NASA is working on updating the shortfalls list, and they’ve changed the format in a way that maintains the detail while eliminating some of the overlaps and providing a higher-level basis for the ranking of shortfalls against each other.
Linguistics, LLMs, and Empiricism’s Dangers
This word “understanding” is being used to examine a broader, more philosophical question of motivation, of trying to parse why the LLMs respond to queries in the ways they do, but today’s, and the foreseeable future’s worth of tomorrow’s, LLMs don’t have motivation in the human sense.
Regolith as a Material Resource Priority
Structural materials like regolith should be prioritized, followed by water from which both propellant and life support can be derived.
An Interstellar Interloper
Any spacecraft wishing to rendezvous with 3I/ATLAS will need to match its velocity, and hyperbolic interstellar trajectories are fast. I did some quick, back-of-the-envelope calculations to find just how fast.
Computational Engineering – Engineering from First Principles
At its core, computational engineering is engineering from first principles. Rather than the engineer's job being to develop geometry, in computational engineering the engineer's job is to determine the specifications and parameters which will drive geometry and provide them to the computer.
Funding for Fundamentals
If the conversation is not had, if there are only sides, statements, and declarations, more will be lost than a few years of erratic funding.
Some Thoughts Concerning Golden Dome
My greatest concern with Golden Dome is not its technical feasibility, its geopolitical impact, or even its cost. It is that Golden Dome may prove a distraction from addressing the threats we are far more likely to face, and breed complacency in the process.
The Man Who Knew Too Much Review
Modern science is a highly specialized discipline, and scientists are expected to be removed from their experiments. It is not the science of Hooke’s day.
The Language of AI
Tailored machine learning mechanisms and large language models can be far more useful, but ideas about AI “going rogue”, and the more revolutionary predictions for the capabilities, are rather overblown and unrealistic. Some of these misconceptions may come from the language we use.
Dispelling Myths about Mythology
Myth is a way of interacting with the world via story, and is as dynamic as the people who tell the stories, whether oral, written, or in any other form. Stories are not themselves the myth – the myth arises from the conversation between stories set within its ecosystem.
IGC Publishing 