First Blog

  The Latest and Greatest AI Chips How Fast and How Much? We’ve heard of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the computers required to carry out the job required. They consume massive power but can accomplish near-miraculous data processing tasks. But how fast and how much are values mostly unknown to most of us. Let’s look under the hood to get some idea of what’s inside. The latest and greatest NVIDIA chip, the Blackwell GB200 , is a key component of the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72, a multi-node, liquid-cooled, rack-scale system, which comprises 600,000 parts, including 72 GB200s. It's designed to be capable of delivering 720 petaflops* for training and 1.4 exaflops* for inferencing. (And it reportedly weighs  3,000 pounds – about the same as a mid-sized car .) Nvidia's Blackwell AI chip is expected to cost  between $30,000 and $40,000 per unit , according to CEO Jensen Huang.   This price is competitive with current Nvidia AI chips. Nvidia's Blackwell generation boosts pow

  To Lie or Not to Lie Lying to another is one thing; lying to yourself is quite another. We all lie, each and every one of us. We exclude a large class of lies, those unintentional. These are just poor information exchanges. Mostly, lies are for the good, such as when we tell someone how good they look or to our kids to smooth their fears or questions. The boss lies to the employee, often to enhance performance. Teachers lie to students all the time about how well they do. The coach lies when all is lost. Some lies, like these, are acceptable. They are mostly intentional and often meant to protect in some way. The other types, also intentional, are deceptive, deceitful, and meant to harm or achieve some goal such as confusion. Politicians specialize in these, for good or bad.  Yet, there is a middle ground, such as the self-lie. Some of us live by maxims offered by famous luminaries, past and present. Yet, it is upon us to understand just what is correct, actionable, and sensible. L

Problem-Solving - Obsession Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end. Henry David Thoreau, Walden, "Economy," 1854.   Introduction . Many facets of problem-solving are well-known and understood. They range from vast knowledge to critical thinking, to intuition, to insight, and to experience. Today, we add a characteristic, though an important ingredient. It’s more like a condiment-to-food, or a sauce to a delicacy. It’s needed though sometimes not essential. It is mostly helpful with big problems, difficult problems, or imossible problems. It is the quality of obsession. Each of us has experienced obsession in one form or another and is often relieved when the problem is solved. One literally leaves oneself becoming an engine driven to resolve the matter. Obsession is an all-consuming state of mind, possessive, jealous of distractions, and impervious to interruptions. T

  Planet Earth vs Humans Who’s Winning? Every year, many species become extinct, simply by their inability to survive. New species emerge. These are facts. In a sense, we are guests of our planet, which has very strict rules for survival. It will do what planets do everywhere. It responds to threats and tries to survive them. Fires burn out because the extent of forests is limited. Species die out because they destroy their own food supplies, or cannot compete. Storms fade out because they cannot sustain their energy to continue. Plagues of locusts cease for lack of food, though they would destroy all life, themselves included, given a continuous food supply. Volcanos stop erupting because the internal pressures are exhausted. Earthquakes end because of tectonic relief. Predation ends when the prey is essentially exhausted. Populations are limited because of the limitation of food supplies, disease, and disasters. This is because our planet limits natural disasters in many ways. It p

  Nature and Thomas A. Edison We consider a quote from Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931) and a natural consequential commentary. “Nature is what we know. We do not know the gods of religions. And nature is not kind, or merciful, or loving. If God made me — the fabled God of the three qualities of which I spoke: mercy, kindness, [and] love — He also made the fish I catch and eat. And where do His mercy, kindness, and love for that fish come in? No; nature made us — nature did it all — not the gods of the religions.”   Thomas A. Edison Do you agree? Myself? I have opinions but on this one, I am unsure. But consider… It may have taken a countless number of big bangs to create a Universe capable of life. It is said our particular universe has embedded within it just the right array of constants, unexplainable by any theory, that makes life as we know it possible. This is commonly called the “fine-tuned universe.” And this is aligned with the Universe of philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632

  "Settled science" refers to scientific theories and principles that are widely accepted by the scientific community because they are supported by a substantial body of evidence and have withstood rigorous testing over time. While no scientific knowledge is ever considered absolutely final, certain fields and principles are regarded as highly reliable. All of the examples below are rather solid within their scope.  Five hundred years ago, none of these existed*. 1. Newtonian Mechanics (in most everyday contexts - not at quantum level) 2. The Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection (but it is a process as much as a science) 3. The Germ Theory of Disease (yet other forms, e.g. prion have been found) 4. The Structure of DNA (as the key component of life) 5. Heliocentrism (the Earth revolves around the sun) 6. Plate Tectonics (originally rejected) 7. The Big Bang Theory (foundational in cosmology, but questions remain – big ones) 8. Conservation Laws (Energy, Mo

 

  Trump Assassination Attempt: Conspiracy, Incompetence, or Something Else? The recent assassination attempt on Trump's life at a rally was a shocking and horrific event. Various explanations have been suggested, from a sudden turn of Trump's head or a bad aim to the US Secret Service's (USSS) inadequate coverage of the event. This has lent credence to conspiracy theories. Another popular theory is that the USSS has become lazy and incompetent under the Biden administration. However, there's a third possibility: induction . The USSS covers numerous events for high-ranking government officials and former presidents, with almost nothing untoward ever happening. This repeated uneventfulness can lull agents into a false sense of security, leading them to assume that no problems will arise at future events. This principle of induction is something we all use constantly. We generalize that the sun will rise every morning, the tides will come in every day, and the weather will

Your Mental Toolkit --- It’s Huge   Introduction. No aliens. No animals. Only us humans. Humans operate at multiple levels, from the primitive to the highly intellectual, from skilled labor to the space engineer, and so on. All of us, with the same brains, do similar things in similar ways. In considering all the mental abilities we have, it is important to understand how we live and what we can do. In the first part of this essay, the foundations of the mind’s activity at various levels are discussed. In almost every case, they require training – the period of growing up. Even still they are distributed in unequal quantities between individuals. It is reasonable to suggest that the child growing up serves as a family apprentice, implying children were students long before there were schools.   Early tribes needed some rules to follow, plus many taboos about danger. The great modern civilizations also need rules to be sure but more than that, they need theories and beyond.