Code Notelets

Solar geoengineering is the idea of limiting the amount of sunlight that reaches the earth, with the aim of limiting global warming. Here I will show 3 reasons why it's a really bad idea: 1. Photosynthesis requires sunlight, don't limit it - it's one of the few things pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere Photosynthesis is one of the very few ways we have to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. As an added bonus it's done automatically by plants, requiring no effort on our part. It requires light in order to work. To do it, plants take in sunlight, carbon dioxide and water, and they produce oxygen. These plants are literally removing carbon dioxide from our atmosphere, but they require light for it to work.  We should not do anything that could possibly limit the amount of photosynthesis occurring; limiting the amount of light hitting the planet is likely to decrease photosynthesis.  2. We should not be limiting the generation of solar power Solar electri...

Disclosure: This is a thought experiment for the purposes of showing how easy it is to make up a conspiracy theory. I do not advocate the dissemination of conspiracy theories and other baseless speculations. Do some of the conspiracy theories out there seem so far-fetched that you are ROTFL when you hear of them? Yet some people actually do seem to believe them. Many conspiracy theories are made up. In other words they are fiction. At best, they are theories and not fact, otherwise that particular conspiracy theory wouldn't be a conspiracy theory, it would be fact. At worse, they are the deliberate peddling of lies. So I decided to demonstrate that creating a conspiracy theory is so easy that anyone can do it. There are no special skills, talents, or level of intelligence required. There is nothing special about making up a conspiracy theory. Let's have a go. Step 1: Identify the least believable conspiracy theory you have heard of This step is easy and should take you less th...

I used to think neural networks were a reasonably good technology, until I decided to try setting up a neural network myself. After some experimentation with neural networks, I dramatically reversed my stance. I now believe neural networks should not be in charge of any decisions such that could have life-or-death impact. Find out why below. Disclosure: These are my personal thoughts about neural networks based on my limited experience with them. I do not claim to be an expert in neural networks. First I'm going to propose a definition for a neural network: An interpolation system whose behavior becomes undefined when extrapolating beyond its training data. In simple language, "undefined" may be thought of as "random by human standards". OK, how did this definition come about? It all started when I desired to make a system for classifying fonts a year or two ago. Even Google Fonts had at the time very few parameters for manually finding suitable fonts. For pick...