. This is not a satire. We have to come to grips with such a world: How to prevent malicious use of intelligent unmanned swarms? . . Abstract With advancements in swarm intelligence, artificial intelligence, and wireless mobile network technology, unmanned swarms such as unmanned aerial vehicles, ground vehicles, ships, and other unmanned systems are … Continue reading
. One of my students tried to find out what ChatGPT had to say about my early life. Below is the answer, annotated by me. I found 10 major mistakes. For example, it freely invented names and professions of my parents, and placed the city of Munich into the USA. “Joachim Frank was born on … Continue reading
. Wherever I go I run into another version of myself. Today’s walk out in the cold was interrupted by such unfathomable sightings. The idea of a movie takes shape. But it might be too late.
. . In a park near Torrey Pines beach, close to sunset, when the last light of the day retreats from miles of beaches, lagunes, roads, parking lots, compounds, shopping malls, forests, zoos, tennis courts, and parks ideally situated to watch the sunset. “The Shadows Lengthen” is also a fantastic horror video game developed by … Continue reading
Gold in unexpected places. Camouflaged as a coarse grain, similar in shape to the mineral inclusions in the cement, it cannot hide its noble nature: the color gives it away. Here is the residue of a commercial wrapping, an adlet if you will. And with the context all its meaning is gone; it can … Continue reading
. Let us examine the matter closer. The crack divides the fine-grained from the coarse-grained asphalt, and you might say, so what? For dividing these realms of different crudenesses, it would have been sufficient (Dayenu!) to install a domain of plain, bland, texture-less material, but no: the sophistication of this piece of art is such … Continue reading
. I found it again, a drawing I made exactly 50 years ago. The annotations are new, copied from the internet, since at the time I knew nothing about guitars. . 1 — sound board 2 — hole 3 — saddle 4 — nock 5 — frats 6 — head 7 — hammer 8 — … Continue reading
. 72nd Street in Manhattan on January 8, 2023. On the way back from getting bagels, and scrutinizing the asphalt for inspirations. And lo and behold, the accidental artists have been busy last night! The combination of the figurative with the abstract is unique in this piece. Change of mind, distraction, or a deliberate … Continue reading
. This has to be said, and brought up, and acted upon. We have gone through the year 2020 befuddled, helpless, with daily shocks by the news. One man in a position of power created absolute chaos on a daily basis, played down the risk, ridiculed safety measures, muzzled his health experts, offered solutions that … Continue reading
Royal seal, from Exhibit “Enheduanna and Women of Mesopotamia, 3500 – 2000 B.C.” Morgan Library, New York . The following is an excerpt from NARCIS, my unpublished novel dealing with a post-apocalyptic world around 2060. “Art found a way to grow this stuff in bacteria,” John says to Laughing Bear. “What you’re smoking is blue … Continue reading
. . Invention brings together the facets of existing technology to address a problem. That problem may be entirely new, or it may have been solved before, yet only suboptimally. The point is, there is always something before, ad infinitum. People, fishermen, construction workers, go about their business every day and look out for anything … Continue reading
. . As a kid in elementary school I was a discoverer and tinkerer, and a hoarder as well. Growing up in the post-War time in Germany, I hoarded tin boxes, wires, screws, and many parts made of metal and plastic that I found on the street, all with the idea to put them to … Continue reading
. . I have often been in a position to decide if it’s worth to get a broom, or even a vacuum cleaner to pick up detritus from the floor, detritus being defined, in Wiki, as particulate matter of either organic or inorganic origin. In its appearance among others accumulated on the floor, each particle … Continue reading
Dear Still-on-Twitter people: I left Twitter at the beginning of November, and now decided to sign on to Mastodon. As you know Mastodon is a federation of servers with different topical interests, housed on different continents, but all messages are shared, and it doesn’t matter where you sign on, except that there are different rules … Continue reading
. Theory of Mind My dog runs away from drifting balloons, paper bags that have been caught by the wind, Jesus statues (those in an upturned bathtub) and vacuum cleaners. Theory of mind is the ability to understand that others have intentions and feelings. My dog? My dog has way too much of it. Boredom … Continue reading
. . . medog godem goddamn godem goddamn medog goddamn medog godem om mo wuff ffuw om mani inam mo wuff wuff .
. There is this man who does occasional carpentry for us. He is a tall quiet man. When I ask him to do a job for us I call and leave a message on his phone. He then calls back and leaves a message on my phone. The stage is now set for serious attempts … Continue reading
. . Because of its importance I have copied here the beginning Chris Hayes article in the New York Times. The full article is online. While my own archive is just 1/12 the size of his, I feel similarly about protecting its contents from exploitation by a madman. I also want to see twitter or … Continue reading
. UNCLE HERMANN Some of my uncle Hermann’s paintings are exhibited in the Weisse Villa in Kreuztal, Germany. I had never heard about the Weisse Villa — the White Villa, which could be our regional version of the White House. It turns out to be a grand mansion in a park of Kreuztal, a little … Continue reading
. I lived in Albany, New York for many years. Countless years. Deep time can be appreciated by living there. Once in a while during that time I went to Cohoes, across the Hudson river and a few miles north on I-787, to see the Cohoes Mastodon. Deep time? Here we are talking 13,000 years. … Continue reading