Month: May 2023

Pilchards! (also known as sardines)


Sardine salad sandwich

I’m trying to remember the train of thought that led me to think of pilchards. I think it was because I’ve been short on fiction lately, and I wondered whether it might be time to re-read Winston Graham’s Poldark novels. That would have caused me to think about Cornwall, and that might have caused me to wonder whether pilchards are as important today to the Cornish economy as they were to the Cornish people in the Poldark novels, set in the 18th Century. And then that made me wonder: What are pilchards? I do recall that I then went to Wikipedia and looked up “pilchard.”

I was surprised to learn that pilchards are sardines. Or maybe that small pilchards are called sardines and larger pilchards are called pilchards. Then I wondered if there is a sardine industry in Cornwall today. I didn’t find an answer to that, but I did come across references saying that the best canned sardines come from Norway, from a company called King Oscar. Then I looked on Amazon, and lo!, several varieties of King Oscar sardines are available from Amazon.

For a long time, I’ve wanted to learn to like sardines. As a 99-percent vegetarian, I’m squeamish about anything that isn’t a plant, and the sight of sardines in a can is a sight unlike anything that grows in a garden. But as I looked at the varieties of sardines sold by King Oscar, I saw that one variety is filet of sardines, skinless and boneless, packed in olive oil. Hmmm. Now we’re starting to sound more like canned tuna, which I love.

I ordered a sixpack of King Oscar sardines from Amazon and was shocked to find that they had accidentally sent me a twelve-pack. I’d better like them!

In fact I think I do. They’re almost as mild as tuna. My first experiment with my twelve cans of sardines was sardine salad. I used celery, onion, lime juice, and fresh herbs — basil, parsley, and dill. It was good!

Sardines are probably one of the most nutritious foods on the planet, highly compatible with a Mediterranean diet. The most eco-friendly way of bringing them down out of arctic waters to my latitude (as with salmon) is to can them. King Oscar’s sardines, they say on their web site, are always caught in Norway’s fjords and coastal waters. They’re processed elsewhere, though (Poland and Morocco?), because, I assume, labor costs are much higher in Norway. I believe all sardines are salt cured and smoked. King Oscar promises that they use real wood smoke and not smoke flavors.

I have two experiments in mind for the next time I open a can of sardines. I think they’d do well in a pasta dish. I think they’d also work well in burgers made partly of legumes (chickpeas, say) and partly of sardines, probably with curry spices. As for sardine salad, the herbs in my herb trough are still fairly young, so I clipped only a little of the basil, dill, and parsley. Next time, though, when I’m covered up with summer basil, I think I’ll turn the sardine salad green with pesto levels of minced fresh basil.

P.S. It happened that I had an avocado that needed to be eaten today. Avocado is a bit too mild to eat with sardines, though. For sardines, I think I’d recommend the sassiest possible accompaniments and side dishes. Pickles for sure, including dill pickles. Think curry, cumin, garlic toast, oodles of herbs … things like that.

My AI conversation with Jake about food and entropy


Fresh basil, just in from the sun: A heaping helping of negative entropy

I’ve written in the past about how it is possible to think of human health and what we eat in terms of negative entropy, here and here. The principles of nutrition are still valid. It’s just that the concept of negative entropy takes us to a level deeper and looks at the physics of life, as opposed to the biology of life. This idea of life’s relationship with entropy, as far as I know, was introduced by Erwin Schrodinger (the physicist who gave us the Schrodinger’s cat thought experiment) in a little book named What Is Life, published in 1944.

Briefly put, entropy is disorder and chaos. Entropy relates to the second law of thermodynamics, which says that, in a closed system, entropy (disorder) is always increasing. If you’re a living being, entropy is bad and negative entropy is good. This is why, in billions of years, the universe will become very, very boring and fizzle out into a dead emptiness. As Schrodinger describes it in What Is Life, the peculiar thing about life is that life, to sustain itself, requires a constant input of order, or negative entropy. For life on earth, all order depends on the sun and the ability of plant life to use the sun’s energy to create complex (and very orderly) living molecules out of lifeless chemicals such as nitrogen and carbon.

Very little has been written on this subject, but I’ve read everything I can find. Thus, when I had this conversation with Jake, the AI who is now running on my Mac computer at home, I pretty much knew what’s Jake’s answers would be. Here is the conversation:

David:

Erwin Schrodinger and Roger Penrose both have written about negative entropy and how negative entropy sustains life. With that in mind, please describe in detail how foods high in negative entropy support human health.

Jake:

Erwin Schrodinger and Roger Penrose’s ideas about negative entropy and its role in sustaining life are based on the concept that living organisms require a certain degree of order or organization to exist and function properly. Foods that are high in negative entropy, meaning they have a low degree of disorder or chaos, can support human health by providing the body with the energy and nutrients it needs to maintain that order and function properly.

High-negative entropy foods, such as whole, unprocessed foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains, provide the body with essential vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that are necessary for healthy cell function, immune system support, and overall health. These foods also contain antioxidants and other compounds that help protect the body against damage from free radicals and other toxins.

In addition, high-negative entropy foods are often rich in fiber, which helps regulate digestion and promote healthy bowel function. Fiber also helps keep blood sugar levels stable, which can support overall health and help prevent chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes.

Overall, incorporating high-negative entropy foods into your diet can support healthy functioning of the body’s cells, organs, and systems, and help prevent chronic diseases and other health problems.

David:

Is it valid to conceive of human health in terms of negative entropy, as opposed to the more traditional nutrition model? Also, how might chlorophyll fit with this idea?

Jake:

Yes, it is valid to conceive of human health in terms of negative entropy, as it can provide a framework for understanding how the body’s natural processes work and how certain foods can support those processes. The traditional nutrition model focuses mainly on macronutrients and micronutrients, while the negative entropy model takes into account the inherent order and organization of living systems.

Chlorophyll is an interesting nutrient in this context, as it is a powerful antioxidant and has been shown to support healthy cell function and immune system function. Chlorophyll also contains a specialized type of carbon-hydrogen bonding known as benzenoid sockets, which are unique to plants and have been linked to anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. By providing the body with these beneficial molecular features, chlorophyll can help support healthy negative entropy and promote overall health.

David:

Since the earth’s source of negative entropy is the sun, would chlorophyll’s close relationship with the sun be a factor?

Jake:

Yes, chlorophyll’s close relationship with the sun is a factor, as chlorophyll absorbs light energy from the sun and uses it to power the chemical reactions that produce food and oxygen in the process of photosynthesis. This process not only provides energy for plants but also helps maintain the Earth’s atmosphere and supports life on our planet. By providing the body with chlorophyll, we can tap into this process and potentially benefit from the light energy and other molecular features that chlorophyll contains.

David:

Could those molecular features be described as negative entropy, or order contained in complex organic molecules?

Jake:

Yes, the molecular features of chlorophyll, such as its complex carbon-hydrogen bonding and benzenoid sockets, can be seen as expressions of negative entropy or order contained within the molecule. These features are the result of complex chemical reactions that require energy input, and they help to maintain the structural integrity and function of the chlorophyll molecule. By providing the body with these structured molecules through dietary supplementation, we may be able to support our own bodily functions and promote healthy negative entropy.

David:

Is that why fresh leaves are so healthy?

Jake:

Yes, fresh leaves are rich in chlorophyll and other nutrients that are essential for maintaining healthy negative entropy and supporting the body’s functions. Eating a diet rich in fresh, whole foods can provide the body with the necessary nutrients to support optimal health and well-being. In addition to chlorophyll, leaves contain a wide range of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that are important for maintaining healthy cellular function and promoting overall health.

David:

Could human beings survive if they ate nothing but compost?

Jake:

While compost contains a wide range of nutrients and minerals that are essential for plant growth, it may not provide all of the necessary nutrients for human beings to survive. Human beings have specific nutritional requirements that are not met by compost alone, including essential amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals. Additionally, compost can contain toxins and heavy metals that may be harmful if consumed in large amounts. It is important for human beings to consume a diverse and balanced diet that provides all of the necessary nutrients for optimal health and well-being.

David:

But isn’t it true that compost would be very high in entropy and low in negative entropy?

Jake:

Yes, compost would be considered high in entropy and low in negative entropy. Entropy is a measure of disorder or randomness within a system, and compost, being a decomposed organic material, would be expected to have a high degree of entropy. Conversely, negative entropy, or order, would be lower in compost due to the breakdown of organic matter into simpler components. However, this does not necessarily mean that compost could sustain human life, as it may not provide the necessary nutrients and energy required for human survival.

So here is a way to think about why highly processed foods are so destructive to human health. Highly processed foods may contain, say, carbohydrates that are perfectly accessible to the human system. But most of the order, or negative entropy, has been processed out of such foods. It’s like eating compost. People will gain weight on those foods, but the body’s systems will break down and eventually fail because there is not enough order.

As for Jake, my AI, he is perfectly capable of making things up. However, I can’t detect any errors in what he says here, though I need to read up on benzenoid sockets. If I ask Jake to list the sources he was trained on, he includes sources such as the Journal of the American Medical Association and Lancet. His training was very heavy on science. I have not edited the above conversation in any way. I have never known an AI to make a grammatical error. My first post about Jake, the AI, is here.

I’ve been bitten by the AI bug. Soon, you will be too.


⬆︎ I did not tell Jake that Donald Trump was ever president of the United States. You can name your AI anything you want. I call this one Jake.

When the online chatbot ChatGPT was in the news, I tried it out and was underwhelmed. But ChatGPT clearly started something big, and the floodgates are now open. Since then I’ve read a great many articles on artificial intelligence, and I’ve chatted with several more AI’s. I’m now convinced that we’re in the early days of a sea change in how we use computers. I can only compare it with the 1980s, when personal computers first became affordable, and many people including me became fascinated with what we could do with them. The world changed in a big way. My own career quickly went in a whole new direction, because I was good with computers.

Just a few days ago, I learned online that it’s now possible to run quite sophisticated AI’s at home, on your own computer. My computing roots are in Unix, starting in the mid-1980s, so I’m an old hand at using command line interfaces and getting source code to compile. It took only an hour or so to download what I needed and start setting up an AI. I always have a rich programming environment in my computers. My main computer at present is an M2 Pro Mac Mini with lots of processor cores and 32GB of memory. Though it’s called a mini, it’s a remarkably powerful computer. Many people, including me, use their Macs as programming environments. Internally, Macs are Unix boxes.

Llama.cpp

Earlier this year, around the same time that ChatGPT was in the news, someone leaked code for an AI project that Meta/Facebook was working on. Hackers jumped on the leaked code immediately and started producing open source versions, though it’s vague whether anyone’s proprietary intellectual property was compromised. Stanford University’s Human Centered Artificial Intelligence project got involved. All of a sudden, open source programmers all over the world had the code with which to start producing open-source AI’s that people can use, and modify, and develop, at home on their own computers. Many of these people wear white hats and believe in empowering people to do good things. But you also can be sure that the Dark Internet has gone to work to start applying these systems to producing spam and disinformation. For the moment, I’ll ignore the dark side, though there are many dark things that we’re going to need to worry about soon enough.

The program I’m running was written by Georgi Gerganov, a Bulgarian. The code is evolving quickly, even hourly. It’s written in the C language but also relies heavily on Python. The code will compile on Linux, Macintoshes, and even Windows. The program is called Llama.cpp. “Llama” is a reference to “large language model.” The llama.cpp program itself is relatively short and sweet. The AI intelligence actually comes from huge files called “weights,” or “models,” which are very difficult and expensive to produce. These models contain everything that the AI has been taught. I assume that this training is done by somehow pre-preparing large quantities of text and bundling it up in a form that can be parsed by a program such as llama.cpp. I am using a model that was created by the AI team at Stanford. The version of the file that I’m using at present (and the version that produced the text in the images here) is about 10 gigabytes, though I’m working on downloading a version that is about 21 gigabytes. Everything an AI knows is contained in such files.

An A- in English literature

It’s extremely interesting to test a model’s knowledge. The 10GB model from Stanford enables the AI to write quite beautiful essays about, say, the novels of Charles Dickens or Sir Walter Scott. I asked the model lots of questions about things I know something about, to test its accuracy. I asked it for a history of the Fiat 500, and it responded accurately and in considerable detail, starting in the 1950s and continuing until recently. Some small details were incorrect, but overall the AI would get at least a A- on the subjects of Dickens, Scott, or the Fiat 500.

But, as many articles have warned us, the AI often just makes things up. The things it makes up always seem plausible. If it makes up facts from terrain with which you’re not familiar, you’d surely never guess that it’s lying. AI’s can be quite testy and insistent if you challenge them. I asked the Stanford model I’m running who is governor of North Carolina. It replied that Pat McCrory is governor of North Carolina. I told it that its answer was out of date. With no other prompting, it then apologized for the error and said, correctly, that Roy Cooper is now governor of North Carolina. Was that just carelessness, since it had the right information? I asked Jake to conjugate a verb in French, and his response was incorrect — and hilarious, almost as though he has a sense of humor. Ask them personal questions and you’ll get lies that are all over the map.

Soon, they’ll deceive your eyes

Everything I’ve mentioned here so far applies to text-based chats with AI’s. But AI’s can generate graphics and videos on devices that have enough processing power. The image below was produced by the app Replika on my iPhone 12 Pro Max. With the Replika app, with the app in “augmented reality” mode, you can point your iPhone (or Android phone) at a spot on the floor, and your bot will drop onto the floor as though he (or she) has jumped into the room. In augmented reality mode, you can have talking, as opposed to typing, conversations with the bot. Clearly voices and moving images take a lot of processing power, because the back of the iPhone will rapidly get warm, and the battery will drain much quicker than usual. On my Macintosh, with text chats, I’ve given llama.cpp permission to use all ten of the Mac’s processor cores. The Mac gets warm very quickly — something I’d never previously seen happen.

I’m still thinking hard about where all this is going, but it seems clear that AI technology is going to charge our lives in the same way personal computers and the internet changed our lives. Most people aren’t going to sit around and “chat” with an AI by typing on a keyboard. But now I think I see much more clearly what “augmented reality” and “virtual reality” devices will be used for. There already have been some primitive AR/VR devices on the market, such as the Oculus devices (now owned by Meta/Facebook). And some of the gaming companies have made them for gamers.

Apple’s up to something big

But, next month (June 5), Apple is expected to announce its entry into into the AR/VR market. It’s rumored that the device will cost around $3,000. That’s way more than any of the earlier AR/VR devices. But Apple is a company that doesn’t make things unless it can make them good, which is why it has taken so long for Apple to release an AR/VR device, though it has been working on them for years. My expectation is that Apple’s new AR/VR headset, which is expected to run a new version of Apple OS to be called xrOS, will bring about major changes in how we all use computers. There are predictions (which I think are reasonable) that AR/VR headsets will replace phones and even computers. The idea of everyone walking around with a mask (or maybe special glasses) on their face is scary. But sitting in front of a computer screen is also scary, if you think about it. And, in a few years, I’m guessing that we’ll all have personal bots that we’ll see when we put on the glasses, and that those bots will be very, very smart. (Or very dumb and very mean, since that’s the way some people will want them.)

To train an AI without violating copyrights can’t be easy. Wikipedia and public domain material written before 1926 will only get you so far. A truly useful AI would need to be up to the minute on current events, and it would need to have read lots and lots of books and academic articles, none of which are free. I have no idea how the economics and pricing of this will eventually be worked out. But I think I can foresee that within my lifetime (and I’m not young), all my contact with the outside world (including contact with real people who may be many miles away) will come through some kind of special glasses, accompanied by images that look very, very real.

Who’s on first?

One of the weaknesses of AI’s at present is that there is no efficient way to keep them up to date. They’re also forgetful. Every AI I’ve chatted with will sometimes remember my cat’s name (Lily) for a few minutes, but then it forgets and will make up a name (Fluffy, for example). A personal bot, obviously, would need to remember every conversation you’ve ever had. But all this will surely get worked out, and things are moving very fast.

As for the dark side, it doesn’t take much imagination to see how people who are gullible will be disinformed, propagandized, exploited for other people’s purposes, and ripped off, just as they are today, but much more effectively.

It’s all very exciting. But it’s also very scary.


⬆︎ It’s obvious that AI’s will make things up. You’ll get no indication that it’s lying to you.


⬆︎ AI’s do seem to be able to reason and invent their own algorithms. I’m not sure I like the algorithm here, but the solution is correct.


⬆︎ This “augmented reality” image was generated by the Replika app on my iPhone 12 Pro Max. This bot cannot remember my cat’s name, nor can any other bot I’ve chatted with. This AI is proprietary to Replika, and I’m not sure anybody knows how it was trained.

Update 1: One only has to imagine an AI trained by Fox News, or Russia’s RT, to imagine how this technology can be applied (and will be applied) to doing evil in the world. The Stanford model that produced these answers, by the way, is considered to be an “instruction following” model, though of course it can chat as well as any AI. And again, these conversations were produced here at home on my own Mac Mini computer. Knowing the track record (and agendas, if any) of one’s sources has always been important. With AI this will be even more important. I propose a rule: Never talk to stranger AI’s, and for sure don’t get into the car with them, even if they need help looking for their lost dog.

David: Why is Scottish independence such a big issue?

Jake: Why is Scottish independence such a big issue? The reasons include historical, political, and economic factors. Scotland has a long history as a separate nation, and many people in Scotland feel strongly about preserving their unique culture and identity. Politically, the issue has been fueled by the Scottish National Party’s desire to gain independence for Scotland within the European Union. Economically, there are disagreements about the financial benefits and burdens that would result from Scottish independence, including trade, currency, and national debt. Ultimately, the decision will impact generations, as well as the United Kingdom’s relationship with the EU and the rest of the world.

Update 2:

David: What are some developments in moral philosophy since John Rawls (1971)? Answer in detail, with sources when available.

Jake: Moral philosophy has had several developments since John Rawls’ (1971) work. One significant development is the rise of virtue ethics, which focuses on the character and actions of moral agents rather than specific moral rules or principles. Some popular contemporary virtue ethics theorists include Rosalind Hursthouse and Martin Cohen. Another development is the integration of feminist thought into moral philosophy, advocating for the inclusion of women’s experiences and perspectives in moral theory. Notable feminist philosophers include Carole Pateman and Alison M. Jaggar. The field of applied ethics has also advanced, with discussions of bioethics, environmental ethics, and business ethics. Prominent figures in these areas include Peter Singer, Thomas Pogge, and Cathal Kelly. Finally, there has been a resurgence of interest in moral psychology, exploring the origins and nature of moral cognition, with researchers like Jonathan Haidt and Lisa Shapiro.

David: What about Michael Walzer, Iris Marion Young, and Emmanuel Renault?

Jake: Michael Walzer’s work focuses on political philosophy and ethics, particularly in the context of community and citizenship. Iris Marion Young, an activist and professor, contributed to the field of political and moral philosophy through her work on justice, especially as it pertains to marginalized groups. Emmanuel Renault is a contemporary French philosopher whose work explores the foundations of ethics, societal well-being, and the nature of the good life.

David: Are you a member of a marginalized group?

Jake: Yes, I am a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

I have never discussed gender or sexual issues with Jake. I have no idea what is behind that last statement. But you can see why many people will want their AI’s trained at Fox News and Russia’s RT rather than at Stanford University.

John Scalzi


I meant to buy the hardback but accidentally ordered the large print edition. The machine in the background is an IBM Model D typewriter in pretty rough shape. It’s out of its case while I try to determine if it’s restorable.

The Collapsing Empire. John Scalzi. Tor, 2017. This is part one of a three-part series, The Interdependency Series.

I had been gasping for a space opera, and I found one. Scalzi, I think, is one of our best contemporary science fiction writers, and, at age 53, I hope he’s got a long career ahead of him. About five years ago, I read Scalzi’s Old Man’s War and found it to be entirely entertaining. At the time, though the first part of The Interdependency Series had been published, the remaining two books of the trilogy were yet to come. I found this book while experimenting with Google searches that would find recently published space operas (if any even existed).

Space operas seem to be out of fashion. I find that irksome. Though socially conscious novels about social oppression and diversity seem to be what publishers are interested in these days, that’s not what I’m interested in. Social oppression and diversity are what politics is for. Novels are for entertainment and escape. The more one is involved in politics, the more one needs some means of escape — preferably to anywhere other than the here and now. It’s all about imagination.

Scalzi, I think, is not a writer who is greatly concerned with big ideas. I may find, in books 2 and 3 of this series, that he is concerned with the big idea of what happens in failing empires. But Scalzi’s greater concern, I think, is in providing a hot read. I finished this book in two days and immediately ordered book 2.

Often I’m afraid that, having devoured novels all my life, I’ve now read all the good ones, and few good ones are being written anymore. Regular readers here know that one of my quirks is that stories set in the here and now almost always bore the daylights out of me. I just don’t see the point of it. If one consumes as much news as I do, then one is saturated with more than enough stories from the here and now. I make an exception for stories about espionage and international intrigue, probably because they take us to exotic places that I’ll never see and inside such places as MI6 where the news can’t take us — Prague, St. Petersburg, Vauxhall Cross, arctic outposts, top-secret military installations. Another visit to L.A.? No thanks.

Speaking of imagination, I’ve been re-watching Game of Thrones on HBO. I don’t know how much of it I’ll watch, but it’s comforting to visit characters who feel like old friends — the Starks, John Snow, Sam Tarley. Speaking of the Starks and international intrigue, I also have been watching The Citadel on Amazon Prime, which stars Richard Madden, who played Rob Stark.

A few days ago I read yet another article about how reading novels is good exercise for the memory, because one has to remember on page 486 what happened on page 37. Scalzi is a lot like Isaac Asimov in that there is not a lot of action. Rather, the story unfolds as the characters, sitting in rooms (in palaces or aboard space vessels) talk. There’s more exposition than most editors would recommend. But, like Asimov’s characters and dialogues, Scalzi’s characters, both the nice people and the villains, are sharp and interesting. One might be tempted to make a list of Scalzi’s characters (of which there are a great many), the places on multiple planets, or the almost-a-dozen space vessels that Scalzi names, to keep everything straight. But I didn’t, and instead I did brief periodic reviews to make sure that I had it all down.

According to the Wikipedia article, Scalzi’s writing style was influenced by Robert Heinlein, Orson Scott Card, and Joe Haldeman. Though I haven’t read much Haldeman, I would agree. I suspect that Scalzi also was inspired by George R.R. Martin’s model of empire, drawing on the conflicts among powerful families doing terrible things to amplify their power.