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…

JH on Iran Has Caught Covid: A Reason For The WarApril 10, 2026
Would Trump attack China or Russia? Why not? Bullying is wrong. War is wrong. [H]is specialty is obfuscation… lol. And…
JH on Justice Ketanji RoarsApril 10, 2026
Although I have not taught many Black students, I have observed that the most academically talented Black students perform at…
JH on Proof!April 10, 2026
Lincoln’s ”Fragments on Slavery” c. 1854 If A. can prove, however conclusively, that he may, of right, enslave B.—why may…
Brendan P O'Sullivan on Class 85: Proper Scores of Model GoodnessApril 9, 2026
Bill - An opportunity to help fellow Vets! Look at the following - regarding jet fuel exposure to vets -…
Steve on Proof!April 9, 2026
You don't need a publisher. It's just Godwin's Law in action. For whatever reason, that seals the deal for most…

William M. Briggs

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

Class 83: Why Were Paul Ehrlich’s Predictions So Good (and so Bad)?

The Great Effeminization of the Academy

The Only Metric That Matters: Or, Pinker’s Folly

Lancet Discovers Public Health Is Politics

Class 82: Be More Uncertain (About Models)

On Not Reading

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