026) looked at images related to the report on popularity that is on the "right" column of each post in this blog. In the image reporting the images, we compared two dates, namely the 3rd and 30th of Apr of this year. 

Contimuing this type of lookback for a while, we split out the three types of comparison: all time; recent; and last week. The following images are from those types. In the "all time", there was no change. That's understandable as those earlier post had a larger count. But, things do come along and shuffle their way into the top crowd. For instance, in the 3rd and the 30th, the posts were the same. But the order of general genealogy (royal types) versus the theme of "all things Gardner" switch. Generalities won out. How as this? Mainly through the efforts of David Todd Gardner (DTG) who has been working with a LLM on the documenation of the long history of Gardner and variants. 

Now, going with the next group (Recently popular), there was a lot of change. The attention on the Gardner Family Trust by DTG carried a few posts, such as Attainder grudge. Posts related to Memorial Day got more notice. Since are now back on WikiTree, the attention related to the "marriage news" came back into vogue. We will be doing more updates of the related material. 

Finally, at the weekly look, it might be considered as to be expected. The newer information would generate more interest. But some of these posts are older, such as Semper paratus which is about the 235th anniversary of the Coast Guard in 2025. Of interest to us was the role that Marblehead played which is in Essex County of Massachusetts. But an older post got attention, namely the "marriage news" which is from 2014. We also featured a hand edited, bespoke, site that transcribes local data so that it is availalbe on the internet. Remember that word, bespoke, which we will use a lot. 

This review was of a brief time period. We will dive deeper in the next goaround, as the 250th is a month away so that both interest and attention will be higher than normal. Except, as we mention, the 250th kicks off an eight-year perriod. That will be interestintg to watch. 

Remarks: Modified: 05/28/2026

05/28/2026 --

Announcement

TL;DR -- Our cousin, DTG, has switched to another LLM with provenance on his mind. One area of focus will be Dorset in the time before and after the Dorchester Company's effort on these shores. 

--

Announcement, at WikiTree

This is the "announcement" mentioned in WikiTree as a Comment in the Thomas Gardner (of Salem) Profile. It pertains to the two-person choice and how we will proceed in our work using modern techniques. 

David Todd Gardner, for the past two years, has been working with one of the GenAI/LLMs (we'll reveal later). We had reported on his work with the Richard III incident. Was there a Gardner involvement? The TGS blog has posts on this topic. 

DTG noted by Mar/Apr of 2025, that that LLM (using the vernacular of those heavy into "agentic AI" which I will write about, too, having spent several decades in KBS/KBE where knowledge systems were powerfully effective with precision that engineers dream about. Of course, the approach was engineering support. What happened there? Essentially, for those interested, digital engineering came forth but is now being seen as messy. Lots to discuss there.) was more than 95% not verifiable. Actually, less than 2% was okay. 

Typical. Frustrating. ... But, on discussing this result, we agreed that DTG would start over and put more emphasis on provenance. How to do that is an ongoing task to figure out. 

How does this pertain to this Profile? Well, the US gave the world this stuff; the US ought to help clean it up. And, the US of 250 years (ink on paper, folks, the turmoil went on until 1783)? It was principally New England (south - VA and north - MA) that got it started. 

Back to DTG's work. He is now using Gemini/Gemma. And, DTG reports seeing records related to a bankruptcy of the Dorchester Company that references Thomas Gardner. Well, we knew a Thomas was here. 

Now, we don't need to conjecture, yet. But, on the coming over, being brought back from here to there for that review would bring an interesting set of conditions. 

Related post in the blog: Modern techniques. Also,we will report our progress in DTG's blog as well as our own. 

A whole lot of adjustment will become known with respect to this technology. How much real reward can result from the efforts? At least, the work will be entertaining.

Remarks: Modified: 08/30/2026

08/30/2026 --  Truth Engineering, a historic view -- post to summarize and to start to bring the old back to fore for several motivations. 

 

Restructuring

TL;DR -- It's been over a year since the generative modes made their appearance. They look good. But, fail mostly. Some say, these are best for fictional situations. Not fact nor truth. Does not have to be that way. People are the clue. At the same time, technology brought a change to our worldview. We are now going into restruction. It will be multi-pronged and not done overnight. 

--

Last year, in February, I did my first evaluation of ChatGPT. Then, I did several sessions on various topics, including lower-level mathematics. Many of these dealt with the overarching issues that seem to get little attention. So, the generative age started. 

The first use of Bard was in June of last year: Getting technical. There were several reasons for preferring this system from Google. Now, it has morphed into Gemini which I have accessed a couple of times which was enough to get the difference. We will continue this analysis. 

Finally, I put together sufficient thoughts to begin a relook at the history of computing and AI from the perspective of someone in the trenches. The first article of a series was titled: AI, not solely ML. This was #1. So far, there have been #2 and #3. The fourth is in the works. The intent of the series was to set up the framework and the necessary subjects so as to discuss a patent and its use. 

The main factor to be discussed will be knowledge-based engineering.  

But, we have the whole of computing to consider within which is embedded things being artificially simulating. Our portal (TGSoc.org) was to serve as an exhibition for custom made as opposed to hugely automated. We will be looking at that, perhaps with CoPilot of GitHub. In any case, there will not be a total turnover to the artificial of responsibility. Though, we will watch others and comment. 

Of course, the motivation is not merely technical. Last year, we learned of new data (from Sherborne, Dorset) and will begin to incorporate this into the Gardner story plus our website's support Gardner Research. 

Remarks: Modified: 02/29/2024

02/29/2024 --  

Bespoke software

TL;DR --We have slowly been working on our portal in a bespoke manner. Ten years ago, there was lots of attention on the web in understanding HTML/CSS/JavaScript with examples provided by those who had the time and interest. At the same time, development in machine learning lead to thoughts of autocode (as in the machine doing the coding). Now, we witness countless offers for robotic development of software. Something is wrong.We will look at this, over time, since it's not of prime concern. Yet. Besides we will see shakeouts of methods which is normal for progress. Too, we have lots of pending work to do. One that is high on the list is getting regular attention to the date of the death (29 Dec 1674) of Thomas Gardner (Salem planter). 

---

Want an example? Our Gardner's Gate or portal. We have used the phrase a few times but intend to use it more. Our first reference was this post in January of 2020: Gardner's Gate. In that post, we mentioned a few of the types of research that we were doing. At that time, we may have had some notion of the coming technology interest but did not mention the subject. 

Guess what? A month later, we were informed that a city that we had visited had cases of confirmed COVID. Life changed, then, for a while, as everyone adapted to the new regime brought by the pandemic. For us, we got into research that was more involved (the US interior). One particular problem took us almost two years to resolve; but, we stuck to it and accomplished the necessary feats. 

A little before, we had started the portal (https://TGSoc.org). That was in 2017. In doing so, we took advantage of some earlier work. But, we took a "bespoke" path and will continue. 

Why mention this? Well, algorithms, computing, and such has been John's work in advanced computational systems. The TGS main blog started in the Microsoft world due to the influence of ASP.NET. There were jumblings in that world in 2012 to which we adapted by leaving the Microsoft realm and going over to a Linux server. By the time of the portal, we had a strategy (somewhat). We needed resources and continual involvement, but there were other factors controlling time. 

For one thing, research came first. We have been doing issues of Gardner's Beacon and printed several releases of The Gardner Annals. There were meetings and research for other groups. But, as John worked the bespoke issues, he kept notes and published some of them (we intend to organize links to this material -- see Devlog). 

Too, some organzational work became more involved taking time and energy. But, we kept the TGS, Inc. fires going. Until COVID came along and changed things. Eventually, those constraints went away; people started to get their lives back. 

But, the underpinnings of technology were changing. We'll detail our views and experiences. But, GenAI/LLM appeared three years ago. Our first experience was with ChatGPT after which we settled with Bard/Gemini. It wasn't much later that we had looked at the problems with finding algebraic solutions (Technology and its influence).

Sometime later, interest in what's known as "vibing" to some came to be; too, using LLM  as a tag, people began to develop methods that allowed the facilities to assist in development (co-pilot in some cases; in others, there is more autonomy). We will discuss this from the framework of maturity and dependable/stable computing. 

So, bespoke will be spoken in our world. 

---

Again, research? Thomas Gardner died 29 Dec 1674 (post written 3 Jan 2019). One of our research topics was, where is he and his remains? That topic will be mentioned yearly henceforth. We will put a page on this at our portal in the coming months. 

Notice in the ChatGPT session (link above), we brought in information about Thomas that had been thought right for a couple centuries now. Not long afterwards, we learned that during our absence from WikiTree, they had been analyzing newly-digitized documents from Sherborne, Dorset, UK. Adjusting to that new information is on our plate - Gardner Research. 

Remarks: Modified: 12/13/2025

12/10/2025 -- Some edits of typos and adding new information such as a graphic. 

12/13/2025 -- We started with Microsoft's Office on-line and its developer's tools. The intent was to carry on with the ASP.NET approach (I liked C#), even though my early web work was in Unix, for the most part. Office 365 came along; that was our first instance of seeing companies falter as they learned that their processes no long worked. What did we do? Surveyed the alternatives. Picked a Linux server. And, fell back to HTML where buttons were captured by image and the behaviour was coded using CSS. That worked. The next step was to covert to Javascript. That continues. The issue was content versus configuration and continues (AIn't notwithstanding - map/territory issues will be discussed) Our focus was content and still is except the AIn't emergence changes things. So, bespoke? We're putting out a new issue of Gardner's Beacon (Vol. XV, No. 1) and will be starting to redo our analysis. We'll report regularly as we go along. As we will stop and discuss choices in the vein of engineering tradeoff analysis. 

Map and territory

TL;DR -- Concrete isn't something thought about with computers, except we know of one software package that used the name. But, we need to use concrete language and examples to hone intelligent approaches toward something that represents maturity. How to do that? We expect that New England and the US over time have plenty of examples. Real people doing real thngs. That will continue to be the case even as we see technology continue to expand and play havoc with stability, if we  let it. 

--

Last year, we had a post (Three weeks) that looked at early travel across pieces of the U.S. This was in the vein of our recent report on Knox's movement of tons of cannons from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston. His crew had to go two directions across New York and Massachusetts during winter months. And, this feat was accomplished during the time of the Siege of Boston which was part of the American Revolution that occurred 250 years ago. 

So, we are dealing with historic events which are of time and space. As a reminder, 100 years ago or so, Albert Einstein proposed a model of space and time that was confirmed and has been at the core of our model of the physical world. For the most part, that focus deals with cosmology though the science of physics has its quantum theory that has to deal with Einstein's equations of relativity. We can ignore all of the technical details and focus on some local events (explained below). 

The considerations technically handled by Einstein apply across the board which is part of the complexity of life. Another bit of adjustment, though, came with computing. We have written a lot about that and will continue. Of late (the past three years), lots and lots of attention (perhaps, too much) has been put upon GenAI/LLM. "AI" has been around since the '50s. The "Gen" part is 21st Century as is "LLM" which is the latest approach to handling language for input, control of the computer, and specifying output. 

For instance, there are ChatGPT (OpenAI) and Gemini (Google) and many others. We have sampled a few of these but kept it brief. Why? The approach is heavily dependent upon using resources by design. This did not have to be. There have been more efficient methods demonstrated. From our experience, there was not much new offered by this approach as we will see, eventually. 

Right now, consider this post and its graphics: Deadly consequences. In this post, there is an appealing image with respect to our work. The first reaction concerns what can be learned. Did someone do new research and find a gem? Nope, in looking at the image with a critical eye, things pop out. The raft is wrong. Some of the horses are badly modeled. How many errors are there? 

The point is that with this type of bad output, people can be fooled. On FB, one of the groups dealing with early LA (where our interest is DTLA and its Bunker Hill neighborhood) has had many images that were obviously fake but not identified as such. One rule needed? Anything done by algorithm needs to be identified with respect to what we need for verifying provenance. 

Note: Bunker Hill west in DTLA was named for the Bostonian mound of much fame. But, our interest is in the long reach of New England where LA provides us lots of examples. We like Bunker Hill since from the time of New Spain/Mexico to now, New England had a heavy influence. Several generations of buildings are represented in this area that pertain to a proper study of the history of the U.S. 

So, now to the point of the post. This image I put together for the "Three weeks" post. The gist of the matter is that a group traveling along the Sante Fe trail across Kansas would have taken three weeks to go from Indpendence MO to Fort Larnerd KS with the grind of daily travel.

Now, we will discuss each of the pieces of this image in terms of map and territory. Nowadays, advanced computing likes to demonstrate its prowess in modeling nature. Then, if that model is good, the computer can control something in the world. Take autopilot. This software can take off and land a plane. Now remember, involved is a lot more involved with this. We use "map" for the digital model in the computer and "territory" applies to the outside world. So, a control item on the wing of a plane would have means to feed back to the computer about its status and then take instructions from the computer to make some movement, say for a turn. 

 

The recent visible demonstration of this is the auto-car that can drive itself. Some do not even have a steering wheel. In the case that human input is needed, it can be handled by interfaces common with computer games, such as joy sticks. 

There is something called the map-territory problem (Wikipedia; John's Truth Engineering site). In the auto-car, too much reliance on interpolation between points on the computer could result in it not knowing the proper position of the car. There are many ways to discuss this, but, in general, when people are dealing with "smart" systems, it is very easy to forget where some data originates. Handling critical conditions in the world would put more emphasis on the local condition. But, what if a person is not there or incapitated? 

That is why the discussion is always in scope. Fortunately, most software development processes run through these types of things and determine how to handle, before the fact. People in the world do this but also have to think on their feet. The computer cannot do that, in general, despite the claims that we hear. Some reports might come from someone who does not know that they're engaging in a fallacy. It's not so much a matter of "truth" as it is of verification and all that such entails. 

John also has a site that discusses complex systems and the computational problems faced with these. It's called "7 'oops 7" and considers map-territory from a different angle which relates to abstraction and generalization. Frankly, this site pertains to GenAI/LLM's problems more than truth engineering given the present situation.  

---

Now, let's look at the top, middle and botttom of the image. All images are from Google maps with annotations. 

• Top - The blue line represents a current bit of highways from the Kansas City area to Fort Larnerd. The post on KC provides another map and details This follows the Sante Fe Trail which went from the KC area to Sante Fe NM and was followed by thousands of wagon trains going in both directions. Too, the travelers could have come from the east coast or from overseas. Many came though St. Louis MO. This blue line represent three weeks of hard, daily travel. Even at this point, one still had hundreds of miles to go to get to Santa Fe. The modern trip planner says that one might expect to spend about 5 hours doing this journey. 
• The topic? In this time, there was no map beyond hand-written sketches. There were models. The guides and wagon masters knew the route. Choices had to be made during the travel. As we know, weather changes and can do so drastically. Many water ways had to be forded. Along part of some trails, there were ferries that were basically flat barges that could carry weight across the water. 
• With respect to territory, as well, energy was expended by people and their animals to do the traveling. After hours of travel, one had to set up camp for the night, feed ones self, handle maintenance task related to the living or the inanimate. Most wagon trains had guides and hunters who could acquire game for food if such was available. But, in those hundreds of miles along the blue line, the territory changed drastically. In terms of gear, wheels broke. One thing about crossing a water way, many times there was a need to tear the wagon down, cross the waters (bringing the gear in the wagon - several trips) and then put things back together in order to continue. One modern term related to this is logistics. We see semis running down the road touting their expertise and efficiency.  
• Bottom - The blue line this time shows the trip from St. Louis MO to San Francisco CA. Quite a jaunt? The modern estimate is 39 hours as it is mostly on higher speed Interstates. But, this was also several weeks of travel covering a larger territory as the vehicles were stage coaches. We will be looking further at this line as there were several others. But, this one was three weeks from St Louis to DTLA. We mentioned Bunker Hill west above. The stage line came into LA in that area, where people could tidy themselves and such. Then, the trip continued up the coast to SF. At that point, there was then a return trip covering the same territory. 
• Middle - The two images set up the condition of three weeks of constant travel across the US. The slower on never left one State. The faster one went from the middle of the country to the coast. That's pointed out with the red lines on the left. The trail to Fort Larnerd was three weeks of grind and danger. The STL to LA to SF trip was no joke either. We will go into that later. Passengers bounced on hard springs, the carriage was open to the weather (unlike the modern car), and people had to keep hold of their belongings which could go flying out the window. The horses and drivers were doing the work. 
• Again, the territory reigns here. The drivers need to know their way which is a map issue. In many cases, the coaches even traveled at night as the trails were marked. Yet, there was nothing like modern pavement. Too, even KS has hills, creeks, and rivers. This is more pronounced with the western route across the country which had to pass through mountain passes which are more benign than one would have found in CO (which even today has many areas closed over the winter season). 
• We added in the black line which crosses the waters back to the source of New England's population at the time of its start. We can speak of two ways to go. A cruise line of a modern type can travel that route in a week. Mind you, back in the 1600s, this could be months even if only a few generally. But, nowadays, in three weeks, one could take three of these trips. Granted, modern travel brings in more interesting issues of map-territory. Mainly, the cabin crew would know where the ship was and its heading. Passengers would have to know the "lay of the land" of the ship in order to get around and enjoy the cruise.  

This was to emphasize the reality of the ordeals of our ancestors which we can easily forget about with the ease of life brought by technology. But again, someone keeps those technical efficiencies going. That's a map-territory issue, as well. The purpose for this post is to explain why we are using the TGS, Inc. framework to discuss technology and its issues. Well, the map-territory mismatches are prime examples and can be used to explain how problems arise. 

Take vibe coding or prompt engineering. The human has the maps (knowledge) and, for the most part, the territory. Robotics with change this dynamic but has its own issues which we'll get to. The interchange by language or other input is part of the system. But, the computer has no notion of the territory in other than the "map" sense, using the word loosely. In fact, with respect to coding, there are issues of how pulling together fragments from the past being coupled with tests as the evaluation scheme can do more than a gross approximation. 

Frankly, I see this with increasing frequency as GenAI/LLM's influence grows. Take website. They look good. The semantics is way off, to say the least. The hard partt? There is no one to talk to about this and the interchange with people has been cut off with bots being asked to take over. I see it operationally, as well, as logic is not quite up to snuff as it was released using other than mature and quality-fluent methods. 

One final bit would be to add in aerospace to the middle image. Where the cruise takes days, a modern jet of capacity can traverse the spanse in part of a day. One can expect that a good airplane could go one way in the morning and return in the afternoon (notice we're talking NY to London which can range around 7 to 8 hours plus or minus two or three hours - fuzzy math - Zadeh's, so being serious). Then consider the map-territory issues of flying which again range widely with respect to the crew and the passengers. 

This example uses something real in the context of Kant's emphasis on experience for knowing. Human life is full of real territory examples and the map examples prior to GenAI//LLM. The computer has been complicating things with that accelerating in the past three years. Concrete examples are going to be important. Meaning, in part, that some of our work now will be to explain errors that crop up and to use examples to explain. 

That is, appealing to "black box" issues cannot be taken at face value. That is a copout. I see lots of discussion now about the mathematics of GenAI/LLM with some of it ex post facto. That means that people have taken the initiative to build an analyzer to do comparative analysis after the fact. Some of this is very encouraging as this could have been done before.

You will hear me argue that the past three years would not have happened had the "knowledge" processing work been allowed to continue. And, my example will be KBE and its contributions to engineering. At the same time, there were many other examples. These, incorporated into the model framework, will settle down that which is fueling the hype so that we can get real work done. 

Remarks: Modified: 08/31/2025

08/31/2025 -

Research, using the internet and AI

TL;DR -- Time goes by. Things happen. Technology can be a boon or a bane. It's wonderful when it works. With the redo of the focus of AI, we are starting a few new approaches. One deals with sharing data but, at the same time, keeping some control on usage. The sustainable future of computing that has slipped out of our fingers can be recovered. 

--

The past couple of weeks have been busy. The year has been busy with new events. Of old news, these dealt with the 250th which we started to mention a decade ago. Now, it's on the doorstep. Of current news, the AIn't, as we call it, happened three years ago last month (Nov). That whole trek is worthy of attention under our the TGS, Inc. focus on technology. 

Then, there is the future which includes many categories. Some of these are familiar. One of late was research started this year with one of the GenAI/LLM offerings. It was neither ChatGPT nor Gemini which we have used and commented on. We'll get to the specifics. After the spring start, there was some redo in the summer that had to do with common errors associated with the techniques involved. 

So, there was a restart. This post is about that (see below). Also, the White House announced their Genesis Mission which is involved with AI (note, I do not use AIn't, in this case) which is a more full look at the software capability. We will go into that more. But, we were happy to see that DOE is driving the thing. One of the first to announce their participation was the INL which is in Idaho. We were there for a few years a while ago. 

One writeup of the project noted that 400K scientists and engineers will be involved in making AI what it was and can continue to be, before the sidetrack of machine learning which may have been a necessary event but was poorly managed for several reasons which we'll get to. 

For now, looking forward. A recent post by David T. Gardner explains the new approach which we will look into further. In this post -- The Anomaly of the Miles Defuncto (Knight, Deceased) -- see the "Citation & Legal Status Dataset" which is about the use of Zenodo (https://zenodo.org/records/17670478) to control access to and use of documents that are made available for information only while a project does its work. Expect this type of thing to become more prevalent. 

For now, we will push handling details of David's project to a later time as we get a better notion of the expected changes what will accrue from the recent decisions. However, we will be reading David's material on a regular basis. The plan is for us to support his work; a bit of groundwork is necessary prior to that work in the sense of preparedness. 

The internet started to encourage cooperative work by people at disparate sites and of different organizations. That was a collegial focus. With busyness and profit, people get paranoid about someone stealing their ideas. That is quite rational. 

AIn't? It proved the concept by copying and using data from all over without permission and trampling over copywrite rights. That sort of thing will be worked out for a more mature use of AI and computationally-framed data in the future. 

Remarks: Modified: 12/08/2025

12/05, 06, 07/2025 -- Zenodo reading requires a login. Changed the calling sequence. See records via this: https://zenodo.org/records/17670478. DTG changed the section on Sir Christopher. We will focus on this for a while. He's like Nathaniel Eaton, first head of Harvard. Misunderstood. GGP of Ann and many others.  

Charles Horton Cooley

TL;DR -- The Economist is British and published weekly. We like their humor plus their take on matters across the globe. But, given that England is a large part of our history, we appreciate their in-depth reports on things over here. Recently, they mentioned Charles Horton Cooley. Per usual, we went looking. Hence, the following. And, the implications of all of this? Stay tuned. 

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A recent issue of The Economist had an OpEd on the origins of  "soc med" and provided some details about engineering and science, in a humanist sense, and the messes of the internet gone bad. We like The Economist and read, at least, their double issue that is published in late December of each year. But, we sample issues from time to time. 

Charles Horton Cooley was born in Michigan. His father, who was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Michigan was born in New York. WikiTree did not show data past Charles' grandfather. However, records at FindAGrave (follow links for parents at each generation) suggest that Charles is a descendant of early New England pioneers. That is of interest to our research from the historical sense. Too, Charles was a sociologist. He coined "social media" in 1897. 

Reading further, Wikipedia has an article (that needs a little TLC) on the "Looking-glass self" of Charles which considers how the concept applies to social media (his neologism) especially of the type that we see now, over 150 years later of meddling with life by science, engineering, and technology. 

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Staying with the times, here is what Gemini (becoming a drag on Google - tsk, guys - I really liked Bard and its representation choices) says:

• Charles Horton Cooley is credited with the term "social media," which he coined over a century ago in 1897, even though the concept of social media as we know it today didn't exist at the time; this is significant because his work focused on how individuals perceive themselves based on how they believe others see them, which aligns with the idea of how people present themselves online through social platforms. 

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Now, we have been pursing the study of computing, since Kant, through mathematics, science and engineering without consideration of the "social/personal" sciences. Even though, we might add, that we see people as more complicated than anything that physics deals with in its fantasy (cosmology) or destructive modes (reductionist's grappling with wannabe particles and/or waves). 

About Kant? He was before the expansion of mathematics that happened in the 19th century. But, there was general increases in most areas of study during that time. We need know about that. Too, we are fortunate to have the American experience as a provider of threads for research. 

So, knowing things of his time (coincident with our Revolution), he stressed that we need to look at Reason as source of our abilities to know a priori and to cogitate from that in his analytic sense. All else is synthetic. Too, Kant was right on the target as he showed what modern theorem provers know: we cannot prove the existence nor the non-existence of God via logic (Kant's Prolegomena and Logic). It is a matter of choice. Right there? Free will. But, we will save this discussion for later. 

For now, please understand (Kant's emphasis) that the 400 years of the colonies that started the U.S. 250 years ago gave (give) adequate support for a new basis. Note, we are not using new science as did Wolfram. We just started to dig and can name four names of note in the American contributions: Count Rumford; Nathaniel Bowditch; Josiah Willard Gibbs; and James Bryant Conant. We could pick more (Peirce - father and son - Benjamin and C.S.), 

Notes: 

• 1. See Charles Horton Cooley. The Social Self -- 1. The Meaning of "I", Chapter 5 in  Human Nature and the Social Order (Revised Edition). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, (1922): 168-210.
• On education, see our post on the Nobel influence. We will get more into that as the colonies (U.S.) took up education, in general, early on. There lots of things that were done in the U.S. of note beyond running after optimization which is freedom taken to an extreme and stupid as hell. 
• 2. John's education was classical in scope (four years of Latin, mathematics, and science - ages ago, in high school). As such, he strongly thinks that education ought to be Liberal Arts and Sciences (and engineering - get those ones involved in learning about the world before they screw it up, please). This cursory remark will be expanded over time as we deal with the 250th and the various 400ths before that. The American Dream is more "light on a hill" than ruling the world. 
• 3. Now, that the C-Suite is running after the illusion of GenAI wholehog, what can we do? Look at "humanist mathematics" for one thing. That is, we have to persevere in pursuit of truth across levels from atoms up to the ethereal. By doing so, we will get science and engineering back on track, as well, one might hope.  

Remarks: Modified: 02/18/2025

02/18/2025 --