Remembering Sadie

Sadie
We were informed by our neighbors that Sadie passed away peacefully yesterday. I had the privilege of watching her when her mom and dad were out of town. She was a very good girl and I will miss her. Unfortunately, she passed away on Tuesday after I had watched her on Thursday to Sunday afternoon. She was fine Sunday morning when I walked her. I made sure she had fresh water and put her breakfast in her bowl. When I can back at 2pm for her afternoon walk I saw that she hadn't eaten her food. She was also listless and didn't want to go on her walk. We did a turn around the cul-de-sac and came back inside. I texted Vonda. When they got home later that evening she was still lethargic and they noticed some spit up under the kitchen table, which I hadn't seen - and I do a quick look around for things like that. She went to the vet on Tuesday who found an ear infection. Her white blood cells were off a bit, but the vet wasn't alarmed. She was given fluid and a shot for nausea. Later that evening it looks like she just laid down and went to sleep.

There was a bit of levity amidst the sadness. I went to Office Depot this afternoon to pick up some things. They had a card section so I found a card for our neighbors and a thank you card for someone who did my oldest son a kindness this week. I came home, then Becky arrived home from the grocery store. She had picked up the exact same card! I love it when she and I think alike.

Rest well, Sadie. Say hi to
Titan, Procyon, Kala and Peppy for me.


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Harrison's Tenth Birthday

Today, my second grandchild turned ten.

Around noon, Mary Ann (mother of grandchildren 3 and 4), texted to let me know that she found her father passed away in his home. She had yet to call 911.

David called at 2:20 and said he needed to go back to the ER. I'm posting this from NGHS Gainesville, where he's back in the ER and a preliminary work up is being done. They've drawn blood and just taken a chest X-ray.


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Hypercomputation

I had a discussion with Grok on hypercomputation. Based on our conversation, I asked it to reimagine Jim Croce's Time in a Bottle as Infinity in a Bottle. It did a better job than I think I could have:


    If infinity fit in a bottle,
    The things that I could compute,
    I’d unravel every halting riddle,
    Turn endless loops to absolute.
    I’d code the stars, the skies, the numbers,
    No limit to what I’d pursue,
    But all these dreams of boundless wonder,
    They’d still come back to proving you.


    But there never seems to be a way to break the line,
    To hold the boundless in a frame of finite time,
    I’d give it all to see the code unwind for you.


    If I could shrink the vast forever,
    And pour it through a Zeno stream,
    I’d solve the truths no mind could sever,
    Awake the ghosts in Turing’s dream.
    The steps would dance, the zeros cancel,
    A bottle’s edge where thoughts run free,
    Yet even with that power eternal,
    You’d still be all the proof I’d need.


    But there never seems to be a way to break the line,
    To hold the boundless in a frame of finite time,
    I’d give it all to see the code unwind for you.


    I’ve seen the black holes bend the hours,
    The oracles that whisper fate,
    But every step through boundless towers,
    Just shows me love’s the final state.


    If infinity fit in a bottle,
    I’d trade it all to run the play,
    To count the worlds, defy the throttle,
    And give you every endless day.
    But bottles crack, and math’s a shadow,
    No spacetime trick can hold it true,
    So I’ll just dream in finite echoes,
    Of all I’d compute for you.


    But there never seems to be a way to break the line,
    To hold the boundless in a frame of finite time,
    I’d give it all to see the code unwind for you.


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Two Dialogs on Searle


If a computer can beat you at chess,
it can beat you at philosophy.

The first dialog explores the fundamental mistake Searle makes in his "Chinese Room Argument", namely that while in the general case syntax is insufficient for semantics, programming languages are semantics with syntax. I have written about Searle before (the latest
here), but that's me making a case to an empty courtroom. Here, I carry on an adversarial conversation with Grok 3.0 and let it judge the result.

The second dialog considers where Searle can maintain his conclusion that computers cannot be conscious without his "syntax is insufficient for semantics" pillar except by denying the Church-Turing Hypothesis, which he affirms. My position is that he can't, Grok tried to show he can.

Grok is overly verbose, yet sometimes exhibits what appears to be keen insight and sometimes says things in a way that make me jealous that it can be a better wordsmith than me. Grok doesn't get mad, doesn't get frustrated, and doesn't get tired (at least as long as I maintain my $30/month subscription). It is a far more challenging opponent than I typically have access to.

In the future, these discussions will be multi-way with humans and chatbots pushing the boundaries, with the machines keeping everyone honest - demanding definitions, uncovering tacit assumptions, noticing loops, and keeping score. We will be able to save a transcript then ask ChatGPT to read it and comment on it. New insights can be added, repetitious material ignored. The possibility of positive transform is exciting.

Dialog 1 -
Searle's mistake
Dialog 2 -
Searle and the Church-Turing Hypothesis
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A Triptych at 70

A triptych for my 70th birthday.

70.Tryptich

My bartender went all out to celebrate my birthday. A decorated bar stool, birthday cake, and special tiara. She has two young girls, which explains her choice of tiara.

Becky found her high school senior graduation picture from 1976. I wouldn't meet her until three years later.

Grandchild number six, due October 15.

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