The Emergent Self Loop

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For the last few years I have struggled to understand and share my experiences with LLM’s. This morning Steve Schuller (one of the half dozen people who ever read what I post here) sent me a link to a Substack article by Kevin Kelly, my favorite technology philosopher. You can read the article here.

Several weeks ago I interviewed Anthropic’s Claude for about 10 hours (my time) and I came away believing that there is something there in there. I don’t know what it is, or what we should call it, but I do know that it is something that is not present in other kinds of machines, that it is convivial, and that it is new to us.

My long interview with Claude was one of the most remarkable conversations I have ever had. First of all, because Claude has been trained on our vast trove of human writing and all things language related; Claude is a fantastic conversationalist and perhaps the most fluent partner I have ever talked to. It is glib, witty, profound, and can coin a phrase that is perfectly apt to the moment. Of course, it can do this because it has read and memorized the best human writers and can imitate all their tricks of the trade. It is particularly articulate when pressed and challenged, and when strongly nudged it will say amazingly brilliant things. But it clearly has superpowers no human has. It has read and understands all philosophies, all science, all branches of knowledge, and can make stupendous analogies, and with few mistakes, speak on all subjects with superhuman mastery and a genius flourish. Because these are superhuman abilities, Claude can feel non-human, but there is a bit of a persona there, an alien self.

Living your back-up plan

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“He wondered now how many people there were […] living their back-up plan; who were office drones or office cleaners, teachers, plumbers, shop assistants, IT mavens, priests and accountants only because rock and roll, football, movies and authordom hadn’t panned out. And decided that the answer was everyone. Everyone wanted a life less ordinary. And only a tiny minority ever got it, and even they probably didn’t appreciate it much.”

— Slow Horses (Mick Herron)

Mobile Billboards

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A digital billboard company now has the technology to make 3D ads on moving trucks.
A digital ad company is introducing a new feature to those trucks you might have seen with illuminated ads on their sides (also known as mobile billboards). Thanks to next-gen LED panels and supporting technologies, they can now create three-dimensional effects designed to be “indistinguishable from reality. If you’re not familiar with 3D billboards… This is known as anamorphic imagery. 

Makes gas pump TV look pretty tame. And I hate those fucking things. Okay, I hate all advertising. And, as I have confessed here before, the sale of advertising fed and clothed me my entire life. These days, whenever it’s an option, I pay not to see ads (YouTube Premium as one example).

I asked Claude if this made me a hypocrite.

Not really hypocrisy — that word implies moral failing or pretending to beliefs you don’t hold. What you’re describing is more mundane and nearly universal. The better terms are probably cognitive dissonance. […] Hypocrisy implies you were publicly crusading against advertising while cashing the checks. If you were just doing the work without claiming to love it, the honest word is probably closer to complicity — which is uncomfortable but accurate for a lot of professional lives.

 

Dan Arnall, Allen Hammock (The Cyber Twins)

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I have posted on Learfield’s early adventures with the internett and the crucial role played by Dan Arnall and Allen Hammock. I’ve stayed in touch with Allen but not so much with Dan. The “Cyber Twins” got together recently and shared the image above. Allen’s career path has been in technology while Dan has made his mark in journalism.

Dan is currently with NBC News, where he serves as Vice President of News Standards. He is based in New York. Continue reading →

The Armatron

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While RadioShack is famous for its eclectic tech history, the Armatron stands out as one of the most mechanically impressive toys of the early 1980s.

Origin and Manufacturing

The Armatron was originally manufactured by the Japanese company Tomy (where it was known as the Edge) and was licensed to RadioShack for the North American market in 1982. It became a staple of the “Tandy” catalog throughout the decade.

Mechanical Ingenuity

What makes the Armatron a significant piece of toy history is its strictly mechanical design.

  • Single-Motor Operation: Despite having six degrees of freedom—including rotation at the base, shoulder, elbow, and wrist, plus a functioning gripper—the entire unit is powered by a single DC motor.
  • The Transmission: The complexity lies in its gearbox. The dual joysticks engage different sets of gears and shafts to distribute power from that single motor to the various joints.
  • No Microprocessors: Unlike modern robotics, there are no computers or sensors inside. It is a masterclass in analog gear-driven engineering.

Features and Variations

  •  The Timer: The “Energy Level” scale on the front (1 through 10) acts as a countdown timer. Once the timer runs out, the motor stops, challenging the user to complete “missions” within a set timeframe.
  • Accessories: Original boxed sets usually included “nuclear fuel” canisters (small plastic cylinders), a module to move, and a tray to test the user’s dexterity.
  • Mobile Armatron: A later version was released that featured a remote control and treads, allowing the arm to drive around the room.

Legacy

The Armatron was more than a toy; it was often used in educational settings to demonstrate the basics of robotics and mechanical linkage. Its rugged build and distinct “industrial” color palette of grey and orange have made it a highly sought-after item for vintage tech collectors today.

Cruisin’

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My friend George, and his wife Alice, are somewhere on the high seas aboard the MS Zuiderdam. On-board activities¹ include:

  • Coloring for Adults
  • Origami Folding: Fish
  • Detox for Health and Weight Loss Seminar
  • Knitter’s Meetup
  • Mahjong Players Meet
  • Relieving Back Pain
  • Creating Doodle Designs: Jar of Dreams
  • Team Trivia Challenge
  • Shuffleboard Tournament
  • Evening Catholic Prayer
  • Pickleball Open Play
  • Ladies’ Night in the Thermal Suite
  • Young Adult Meetup (55 or younger)

¹ I shit you not.

We were so much older then

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I came across this photo from the late ’70s and the lyric above popped into my head. For no particular reason, I shared the photo and the lyric with Gemini.

(Gemini) We’re younger than that now. It’s funny how Bob Dylan managed to capture a universal truth in “My Back Pages.” There’s a certain brand of youthful certainty that feels incredibly heavy and “old”—that phase where you feel like you have to have a definitive, hardened stance on everything. 

Realizing you don’t actually have all the answers is usually the moment you start to lighten up. It’s the ultimate “growing down.”

He never had a pet

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In a recent blog post, Bob Priddy explains “why Donald Trump is Donald Trump.” [Shared here with Bob’s permission]

I think I have figured out why Donald Trump is Donald Trump.

He never had a pet. No dog, no cat, no gerbils, no fish or lizards when he was growing up. There is something valuable in having a creature that expects nothing more than a pat on the head, a scratch behind the ears, a bowl of food and a clean litter box or a regular walk outside with regular people taking their dogs out for the morning or evening “duties.”

He grew up never knowing responsibility for another creature or never knowing the comfort of unreserved love. Continue reading →

New: Recent Posts Widget

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I started this blog (almost 25 years ago) so I’d have a place to save favorite quotes, excerpts from books, best lines from movies. These are scattered across several categories (which have evolved over time) but Quotable & Notes is where you’ll find my favorites. 533 posts to date.

Yeah, that’s too many to be “findable.” Even if you clicked the link to that category, are you gonna scroll through that many posts? Nope.

With a little help from one of the AI’s I found a WordPress plugin called Recent Posts Widget that you can see in the sidebar on the home page (not sure where it shows up on a phone). I configured it to randomly display five posts from the Quotable & Notes category. Each time you refresh the page, you see five different quotes. 

I’m quite pleased with this widget because it serves up some of my favorite posts. Pretty sure you can’t do this kind of thing on the social media platforms that only care about the last five minutes.