William M. Briggs

Uncertainty: Foreword by Steven Goldberg

Steve Goldberg was president of the sociology department at City College of New York (CCNY) from 1988 until his retirement (back when they knew how to do sociology). He is…

Philosophy SAMT

Summary Against Modern Thought: Angels—or Aliens—Did Not Make The World

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. Angels, aliens,…

Statistics

Stream: Government Lab Has Been Faking Data for Years

Today's post (more a news report) is at The Stream: Government Lab Has Been Faking Data for Years. A person or persons at the same US Geological Survey Lab in…

Statistics

Shocking New Research: Hunger Motivates Eating

Ladies and gentlemen, the opening line of the peer-reviewed paper "Hunger promotes acquisition of nonfood objects" appearing in the (once) venerable organ Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, by…

Book review Philosophy Statistics

The Great Day Is Here! Uncertainty Meets The World

The Great Day---the Day yearned for by all humanity, or at least weakly anticipated by you, Dear Reader---has arrived! Let the trumpet sound and celebration begin! The release of Uncertainty:…

Culture Philosophy

The Imposing-Their-Beliefs Fallacy

I'm on the road for the next several days and won't always have access to the Internet. So I'm reposting a series of classic fallacies. Regular service to resume early…

Philosophy

The Apes Do It So It’s Fine For Us Fallacy

< I'm on the road for the next several days and won't always have access to the Internet. So I'm reposting a series of classic fallacies. Regular service to resume…

Philosophy

The So’s-Your-Old-Man Fallacy

I'm on the road for the next several days and won't always have access to the Internet. So I'm reposting a series of classic fallacies. Regular service to resume early…

Rudolph Harrier on The Great Smoothing: Another Reason Not To Fear (or trust) AIMarch 10, 2026
I've started thinking of this as the "juice loosener problem" (after the Simpsons bit where Dr. Nick hawks an orange…
Cary D Cotterman on The Great Smoothing: Another Reason Not To Fear (or trust) AIMarch 10, 2026
After spending years in school doing my own writing, then decades in my profession busting my ass to write somewhere…
Uncle Mike on The Great Smoothing: Another Reason Not To Fear (or trust) AIMarch 10, 2026
AI isn't the entity smoothing the data. The alleged decline in Arctic sea ice was a key assertion in Algore's…
JH on A Synchronicity Or Coincidence? What Is Behind Curious Events?March 10, 2026
The definition of cause can vary, and each incident may have its causes or contributing factors. I see coincidences as…
JH on The Great Smoothing: Another Reason Not To Fear (or trust) AIMarch 10, 2026
AI can be ‘gullible’ because it takes all the information fed into its optimization or backpropagation system. In many tasks,…

William M. Briggs

The Great Smoothing: Another Reason Not To Fear (or trust) AI

A Synchronicity Or Coincidence? What Is Behind Curious Events?

Class 81: The Second Biggest Error In Time Series

The Paper Test Shows Why AGI Is Not Possible: And Why The Brain Is Different In Kind

Researcher Imagines Weather With No Human Influence: Concludes Climate Change Hurts Incomes

Faith Deposited: Why Godless Science Fails

Class 80: Granger Causality; Per Se & Accidental Time Series; Stationarity

Scientists Seeking To Escape Criticism Run To The Warmth & Comfort Of Bluesky

The Loss of Ephemera — Guest Post by The Blonde Bombshell

Class 79: Time Series Example

The Importance Of Not Making Decisions

Don’t Take The ‘Long-Covid’ Alzheimer’s Study Seriously

AI Is Driving Many Crazy: Our Latest Panic

Class 78: The Attempt To Turn Correlation Lead Into Causation Gold In Time Series

Desperate Need For Equality: AP Exam Performance

Some Sanity: Experts Sued For Creating Gender Delusions

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