Saturday, March 1, 2025

Algorithms that rule the world

The complete list of algorithms:

🔷Search Algorithms ⭢ Efficiently locates items in datasets.
↳ Uses: search engines, databases, dictionaries, file systems.

🔷RSA Algorithm ⭢ Secures data with asymmetric encryption.
↳ Uses: online banking, digital signatures, secure emails, VPNs.

🔷PageRank ⭢ Calculates web page relevance by links.
↳ Uses: search engines, content ranking, web indexing, SEO tools.

🔷Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) ⭢ Processes image patterns for analysis.
↳ Uses: facial recognition, medical imaging, object detection, self-driving cars.

🔷Transformers ⭢ Powers advanced natural language models.
↳ Uses: AI chatbots, translations, text generation, sentiment analysis.

🔷Fast Fourier Transform ⭢ Analyzes signals by converting them to frequency domain.
↳ Uses: communication, audio processing, image compression, medical imaging.

🔷Dijkstra’s Algorithm ⭢ Determines shortest paths in networks.
↳ Uses: GPS systems, network routing, game development, logistics planning.

🔷Gradient Descent ⭢ Optimizes machine learning model performance.
↳ Uses: neural networks, AI training, data fitting, predictive analytics.

🔷Secure Hash Algorithms ⭢ Protects data integrity through hashing.
↳ Uses: password storage, blockchain, file verification, digital signatures.

Has America's position in the world changed forever so that the country's word will never again be trusted?

From the Bulwark:

Eric and Eliot bemoan the shameful meltdown in the Oval Office between VP Vance, President Trump and President Zelensky. They discuss Vance’s ambush and whether he executed it alone or in concert with Trump and note that those who are blaming Zelensky for rising to the bait are objectively pro-Putin. They discuss Vance’s dark political views and they consider what Europeans can and should do. They also discuss Trump’s delegation of responsibility to others and his “Trump Gaza” AI generated video. Eric asks only partially tongue in cheek what the odds are on Trump declaring himself a god by the end of the term.

Near the late middle of this podcast Eliot Cohen asks (c. 22:50): Can America ever recover from (what appears to be) the Trump foreign policy. Will America’s word ever be trusted again? Cohen goes on to remark (23:15) that many people around the world are remarking, in effect, “actually we’ve known that for some time, Thank you very much. And they have some reason to say those things.” But Cohen does think (23:30) “this is qualitatively different. [...] Something’s broken, and this is not one you can put back together again.”

Perhaps we’re seeing the conversion of shared knowledge to common knowledge.

Temptation on a plate [mmmmm.....]

By the numbers, New Savanna and Academia, a quick update

Here’s where things currently stand with overall views at New Savanna:

There’s that big jump for 2017. I haven’t got the foggiest idea what that’s about. Nor do I understand the big rise that’s been going on since late 2023, but at this point it’s been going on longer than the previous one. I have no idea what’ll unfold over the next year.

Now look at this, which compares my overall performance on Academia.edu with Steven Pinker’s:

We’re both in the top 0.5% of views for the last 30 days. The last 30 days. That would seem to imply that I’m running neck in neck with Pinker, which is absurd. He’s one of the best-known intellectuals in the world, while I’m unknown. He’s got 75 times the number of followers I have and 2.9 times as many total public views. But for the last 30 days, there we are.

Ambush in the Oval Office, Zelinsky’s out, Putin’s in

Heather Cox Richardson, February 28, 2025, Letters from an American, March 1, 2025.

Today, President Donald Trump ambushed Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky in an attack that seemed designed to give the White House an excuse for siding with Russia in its war on Ukraine. Vice President J.D. Vance joined Trump and Zelensky in the Oval Office—his attendance at such an event was unusual—in front of reporters. Those reporters included one from Russian state media, but no one from the Associated Press or Reuters, who were not granted access.

In front of the cameras, Trump and Vance engaged in what Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo called a “mob hit,” spouting Russian propaganda and trying to bully Zelensky into accepting a ceasefire and signing over rights to Ukrainian rare-earth minerals without guarantees of security. Vance, especially, seemed determined to provoke a fight in front of the cameras, accusing Zelensky, who has been lavish in his thanks to the U.S. and lawmakers including Trump, of being ungrateful. When that didn’t land, Vance said it was “disrespectful” of Zelensky to “try to litigate this in front of the American media,” when it was the White House that set up the event in front of reporters.

Zelensky maintained his composure and did not rise to the bait, but he did not accept their pro-Russian version of the war. He insisted that it was in fact Russia that invaded Ukraine and is still bombing and killing on a daily basis. His refusal to sit silent and submit meekly to their attack seemed to infuriate them.

Trump appeared to become unhinged when Zelensky suggested that the U.S. would in the future feel problems, apparently alluding to the new U.S. relationship with Russia. “You don’t know that. You don’t know that,” Trump erupted. “Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. We’re trying to solve a problem. Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel.”

Things went downhill from there. After Zelensky had left the room and Trump ranted at a reporter, the meeting ended:

After unloading on the reporter, Trump abruptly ended today’s meeting, saying it was “going to be great television.” Shortly afterward, he asked Zelensky and his team to leave the White House.

This afternoon, former representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) posted: “Generations of American patriots, from our revolution onward, have fought for the principles Zelenskyy is risking his life to defend. But today, Donald Trump and JD Vance attacked Zelenskyy and pressured him to surrender the freedom of his people to the KGB war criminal who invaded Ukraine. History will remember this day—when an American President and Vice President abandoned all we stand for.”

I have no idea where this is leading, nor does anyone else. What does Trump want? Does he even know?

Does he want to divide the world into three sectors: Trump and his America, Putin and his Russia, and Xi and his China? But that won’t work if Trump doesn’t give up American hegemony. I can’t see him doing that.

I think moving beyond hegemony would be a good idea. Hegemony is expensive, exhausting, and in the end it doesn’t work very well, as America’s wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan made abundantly clear. But Trump lives in a zero-sum, us-against-them, world. He has no choice but to preserve, maintain, and strengthen American hegemony. That’s why he wants Greenland, for example. He doesn’t see it as a hedge against Paraguay, Angola, Sri Lanka, or the Maldives. It’s a buffer against Russian, Putin’s Russia.

This makes no sense.

BTW, there's more at the link.