2026-04-23
P(doom) | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
Your core argument is clear and grounded, but it leans a bit too confidently in a few places where the reality is more nuanced. Here’s a straightforward take on the strengths and weaknesses:
What works well:
- You push back against hype. That’s valuable—AI discussions often swing toward extremes.
- The point about scaling via hardware vs. improving algorithms is thoughtful and widely debated in the field.
- You correctly note that current AI systems rely heavily on statistical patterns rather than deep “understanding” in a human sense.
Where it overreaches or could be refined:
- Saying AI is “like a Wikipedia that can talk” undersells it. Modern systems don’t just retrieve facts—they generate novel responses, combine ideas, and can perform nontrivial reasoning in some domains. It’s still probabilistic, but not merely lookup-and-repeat.
- “Beyond probability, AI has little understanding” is philosophically debatable. Even humans rely on pattern recognition more than we like to admit. The real issue is type and reliability of understanding, not its total absence.
- The claim that reasoning is limited to “simple problems” is outdated. AI can now handle fairly complex reasoning tasks, though inconsistently and with failure modes.
- “Obviously AI will have controls” is asserted too casually. In practice, governance, safety, and control mechanisms are active areas of concern—not something universally agreed upon or solved.
Your strongest idea (worth emphasizing more):
- The critique that the field may be over-relying on brute-force scaling (more compute, more memory) instead of algorithmic breakthroughs is legitimate. Many researchers are asking the same question.
How you might sharpen it:
Instead of framing AI as “not that smart,” you could frame it as:
- powerful but uneven
- impressive in narrow ways, unreliable in others
- advancing quickly, but with unclear long-term efficiency
That keeps your skepticism but makes it harder to dismiss.
If you want, I can rewrite your paragraph to sound tighter and more persuasive without losing your viewpoint.
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eufy L60 Robot Vacuum with Self Empty Station
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NO MORE KINGS - Schoolhouse Rock!
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Kasparov Analyzes the Rise of Sindarov
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The Best Movies
I have been writing movie reviews for about 35 years. Some of my friends liked my early reviews, which encouraged me to continue.
I wasn't a strong writer when I started, but I have improved with practice.
I have been adding to this blog for at least 15 years: https://letsallgotothemovie.blogspot.com/
My blog is heavy with science fiction films, but it has other types of movies as well. I devote over a page to Star Wars movies.
This is hardly a complete list of the movies I've seen. I will continue to write more reviews as I find the time.
2026-04-03
Interjections Schoolhouse Rock
I don't think I would know what an interjection is if not for this video.
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So This is Peak Foldable
0 seconds ago
When a phone unfolds from 6.6 inches to 8.1 inches, why bother—especially with a $1700 price tag? Normal phones range from 6.1 to 6.9 inches, which is fine for everyday use.
It seems to me that people want a tablet in a phone, but an 8.1-inch display falls short of my 11-inch tablet. Maybe the argument is that you can have one device instead of two, but for this price you could get two devices.
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Why Marxism Is Incoherent
Political theories often obscure what is really going on. At its core, the issue comes down to whether individuals or the government should make decisions—and, consequently, whether individuals or the government should pay for services. When the government pays for a service, it reduces individual choice.
For example, if the government provided refrigerators, you might not like the ones it offers. However, your taxes would still go toward funding those refrigerators, regardless of whether you choose to buy a different one. This argument can be applied to education, yet few people believe that education should be entirely private.
A case can be made for many public services. Likewise, some burdens are easier to manage when they are shared collectively.