William M. Briggs

William M. Briggs Sez: Keep That Impressive Middle Initial

You can take it from William M. Briggs, and also from the Today show: sporting a middle initial is a mark of sophistication, intelligence, and rugged manliness---or womanliness, as the…

Statistics

Researchers: Calling Girls Fat Makes Them Fat

Whatever you do, don't call somebody a "researcher". It could condemn them to a nasty, brutish, and short-tempered life. The kind where most of their time is spent scrambling for…

Philosophy SAMT

Summary Against Modern Thought: The Office Of A Wise Man

The title is my liberal but reasonable translation of St Thomas's Summa Contra Gentiles, a book which we will go through, post by post---which is to say, his chapters are,…

Culture

Health Care And The Candy Store Called Socialism

Jim Fedako ( who wrote this piece; send him email) is a business analyst and homeschooling father of seven who lives in Lewis Center, OH. Some 27 years ago, I…

Fun

Well? What Do You Think? Or, New & Improved!

You may say absolutely anything you like, except that you don't like it. Well, you may say it, but I have my palms over my eyeballs so I won't see…

Philosophy

Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Scientism

The other day on Twitter, I saw somebody quote approvingly these words by Neil deGrasse Tyson: The good thing about Science is that it's true whether or not you believe…

Philosophy

Ask A Scientific Ethicist: Estranged Mother, Thieving Boss, & More

Dear Scientific Ethicist, My wife has been estranged from her mother for over a decade. The split was caused when her mother disagreed with her choice of husband. Namely, me.…

Statistics

Time Series And Causality: Global Warming Example

Temperature causes Here is an atmospheric monthly average temperature series: T = (61, 69, 69, 70, 72, 65, 63) (all F). What caused the temperature to take the value T1…

Cary Cotterman on Reading Bryan Johnson’s The Immortalism ManifestoOctober 26, 2026
I'm probably going to croak sometime within the next twenty years, but at least I have the pleasure of being…
Tars Tarkas on Reading Bryan Johnson’s The Immortalism ManifestoOctober 26, 2026
There are thousand year old machines in England still capable of running, though not in general use. I saw a…
NLR on Reading Bryan Johnson’s The Immortalism ManifestoOctober 26, 2026
All of this is vast speculation. Is it possible for people to live much longer, hundreds of years? Maybe so.…
John Pate on Class 98: Limitations of Genetic Associations With PersonalityOctober 23, 2026
The plasticity available in the brain and CNS is the confounding factor. Nature via nurture. What actually gets expressed is…
Brian (bulaoren) on Class 98: Limitations of Genetic Associations With PersonalityOctober 22, 2026
Across the world, many jurisdictions ban pet "pit bulls". Are they in error?

William M. Briggs

Reading Bryan Johnson’s The Immortalism Manifesto

Class 98: Limitations of Genetic Associations With Personality

I’m Thinking Of A Number Between 1 and 5 (that you can’t guess)

Against Numerology: Some Basic Calculations

Class 97: The Goal Of Models

Book Update

Sexual Assault Galore At Cornell

Class 96: Can Bayesianism Quantify True Belief?

Top 10 Reasons AI Will Never Become Superintelligence: It Won’t Destroy Nor Save Us

Viewer Asks: Why Do I Bother?

Academics Call For The Killing Of Babies In “After-Birth” Abortions

Irrational Rationalists: Effective Altruists & The Planet of the Ants

Class 95: Answering P-Value Good Uses Challenges

Whoring For Climate Change

Lady Academics Tire Of Being Judged By Peer Review

Class 94: Quantifying The Unquantifiable

PFAS and Preservatives: Entrenching Chemophobia through Everyday Stuff — Guest Post by Jaap Hanekamp

The MRS Degree — Guest Post by Johnathan Edwards

Politicians Demand “Right” To Be Protected Against AI

Class 93: P-values Challenge! List The “Good Uses” of P-value

Is the West Dying Out? The Demographic Crisis Explained: Jon Harris Podcast