The Last Person on Earth

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Of any activity you do, ask yourself: If I were the last person on earth, would I still do it?  If you are alone on a planet a hierarchical structure makes no sense.  There’s no one to impress.  So, if you’d still pursue that activity, congratulations. If we were the last person on earth, would we still show up at the studio, the rehearsal hall, the laboratory?

Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

Resilient in the face of Trauma

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For at least a century, psychologists have assumed that terrible events—such as having a loved one die or becoming the victim of a violent crime—must have a powerful, devastating, and enduring impact on those who experience them. This assumption has been so deeply embedded in our conventional wisdom that people who don’t have dire reactions to events such as those are sometimes diagnosed as having a pathological condition known as “absent grief.” But recent research suggests that the conventional wisdom is wrong that the absence of grief is quite normal, and that rather than being the fragile flowers that a century of psychologists have made us out to be, most people are surprisingly resilient in the face of trauma. The loss of a parent or spouse is usually sad and often tragic, and it would be perverse to suggest otherwise.

But as one group of researchers noted, “Resilience is often the most commonly observed outcome trajectory following exposure to a potentially traumatic event.” Instead, studies of those who survive major traumas suggest that the vast majority do quite well, and that a significant portion claim that their lives were enhanced by the experience

Why do most of us shake our heads in disbelief when an athlete who has been through several grueling years of chemotherapy tells us that “I wouldn’t change anything,” or when a musician who has become permanently disabled says, “If I had it to do all over again, I would want it to happen the same way,” or when quadriplegics and paraplegics tell us that they are pretty much as happy as everyone else? The claim made by people who have experienced events such as these seem frankly outlandish to those of us who are merely imagining those events—and yet, who are we to argue with the folks who’ve actually been there?

The fact is that negative events do affect us, but they generally don’t affect us as much or for as long as we expect them to.

Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling into Happiness

AI Jesus in Swiss Chapel

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“Researchers and religious leaders released findings from a two-month experiment through art in a Catholic chapel in Switzerland, where an avatar of "Jesus" on a computer screen, tucked into a confessional, took questions by visitors on faith, morality and modern-day woes, and offered responses based on Scripture. Those behind the project said it was largely a success: Visitors often came out moved or deep in thought, and found it easy to use.” -Associated Press

Really Giving Thanks

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Thanksgiving is more than just a long holiday weekend for watching eight consecutive hours of football or finding a few shopping bargains. It’s a time to reflect on the remarkable blessings showered upon us. Think back over the year; You’ll remember how often a crisis loomed. Perhaps you’re facing just such a situation now. And yet, how many of last year’s potential disasters are still with you? There is much for which to be thankful, and Thanksgiving is the perfect time to remind yourself and your family of what you are truly grateful. May you and your loved ones escape the daily grind and spend quality time together.  

Stephen Goforth

14 Articles about AI & Data Privacy

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Unrolling a Person

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Development is an interesting word derived from a linguistic root meaning “rolled” or “folded.” An envelope is a folded sheet of paper, and to develop is to “unroll” something that has been heretofore so tightly rolled that we could not see what it really was. After the child has grown up, we can say that she was that way from the very start. But when she was a child, it was anyone’s guess how she would turn out.

The particular individual is an entity that is both utterly unique and profoundly like others. In this paradox of sameness and difference, we are like leaves on a tree or waves on the ocean.

The path of development is the fishtailing course we follow as we let go of what we have been and then discover a new thing to become—only to let go of that in time and become something new. This is the Way of Transition, the way or path of life itself, the alternating current of embodiment and disengagement, expansion and contractions.

William Bridges, The Way of Transitions

AI Definitions: Test-time training

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Test-time training (TTT) - An alternative to transformers (which have high energy demands), TTTs theoretically do not grow when processing additional data, as transformers do. TTTs encode the data into representations called weights, so that additional data does not increase the size of the model. In effect, it is nestling a neural network inside another neural network. This type of machine learning model is in its early development stages and is only now being tested.

More AI definitions here.

19 Articles about the Business of Running an AI Company

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Pokémon Go Players Have Unwittingly Trained AI to Navigate the World - 404Media

Meta forms product group to build AI tools for businesses - Axios 

OpenAI Is Paying Dotdash Meredith At Least $16 Million to License Its Content – Ad Week 

AI Investments Are Booming, but Venture-Firm Profits Are at a Historic Low – Wall Street Journal

There’s No Longer Any Doubt That Hollywood Writing Is Powering AI – The Atlantic 

Researchers have invented a new system of logic that could boost critical thinking and AI – The Conversation 

AI Companies Are Trying to Get MIT Press Books – 404Media  

Liquid foundation models promise competition for LLMs - here's how - Diginomica 

Google preps ‘Jarvis’ AI agent that works in Chrome – 9to5Google 

AI firms need media more than they admit – Axios

Agentic AI: How Large Language Models Are Shaping the Future of Autonomous Agents – Unite AI 

Wall Street Giants to Make $50 Billion Bet on AI and Power Projects – Wall Street Journal

Meta strikes multi-year AI deal with Reuters – Axios

Apple releases new preview of its AI, including ChatGPT integration – CNBC

One of the Biggest AI Boomtowns Is Rising in a Tech-Industry Backwater - Wall Street Journal

OpenAI is looking beyond Microsoft for its cloud computing needs. – The Decoder

Microsoft Has an OpenAI Problem – New York Mag

AI firms need to address security, open-source concerns: G42 exec – Semafor  

HarperCollins Confirms It Has a Deal to Sell Authors' Work to AI Company - 404Media

Blame is contagious

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Blame is contagious, according to UCLA researchers. Even when we observe a public display of blame, we are likelier to do the same.

Volunteers were asked to read about a governor blaming others for a problem, while a different group read how the governor accepted personal responsibility for the crisis. Both groups then wrote about a failure in their own lives. Those who saw blame modeled for them were almost a third more likely to join the blame game and put the fault for their failure on someone else. However, the number of blamers dropped when volunteers first wrote down their core values.

The researchers theorized that a reminder of how to make wise choices made it less likely for individuals to feel the need to defend themselves by blaming others and more willing to take responsibility.  

A USC professor conducted similar experiences and concluded that publicly blaming of others dramatically increases the likelihood that the practice will become viral.

When leaders, parents, or even friends make a practice of blaming others for their failures, they are encouraging people in their circle of influence to do the same. People then become less willing to take risks, less innovative and less creative—and less likely to learn from their mistakes.

Blame creates a culture of fear.

Stephen Goforth