Edition #1137

Tuesday. And that is all I have to say about that.

“Falling in love is the one illogical adventure, the one thing of which we are tempted to think as supernatural, in our trite and reasonable world.” Robert Louis Stevenson, quoted in The Marginalian.

Not surprising, but a growing number of college students, as well as students not in college, are using AI to cheat in school. Recently, a professor of economics at Brown University suspected that the test papers that were handed in were mostly an AI product. This guy, probably being an honest guy and expecting that his students would respect that trust and act accordingly, told them that all exams would be take-home. He should have been a bit suspicious when his usual class enrollment went from thirty to almost ninety. And then, to the surprise of no one except the professor, the average grade on that exam was ninety-six, with students showing an amazing grasp of welfare economics and social choice theory (don’t ask me). As a result, the professor announced that the final would be in-person and would account for eighty percent of their grades. And the results of the final showed a record low average score, as you can imagine, of less than fifty percent. While AI, with all of the risks of letting this technology out in full, can allow us to do incredible things, humans are what they are…what we are. This scenario cannot be surprising to anyone.

For those of you who were awaiting the New Horizons probe to wake up, it did. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, it still woke up. But to bring all of you into the fold, New Horizons was a probe that was launched in 2006 and was the first, and so far only, probe to do a flyby of Pluto and its locales. But also intended to travel way beyond that former planet and explore the outer solar system, the boundary between the influence of our system and interstellar space, this little puppy continues to impress. But because in the vastness of space there are long stretches where little activity is needed, New Horizons was designed to go into hibernation at times. And so, last August, it did just that. Still collecting data, but not communicating with Earth, aside from the occasional signal that all is good. And now, some six billion miles from us, it has awakened and begun to transmit some of the data that the last nine months have offered. I know what some of you are thinking. V-Ger, or Voyagers I and II, have already surpassed this distance, so what is the point? Here is the point. Voyager was not intended to go where they did. They were merely built so robustly that they had a lot more life in them than their mission called for, so they were sent to boldly go where no probe had gone before. Which is amazing in so many ways, but also somewhat ineffectual since they did not have the sensors and instruments that a probe designed from the start for that mission would have. New Horizons does. So a wealth of information on what happens at “terminal shock,” that boundary between our system and what is beyond. Will it impact your life? No. But knowing more about all of this gives us a better understanding of how all of this works, which is worth the effort and cost. And…it is cool.

Here is an idea that seems both really cool and stupid. Some company wants to send up mirrors to reflect light onto the nightside of Earth. At first they want to send one such mirror up as a test, but then many, many more. The utility would be to be able to provide solar energy by redirecting sunlight onto solar panels at night, as well as lighting up urban areas for safety considerations, as well as help in rescue operations. The test mirror would launch folded up but extend to sixty feet wide, and illuminate a three-mile-wide swath of the planet. The test mission was approved by the FCC (and why this is a communications issue is beyond me), but the ultimate goal is fifty thousand even larger mirrors. Now, the solar energy component does sound intriguing to me, but probably a bit impractical. However, astronomers and wildlife experts are completely aghast. The proliferation of satellites is already affecting the ability of astronomers to do their work, and perpetually illuminated areas would throw off the migration, mating, and circadian rhythms of many species, including us. Plants and animals would be affected. But it seems that the test flight will be happening soon regardless. And I am actually curious as to how well it can work for selected applications. I mean, why not, right? What could go wrong?

We barely knew ‘ya. Well, we did actually know you, you massive particle collider, you. Discoverer of the Higgs Boson and other theorized elementary particles, this expensive machine took ten years to build and operated for about eighteen years before being switched off this year. But as would be expected, it is now going to be transformed into the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider. And not just a mere name change. This already impressive machine will now undergo a four-year renovation that will reconfigure many of its components and boost its power, at least its luminosity, by a factor of ten. At this level of power combined with its new configuration, we should be able to learn much more of the makeup of our world, breaking down elementary particles even further. Of course, as there were worries when the LHC first started up that it would create a black hole that would tear up our planet (if only), I am sure there are those out there who are predicting doom with this as well. But in 2028, if they stay on schedule, the HiLumi LHC will begin to be switched on, a process that will take about two years. And in 2030 we should see the first results. Maybe we will have a space mirror that we can shine on it by then? No, no, no. Never combine Nuggets.

Again, I look around the world and see much of the same as in recent glances. The Middle East is still, well, the Middle East. Our politics are from a dystopian vision, with the recent shakeups of the Grahams, Platner and Lindsey, to the midterms merely adding a sideshow to the circus. But I have to cut this short today, as I guess I was a bit busy. So you all just stay healthy and be good to each other.

Me.