William M. Briggs

Stream: President Obama Once Again Imagines He Will Save The World

Today's post is at The Stream: President Obama Once Again Imagines He Will Saves The World. On his inauguration---perhaps apotheosis is a better word---President Obama said that the world would…

Philosophy Statistics

Summary Against Modern Thought: Intellectual Substances Are Immaterial

See the first post in this series for an explanation and guide of our tour of Summa Contra Gentiles. All posts are under the category SAMT. Previous post. Some mop-up…

Culture

Internet Guidelines From The Rule Of St Benedict — Guest Post by Bob Kurland

The prophet shows that, for the sake of silence, we are to abstain even from good talk. If this be so, how much more needful is it that we refrain…

Culture

Carbon Fibre Masculinity, Homosociality, Gendered Surfaces, & Idiot Academics

Tell you right up front that the only way to be sure of solving the crisis in higher education is to nuke universities from orbit and then salt the grounds…

Culture

Why Americans Left Christianity And Became Nones

The title of the Pew report which we'll discuss is "Why America's 'nones' left religion behind", though, as you can see, I modified it. For good reason. The original Pew…

Statistics

Gonorrhea, Wee P-values, and Tax Increases

Adventurous reader Ted Poppke discovered a peer-reviewed paper that, according to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), proved that increasing sales tax on booze "caused a 24% decrease in gonorrhea cases…

Statistics

On The Severe (And Unrecognized) Limitations Of fMRI

So this 44-year-old Frenchman---let's call him Jacques---presented for a "mild left leg weakness". The leg bone being connected to the hip bone, etc., it was eventually discovered that Jacques's "skull…

Book review Statistics

Uncertainty Reviewed In The New Criterion

"William Briggs, the civilized world's most amusing statistician." Roger Kimball, author of The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia, The Rape of the Masters: How…

C- Marie on Why The Recent Claims Of AGI Fail: Plus, A New Test For AGIFebruary 9, 2026
I understood much of the logic of this. Thank you, Matt! God bless, C- Marie
shawn marshall on Why The Recent Claims Of AGI Fail: Plus, A New Test For AGIFebruary 9, 2026
I asked Grok to assign probabilities to all the known facts about the Shroud of Turin and then calculate a…
Rudolph Harrier on Why The Recent Claims Of AGI Fail: Plus, A New Test For AGIFebruary 9, 2026
It's an interesting thought experiment. However, we will never have a practical implementation of the test because it would be…
Briggs on Why The Recent Claims Of AGI Fail: Plus, A New Test For AGIFebruary 9, 2026
hudbwu, You could be right.
hudbwu on Why The Recent Claims Of AGI Fail: Plus, A New Test For AGIFebruary 9, 2026
Caution: it may be that intelligence can not be confirmed by any behavioral test. For example, free will can not…

William M. Briggs

Why The Recent Claims Of AGI Fail: Plus, A New Test For AGI

Polar Bears Are Doing Fine: Activists, Not So Well

Impossible LSAT Statistics Question

How Women’s Equality In Democracies Changes Voting (And Everything Else)

Class 77: Trendy Trends In Time Series

Who Still Listens To AM Radio?

Scientists Invent New Name For Models: Digital Twins

What Science Says About Making Medication Mandatory

What A Winter

FDA Goes Bayes: It Should Have Gone Probability

Class 76: That’s Not Noise. That’s Signal!

AI: The Earth Is Spinning Faster & Slower (Because “Climate Change”)

Confirmation Bias In The Minneapolis Shooting

Sports Betting Is An Excellent Way To Lose Money

Class 75: A Gentle Introduction To Time Series

The Consent Fallacy

On Laws Banning Hacking Women’s Genitals & Imposing Beliefs

Register Your Predictions For 2026!

Happy New Year!

How Did We Do In Our 2025 Predictions?

Why The Drake Equation Fails

Why The Recent Claims Of AGI Fail: Plus, A New Test For AGI

Polar Bears Are Doing Fine: Activists, Not So Well

Stream: President Obama Once Again Imagines He Will Save The World

Summary Against Modern Thought: Intellectual Substances Are Immaterial

Internet Guidelines From The Rule Of St Benedict — Guest Post by Bob Kurland

Carbon Fibre Masculinity, Homosociality, Gendered Surfaces, & Idiot Academics

Why Americans Left Christianity And Became Nones

Gonorrhea, Wee P-values, and Tax Increases

On The Severe (And Unrecognized) Limitations Of fMRI

Uncertainty Reviewed In The New Criterion

There Is No Culture Without Inequality: Stove 1

Impose Your Beliefs Before They Impose Theirs

Telekinesis: Ideas In Our Reenchantment & Rectification

The Physics Of Blessings: Ideas In Our Reenchantment & Rectification