William M. Briggs

The Less You Know About Climate, The More You Cry About Climate

Some things, the saying goes, are too good to check. Take the peer-reviewed paper "Environmental knowledge is inversely associated with climate change anxiety" by Hannes Zacher and Cort W. Rudolph…

Culture

Why The Inexorable Increase In The Expertocracy: Examples

Our goal, no easy one, is to figure the trajectory of the Expertocracy. Their goal we know. Complete total full control of every aspect of all life under the guidance,…

Philosophy Statistics

There Is No Problem Of Old Evidence In Bayesian Probability

Rationalists, like those at Less Wrong (think Eliezer Yudkowsky and Scott Alexander), are prone to fetishsize Bayes theorem, seeing it as the key to all thought. It isn't. Bayes is…

Culture

What Are Your Best Theories For Carlson, Bongino, Lemon Firings?

My guess is that the oligarchs pushed out Don Lemon at CNN, and Tucker Carlson and Dan Bongino at Fox, in an effort to cool the flames the oligarchs lit.…

Culture

Virtue Signaling Proves Why Science Is Broken

Few years back some folks invited me to give a talk at Fermi Lab. Subject was how mistaken views of probability were holding particle physics back. (Which I still think…

Culture

Resetting Global Agriculture: The Destructive Road to Dystopia — Guest Post by Jaap Hanekamp

Introduction A title that seems to carry conspiratorial overtones (some might conclude). Well, as my esteemed readers know by now, the so-called “Dutch nitrogen crisis” got me thinking; philosophically, scientifically,…

Statistics

How An AI-Machine Learning-Physics-Sociological-Whatever Model Can Be Good For One Man & Bad For Another

A model---which I do not distinguish between a theory---can be useful to one man and useless to the next. "But Briggs, people don't treat theories the same as models." Right:…

Culture

The Woke’s Nice Book Burnings & The Absence Of Violence

I was reading about the woke's latest modern form of book burning; i.e. expurgating but not eliminating texts. And it struck me. You know what's strange? What's really puzzling? The…

Neil Jordan on Class 100: Watch The Skies! But Only During Nuclear Tests?November 5, 2026
Let me throw some fat on the fire - radioactive fallout particles on photographic materials. There are many references on…
C-Marie on After The Elections, The BookNovember 4, 2026
My 83rd birthday is today, November 4, 1943.
Cary Cotterman on The Solution To EvolutionNovember 4, 2026
The older I get and the more I read and think, the less I seem to know. I used to…
-Alan Hopewell on Worst Science Fiction of All TimeNovember 4, 2026
I was not able to finish this literary cinderblock, even after three attempts. Having said that, I still believe that…
Holiday Math Puzzles and Activities for Christmas, Winter Break – Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math on The Mathematics Of Santa Claus’ Present Delivery SystemNovember 4, 2026
[…] Every year, physics-literalists have fun analyzing Santa’s magical journey: The science behind Santa Claus A Scientific Disproof of the…

William M. Briggs

Class 100: Watch The Skies! But Only During Nuclear Tests?

After The Elections, The Book

The Solution To Evolution

Class 99: Entropy Part I

Book Update: Launch Date

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

Class 100: Watch The Skies! But Only During Nuclear Tests?

After The Elections, The Book

The Less You Know About Climate, The More You Cry About Climate

Why The Inexorable Increase In The Expertocracy: Examples

There Is No Problem Of Old Evidence In Bayesian Probability

What Are Your Best Theories For Carlson, Bongino, Lemon Firings?

Virtue Signaling Proves Why Science Is Broken

Resetting Global Agriculture: The Destructive Road to Dystopia — Guest Post by Jaap Hanekamp

How An AI-Machine Learning-Physics-Sociological-Whatever Model Can Be Good For One Man & Bad For Another

The Woke’s Nice Book Burnings & The Absence Of Violence

There Is No Culture Without Inequality: Stove 1

Impose Your Beliefs Before They Impose Theirs

Telekinesis: Ideas In Our Reenchantment & Rectification

The Physics Of Blessings: Ideas In Our Reenchantment & Rectification