ChatGPT 3.5 was publicly released in November 2022. Prior to that time, very few people had directly interfaced with artificial intelligence. In January 2023, I asked Chat to review my blog and was blown away by its summary. I am a researcher by nature and immediately saw this was something very different. I signed up …
The Tyranny of Thought
Have you ever driven down the highway, arrived at your intended exit, and then wondered how you got there? Every time that happens, it scares me to death. Would I have snapped out of my thoughts if a deer had run out in front of me? When absorbed in thought, we’re oblivious to what’s going …
Many Worlds
“The world is deep, and deeper than day can comprehend.” -Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra I’ve always been interested in the bizarre, stranger-than-fiction workings of the sub-atomic world. It’s been said that the behavior of subatomic particles is not only stranger than we imagine, but stranger than we can imagine. When an electron (a negatively …
The Painter
Imagine, if you will, that a valuable box of paints is bestowed upon you; paints that have special properties, rendering them capable of producing a masterwork. -They are colorfast; every hue will outlive you. -They easily mix together or stand alone as you choose. -The paints express even the lightest brush strokes. “But I’m not …
What Are We Really Talking About?
In the late 70s, a regular feature of TV’s Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update segment was a skit called Point-Counterpoint, starring actors Jane Curtin and Dan Akroyd. The skit featured a political opinion expressed by Jane Curtin and a caustic response from Dan Akroyd. In the most famous of these skits, Curtain argued that a …
Sticky Tape
We have two Siberian cats. As the name implies, they were domesticated from the wilds of frigid Siberia. To survive sub-zero temperatures, they developed a three-layered coat of dense fur. The cats are with us always; I mean that literally. The other day, I donned black dress slacks to attend a funeral. Once in the …
We Become Our Thoughts
I recently stumbled across a mind-blowing stat. It seems that eighty-eight percent of the U.S. Population is younger than me, which is to say, they haven’t yet reached their 70th birthday. I knew I was getting up there, but honestly, I had no idea how exclusive my longevity is. Let’s face it, old people are, …
Extending the Holiday Spirit
This past weekend, we took down the Christmas decorations. The house now feels barren. An emptiness has set in. It didn’t seem that way before the Holiday Season. Maybe what I’m feeling is just the onset of winter’s blues; now that Holiday parties are over, and the grandkids have left. But it’s more than …
Antifragile
Antifragile is a term coined by Nicholas Taleb, a mathematical statistician whose work centers on problems of randomness, probability, complexity, and uncertainty (which sounds a lot like the circumstances of our lives). His book, Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder, is a little dry, so I’ll save you the trouble of reading it by summarizing …
How Should We Live This Life?
Is it just me, or does the year 2000 not seem that long ago to you, too? I’m not into the “New Year, New Me” gig; mostly, for practical reasons. I used to make New Year’s resolutions, but there are only so many times one can resolve to lose 30 pounds before just saying, “screw …
Towards A Life Well-Lived 