William M. Briggs

Stream: Will 2016 Be the Year We Approach The Great and Terrible Singularity?

Will super-intelligent computers soon spell our doom, or have futurists forgotten something fundamental? Hint: it's the latter. Go to the Stream to read the rest. The chilling news is that…

Fun Statistics

Predictions For 2016—Register Yours Today!

It's that time of year again. Time to put your reputation on the line and show us your pudding, if that is the metaphor I want. Even if it isn't,…

Fun Statistics

How’d We Do On Our 2015 Predictions?

The answer to the post title's question is: I'm not so sure. Because why? Because the predictions everybody registered were lost when I was hacked last January. Why was I…

Culture

Open Discussion: Universities Are Dead, But Still Haven’t Dropped

Today, an open discussion, with the promise of much more to come, on the astonishing amazing I-can't-believe-he-said-that article "Dear Parents: Everything You Need to Know About Your Son and Daughter's…

Philosophy

Under-determination, Quus, And Why It’s Cause That Counts (And With A Taste Of Grue)

Turns out Arthur C. Clarke was on to something (who told him?). See, scientists, via one of the NASA Rovers, found this device on Mars. It is roundish, the color…

Philosophy Statistics

Gettier Problems & Epistemic Luck Are Distractions And No Problem

Regular readers will recall I do not think so-called Gettier problems have any force in epistemology. The "problems" only crop up because people make two mistakes: forgetting the difference between…

Philosophy SAMT

Summary Against Modern Thought: What Scientific Errors Tell Us Of God

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're still…

Culture

This Week In Doom: Reality Now Illegal

The good news is that Yours Truly's prognosticative skills are sharper than ever. Of course this is only a relative blip in happiness. The ultimate Good News we celebrated yesterday.…

Brian (bulaoren) on Truly Random Numbers Found?June 15, 2026
Wait...Does this mean that all those non-winning lottery tickets, I've bought over the years, were drawn from non-randomly-generated numbers? I…
McChuck on Truly Random Numbers Found?June 15, 2026
What QM leaves out of their "randomness is fundamental" picture is the state of the entire rest of the universe.…
John M on Climate Change Increases Risk of Even Slower World Cup Games!June 15, 2026
LarryG, I appreciate that sport and game participants can enjoy their favorite activity but that doesn't make the activity entertaining.
JR Ewing on Truly Random Numbers Found?June 15, 2026
I'm not a fan of airport security pantomime. There are a lot of things about it that I don't like,…
LarryG on Climate Change Increases Risk of Even Slower World Cup Games!June 14, 2026
The provincial and parochial attitude of Americans towards soccer perplexes me. It’s a great sport. High school: football, sat on…

William M. Briggs

Truly Random Numbers Found?

Class 91: Try Not To Use the ROC Curve & AUC

Climate Change Increases Risk of Even Slower World Cup Games!

The Ultimate IQ Test: Guessing the Author’s Mind and Escaping the Infinity of Answers

Reader Poll: Shorter or Longer, Frequent or Rarer Posts?

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!