AI hallucinations, people with dyscalculia, a legendary programmer, and the geometry of Satan. That and much more, just for those who keep reading. Because these are the Recommended Links of the Week. Of course! Enjoy!
What is AI “hallucination” and why it is one of the potentially most dangerous flaws of this technology: “Last month, days before the coronation of King Charles III on May 6, a request for a profile made to ChatGPT yielded a striking result. The artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot from OpenAI stated in a paragraph: 'The coronation ceremony took place at Westminster Abbey in London on May 19, 2023. The abbey has been the backdrop for British monarchs' coronations since the 11th century and is considered one of the most sacred and emblematic places in the country.' This paragraph presented what is known as a 'hallucination.'”
Lynx, the best portable Atari failed to sell…: “The Atari Lynx was a console ahead of its time and paid for it with cruel and disproportionate ostracism: its existence is a novelty to many. An unfair obscurity caused by the fragility of Epyx, the manufacturing company. It was originally conceived by a development group from Epyx itself, which included, among others, Dave Needle and R.J. Mical, two members of the team that created the acclaimed Commodore Amiga. It was the year 1987 and the Lynx project was known by the name 'Handy' (portable).”
Problems with numbers? Tools to detect and treat dyscalculia: “Numbers have a constant presence in everyone's lives. They are used in a wide range of situations. For example, to remember your phone's PIN. To know the date and time we live in. Or to identify the best deal during daily shopping. But even though they are crucial in our lives, not everyone has the same ability to understand and manipulate them. Some are geniuses with numbers. But there are also people who find it very difficult to perform any kind of calculation, make estimates, or solve arithmetic problems.”
‘Winny’, the struggle of a legendary programmer: “The police, who had embarked on an investigation into users who engaged in such illegal activities, set their sights on the program's developer, whom they considered the core of the problem. They arrested Kaneko Isamu, the creator of Winny, on suspicion of 'helping others violate copyright laws.' Kaneko was a programming prodigy, one of those geniuses born only once a decade; it was said he could complete in two weeks programs that normally took three years to write.”
Farewell letter from a kamikaze pilot: “The Japanese believed these suicide attacks were necessary to achieve victory, as they could not compete with the numerical and technological superiority of the Allied forces. Many of these suicide pilots were volunteers who offered themselves out of devotion to the Emperor and the Japanese cause, and in some cases, out of shame for having survived a defeat in combat. Kamikaze pilots were considered national heroes in Japan and were given high honor for their sacrifice. One of these kamikazes was Corporal Nobuo Aihana, who belonged to the 'Shinbu' Squadron of the 77th Special Attack Corps of the Imperial Japanese Army.”
The geometry of Satan: “Christian tradition had built a figure that was almost like the dark counterpart of God himself. A powerful prince of darkness, an absolute monarch of absolute evil. The reasoning that justified this figure was a purely theological elaboration of over a thousand years, and the form of that monarch of evil had not emerged naturally from the sacred texts, but was an amalgam of previous reconverted mythologies, or new mythologies.”
The terror caused by fireballs falling from the sky: “Halley observed the comet that bears his name today. He was a famous scientist, friendly, stylish, and very popular. When his friend Isaac Newton was formulating the laws of gravity and motion, Halley made the calculations that showed these celestial bodies did not appear out of nowhere but had a predictable path in the Solar System. Halley's comet, he calculated, passed near Earth every 76 years. It was the era when science was displacing superstition, the dawn of the Age of Reason. Despite this, the fear of comets persisted for several more centuries.”
A million years ago, an extraordinary event changed the human brain forever: “About a million years ago, large portions of the human genome were rearranged in a fortuitous event during the formation of eggs or sperm, leading to the deletion, duplication, or inversion of DNA sections. Scientists have now revealed that these structural variants likely triggered a cascade of sudden changes in our DNA, which would be the basis of the characteristics that make the human brain unique.”
Project A119, the top-secret US plan to detonate a hydrogen bomb on the Moon that never happened: “That research work was known as Project A119, a top-secret proposal to detonate a hydrogen bomb on the Moon. Hydrogen bombs were much more destructive than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, and the latest in nuclear weapon design at that time. Between May 1958 and January 1959, Reiffel produced numerous reports on the project's feasibility. Incredibly, one of the scientists who made this horrible plan possible was the future visionary Carl Sagan.”
The amazing story of the Citroën 2CV, the legendary Deux Chevaux: “In a largely rural society, France required a car that could handle any terrain and any weather condition. Therefore, the project's specifications contemplated that the new utility vehicle could 'transport two peasants with their clogs, 50 kilos of potatoes, or a barrel of wine at a maximum speed of 60 kilometers per hour and with a fuel consumption of three liters per 100 kilometers.' André Citroën liked to meet in the bistro with those country men and, as future customers, listen and take note of their suggestions.”
Amiga, the most desired computer: “When you bought a computer game and put it on your machine, you quickly realized it didn't look like the screenshots in that magazine advertisement you'd seen. This was a common practice in games for microcomputers and PCs in the 80s and early 90s. But which computer did those screenshots belong to? Generally the Amiga, one of the most desired computers of all time, and here we tell you its story.”
The historic sword duel between two naked aristocrats: “Since etiquette and decorum prohibited coming to blows, the women chose to resolve their dispute with a duel, which was considered more appropriate and respectable. In a traditional 19th-century duel, one party publicly challenged the other due to an offense or grievance. The challenged party then had the option to offer a public apology or make restitution to avoid the duel, or accept the challenge and choose the weapons. If they decided to go ahead with the duel, the challenger chose the field of honor where the combat would take place, although the challenged person had the option to propose an alternative location.”
Videos
Videos: Mining on a Raspberry Pi, a calculator that runs Doom Eternal, painting spring, dangerous trend among youth: 'being poor', ambushed by 13 terrible wild cats, disturbing, a $500 gaming PC, his phone explodes in his pocket, Motörhead – Enter Sandman, a gift from nature, how to move a piano to a second floor without a crane, Is Soviet architecture depressing?, the Roko's Basilisk thought experiment, Space Iris in 8K, jumping from 58.8 meters, aerial rescue of an elephant, Is that you, Cthulhu? and the short films "7:35 in the Morning" and "Everybody Goes to the Hospital" (Stop-Motion Horror). As the finishing touch, the best: Saint Seiya - Live Action and Saint Seiya Super Musical (both subtitled in Spanish).
Galleries
Illustrating social flaws, watercolors of Kerala (India), the intersection of human and machine, selling sex in Soho in 1980, bears as hiking companions, the best insect photos of 2023, hundreds of coloring books, Canada's ecological cemetery, eating tarantulas, fish portraits, Iceland's glacier caves, the Animated Dump, and the Visual Dump of the Week.
https://old.neoteo.com/bluewillow-como-midjourney-pero-gratis/Done! Thanks for your visit. See you next time!
