William M. Briggs

Stream: California Tried To Make Global Warming Skepticism Illegal

Today's post is at The Stream: California To Make Global Warming Skepticism Illegal. "All right, Briggsy. We know you're in there! Throw out your notes on improved cloud parameterizations in…

Philosophy SAMT

Summary Against Modern Thought: Arguments Against The World Being Eternal

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. We had…

Culture

Rampant Harassment by Atheists Expected At Reason Rally 2016

The Angry Atheists are meeting today, this time in DC, and evidently they're expecting an uppity crowd, because their Code of Conduct for Reason Rally warns of a host of…

Culture Philosophy

Animals Aren’t Men, Even If Government Says So

I once saw, with mine own eyes, a squirrel steal an acorn from a second squirrel. This shouldn't be surprising; squirrels are career criminals and everybody knows it. Think of…

Philosophy Statistics

The Bayesian Metaphor Can Do More Harm Than Good: Update

Quoting from a post on vampires, "In Bayesian inference, you start with some initial beliefs (called 'Bayesian priors' or just 'priors'), and then you 'update' them as you receive new…

Podcast

Multiverses, Infinities, Probability & The Deadly Sin of Reification — WMBriggs Podcast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZffCuj9ZHA Download MP3 June is Probability Month here at WMBriggs.com, mostly because I'll be teaching (I'll be in Ithaca the 12th to 24th) and want to keep from being distracted…

Philosophy

Stream: Pretend to Believe In Free Will Or Else You Will Make Bad Choices

Today's post is at The Stream: Pretend to Believe In Free Will Or Else You Will Make Bad Choices. I want to be nice about this, but believing that we…

Culture

Church of Scotland Goes For Gmarriage (Government-Defined Marriage)

https://twitter.com/churchscotland/status/733980861905928194 Notice that they couldn't resist that horrid, unnecessary bar graph. The Kirk caved. Dateline Glasgow: "Church of Scotland votes to allow ministers to be in same-sex marriages". The Church…

C-Marie on No Model Will Save Us: Pope Leo, the Miserostat, and AI’s Woke CodersJune 3, 2026
Thank you, Matt! Poor, poor Pope Leo XIV and the synodal business .... praying every day for Leo, for full…
Anonimos?aw on Shocking Abortion Numbers: Death Distributions Show We’re Living LongerJune 3, 2026
"By age 80, the men who made it are more robust and the women start slipping under faster." Well, since…
jgh on Shocking Abortion Numbers: Death Distributions Show We’re Living LongerJune 3, 2026
I do census data research, and something very striking is comparing age profiles. The age distribution in 1900 is more-or-less…
jgh on How High an IQ Must A Person Have To Be Executed?June 3, 2026
Surely the only logical reasoning is: if he knew what he was doing, he should be executed as punishment. If…
Stephen Frick on No Model Will Save Us: Pope Leo, the Miserostat, and AI’s Woke CodersJune 3, 2026
Thank you. This has so many valuable observations.

William M. Briggs

No Model Will Save Us: Pope Leo, the Miserostat, and AI’s Woke Coders

How High an IQ Must A Person Have To Be Executed?

Class 90: Simple (Optimal) Decisions

Shocking Abortion Numbers: Death Distributions Show We’re Living Longer

Blessed Memorial Day; No Class; See You Wednesday

Why There Are (Probably) No UFOs: “Climate Change”

Creating Microbial Monsters To Terrorize Ourselves

Class 89: The Measure Most Modelers Forget: Skill Examples

The Shocking Conclusion of the HR Trilemma!

The HR Trilemma: Which Door Decides Your Fate?

Capital Punishment Deters Crime More Than The Death Penalty

How Experts Use “Calamities” to Find Official Victims & Gain Power

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