Humans do something that LLMs don’t, and that might be exactly why we are creative and they are not. But, what if… “A reason may be that they lack some fundamental aspects of human thought: they are frozen, unable to learn from experience, and they have no “default mode” for background processing, a source of spontaneous human insight. To illustrate the issue, I describe such insights, and give an example…
“The Alphabet autonomous vehicle subsidiary received its first permit from the New York Department of Transportation on Friday to start testing in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams announced Friday. The rollout is the city’s first autonomous vehicle testing launch.” ~ learn more
“I maintain that robotaxis will first grow by replacing cabs, then by taking new use cases that were previously impossible... A key input is going to be the cost of each car: The cheaper they are, the cheaper the price tag can be, and the more competitive they will be. And Tesla’s cars will be nearly an order of magnitude cheaper than Waymo’s…” ~ learn more
“The tech tree is an interactive visualization of technological history from 3 million years ago to today. A work in progress, it currently contains 1997 technologies and 2400 connections between them.” ~ learn more
Etymology, the origin of words, has always a had a place in my heart. Disaster comes from Italian disastro, literally “ill-starred”. Send me your favorites! ~ learn more
“Calculate how much equity you can earn by getting a Browserbase tattoo.” ~ learn more
A simple daily game where you whittle away letters from a phrase to make as many words as possible. What fun! ~ learn more
This Economist article explains that whereas businesses used to parade around talking about how green they were without doing anything, things have changed. “Now they seem to be “greenhushing”—getting on with the job of decarbonisation, without making a fuss.” ~ learn more
Here’s a fantastic executive summary to catch you up on what’s happening with energy. “Ten years ago, investments in fossil fuel supply were 30% higher than those for electricity generation, grids and storage. Today, these positions are reversed. Investment in the electricity sector is set to reach USD 1.5 trillion in 2025, some 50% higher than the total amount being spent on bringing oil, natural gas and coal to market.”…
“In June, Starbucks Chief Executive Officer Brian Niccol pledged in a meeting with US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to further align the chain’s menu with the Trump administration’s health priorities, Kennedy said in a post on X.” ~ learn more