Carpenter Ants and Consciousness

There’s a recurring theme in my life’s adventures: I’ll head out on a backpacking trip with friends, some intriguing question will inevitably surface as we muck about, a lively discussion ensues, and then I find myself compelled to put pen to paper—or fingers to keyboard—once I’m home. [read more]

On the Beginning of Things

I had an interesting discussion this past weekend on the “beginning of things.” Someone making their case implied early on that “all things have a beginning”. One way or another, I got to thinking: do all things necessarily have a beginning? [read more]

Thinking in Zion

Author’s note: This article is unstructured, so handle with care as things won’t transition or segue as nicely as they could. I didn’t bother very hard to change that, it’d have been more work than it’s worth to corral everything into greater coherence. Regrettably, I made the decision to not... [read more]

Craters become Lakes

Author’s note: I went backpacking with a couple of friends up in Desolation wilderness (southwest of Lake Tahoe) this past weekend. The timing was fortuitous because I’ve recently really gotten into “thinking”, and there’s no better time and place to do that than out in nature. Over three days: we... [read more]

Open Source Large Language Models and Meta

TLDR: Meta’s decision to open-source Llama 3.1 is a calculated bet on the future of content creation and ad campaign creation. By making AI models like Llama widely available, Meta is poised to benefit from the increased demand for curation, personalization, and distribution of AI-generated content. As the largest social... [read more]