February 02 2023, 10:38

The first snow triggered some kind of hormonal explosion in Yuki. For three days now, like a cat that yowls at night, he has kept us from sleeping in the morning, and he has also decided that taking long walks is actually very enjoyable (he never really liked them, but now he sees the potential). In just the last three hours, he has paused his continuous howling only for the time of the morning walk. He’s also scratching the front door. I don’t know, maybe there are some pills for this.

It seems that we will all have to take him to the vet. For some reason, a radical solution to the problem is particularly recommended at his age.

February 01 2023, 12:24

I am playing “Elegy” by Nobuyuki Tsudzii (a Japanese composer, blind from birth). Originally, Nobuyuki dedicated it to the victims of the earthquake and tsunami, but…

(I have already posted this. I had to re-upload it to replace the previous version where the image was mirrored. Otherwise, the flawed version remains saved in Videos. Facebook (both the website and the app) freezes when trying to replace the video in an existing post. Thanks to Peter Omelchenko for noticing)

January 31 2023, 17:52

Finally got around (eyes on) to checking out the Neuralink conference by Musk. Three hours long. Highly recommended for all engineers. Every minute of it showcases things next to which all sorts of ChatGPT and other mind-boggling gadgets simply look like child’s play. If these guys succeed, they’re going to rake in all the money in the world. There’s also a similar video about Tesla, but that one is simpler and more down-to-earth.

In short, for those out of the loop. Neuralink is developing a robot that drills a hole in the skull, positions a special sewing machine next to the hole, which drives about fifty electrodes into your brain. Then, the hole is sealed with an electronic device with a remotely rechargeable battery, and you get the ability to control a computer using that part of your brain (still a work in progress, but that’s the goal, and there are working prototypes). Like typing text or pressing buttons in an interface. And in the future (so far, just distant plans), the reverse is also possible: understanding what’s happening in the outer world in ways other than our five senses.

And there are a lot of technical challenges in this process, and the video talks about them and how they were overcome.

Their website:

Unfortunately, Boston Dynamics and SpaceX don’t make such wonderful technology videos.

January 30 2023, 10:29

I wonder, what value does reading Shakespeare in translation hold if all that remains of Shakespeare in his tragedies is merely the script? Translating a sonnet into Russian, let’s say by Marshak, is very liberal. It essentially starts from scratch, a composition stretched over a framework of dialogue. Furthermore, Marshak’s translation is very beautiful, but here I would give Marshak 9 points for the beauty of the translation and 1 point to Shakespeare for writing texts that are difficult to translate 🙂

I need to find some time to try reading something in the original. I imagine an interactive book where you click on a phrase and a brief comment appears, click again and a detailed one comes up, with context and details. I wonder if anyone has made such a thing?

January 26 2023, 15:16

I recently set up Stable Diffusion locally with the default model and openjourney – which is an unlimited prompt-based image generator. And here’s a thought. The prompt should be formulated as if the computer crafted it, looking at the final image. Computers recognize patterns in images that have previously appeared in the training dataset. Thus, it can’t properly draw a three-legged cat unless the dataset included three-legged animals. Likewise, it would see the cat in a three-legged cat, not the three-legged aspect. In essence, abstract thinking is severely limited to what it has been trained on.

Yet, it’s possible to train using algorithmically generated objects. For example, if you define three-leggedness in modern animation programs, you could generate thousands of diverse animals on such a skeleton, in various poses. It would be interesting to develop a system based on this. In theory, this approach could extend beyond just animals. Implementing a CAPTCHA based on ai-generated results could lead people to filter and tag results for free.