Free Republic

Thanks for posting this article. The oversight, as I see it, of many people regarding AI is that creating an artificial “100 trillion connections” does not duplicate the human brain. The brain is part of, and not the entire, human decision-making system. There are the sensory nerves and systems, critical to information input. In addition, within the brain, there are multiple interrelated structures such as the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex that process information differently. In addition, the human brain is designed to uniquely support a physical body that operates in its unique environment. There are many complexities not described as mere interconnections. Recreating those structural and processing differences is part of understanding human intelligence and decision-making. We are learning a lot but there remain a lot of mysteries.

You wrote, “It probably reduces the university expenses some. So, they have a lower cost adjunct teach the class.”

Yes—I think you are right.

At a school where the teaching expectation is 1,1 it is likely the faculty member is expected to generate a lot of money.
The faculty may have to generate research funds to employ a couple of graduate student research assistants and pay his own salary. That was the case when I spoke with a computer science faculty member at a top research university many years ago. The first few years, the faculty member is supported by the school then the faculty member is supposed to bring in dollars. The school recruits faculty who have the potential to generate a lot of grant dollars, bring in students, improve the school’s reputation and ranking, and attract other faculty.
You don’t win the Nobel prize by teaching classes. NIH won’t be impressed by your research grant application if it touts the number of classes you taught. You need to have a bunch of relevant publications and a lab record.
The “overhead rate” on grant dollars for schools might be 25-50 percent of the grant dollars. Federal agencies like NIH accept this—and your tax dollars pay for it.

What will people be doing in 10 years? How will they earn a living?

“People asked these same questions during the Industrial Revolution, when machines replaced humans on farms. Milton Friedman points out, in one of his books, America went from 95 percent farmers in 1790 to 5 percent farmers in 1910. Some economists predicted mass unemployment during this transition phase, but it didn’t happen. Human labor always shifts into other, often unseen, areas when technology takes their jobs. In other words, we shouldn’t worry about it.”

In response, I agree. I try to simplify the transition in this way—displacement does not cause collective unemployment, only individual unemployment. Overall, the effect of technological change on employment is determined by growth and productivity change. If the tech causes growth, there is an increase in employment opportunities—maybe leisure industry, maybe tech systems jobs, can’t say. Then again, I could be way off. Thanks for your insightful post.

Thanks for your comments.
I note that many students choose a major such as a type of engineering that, later, they leave to enter a less difficult major. At my undergrad school, we called the engineering programs pre-business because of the high switch rate from engineering to business.
That effect benefits the less difficult majors that struggle to enroll students.
There are many problems that should be addressed.

Good points although the internships are critical to increasing employment stats upon graduation, it is a good question to ask whether this should be part of tuition. Also, there are general education requirements at some if not all schools that force the study of courses in departments that are not directly related to the student’s career but are required because of the long-ago model of university education as a place to round-out and produce a well-educated individual. Those requirements no longer focus on the classics, for example.

Maybe S Varney is right. Maybe we should ignore the Alamo and try to just look to a future of orderly, if fake, elections. I am sure that will lead us to prosperity!

Of course, the above is total sarcasm. If the Texans had shrugged and put the Alamo behind them, there wouldn’t be a Texas—among the greatest of states.

We have the evidence. Election corruption goes back many decades and 2020 was the worst. Americans have earned fair elections. We deserve representative government. Settle for no less.

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-1940
by William Manchester

This book is a textbook about leadership, information/intelligence, and how clear values guide a leader through difficult times when almost everyone disagrees with you. It is about the “dull” period in WC’s life—neither WW1 or WW2, but it is the book to which I most often refer. Well worth the time to read.

Kim Reynolds is doing well but doesn’t get the attention that DeSantis gets—partly due to population differences between Florida and Iowa.

Your business idea seems that it could get off the ground with little capital requirement. That’s good.

Make some examples, lay out the activity that the patients would experience, write down the benefits of that activity (reference sound and reputable sources supporting your argument), describe the followon process of engaging with patients, describe your personnel needs, explain in clear detail every cost you will incur, describe how you will be insured and manage the accounting and tax implications, describe the risks that would threaten your business’ success.

Write down in detail why you need external funding and can’t fund yourself. Write down clearly how much of your personal wealth is invested in this enterprise and how much you are committed (no one will fund a venture the founder won’t take a risk on). Describe your plan to eliminate, reduce, or recover from any foreseeable problem.

Then, hire a grant writer to pursue public or foundation funds (much competition) or put together a “pitch deck” for private investors (some competition).

Expect skeptical investors. My first question would be “how is your business better than what is already available?”

Good luck.

“Dr. Stanley is an attorney by trade and has done a marvelous job at Oswego State, this is a great choice to straighten out SUNY.”

Tell us more about the marvelous job. I am aware of the Shineman Center development but is there more from her decades as president of SUNY at O? Thanks in advance for any elaboration.

I am starting another company which will take too long to establish but I love doing it. I expect to hire “older” workers. I don’t think a 20-something will have the maturity and experience to handle the demands. This has worked for me in the past time and again. A lot of value comes with the years of experience. A lot of contacts often come with experience, too.

In a revelation that is likely to stun the world of astrophysics, Freerepublic poster iacovatx has discovered that black holes aren’t really holes, they are lumps. “This rewrites every physics textbook and blog”, wrote the ever-smug and somewhat annoying iacovatx.

Don’t forget “Choose Me” and “Domination”. Then there are “Dice” and “Warning”. Better yet, just take the evening off from other activities and listen to lots of Band Maid.

I am sorry your wife suffered through this. I only scratched the surface of the garbage that appears in journal reviews and editing. I am glad this article has appeared and hope more is written about this problem in the future.

I suspect that happens, especially when your work could render the reviewer’s work obsolete. Thanks for your comment!

That is good to know. Those criteria you identify—correctness, newness, and interesting nature—seem suitable to some other disciplines as well. Despite that, the quality of the reviews is too often poor. Obvious errors and flawed interpretations. Thanks for your comment!

The author of this article is too kind in his criticisms. I have seen reviews that are utterly vicious and filled with inaccuracies. I recently read four reviews of articles submitted to a ranked journal. One reviewer made no comments, only filled out a brief survey. Another reviewer, in limited English, made claims about the article that were simply untrue. It appeared to be a semi-boilerplate review the reviewer may submit for most papers they review. This gets them credit for reviews when they submit their activity reports to their school. Very unethical.
Another reviewer wrote about the “poor writing” regarding a paper that I knew was proofed and scrutinized by top academics and one professional editor. In contrast, the reviewer’s writing was seriously flawed.
Across many reviews I note some repeated flaws. The reviewers tend not to understand the research methodology, which can require sophisticated knowledge. Usually, the reviewer just blames the author for not explaining the method. This is often used to cover up the reviewer’s ignorance. Another popular reviewer flaw is to criticize the lack of recent citations. I have actually read a review that criticized the author for not including 2021 citations when the paper was submitted only two months into 2021—ridiculous. This conflicts with the important requirement that the originator of a concept must be cited—that usually means at least one citation must be many many years old if the topic is of much consequence.
There are many flaws among reviewers. I conduct many reviews myself and there are journals with which I will not cooperate because of the poor reviewers—which means the editors are lazy or poor themselves. When you see bad reviews, you know there are bad editors. Another editor flaw is to expect citations to them or their journal. If the journal or the editor publishes useful work, it will get cited. An editor should never demand citations but it happens.
This is a great article that points out some of the weaknesses of the “gold standard” for publishing research.

You wrote, “I need to get around to tires and wheels for that 81 CB 750, 79 K5.”

I should never have sold my 1972 CL 175. Not a good choice for a 75 mph speed limit highway but great for in town. I think it had 1800 miles on it when I waved goodbye to it and went off to college land.

Pence claims he had no Constitutional authority but why did the Constitution assign the VP the role? I am unaware of any element of the US Constitution that prescribes “ceremony”. As far as I can tell, every part of the Constitution prescribes something substantive. The Constitution is not a document of ceremonial functions.

A senator is not elected to use her voice. He or she is elected to serve the citizens for their states. LC chose to persecute a good man who served the citizens in exemplary fashion. There is nothing defensible about that—no bravery or nobility in taking wrongful acts.