Recent content on Karl's Blog
My earlier post about qualia and LLM consciousness is on my mind again because of an Atlantic opinion piece that I have complicated opinions about . 
 The point I reached in my earlier post is that, with current techniques, we will be unable to determine whether LLMs are conscious. It is not a helpful question. That’s because questions of consciousness come down to whether an entity…
I find myself regularly asking myself, “are LLMs conscious?” I have concluded that this question is unanswerable. To think about it, consciousness must first be defined, and then it must be possible to relate it between different entities. If that is impossible then some method of extrapolating must be found. 
 Defining Consciousness 
 Consciousness is not well-defined. There…

 
 

 When I started with the Air Force, I was told to push for change where it was needed-to move faster and enable the organization to move faster. The Air Force is a massive bureaucracy designed, in part, to slow change. It was frustrating to push my leadership and senior members to change things, get their pushback, and then be told by those same people to keep pushing.
We rarely make opportunity cost explicit in the military. Because we never think about opportunity cost, risk aversion seems safe. 
 
 Opportunity cost - the lost potential gain from an alternative, when a different one is chosen. 
 
 Common sources: 
 
 Failure to delegate authority 
 Bureaucratic processes 
 Delay 
 Failure to innovate 
 
 Recently the…
I find it fascinating to see how quickly, and in how many directions, practical AI ideas are multiplying right now. I installed OpenClaw recently and set up some daily prompts - show me interesting information, mine some RSS feeds I like - it has helped me learn new things each day… But I did not expect the breadth of different agent orchestration and LLM architectures it would present to…
I just finished listening to Safi Bahcall’s Loonshots (thank you Libby ) because friends kept telling me it was fantastic, and was fundamental to how they think about the innovation we’re all striving towards. They weren’t kidding. The book gave me language for dynamics I’d been managing by intuition, especially during my time with the Shadow Warriors, and showed me how…
A recent Red Hat post about “specification-driven development” caught my interest. I’ve tried bolting AI onto my personal development practices. It doesn’t look like whispering an idea into an LLM then compiling the response… I can’t give the LLM my brain and have it replace all my work beyond the idea. 
 I have had success when providing a description of the end…
Based on this recipe . 
 Meat: get a full brisket, a packer brisket, with both point and flat. 
 Seasoning: 1/4 Tbsp per pound salt, 1/4 Tbsp per pound black pepper, 1/8 Tbsp per pound garlic powder. 
 Starting smoker temp: 225℉ 
 Desired end temp: 203℉ 
 Start the smoker. Trim up the brisket so there’s about 1/4 inch of fat, max, on surfaces. Maybe cut the brisket in…
This is a rub that I commonly use for pulled pork and ribs, but it’s good on poultry too. 
 Original recipe: Meathead’s Memphis Dust 
 Ingredients: 
 
 3/4 cup brown sugar 
 3/4 cup white sugar 
 1/2 cup paprika (smoked, I prefer, but any) 
 1/4 cup garlic powder 
 2 Tbsp black pepper 
 2 Tbsp ground ginger powder 
 2 Tbsp onion powder (I usually…
Based on this recipe . 
 Salt: .5 tsp per pound 
 Rub: About 1/2 cup per 5 pounds Meathead’s Memphis Dust 
 Starting smoker temp: 225℉ 
 Desired end temp: 203℉ 
 Start the smoker. Salt and rub into a shaker, shake it onto every exposed surface of the butt. Put the butt in the smoker and let it go for a long time. Check it at least 12 hours before you want to eat, you may…
Based on this recipe 
 Meat: two approx. 2.5 lbs filets of of salmon (totalling 5 lbs), skin off. 
 Brine: 1 quart cool water, 1/3 cup sea salt, 1 cup brown sugar 
 Baste: maple syrup 
 Starting smoker temp: 120℉ 
 Desired end temp: 130-140℉ 
 The night before, slice each filet into thirds, and distribute between two ziploc bags of brine (half the brine in each bag). Place…
11.19 lbs pork butt from the commissary, $2.02 per pound. I’ll use 2.75 Tbsp salt and 1.25 cups Memphis dust. Smoking it at 225℉ until it hits about 203℉. 
 6 Nov, 2310: meat is on the smoker. 
 7 Nov, 1330: meat is at 170℉. I’m turning the smoker up to 275℉. 
 1750: 201℉ - I’ll take it off soon. 
 1810: 203℉, perfect! 
 Pork butt was fantastic. Perhaps a…
I remember finding Clapton at the animal shelter near the San Antonio zoo. He was pacing around his small area, it looked like he had a lot of energy. I was looking for a dog who would be, in part, a running buddy. I took a couple dogs out for a walk that first day, but out of all of them Clapton struck me as “the one”. 
 I came back the following two days and took different dogs…
16 lbs brisket from the Commissary, $4.55 per lb, 4 Tbsp salt, 4 Tbsp pepper, 2 Tbsp garlic powder. 
 17 Oct, 1025: brisket is on at 225℉. 
 18 Oct, 0800: brisket is to about 188℉. 
 1000: brisket is to about 188℉ still. 
 1145: still about 188℉, and I’d rather leave the smoker at 225℉ still, so I wrapped both. 
 1330: now it’s at 185℉!? I turned the temperature up…
Working through a course on “International Security Studies”, I got absorbed in some reading about methods of analyzing international relations. I dove into a rabbit hole and am now able to put my own beliefs and worldview on this into concrete terms.
I haven’t made ribs since 2018, apparently. Let’s do ribs again! And a pork butt later. I have been wanting ribs for a while, but haven’t done em. The wife isn’t a fan of ribs. And - last time I did them it didn’t go so great . But I have learned from that time. This time I only bought one package of ribs from Costco, 3 racks. St Louis style, 11.41 lbs, $2.89 per…
Turkey Day! 
 22 lbs turkey (that’s crazy). I spatchcocked it then took out the breastbone so it’s fully split in half. I brined each half in a gallon of water with a cup of salt and 3/4 cup brown sugar. 
 My herb butter was very roughly inspired by this site . My cooking plan was inspired by this site . 
 27 Nov 1930 - turkey is in the brine. I struggled to get this to…
16 lbs brisket, 4 tbsp salt, 4 tbsp pepper, 2 tbsp garlic powder. 
 15 Nov 2200 - started the brisket at 225℉. 
 16 Nov 1220 - brisket is at about 180℉, turned it up to 260℉. 
 1220 - fish is drying after brining overnight. 
 1520 - brisket point is done at 208℉ (oops) so I took it off. Flat is only at 192℉, so I upped the temp to 275℉.
I’m annoyed by Google’s Analytics. It works great, but it’s heavy and overkill for my needs. Not to mention that it’s very privacy-intrusive. It’s not like I don’t give Google all my data already, but perhaps you don’t make that same choice, and you shouldn’t be forced into it simply by visiting my website. 
 I’ve been looking for a…
“Disruption” is commonly thought of as a bad thing… 
 
 Disruption: disturbance or problems which interrupt an event, activity or process. 
 
 But to teams that yearn for change to their status-quo, like many in the 90th, disruptive innovation can be welcome. 
 
 Disruption: radical change to an existing industry or market due to technological innovation.…