Mathematics, Wokeness, and Root Cause December 7, 2021
Posted by Peter Varhol in Technology and Culture.Tags: California, mathematics, woke
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As near as I can tell, “woke” is an open code word for “social justice.” I taught at a Catholic university for several years in the 1990s, and there was certainly a lot of talk about social justice. I also graduated from what it self-describes as a conservative Christian college, where we had mandatory weekly chapel attendance (the chapel sessions interspersed religious topics with general topics of interest to a wide range of people, so it wasn’t as demanding as it sounds). In my mind, social justice, which I interpret as treating all with dignity and respect, is something you can agree or disagree with, but you don’t have to jump in hook, line, and sinker. You simply move on. I recognize that some embrace it as a life mission, but you don’t have to listen to them if you don’t want to.
The rejiggering of California’s mathematics curriculum to largely eliminate core mathematics topics because too many students fail at mathematics is held up as an example of woke attitudes. Instead, they want to teach “fun” courses in which mathematics plays only an incidental role.
Whether or not it is woke, I have strong feelings on the topic. Mathematics is the foundation of all of our sciences and engineering. To not teach algebra, calculus, and beyond as a prelude to higher education and a future in science and technology is a disservice to the most highly populated state of the union, of the country, and of society in general. Others agree.
I also have strong opinions as to why we have reached this point. Primary and secondary school teaching of mathematics is abysmal. Too many teachers simply don’t have an understanding of what they are trying to teach. The better students muddle through anyway, but the lesser students become scarred by the experience, and live their lives believing they are not “math people.”
That is simply bullshit. Everyone has the capability of doing fundamental math, with the right instruction. The vast majority don’t get the right instruction. And until we can improve that, proposals like this trash are going to become more common.
How Easy Is It to Disappear? October 20, 2021
Posted by Peter Varhol in Technology and Culture, Uncategorized.Tags: Grid, Reacher
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After weeks of searching for Brian Laundrie, it seems that the authorities may have found his body in a nature reserve in Florida. While I am not following this story, the headline made me ask how easy (difficult) it might be to disappear in the modern world. In one of my novels, the protagonist, Jack Pryor, successfully covers his tracks for almost a week before the bad guys find him. After all, many of us have given idle thoughts to dropping off of the grid, at least for a little while.
So I did some research into this for my story. Jack’s apartment was blown up, and he was intentionally disavowed by the government, and forced to live by his wits. He’s a computer guy, so he needed to track down the bad guys online, which made it more difficult.
He was helped by a healthy paranoia, a lot of smarts, adequate cash, and a friend who provided him with someone else’s passport, driver’s license, and credit card. He got on the Internet by breaking into an absent friend’s house, and by recognizing that while his apartment was destroyed, the wireless router still worked. He could protect his online presence using different access points and VPNs for a while, but a concerted effort would find him within a couple of days.
Without the false ID, it would be impossible to rent a car or travel by commercial airliner today. You can no longer use cash for those sorts of transactions. He rented an AirBNB for a week, and stayed there two nights, until the check cleared the bank. He also used the false passport and credit card to travel to Europe to track down his adversaries, and reserved three hotels in the same city, moving rapidly between them.
So in the modern world, this is pretty much impossible without an alter ego, and the documentation to back it up. Like Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, you might find a budget hotel and cut a cash deal with the desk clerk for one night, but that’s about it. Reacher has an ATM card for cash withdrawals; he used to carry an expired passport for ID, but that doesn’t work any more. He stays undiscovered mostly by staying constantly on the move, often hitchhiking, even in this day and age.
If you’re an outdoorsman, you might be able to live off the land, using a tent and paying cash for your food. There are tales of people doing that in the mountains for a year or more. But the minute you use an ATM or credit card, you are found. And don’t even think about a phone, cell or landline.
And because the world seems to want to go to cashless systems, you will be found even more quickly in all likelihood. I personally like to use cash for most transactions, because I am cognizant that my credit card purchase will go into a database, where I will get spammed by various offers. But that only delays the inevitable.
If you want to live your life in civilization, you cannot do so anonymously. Most people don’t care, and are happy to provide far more personal information than they receive in convenience. I try to weigh most decisions, not because I want to step off of the grid, but because I think it’s a daily tradeoff.
Still Evil After All These Years October 6, 2021
Posted by Peter Varhol in Software platforms, Technology and Culture.Tags: Facebook, Zuckerberg
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I’ve been railing against Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg for a long time, to no avail (and no surprise). But I would like to be on the side of right, which Facebook definitely is not. And I’m not a billionaire, which Mark Zuckerberg definitely is, many times over.
But to quote the movie title, something’s gotta give.
Anyone who has read the expose by the Wall Street Journal, and watched the testimony by Frances Haugen, knows that Facebook continues to be evil. Worse, they used to apologize and say they are making improvements. As of two weeks ago, they are not even bothering with that lie. They are trashing Frances Haugen, and saying they are in the right.
I have never been a member of Facebook, and will never be a member of Facebook. I’ve been told that I have to be, for job, or to obtain information that organizations only post on Facebook. I’m sorry. You are the ones that are morally bankrupt, not me. And if you use Facebook, you are also morally bankrupt. You stand for nothing.
Here is Zuckerberg’s real problem. If you were already by far the richest person in the world, in your 30s, what is the rest of your life for? I obviously am not in that position, but I’ve tried to give it some thought.
I would like to think that I would try to be remembered as a kind and equable person who contributes positively to society. Do you really need another billion dollars? Yet it seems that Zuckerberg is not a particularly deep thinker. He has to know that his espousing of connecting people for peaceful purposes is highly flawed, but he does want that extra billion. He is driven by money, and by what money measures. So Zuckerberg doesn’t know what the rest of his life is about, except for acquiring that next billion dollars. To tell you the truth, I’m not sympathetic. He is not mentally well, and because of the power he wields, he needs to get his act together.
Tragically, Once Again Self-Driving Cars Aren’t August 28, 2021
Posted by Peter Varhol in Machine Learning, Software development, Technology and Culture, travel.Tags: autonomous vehicles
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Two stories crossed my attention today that once again, tragically demonstrate that we are likely decades away from self-driving cars, if at all. The first, and stupidest, was with the largest and most arrogant auto company, Toyota, which for some inconceivable reason decided to test-drive its autonomous buses at the Paralympics. One hit an athlete in a legal crosswalk, injuring him and knocking him out of the Games.
Toyota’s CEO posted an apology on YouTube (not even referring to the athlete’s name, which is simply insulting), which is not so much an apology as a brazen PR stunt. I know people who swear by Toyota cars; I swear at them, and this level of arrogance makes it worse. Make it right with the athlete, which Toyota will not do, lest they damage their brand.
The second is, of course, a Tesla, which advertises a “fully autonomous mode” which is anything but. A driver who admits he was not paying attention, instead watching a movie, hit two police cars with lights flashing on the side of the road, attending to another motorist.
Of course, despite the marketing names Tesla gives its driver-assist technology (and that’s really what it is), they have plenty of caveats in the fine print. Those caveats are to keep it out of legal trouble even though the marketing names strongly suggest otherwise. This was the eleventh police car displaying flashing lights that Teslas have hit. While Tesla may end up being a long term success, it is doing itself no favors in the interim.
So what happened to all of the predictions? This is how Anthony Foxx, former U.S. secretary of transportation, envisioned the future of autonomous vehicles in 2016:
“By 2021, we will see autonomous vehicles in operation across the country in ways that we [only] imagine today. … Families will be able to walk out of their homes and call a vehicle, and that vehicle will take them to work or to school. We’re going to see transit systems sharing services with some of these companies.”
Auto executives were no less effusive. Elon Musk is by far the worst of the group. I strongly believe that these so-called predictions were/are criminally wrong, because they encourage people to misuse today’s technology.
I personally believe that fully autonomous vehicles are at least decades away, and possibly completely infeasible.
On Work and Life August 16, 2021
Posted by Peter Varhol in Technology and Culture.Tags: career, moonlight
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A recent Wall Street Journal article (paywall) focused on work from home employees who were actually working two or more full-time jobs, without their employers’ knowledge. Scott Adams actually touched on this topic with a recent Dilbert, which has Wally engaged in two Zoom calls at the same time.
The comments are more interesting than the article. The majority of the comments are negative, and they seem to overwhelmingly come from a certain demographic (to be fair, my demographic). Those of us who came of age in the ’60s and ’70s internalized the righteousness of loyalty to our employer. This was, of course, when many people expected to have 1-2 employers in a career.
That started to fall apart in the 1980s and beyond with massive layoffs, so those that came of age then and later probably have a more cynical viewpoint. The employment contract has changed, and this small number of employees are taking advantage of that. I can’t fault them, though many commenters were aghast, calling it a brazen fraud. But over the last 30 years, you could lose your job at any time, for any reason, so why not have a spare. Even seeming secure jobs could disappear at the loss of a contract, or the capriciousness of management. I have rarely had a job (or in many cases even a company) that lasted more than a few years.
Surely there are a lot of pros and cons here. If they are doing the work expected of them, it seems difficult to find fault. It feels a little bit sleazy, but maybe that’s just my cultural heritage. Many younger workers today are used to the gig economy, where they juggle several projects from different employers.
Those who are doing so make good points. Much of their time is consumed in pointless meetings, so they endeavor to minimize those meetings in order to work more efficiently. If their main employer forces pointless (and yes, many meetings are), meetings, and work that will just be tossed aside, this is a way for employees to fight back. I have some semblance of a moral code, but it never really extended to anything like this.
I moonlighted for much of my career, rarely if ever working on my extracurricular activities from the office, but spending plenty of evening and weekend time on it. My employers (or at least my manager) generally knew, although certainly no one made a big deal out of it (well, one did). But almost all thought it best to remain quiet about my outside gigs. Those gigs were highly visible in the industry, and could have brought credit upon my employers, if they cared. They didn’t, so I did them anyway.
So I’m not sure this is wrong in many ways. I feel for those who are in their early careers, perhaps already laid off several times, who are striving for the semblance of a real career (don’t feel bad; I didn’t have a real career). I think they are the ones who can look the Man in the eye and give him the finger.
No Guarantees July 28, 2021
Posted by Peter Varhol in Technology and Culture, Uncategorized.Tags: COVID, mask, vaccine
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Yes, I’m writing about Covid-19 again. After returning from a road race in Florida, where masking discipline is nonexistent, I have to confront the reality of people’s excuses for it being so.
First, you can’t tell me with any level of seriousness that 98 percent of people anywhere are vaccinated. Yet that’s about the percentage of people who don’t wear masks in Florida, indoors or out, according to my admittedly unscientific estimate.
Certainly we might consider Florida an exceptional case, where the governor has mandated, well, the lack of a mask mandate across the state. You can’t fix stupid. But this has largely been the case in other states (North Carolina, Alabama) I have visited this year. In fact, in Key West in January, the police were enforcing masking even on the streets.
Not now. People are using a wide variety of excuses to shed masks. Whether it is my choice (not really), personal freedom (absurd as a logical statement), government imposition (the government can impose health measures), experimental (but still tested with tens of thousands of subjects), infertility (I can’t think of anything more stupid), I think just about everyone would agree that we declared victory too early.
Much of the blame lies with the CDC. Rather than saying unmask willy-nilly, it should have provided a step-by-step rollout of relaxing restrictions. Now it is reinstating masking guidance, even for the vaccinated. They have managed to confuse just about everyone, including me.
Vaccinated people are apparently getting frustrated. If around 80 percent of the population were vaccinated, there is a good chance we would be beyond this point. But too many people don’t care a whit about public health.
One of the more pervasive, yet stupid, arguments against vaccines is that vaccinated people are still getting Covid, so why should I bother. Um, there are not, and were never, any guarantees with any vaccine. We are greatly improving the probability that we won’t get Covid, but if we do, it is far more likely to be a light case. That’s what the vaccine provides us, not guarantees. Get it through your heads, people. There are no guarantees in life. But we do have chances to greatly reduce risk.
Now, I want to say something personal. I am a reasonably healthy, 60+ year old male who had priority on the vaccination list in my state, and took full advantage of it. I mask, and I wear a face shield and gloves when traveling.
People are still dying. Covid-19 cases are increasing dramatically. We can fix this. Why do people still insist in acting against public health?
Space, the Never Frontier July 20, 2021
Posted by Peter Varhol in Technology and Culture, travel.Tags: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Space travel
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A couple of years ago I ran in the Gateway to Space “road” race, which actually involved going to Cape Canaveral and running the Space Shuttle runway (I’ve since done it again, but have to pass later this year). A part of that experience is being on hand to visit the Kennedy Space Visitor Center, the central tourist attraction for those inclined to understand and appreciate our space program.
Despite the seeming somnambulance of our national space program over the last decade, the Kennedy Visitor Center presents an optimistic and glowing future, led by a public/private partnership that emphasizes exploration with exploitation of both the moon and of Mars.
You see where this is going. This year Richard Branson, through Virgin Galactic, and Jeff Bezos, through Blue Origin, have participated in suborbital flights, perhaps marking the dawn of a new Space Age that seamlessly combines science, exploration, and commercial ventures. It’s only a matter of time before Elon Musk joins them through his own venture, SpaceX.
Yes, all are billionaires. And I will not begrudge their (financial) ability and willingness to be the public face of space exploration in the future. If I had a few billion dollars, there is a high probability I would do the same. If the recent flights are a little too reminiscent of little boys flaunting their expensive toys, I might be willing to excuse that in favor of a renewed excitement over space exploration.
But it is troublesome that this is coming almost entirely from private industry. In one sense, this is little different than thirty years ago, where private industry (Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Thiokol, etc.) essentially designed and built our space capsules and delivery vehicles, under the loose control of NASA. Industry was still the building blocks of our space program.
But this feels very different today. Space will be commercially exploited at some point in time, and these three entrepreneurs and companies will likely be at that forefront. My problem is with the public faces.
But with NASA and the government in charge, we had ordinary people who we could think of, ultimately, as hero explorers. Here in New Hampshire, we have the Christa McAuliffe-Alan Shepard Discovery Center and Planetarium. I met John Glenn once, as a United States Senator, and Neil Armstrong, outside of the Delta Sky Club in Cincinnati.
These were ordinary people, defined by their exceling in their respective fields and demonstrating that anyone can make the space travel dream a reality. We could be among them. Today we don’t have that. Instead we have billionaires who are in that position by virtue of their wealth rather than their ability and drive. Yes, they made their billions on their own volition, but now space seems to be a fun distraction for them.
And that troubles me for the future of our space program.
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