Spatial Computing - Tega Brain et al. - All that is Air Melts into Air
The goal is fungibility—to assert equivalence between activities by people or environments so that emissions created over here can be traded and (theoretically) compensated for by actions removing or reducing carbon over there. The means is, of course, commodification. Offsets privatize planetary metabolism.
As temperatures in India break records, ancient terracotta air coolers are helping fight extreme heat
In India's scorching summer heat, the ancient practice of chilling water in terracotta pots is inspiring new trends – from cooling towers to screens for buildings.
Sketchplanations - A weekly explanation in a sketch
Nearly every iceberg you see in a picture or diagram is probably floating the wrong way. This was what I learned (from Megan Thompson-Munson) after sketching Biz Stone's brilliant saying about the myth of overnight success. With some approximation, the density of ice is around 900 kg/m3, and seawater is around 1,000 kg/m3. Therefore, the fraction of an iceberg that's submerged is around ~900/1000 or 0.9. So, about 90% of an iceberg is below the surface and 10% above, which is partly why they can be so dangerous. While most iceberg pictures get this part more or less correct, most of these icebergs will be floating vertically. In reality, a tall, thin iceberg will likely topple, so most icebergs end up floating on their side, not their tips, even though we rarely draw them this way. I remember learning about a fascinating experiment with children of different ages estimating which glass holds more water: a tall, slender one filled high or a wider glass filled to a lower level. Younger children almost always chose the glass with the higher water level as the most water, even when it was significantly less than the shorter and wider glass. I wonder if it's part of why we draw icebergs vertically, at least when we're using them as a metaphor. It's easier to grasp quantities vertically, and we commonly underestimate volume spread over a wider area. We may still want to draw our icebergs tall and deep to make our point, but now, at least, we can do so with the knowledge that they're not like the real ones. If you want to see it yourself, Joshua Tauberer made a brilliant draw-an-iceberg-and-see-how-it-will-float game. I recommend you give it a go so it sinks in forever (sorry). Also see: Overnight success Why ice doesn't sink Ice-cream, gelato, sorbet Know your poles: penguins or polar bears, frozen ice or land
MIT researchers introduce generative AI for databases
Researchers from MIT and elsewhere developed an easy-to-use tool that enables someone to perform complicated statistical analyses on tabular data using just a few keystrokes. Their method combines probabilistic AI models with the programming language SQL to provide faster and more accurate results than other methods.
Including user interaction in website carbon estimates
This post explores one way developers can go beyond page load and start estimating web page carbon emissions that include user interactions on the page.
I am a front-end developer who is FED up about front-end development. If you write front-end, this isn't about you personally. It's about how your choices make me angry. Also this is about how my choices have made me angry. Also this is mostly just about choices, the technologies are incidental. Note: The views expressedRead More
Language is a defining feature of humanity, and for centuries, philosophers and scientists have contemplated its true purpose. We use language to share information and exchange ideas—but is it more than that? Do we use language not just to communicate, but to think? In the June 19, 2024, issue of the journal Nature, McGovern Institute […]
Why Are We Experimenting with Generative AI? - Innovation at Consumer Reports
As AI shapes more and more of our experience online, we think it’s not enough to comment from the sidelines—we need to also get actively engaged in actually solving the problems vexing consumers
Sober AI is the quiet default, despite all the hype you hear about human-replacements and AGI. Data scientists and engineers are quietly transforming business intelligence through practical applications of AI, as highlighted at the recent Databricks Data+AI Summit.
Apple intelligence and AI maximalism — Benedict Evans
Apple has showed a bunch of cool ideas for generative AI, but much more, it is pointing to most of the big questions and proposing a different answer - that LLMs are commodity infrastructure, not platforms or products.
Trying to make AI do my job revealed a vast infrastructure of cheap tricks and middlemen that have been trying to game Google Search for more than a decade.
Grief-laden vitriol directed at AI fails to help us understand paths to better futures that are neither utopian nor dystopian, but open to radically weird possibilities.
Two days after his company's downfall, Austen Allred wrote:
I wish people could see how ugly it is to be envious, and how obvious it is to those around you when that's what's happening.
There's not much uglier than trying to tear someone down because they achieved what you wish
