AI Let Down

AI is great at manipulating text and documents, and it does a very nice job at examining photos and transcribing text from images. But today AI let me down with what seemed like a simple task: to take a single, three-and-a-half-hour MP3 recording and break it down into individual tracks.

I used to belong to 3rdSpace, which was a coworking space for creative people. They had monthly Jazz Jams along with other music events. I would typically turn on my audio recorder on my iPhone and let it record the entire event as a single audio file. Occasionally, I’d then take that MP3 file, load it up in GarageBand, and slice it into individual music tracks. But more so than not, instead of doing the work myself, I’d upload the single MP3 to AWS’s Mechanical Turk and pay someone a few dollars to slice up the music into individual tracks. 

This morning, I thought, for sure, that one of the big AIs could do this for me. After trying ChatGPT, Gemini/NotebookLM, and DeepSeek, they all failed me. The closest was ChatGPT, which kept apologizing for timing out on me. Gemini referred me to other applications, and DeepSeek was beyond its depth. 

Perhaps one day; but, for now, AI’s sweet spot is language, not action.

Gravity and Philosophical Cosmology: A Work in Progress

Gravity is not a a fundamental force in the universe.

Gravity is one of the four fundamental interactions in the universe, but it’s not a force since it has no messenger particle that transmits it. (Gravitons are similar to tachyons: they don’t exist.)

The electromotive force is transmitted by photons.

The strong nuclear force is transmitted by gluons.

These two forces, photons and gluons, seem to be the only forms of massless energy that we are aware of. Photons act over an infinite distance, whereas gluons travel only within a proton to bind the quarks that make up a proton.

The weak nuclear force is transmitted by w and z particles (which do have invariant mass, better known as rest mass). Rest means that, if a particle of energy could stop moving at c, it would literally have zero mass - in other words, all the mass of an energy particle is a result of its momentum. 

The leads to another phenomenon I’ve been trying to better understand, which is how do attractive forces work, such as the attraction of the north and south pole of a magnet? While this interaction seems as obvious as gravity, at first glance, I’m wondering if it’s truly an attractive force? Rather, could it be a push force where the space between the north and south poles creates an “energy vacuum” or lower energy state? In other words, is what we see as an attraction actually the magnets being pushed into a lower energy state from the space or forces around it? 

How does attraction work? Good question. I came to imagine repulsion in a classical sense. I can imagine “pushing.” For example, classically, I can envision two atoms emitting photons directed at each other like two people standing in a rowboat while throwing a ball back and forth to each other. The ball leaving one person’s hands is analogous to a photon emitted from an atom. As this process continues, the boats, like the atoms, are pushed apart. They’re repulsed. So, how do we imagine an attractive force? 

Additionally, it seems that gravity doesn’t originate from mass; otherwise, how could the gravity of a black hole be felt outside the event horizon? How could a fictitious graviton travel faster than light to escape out of the event horizon?

Rather, it appears that the Cosmos (spacetime) is flowing, like a river, into mass. Crossing the event horizon is analogous to going over a waterfall. 

A final thought…

What happens or what exists in the space where the event horizons of two black holes overlap? The flow of the spacetime aether would be in opposite directions. Would it simply be a void of nothingness? 🤷‍♂️ 

AI in the Federal Government

I was recently speaking to some Veterans Administration (VA) consultants who told me that they're seeing a big shift in the time it takes to review a veteran's disability benefits.

In the past, VA benefits could take many months of review following medical appointments. Now, the consultants are sometimes seeing VA benefits finalized within days to a couple of weeks thanks to AI.

I asked AI to expand on my two paragraph blog post and this is what it came up with:

I recently had the opportunity to speak with some consultants who work closely with the Veterans Administration (VA), and they shared some fascinating insights about a major shift happening in the way veteran disability benefits are being processed. According to them, the time it takes for the VA to review and finalize disability claims has seen a dramatic improvement, largely due to advancements in AI.

Historically, veterans applying for disability benefits often faced lengthy wait times. After completing their necessary medical evaluations, it could take many months—sometimes even longer—for their claims to be fully reviewed and approved. This extended waiting period placed a significant burden on veterans who needed timely support and resources.

However, the consultants I spoke with explained that AI is now playing a pivotal role in expediting this process. In some cases, claims that once took months to navigate through various layers of review are now being finalized in a matter of days or just a couple of weeks. AI-powered systems are helping to analyze medical records, cross-reference data, and flag key details more efficiently than traditional manual processes.

While these advancements are promising, they also raise important questions about accuracy, fairness, and the role of human oversight in decision-making. Nevertheless, for many veterans who have long struggled with bureaucratic delays, this shift represents a significant and much-needed improvement in the VA benefits system.

As AI continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how technology further reshapes government processes, particularly in areas that directly impact the lives of those who have served our country.

Saturday Night: Live

 Last week I watched some clips from the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live. As a kid, growing up in New York, I used to stay up late to watch it, like many of my fellow New Yorkers.

My uncle used to work at 30 Rockefeller Center, so he would occasionally get me tickets to NBC programs like  Late Night with David Letterman and Saturday Night Live. 

Although I didn't get a chance to see a live broadcast of SNL, I did get to see the two-hour dress rehearsal that occurs each Saturday night from 8 PM – 10 PM. Based on the audience's reaction, a couple sketches are cut from the show to make it fit in 90 minutes. 

So, I had a chance to watch the dress rehearsal on December 17, 1994 with Courtney Love's band, Hole along with George Forman as the guest host. 

After the dress rehearsal, my buddy and I went to a local NYC bar and we were thrilled to watch the live broadcast while knowing what was about to happen. 

DOGE and the Shakeup in Government: A Culture Shift

Without a doubt, the entire world has seen the shakeup in the U.S. federal government led by the President and DOGE.

In a nutshell, the fundamental culture of the federal government has been impacted by a shift from a traditional bureaucracy to an entrepreneurial, cost-cutting mindset. 

Each type of organization has one keyword that's a driving force in its organization. For the federal government, that word is "risk." What's the risk of doing this or what's the risk of doing that? 

For entrepreneurial organizations, the key driving force is "opportunity." How can I turn this challenge or setback into an opportunity?  

Opportunity prioritizes speed of change over security, whereas risk prioritizes security over speed. Each has its appropriate place and time. 

Parris Island Heads

I came across this Lego diorama of a head (bathroom) in boot camp. It's a reproduction of the final boot camp scene from the movie, Full Metal Jacket. 

When I shared this image with friends, they were amazed that the heads were actually arranged like this. Yes, we were literally side-by-side and face-to-face in some of the barracks we stayed in at Parris Island, South Carolina.

Every evening in boot camp we had 50 mins of free time just before taps where we could read and write letters home and socialize with the other recruits in our platoon (about 60 of us). The very first thing we’d all do when free time began was make a beeline to the head to poop so we could do it at our leisure. Believe it or not, we would read our letters and have discussions in this arrangement while giving our fellow recruits a courtesy look-away when completing the final paperwork.

The military excels at pushing people beyond their comfort zone in a safe, controlled environment.

Tube Tester Memories at Blair TV

Life was simple before World War II. After that, we had systems.

– Grace Hopper

Before solid-state electronics, like the transistor, there were vacuum tube electronics like the triode. Vacuum tubes consume a lot of power and are fragile, similar to an incandescent light bulb.

As a child, we had many televisions in my home. Every bedroom had one, and there were two more in the basement. The reason we had so many TVs was because my father would always stop to pick up discarded televisions that were lying on the side of the road, waiting for track pickup. 

About a mile from home was the now defunct Blair TV repair shop that had tube tester. My father would pull out any suspected bad tubes from the TV's he found and bring the tubes to the TV repair shop for testing. Once he uncovered a bad tube, he'd pay a few bucks to replace it and, voila, we'd have a working TV in the house.

Technology and Media: Historic Transformations

Podcast of this blog post.

Having witnessed firsthand the explosion of the Internet and the birth of social media, I observed a profound shift: information, once difficult to produce and disseminate, can now be created and shared by anyone with ease. The barrier to entry for crazy ideas is now lower than it has ever been in history. People now need to be more discriminating than ever.

It will probably take a few generations for people to learn a proper level of skepticism. Right now, the pace at how quickly things are changing is faster than the rate at which the average person can keep up. I only wish we had better records of the impact of other, historic transitions from people who lived through it. I asked AI to give me some examples and this is what I discovered. 

The transition from mass media to social media represents a profound societal shift in how information is created, distributed, and consumed. Throughout history, comparable adjustments have occurred during periods of technological and cultural innovation. Here are some examples:

1. The Invention of Writing (Circa 3200 BCE)

• What Changed: Oral traditions gave way to written records, enabling information to be preserved and transmitted across generations and distances.

• Impact: Writing centralized knowledge within institutions like temples and royal courts but also democratized access to ideas over time. Societies had to learn to value written contracts, laws, and literature over oral storytelling.

2. The Printing Press (15th Century)

• What Changed: Johannes Gutenberg’s invention made mass production of books possible, transforming knowledge from an elite privilege into a public good.

• Impact: The spread of books, pamphlets, and newspapers fueled the Renaissance, Reformation, and Scientific Revolution. However, it also necessitated new skills, like literacy, and created challenges such as the dissemination of propaganda.

3. The Telegraph and Telephone (19th Century)

• What Changed: Communication became nearly instantaneous over long distances.

• Impact: The flow of information accelerated commerce, politics, and personal relationships. However, it also created a demand for new protocols and etiquette around remote communication.

4. Mass Media (20th Century)

• What Changed: The rise of radio, television, and film centralized information dissemination, placing control in the hands of a few corporations or governments.

• Impact: Mass media shaped public opinion and culture on an unprecedented scale. Societies grappled with issues like censorship, propaganda, and the influence of advertising.

5. The Internet (Late 20th Century)

• What Changed: The internet democratized access to information and gave individuals the tools to publish content globally.

• Impact: The transition required societies to navigate new risks, such as cybercrime, misinformation, and digital divides, while also embracing the possibilities for global collaboration and education.

6. The Rise of Algorithms and AI (21st Century)

• What Changed: Algorithms began curating information for individuals, creating “filter bubbles” and personalized content streams.

• Impact: This shift parallels earlier technological revolutions but adds complexity due to the opacity of algorithmic decision-making and its potential for bias or manipulation.

Societal Adjustments Across Transitions:

• Critical Thinking: Similar to learning literacy after the printing press, people now need “digital literacy” to evaluate the credibility of online information.

• Ethical Norms: Societies create new rules or guidelines for acceptable behavior in response to technological shifts, such as copyright laws or content moderation policies.

• Power Dynamics: Each transition alters who holds power over information and who can challenge authority, from the scribe to the independent journalist to the social media influencer.

These transitions often involve disruption, but they also open opportunities for progress, creativity, and greater inclusivity. The key challenge for each era is learning to wield new tools responsibly.

Balanced News from the Right & Left

A friend turned me on to Tangle News, yesterday. Unlike Ground News (which reports on how other news outlets are reporting news), Tangle News reports a story and then reports on what the Right and Left are saying about the topic followed by the author's personal take. 

I'm trying it out with the latest story that was published about Matt Gates' Attorney General bid. This article was published just before he withdrew his name, so it's a little stale but still interesting. I also turned the article into a podcast for alternative consumption. 

Pocket Travel Router & Repeater for the Win

A coworker who was visiting San Diego in September mentioned that he always travels with a pocket-sized travel router so I decided to check one out on Amazon. I'm impressed; especially since it cost less than $40 with tax and shipping and it was delivered in under three hours.

I'm simply using mine as a WiFi repeater to deliver connectivity to a dead spot at home and it's working magnificently. It is ideal for using at a hotel so you and your fellow roommates don't need to keep logging into the hotel room's WiFi. And it's especially useful on a cruise ship or airline flight where guests are charged for Internet access for each device. Simply pay for connecting one device, the travel router, and then everyone else in your stateroom can connect it. 

To use it, you log into it, like a typical router or cable modem, and then connect it to your current home (or hotel, etc) WiFi network (you can also use ethernet or tether it to your phone’s hotspot). Once it's set up, it creates its own WiFi network so multiple people can connect to the travel router without needing to log into the hotel’s network.