William M. Briggs

The Great Protest In England Draws To A Close

Have you heard this? Only 1% of people aged 18-24 identify as Church of England, according to the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey for 2018. Even among over-75s, the most…

Script Leaked From New 007 Movie, <em>Leap Into The Dark</em>

Fun

Script Leaked From New 007 Movie, Leap Into The Dark

Apparently this is what they call a treatment, or a partial script, and only goes to the end of Act I. I am sworn to keep secret how I came…

Philosophy SAMT

Summary Against Modern Thought: The Stars Don’t Make Our Choices

Previous post. There is no point to reading your horoscope. THAT THE MOTION OF A CELESTIAL BODY IS NOT THE CAUSE OF OUR ACTS OF CHOICE BY THE POWER OF…

Culture

The Week In Doom — Tranny Madness is Big Business Edition

As regular readers know, it's impossible to keep up with all the Doom in one week. Use the contact form to send me things you think I might miss. Or…

Class Statistics

Why The Bootstrap Seems To Work—And Why It Produces Over-Certainty

Let's drag the statistician's hoary threadbare ball-filled bag out of the cupboard to make a point. In it are 3 white balls and 2 black. Using the statistical syllogism, we…

Culture

Your Most Important Choice: Part III — Guest Post by Ianto Watt

Read Part II Let's set the context for the word according to Islam. Christianity, at the time of Mohammed, had eclipsed Judaism (of any form) as well as the religion(s)…

Statistics

Paper Says Some Psychiatric Diagnoses “Scientifically Meaningless”

The title is an understatement: Heterogeneity in psychiatric diagnostic classification. This is a paper in Psychiatry Research by Kate Allsopp, John Read, Rhiannon Corcoran, and Peter Kinderman. Abstract (to which…

Philosophy

The Myth Of Physicalism — Guest Post by The Cranky Professor

Physicalism is an extreme form of materialism that says that only physical entities exist. This differs from more moderate forms of materialism like property dualism or emergentism where immaterial entities…

John M on Richard Dawkins, The Big Muscles Fallacy & AI PachinkoMay 4, 2026
My old brain still wants to read the acronym as the name Al (lower case L). That's why I like…
Brian (bulaoren) on Richard Dawkins, The Big Muscles Fallacy & AI PachinkoMay 4, 2026
Can there be an "Artificial Intelligence" that does not contain "Artifacts"?
km on The Red-Blue Button Dilemma & Its Surprising AnswerMay 3, 2026
What happens if you choose not to participate?
Briggs on Class 88: The Most Neglected Concept: SkillMay 3, 2026
Gareth, And thanks for the comment.
gareth on Class 88: The Most Neglected Concept: SkillMay 3, 2026
You said "and thanks for listening". To which my reply is "and thanks for doing" (many fold) I'm only half…

William M. Briggs

Richard Dawkins, The Big Muscles Fallacy & AI Pachinko

Class 88: The Most Neglected Concept: Skill

The Red-Blue Button Dilemma & Its Surprising Answer

UFO Reports About To Blast Off!

Class 87: Calibration & Conformal Prediction: Examples

Noticing Differences Between Races Does Not Pay

What Are The Chances Of All These Scientists Dying, Killed, Or Going Missing?

Class 86: Calibration & Conformal Prediction: Theory

How A Miracle Turns Mundane

Contest Winner Announced!

Trump’s Last Stand: Mea Culpa, Redux — Guest Post by Ianto Watt

Class 85: Proper Scores of Model Goodness

Proof!

Justice Ketanji Roars

Iran Has Caught Covid: A Reason For The War

Class 84: Most Important Measure of Model Goodness

There Is No Solution To Crashing Fertility: Good Times Made Soft Men

Did The Pope Really Say Health Is A “Right”?

All Models Only Say What They Are Told To Say, And AI Is A Model

It’s The End Of The World Again

Belgian Judge Wants To Arrest Little Nate Cofnast Because Cofnast Says Smart People Are Smarter Than Dumb People