This “beggar” (or perhaps homeless?) in the photographs (in the Moscow metro) is called Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman. He is probably the greatest living mathematician and geometer – certainly for half, …
The gears of recording
Statistics, as the science of numbers, records, and classifications without further explanations and annoying causal chains, had been closely intertwined with genetics from an early stage. Eugenics (and therefore genetics, …
fuck the algorithm
In mid-August, thousands of high school students rallied in front of the education ministry of Her Majesty’s government. It deserves be considered the second authentic demonstration against the “brave new …
artificial intelligence: the Golem of the 4th industrial revolution
You might remember it, or maybe not. There is a method in statistics, quite simple and widespread, so much so that it is often taught even in high school. It …
The French and the Germans don’t like…
American computer science professor (and machine learning researcher) Pedro Domingos of the University of Washington became internationally known for his 2015 book The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the …
The uncivilized
The artifact “Plimpton 322” (photograph), for 80 years in the collections of Columbia University, is at least 3,700 years old. It comes from Mesopotamia, from the territory of ancient (and …
Quantum
Quantum computers are closer than we think – certainly close enough that we risk being left out of the (much-touted) huge technological/governmental revolution they will bring. They are, of course, …
genetic / cybernetic: a white wedding
“The genetic code is the set of rules by which information stored in the genetic material of living cells (DNA or RNA sequences) is translated into proteins (amino acid sequences).” …
knowledge accelerator
It could be the plot of a futuristic movie. Yet it is an idea for the organized devaluation of (also) intellectual labor. Not “sector by sector,” but as a general …
the fourth example(;): the mechanical mediation of scientific thought
The term “Paradigm,” along with its companion “Paradigm Shift,” since first appearing in Thomas Kuhn’s classic book on the structure of scientific revolutions, has undergone not only the expected criticism, …
algorithmic predictions
“Big data” are not (more precisely: must not be allowed to be) merely vast piles of data that clever machines will dig through each time, on demand, now extracting one …
“robotic scientist”
The person depicted is Isaac Newton. Now, an algorithm named “Sir Isaac” in his honor is, according to its creators, a small but decisive step toward the “robot scientist.” The …
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