Happy birthday, Turing!

Today is the 106th anniversary of the birth of Alan Turing. (Of course, at birth he was probably very bad at abstract reasoning and proofs, like most babies, but he overcame these difficulties and grew up to be truly excellent at math.)

Just in case you haven't seen this yet (HT: I saw this on Twitter several times, then on slatestarcodex), it is amusing and recursive and cultural and involves computers:

Humans often post on the website reddit, which hosts many, many different message boards and oodles of subcultures and conversations on specific topics. Each specific message board is called a subreddit and has its own adherents, community standards, topic(s) of conversation, style, level of activity, etc.

There is a subreddit called r/totallynotrobots where the posts claim to be written by humans, but are written in all-caps and a style suggesting that they are actually written by robots. Redditors writing these posts are humans, so these are humans writing as if they are robots who are unconvincingly trying to pass as human.

There is a recent and extremely impressive system called GPT-2 which unsupervised-ly learns English and performs some really impressive computational linguistic feats, including writing mediocre high-school-style essays and writing very interesting and totally feasible poetry.

There is a subreddit called r/SubSimulatorGPT2 which trains GPT-2 on subreddits and automatically writes "coherent and realistic simulated content" for each subreddit. Of course, this subreddit is just going through other subreddits, training GPT-2, and writing new (automated, simulated) posts for that subreddit.

Now the subreddit-simulating robot has trained on r/totallynotrobots, which means that there are posts on the internet which are written by a robot imitating a human writing in a style pretending to be a robot who is unconvincingly trying to pass as a human. (Or, as slatestarcodex put it, "a robot pretending to be a human pretending to be a robot pretending to be a human.") You can see those posts here.

It's turtles all the way down, and every. single. turtle. is a Turing machine!


This post's theme word is anastrophe, "the inversion of the usual order of words or clauses." Silly grammar mistakes and anastrophe are used to denote unfamiliarity with human language.

Neuromancer

This classic recently bubbled back to the forefront of my attention because of its lovely new reissued cover art (bright green), so I reread it. It is one delicious sip of a novel, an elongated sluuuuuurp of a read, and impossible to read over more than maybe 2 sittings. The story just zooms along, eschewing the verbose detail of a more "deep worldbuilding" authorial style, and its protagonists' often drug-altered state comes through as confusing flashes of detail, occasional emotional insights, and unforeseen but interesting choices.

I've read this book several times, and this time it was no clearer --- the confusing bits were just as confusing (perhaps because I conflate this with several other Gibson books), and the payoff was just as flashy:

• navigating "cyberspace" described as if a physical reality
• networking and AI work unbelievably smoothly, but no one has a garbage Internet of Things device
• the motorcycle chase scene was missing --- I misremembered this from Stephenson's Snow Crash, I think
• going to a permanently-inhabited space station was a tourist-level outing; going online requires specialized equipment and training
• lucid dreaming-like sequences that feel very accurately described to my own perceived sensorium when dreaming
• AI police are called "Turing" and have legal jurisdiction above the level of states?!? I didn't remember this from my last reread, which may have predated my now-extensive knowledge of Turing and computational theory
• basically zero discussion of the educational system, which I find I have a lot of lingering questions about

I recommend this book as still-relevant and -interesting, for any reader of any background; I suspect that different backgrounds/ages/"digital native" readers will have very differing receptions of what this book predicts, from the past, to be the present/future.

The recent edition I borrowed from the library included substantive front- and back-matter discussing "cyberpunk" and Gibson's relation to it. I've always thought "cyberpunk" was a marketing term for "William Gibson or an imitator wrote this", and I haven't updated my opinion.


This post's theme word is enantiodromia (n), "the tendency of things, beliefs, etc., to change to their opposites." While temporary, drug-induced enantiodromia is common amongst the drug aficionados in Neuromancer, most characters emerge from the haze with their core tenets intact... perhaps the titular *mancer is the only one to undergo a major change. 

Anxiety dream unfairly early

I am rushing to get to the first lecture of the fall semester and make sure there is chalk in the room, the students are all there, and nothing is yet on fire. I get there just in time, greet the new students, then look down at my lecture notes and ... I've brought the wrong lecture notes. For the wrong class, the wrong topic. My notes are useless. I flip through the first few pages anyway just in case the correct lecture notes are in there somewhere. They are not. No problem, I think, I've taught this several times, I'll just wing it... but then I forget how the setup goes, I forget the important beginning-of-semester announcements. I am flustered, and I know that I seem flustered, and this enhances my flusteration. I have no choice but to lecture off the top of my head. I just plunge right in with the crux of the lecture and I can tell, from the moment I open my mouth, it is not going well.

The students start to be unruly. Now it is a nightmare.

One student is --- loudly, and frankly with excellent diction and vibrato --- standing on a wheely chair (danger!) and singing an aria from The Barber of Seville. Other students are just on their phones. In the corner, it looks like maybe some of them are catching Pokémon. Some of them are openly working on homework for other classes. How do they already have homework in other classes? --- it is the first day of class!

I cannot regain their attention, somehow. My usual classroom demeanor is not working, everything is out-of-control, I make a math mistake on the board and now even the handful of students who were following are confused and starting to check out.

Aaaaauuuggghhh....

... then I wake up and it is still JUNE, how dare my brain already have this anxiety prepped, this is outrageous. I flatly refuse to experience waking anxiety about the next semester when the entire summer is still ahead of me. It. is. not. fair.

(I blame this on residual anxiety from my extremely dramatic late-to-my-own-final-exam event last month. I will have anxiety dreams about that for the rest of my life.)


This post's theme word is squirl (n), "a flourish or curve, especially in handwriting." I compliment you on your elaborate and expressive squirl, which I assure you is NOT a Pokémon.

New neighbor

I have a new neighbor. Can you spot them in this picture?

They were nibbling on something in the lawn, but I am not yet familiar with all the plantings so I had no objection. My guess is that any dogs visiting Camp Lila over the summer will strongly react to the neighbor, possibly encouraging the neighbor to relocate.

This post's theme word is Struwwelpeter (n), "a person with long, thick, disheveled hair." Quoth Flopsy to Mopsy and Cottontail, "Have thee spotted our Struwwelpeter blue-haired new neighbor?"

Spring semester 2019 quotes

The wide-open, glistening white expanses of floor-to-ceiling whiteboard in my office beckon; now there is a regular practice of students (majority: taller than Lila) writing quotes of things said in my office on the top of the whiteboard. This is high above the daily-usable part.

Here is the spring 2019 haul of quotes. Note that most of them were not said by me, even some attributed to other "L" initials. Not all quotes come with attributions. Many different people have initial "A". This is the semester's-end contents of the board, parentheticals and quotation marks included.

"We can't make her not win; though, if she were to have some medical emergency..."

M: "Extend the yellow."
L: "Die a fiery death."

A: "I'm not blaming you. Git is blaming you."

L: "I promise not to beat you with a rubber hose... I reserve the right to other implements."

"this is among the tubes" (in reference to the internet)

"You should hold your cards... better."

S: "I should probably stop procrastinating my real homework with fake homework I create for myself."

A: "My counting's not so great."
L: "You only got up to 2... !"

"I feel strong enough to handwave this." -M

[uncontrollable laughter]
A: "I didn't know Theory of Computation could be so fun."

A: "What a day to leave the stabbing knives at home."

K: "Start stabbing. We got to hurry this up, kiddo, I want dinner."

"[I'm] only as insane as a Turing machine can be"

D: "I don't understand why you have the mallet."
L: "Would you like me to demonstrate on your body?"

A: "I mean, I'm all for your insanity. BUT."

(indignantly) "I don't have an off-by-one error. I was RIGHT."

L: "I voluntarily did this in grad school for 7 years, so parts of me are broken and can't be repaired."

L: "Fuck the Axiom of Choice. There's nothing I can do about it now."

[image of a sheep] BAAA is a string in the regular language Σ*

Yet in the House

Yeti in the House is a game where a little yeti meeple is hidden, partially visible, and must be located on the basis solely of a (post-processed) photo taken of it in situ.

Yeti in dense foliage.

Yeti in a bit of a dirty location.

Yeti in a modern built environment.

This post's theme word is scrooch (v), "to crouch or huddle" or "to squeeze." The yeti scrooched behind some desktop debris.

What is the longest amount of time you have gone without using the internet?

I take attendance by having the students answer a question.

What is the longest amount of time you have gone without using the internet?

Heuristic answers:

• during class (sometimes 😉)
• a little while
• not long

Time to first computer usage from birth:

• ~4 years before first using a computer
• probably the first 6-7 years of my life
• 9 years (the first 9 years of my life)
• 14 years before I got my first phone
• 30 years (<-- 30="" a="" aged="" could="" editor="" have="" how="" i="" idea="" li="" no="" note:="" person="" reply="" s="" this="">

Time of longest non-internet "break" since first computer usage:

• one hour
• a day
• 21 hours, cross-continent flight
• 2 days
• maybe like 48 hours?
• 4 days
• a week
• two weeks
• 2 weeks (summer camp in a mountain)
• A couple weeks? But I'd love to try going w/o it for a longer time.
• 3 months

One student wrote "∞". I have corresponded with this student by email; I wonder if, on their end, they had the messages transcribed and then read aloud to them by a personal, permanent "internet secretary"? Actually, I'm pretty sure I have watched this student load a webpage during class in a computer lab, so maybe this is just reporting error...

Winning comedic/situationally-funny response: "The times that eduroam is out..."

I previously asked this question in 2017.


This post's theme word is floccipend (v tr), "to regard as worthless." They floccipend internet downtimes.

Peter and the Wolf

Swarthmore College Lab Orchestra's presentation of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf was delightful --- playful, cute, fun, and with an auditorium full of children who shrieked at the scary parts. Like many others in the audience, I brought my parents, and we all had an enriching time. I particularly appreciated that we were invited onstage after the performance to chat with the musicians and look at their instruments up-close.

We later in the afternoon remembered that the iconic wolf music was the "bully" theme music from A Christmas Story.


This post's theme word is exclosure (n), "a fenced area, especially in a wide open area, to keep unwanted animals out." The wolf was captured outside the exclosure!

Crisp clear spring sky

When I walked to work this morning the sun had just risen and it was cold, so I wore my jacket and mittens. But it turned out to be a warm, clear spring day, and my outerwear is overdone.

Just look at this cleanly blue sky, framed by local spring-ready trees:

This post's theme song is Ben Platt's "Better", which has been on a loop in my head all day. It is sad and angry and an emotional wreck of a breakup song, but the self-echoing refrain scratches a mental itch and is immensely satisfying to hear. (Plus there are tons of repeated lyrics and they follow standard rhyme patterns, so it's quick to memorize.)

April Fool's?

These posters mysteriously appeared on April 1 across campus.

They are expressing ... something ... stridently.

It's just not entirely clear what.
And there's no call to action, or url, or reference to a student group... The posters are handwritten in marker, mostly all-caps, on scrap paper. (At least, the pages I read were unrelated middle pages of math or biology articles.)

Is this an April Fool's joke? If so, ... what is the joke?

[Update April 2: posters still up, so reduce the probability estimation of "this is an April fool's joke".]

[Update April 3: found a poster with slightly more context.

Updated my weight for "this is a protest or other political movement" with some connection to climate activism.]


This post's theme word is ekistics (n), "the study of human settlements, drawing on such disciplines as city planning, architecture, sociology, etc." Climate scientists of the future will focus on ekistics as a subdiscipline.