Around the Web #8
Around the Web #8
DJ Khaled, reading Plato, and AI-generated bible arts
1: [Sports] ๐ โฝ๏ธ ๐ย
I. A nice documentary about the fastest Chinese over the 100 meters.
II. A documentary about Wayne Rooney
โWayne Rooney looks back on February 12, 2011, when he scored one of the Premier League's most famous goals to lift United over City in the Manchester derby and the title race.โ
2: [Academic Research] ๐โโ๐ฟโโ๐จโ
China overtakes the US in scientific research output
โChina published a yearly average of 407,181 scientific papers, pulling ahead of the USโs 293,434 journal articles and accounting for 23.4% of the worldโs research output, the report found. China accounted for a high proportion of research into materials science, chemistry, engineering and mathematics, while US researchers were more prolific in research into clinical medicine, basic life sciences and physics.โ
3: [BioMedicine] ๐ฉบ๐ฅผ๐ง๐ปโโ๏ธ
I. Molecules derived from pig skin were used to replace the cornea in the human eye, 14 participants in a study blind from cornea issues had their sight back, 2 years counting. Looks like there is something for the pig industry in the future of medicine.
Millions of people are blind from cornea defects, and corneal transplants from humans are tough to get, which goes without saying. See the original paper published in Nature Biotechnology.
+
II. These folks used isotope tracing to pinpoint the nutritional preferences of bacteria in the gut, and effectively underscored the point that diet shapes the microbiome.
4: [Programming] ๐ฉ๐ผโ๐ป ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฟโ๐ป
I: Takes on no code tech:
โlow/no code is useful, and it will continue to get better. Is it going to replace developers? Not in the near future, but I do believe over time it will change the skill sets required to deliver innovative tech solutions.โ
+
II: On python
5: [Philosophy / Theology] ๐ง ๐งโ๏ธ
I. Bishop Barron recently went to Lex Fridmanโs podcast. Expectedly there were โfireworksโ since most of Lex's audiences are secular. The good bishop addresses the situation.
โFirst, donโt cavalierly characterize philosophy as โword salad,โ and perhaps even try to study it. And second, drop the woke posturing and have the courage to enter into real argument with those who donโt share your worldview.โ
+
II. I have been working my way through Platoโs dialogue very slowly (perhaps too slowly). A bit confused as to what to read next, then I found this, For anyone in my shoes out there. How to read Plato.
6: [AI] ๐ค๐ฅ๐จ๐ฟโ๐ป
I. Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity | John Lennox & Paul Davies
+
II. "What if AI-written content becomes indistinguishable from human counterparts?
This is less a question of if than when."
A fine article on AI-written content.
+
III. I have always wanted to read more about AI risk, and this essay gives me the impetus to now buy books and read more on the subject. The piece is heavily opinionated. But it starts with a very friendly introduction to AI risk, artificial general intelligence (AGI), AI alignment, and the like. AI risk is modern eschatology.
+
IV. Artificial intelligence worst-case scenario extinction.
This essay reminds me of the urn theory by a philosopher named Nick Bostrom. His theory likened our invention and scientific discovery processes to a person picking a ball from a giant urn. It could be a white ball (great, beneficial innocuous inventions) or a black ball (a discovery that destroys our civilization), in addition to different shades of gray balls, which are just mixed bags of some good, and some harm.ย
The great thing now is that we havenโt picked a black ball yet. And one point of note is that blindfolded persons pick these balls. In other words, we donโt know for sure what ball we will pick before picking them. This speaks to the numerous prediction failures about future technologies.ย ย
As we speak now, and as you may know, there are AI algorithms that can write chunks of computer codes, play music, write essays, conduct scientific experiments and draw images from text prompts, to name a few.ย
As a young folk, I sometimes get perturbed about what will be left for us to do two or three decades from today. The issue is not the change; it is the pace. Extinction arguments aside, all I see are class wars. More people will get poorer, and the few rich folks will get insanely rich (Matthew effect). And something will have to shift.ย
+
V. Pretty cool AI-generated bible art by DALLE 2
+
VI. This essay, the rise of domain experts in deep learning, by Jeremy Howard, is really nice, it gives a much-needed overview of operating in the deep learning field as a domain expert. As a trained biochemist, I started my foray into machine learning just in the last couple of years of my Ph.D. Now, that I am beginning to foray more into deep learning (mostly on computer vision), this essay rings true to me.
7: [Music] ย ๐ต ๐ต ๐ต
I have been attempting to work my way through DJ Khaled's album, and here are two of my favorites so far:
God Did (Lyric Video) ft. Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, John Legend, Fridayy
Jadakiss Interlude (Official Music Video)
What I am reading
Fairy Tale by Stephen King
Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Master by Bishop Robert Barron
Applied Machine Learning Explainability Techniques: by Aditya Bhattacharya