Chautauqua 3

 Of dogs and thunderstorms....

The Liminal Space

I have, for some time, been quietly obsessed with the concept of the Liminal Space. Most of my photos over some years have veered towards expression of the aesthetic. A liminal space being defined as follows (from above link):

True to its etymology ("liminal" being derived from the Latin word limen, meaning "threshold"), the concept of a liminal space encompasses physical spaces that, due to their function, are transitional in nature - hallways, waiting rooms, parking lots and rest stops are the archetypical examples of such places. Liminal space aesthetics relate to the unique feelings of eeriness, nostalgia, and apprehension people report when presented with such places outside of their designed context; most notably, their function as intermediary points between origin and destination. For instance, an empty stairwell or hospital corridor at night might look sinister or uncanny because these places are usually brimming with life and movement. Therefore, the absence of external stimuli (such as conversations, people moving around, or any kind of social dynamics) creates an otherworldly and forlorn atmosphere.

Chautauqua 2.

I had the following chat with GPT4, using the Chat With PDF plugin. GPT4 was able to use that plugin and carry out analysis of the implications of the paper concerned. 

Chautauqua 1.

Musing on the prescience of E.M. Forster's The Machine Stops, the conditions as we enter the Singularity, and riding the wave. 

For what it's worth, I have changed my opinion on the utility of the concept of Moloch, but this discussion took place over a month ago.

Is GPT4 Useful At Work?

Is a given system useful for a given task? This calls into being the following chain of reasoning. 

Purpose -> Criteria of Acceptability -> Is it useful?

So are Large Language Models as capable at work as a human? Are they useful? In addressing this I'm not going to make public what I've done for my employer, suffice to say it is potentially useful for us in a wide variety of roles. Instead I'm going to approach it from a tangent.

Is GPT4 just a Parrot?

"GPT4 is just an Autocomplete on Steroids!" So goes the cry of pseuds across the internet. 

Let's see.

Chautauqua 0.

I've been very busy, hence disappearing for months, I am now preparing a series of posts about the ongoing singularity. However I've been using GPT3.5 and 4 as an assistant at work and am eagerly awaiting the incorporation of GPT4 into Office 365 as the Office Co-Pilot.

Anyway, here's something I just tried with both GPT3.5 and 4, I am currently using both at work, but doing so with awareness of their capabilities. Typical tasks include pricing up quotes and checking purchase orders against quotes, GPT4 excels at such tasks.

The Post 2007 Arctic Ocean September Extent

I've been very busy at work, it's audit season, so no spare time. But this weekend is down-time to rest. So I've just had a look at the Arctic Ocean sea ice data for September 2007 to 2022.

Some Thoughts on Constancy in Culture

I've just been watching the Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, my impressions are similar to those of the wedding of Prince Phillip. At that time I was watching that prior event with someone and was asked what I thought of it. I said thought it was quite a primitive event, being a display of ape hierarchy and a liminal ceremony, a right of passage. For all the trappings this funeral struck me similarly, which is not to say it was not emotionally moving.

Arctic Land Permafrost is beyond the Tipping Point

There are around 1.5 trillion metric tons of carbon locked in the land permafrost of the Arctic Circle region. To put that into perspective, human fossil fuel emissions are around 34 billion metric tons per year of CO2 (9.3 billion metric tons of carbon), which means that there are about 160 years worth of emissions in carbon locked up in the permafrost of the Arctic region.

The Death of Stalin and the Quiet Putsch

I'll have something to say about the Central England Temperature series and this year's summer, and when the minimum is finally reached, Arctic sea-ice. But the following video is an excellent review and extrapolation of a perfect movie, The Death of Stalin.

The Left and Right are wrong (and right)

Taking a short-hand of left and right as being collectivist and individualist is an approximation that looses some finesse. But let's just consider the collectivist/individualist dichotomy aspects of left and right and proceed to show how they're simultaneously correct and incorrect.

Trump was a Triumph of the American Government....

 ....and a failure of the American people and political classes.

Watch China

China gave us the "Wuhan Flu", which for purposes of irritating the Woke Totalitarians must be said in a certain fashion with the requisite facial distortions and terrible hammy accent. Really. It must. It is essential to have some fun in life. Everyone gets mocked.

Interesting times...

I've been busy with work, and part of the additional load has been my trying to plan a response to the coming economic 'circumstances'. This has led to me musing on a saying.

The Machines will defeat us, even if war is not their aim.

In my last post I made a throw away comment in relation to the subject of climate change: "...nothing exposes right-wing ideological capture more than the subject of climate change, it's their version of the gender ideology clown-world occupied by the left." This ideological capture is most commonly known via the non-playable character (NPC) meme.

The Normal Distribution and a Recent UK Temperature Record.

We have had some really weird hot weather here (UK), and I've been looking at the Central England Temperature Series (CET). This is an event that is but a small part of a massive heatwave impacting Europe...

Again.

Kemi Badenoch for Prime Minister

The UK Government is in turmoil following the defenestration of Boris Johnson. He was finally driven to resign the leadership of the Conservative Party after some 49 ministers and permanent secretaries resigned over a period of a few days. That was the culmination of months of the entire party guiding him to the door, some people just cannot take a hint. 

After a catalogue of episodes of bad judgement Johnson's time was up. Now the race to replace him is on.

5GHz: The Ad Hoc Link Band

Here in the UK, 5GHz link bands are being used for point-to-point back-haul communications, most cities and many towns have systems for providing internet access and links to enable camera surveillance systems (CCTV). In this post I outline what is going on.

Pursue Meaning, not Happiness

Our culture is in a dead end, the rise of the Safety-Nazis and the rise of mental illness go hand-in-hand. We need to pursue meaning, not happiness, we need to follow the path of self-development, not trying to be the best compared to others. As Peterson put it, compare yourself not with others, rather compare yourself with who you were yesterday, or indeed, last year.