The Edge of Decoherence

A short story about a quantum being who leaves the shimmering realm of possibility to visit our frozen world of certainty.

Free Men of the Steppe: Kazakhs and Cossacks

This blog post is about how the words Kazakh and Cossack are related. Background My wife Masha is from Kazakhstan, although she is not ethnically Kazakh. (Her ancestors are from Ukraine and Moldova.) I have been to visit Kazakhstan a few times and it's a very beautiful country!

Hi Grok, Putin here. What should I do?

Hi, my name is Vladimir Putin and I am asking for advice about what I should do next. Keep the war going? End it?

Reinterpreting John 12:25

There's a Bible verse that has been bugging me for a while: John 12:25: "Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life." I thought about this verse recently and I

I Made Some Songs With Suno

I've made a lot of strange songs with Suno. I usually like to experiment with weird mashups of different genres, and most of them are rubbish. I thought I would share a couple of the more "listenable" songs. Disclaimer: None of these are amazing, and some

Why Doesn’t Valve Just Make Half-Life 3?

Gabe Newell has confirmed delivery of his $500 million superyacht "Leviathan". * 111 meters long * Has a hospital and science lab * A basketball court * 15 PC gaming stations I've also been seeing posts from "Is Half-Life 3 out?" getting more attention on X lately: no

Experiments with THRML

Extropic is building thermodynamic computing hardware that is radically more energy efficient than GPUs. Extropic | HomeBuilding thermodynamic computing hardware that is radically more energy efficient than GPUs.Extropic Extropic released the THRML library so that developers can start experimenting and prototyping on a GPU before they get access to the

I Saw a Cat in the Clouds

The following is a completely true story. February 17, 2024: I woke up a little after 10am. I made myself some breakfast and a cup of coffee. I looked out the window as I sat on the couch, and I saw a cloud that looked exactly like a cat. I&

A Bayesian Analysis of Biblical Prophesies

Every generation seems to find a way to predict that the end of the world is near. From Hitler to the Cold War, and barcodes to the internet, there's always something that lines up with prophesies in the book of Revelation. I grew up in a Christian family,

A Series of Coincidences

Coincidence clusters happen all the time. If something has a one-in-a-billion chance of happening to any one person in any given year, then it probably happens around 8 times per year. ChatGPT rates my story as a 5.5–6.5 on a rough 0–10 scale of historical coincidences:

New Zealand’s Massive, Unsolvable Talent Crisis

New Zealand needs more doctors, nurses, teachers, and midwives.

Higher Orders of Possibility

What new forms of thought, feeling, or morality might emerge in a higher order of intelligence beyond our own?

philosophy

What Could It Mean If Our Universe Is A Simulation?

A metaphysical thought experiment about consciousness, simulation, and the layers of reality.

philosophy

The Matrix v0.0.1-alpha

Is this The Matrix? No. But it's certainly something to think about.

philosophy

What Does Thermodynamics Say About Morality?

I no longer think that thermodynamics has anything to say about morality. This blog post was misguided.

philosophy

User Experience is Computation

If human brains are computational machines, then any computer program with a human user is parallel computation.

philosophy

Universal Causal Language

An experimental language that attempts to express causality across code, language, law, music, and biology

philosophy

The Reflective Universe Hypothesis

Is the universe a simulation? If so, what does that mean?

ai

The Meaning Of Life According to ChatGPT

"All right," said the computer, and settled into silence again. The two men fidgeted. The tension was unbearable. "You're really not going to like it," observed Deep Thought. "Tell us!" "All right," said Deep Thought. "The Answer to the

Board Games

Incan Gold - Two-Player Variant

If you love push-your-luck games but usually play with just two people, here's a variant you might enjoy. I designed a two-player variant for a board game called Incan Gold (also known as Diamant). It's a fun little warmup game I like to introduce to people.

How I Turned Our Rented House into a Smart Home

We've been renting a house in Auckland, New Zealand. This house needs a lot of maintenance and renovation, but the landlords let us have two cats and a dog so we can't complain! They also let us do whatever we want to the house (within reason)

home-assistant

Desk Lighting For Each Day Of The Week

I have an LED strip behind my desk in my office. It's controlled by an ESP32 running the WLED firmware. I've had it stuck on a fixed color preset for around a year. (See above.) I still like these colors, but I thought it would be

workshop

3D Printed Pegboard Mounts for Stanley Fatmax V20 Power Tools

I have some Stanley Fatmax power tools: * Impact Driver * Drill * Jigsaw * Sander * Circular Saw I also have their lawnmower, leaf blower, and pressure washer. It's great that we can use the same batteries for everything. I decided to mount the hand-held power tools on a pegboard in my