Ellen Clarke, The Units of Life | BJPS Review of Books John Dupré reviews The Units of Life, by Ellen Clarke

A nice review from John Dupre at the BJPS review of books www.thebsps.org/reviewofbook...

Rare sighting of a column chart taking a dip at Hove Beach.

#dataviz

The Isle of Arran from Seamill Beach on the Clyde Coast. One of the wonderful things about living in Glasgow is how close we are to some rather stunning countryside.

Cont./

#glasgow #seamillbeach #arran #scotland #beach

The Origin of the Research University Universities have existed for more than a thousand years — and for almost all of that time, they weren’t centers of research. What changed in 19th century Germany?

A three way fight between medievalist conservatives, bureaucratic enlightenment modernisers, and Romantic idealists results in a compromise no one quite wanted but also is drives a huge portion of innovation and technical advance in the modern world. Fascinating!

asteriskmag.com/issues/10/th...

From https://www.erdosproblems.com/forum/thread/1196#post-5561 : That log was somewhat helpful, but still inconclusive at the most critical components of the problem solving process, which remain frustratingly opaque. My tentative theory is that these models are still quite weak at developing strategy and constructing novel coherent narratives (as opposed to explaining existing, human-generated, narratives, for which they are now rather good at); this may also be related to the tendency of AI-generated proofs (such as this one) to dwell at length on rather routine components of an argument, while not stressing the most original and important aspects of a proof. For me, there are two points in the thought process that would be particularly illuminating to locate. The first, obviously, is where the idea of using the von Mangoldt process first emerged. But dual to this is why this idea was not later abandoned, like so many other ideas generated in the chain of thought. Problem solving is not just about coming up with the one right idea amongst a sea of bad ideas; it is also about the filtering that isolates that one viable idea from all the unviable ideas. This filtering seems to be largely absent in the published chain of thought; and yet the AI was somehow able to perform the remaining technical steps needed to convert the viable idea into an actual proof. Perhaps one has to compensate for the effect of "survivor bias": amongst the Erdos problems alone, thousands of instances of these models are being thrown at these problems, but it is pretty much only the successful (or partially successful) instances which are being reported here, and one possible explanation for the lack of coherent strategic narrative in this instance is that there simply isn't one: it could instead be more of a numbers game of "throwing things repeatedly at the wall and seeing what sticks". Perhaps one experiment which would be helpful would be to [....]

Mathematicians are still scratching their heads about precisely how GPT-5.4 Pro came up with its proof. Terence Tao read a log of its "thinking", and wrote this analysis:

www.erdosproblems.com/forum/thread...

(3/n, n = 3)

I’ll never forget watching The Wicker Man with my outer Hebridean mum. “I just don’t know where there got all that wicker from”

The time for chaos with Ed Miliband may soon be upon us

Sophie dog looking up in the kitchen

#sophiefromromania’s favourite thing is helping with washing up

here is a manatee named Ayurami who lives at the Dallas World Aquarium with her best friend, a log

there are many photos of Gilbert Ryle, but this one captures his dispositions best

It is wild to be doing philosophy of maths at a time where strange and new things are happening!

This week "GPT-5.4 Pro (prompted by Price)" solved Erdős problem 1196, a conjecture of Erdős, Sárközy, and Szemerédi.
www.erdosproblems.com/forum/thread...

Exactly one year ago today:

feldfrog on tumblr: "If a fantasy world has an ancient tree of wisdom, that means it must also have young trees that are dumb as shit. Just giving terrible advice like, "the evil wizard is kinda hot"'"

Ted Cruz quote tweet says: "Tucker Carlson has turned into a deranged, Leftist psycho. Who loves sharia." original Tucker Carlson Network tweet: "The people in charge don't want you to know this, but Muslims love Jesus. Islam reveres Him as a major prophet and messenger of the Lord, believes He performed miracles, and states that He will return to Earth go defeat the Antichrist. that's why Donald Trump's painting..."

imagine trying to sustain a serious intellectual culture in the midst of this

The Bluesky app showing ‘Forbidden’.

bluesky is a deontologist smh

Tulips and bluebells in the foreground, a Victorian church tower and blue sky in the background

The gardens by the philosophy dept looking particularly nice today

Exactly a year since this slightly surreal moment...

one of my many toxic traits is that when a cat meows at me I'll often say "I know" even though I have absolutely no idea what they're saying and I am simply trying to be agreeable

obviously it isn't the most socially destructive genre of AI video but I do think AI cat videos are the most spiritually destructive. cat videos exist to remind us of the wondrous chaos of the universe

The intricately carved red sandstone of the fort against blue sky with some light white clouds

Mehrangarh, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India

Poor Sleep Linked To Gong Instrument’s Loud, Resonant Crash Can Be Disruptive

Poor Sleep Linked To Gong https://theonion.com/poor-sleep-linked-to-gong/

I will not be ragebaited.

I will instead look skyward. Condense my rage into a whisper. And simply ask:

“To what end?”

looks like they're being processed after getting arrested for trying to steal some super cheap cider from a mini tesco's

Turtle hatchling release at Pangumbahan Beach, Indonesia, involving the release of endangered green sea turtle hatchlings.

IG: malasabuzzhub

As a woman, I offer my sympathies to the Pope who is now being told hourly by very many random men what he actually means

Looking up from the floor to the painted wooden ceiling of a colonnade that borders an inner courtyard in the palace. The walls are tiled in geometric blue and white patterns.

Tach Khaouli Palace, Khiva, Uzbekistan

Kaneda Kazuo- Cat on Peach Tree

little raccoon in a US storm drain peering through the gap looking innocent as only chaotic little raccoons do

If you're looking for the clown, he's two storm drains over