Links for 2022-03-11
'Fingerprint' Machine Learning Technique Identifies Different Bacteria in Seconds https://news.kaist.ac.kr/newsen/html/news/?mode=V&mng_no=19210
FastFold: Reducing AlphaFold Training Time from 11 Days to 67 Hours https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.00854
“We present AI as the mathematician’s "pocket calculator of the 21st century", and how it can be used to derive top-tier mathematical results in areas as diverse as representation theory and knot theory.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZBNdGMG1rQ
What we know about machine learning's replication crisis. A summary of the literature on machine learning replicability/reproducibility. https://youneskamel.substack.com/p/what-we-know-about-machine-learnings?s=w
Time crystals are mysterious configurations of particles that are perpetually switching and quantum computers can now be used to examine them https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/observing-time-crystals
Attackers exploit fundamental flaw in the web’s security to steal $2 million in cryptocurrency https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2022/03/09/attackers-exploit-fundamental-flaw-in-the-webs-security-to-steal-2-million-in-cryptocurrency/
In Sri Lanka, Organic Farming Went Catastrophically Wrong https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/05/sri-lanka-organic-farming-crisis/
“UVB-76, also known by the nickname "The Buzzer", is a shortwave radio station that broadcasts on the frequency of 4625 kHz. It broadcasts a short, monotonous audio speaker iconbuzz tone, repeating at a rate of approximately 25 tones per minute, 24 hours per day. Sometimes, the buzzer signal is interrupted and a voice transmission in Russian takes place. The start date of broadcasting is disputed. However, it was allegedly reported to have started broadcasting in the late 1970s, possibly 1976.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UVB-76
Graphcore plans a 10 exaflop supercomputer https://www.graphcore.ai/posts/graphcore-announces-roadmap-to-ultra-intelligence-ai-supercomputer
Metaculus Alerts is a Twitter bot that alerts you when a Metaculus prediction on the Ukraine war has changed drastically in a short time. https://twitter.com/MetaculusAlert
South Korea elects an anti-feminist conservative candidate who vowed to take a hawkish line toward North Korea. https://www.dw.com/en/south-korea-conservative-candidate-wins-presidential-election/a-61060084
There exists a subculture among the political right that is in favor of military isolationism. They proclaim that when the war comes to where they live, they will defend their homeland. But they will stay home and are not going anywhere else to fight.
“I’m staying at home and when the war comes to Arkansas, I will dig my boots in the ground and I will die for everything I love and I will not retreat.”
― UFC fighter Bryce Mitchell
I understand the sentiment. I'm also too much of a coward to go and fight abroad. The freedom I enjoy is due to other people -- in my case American soldiers -- who are were willing to fight far from their homeland to prevent evils such as communism from taking over the world.
Non-interventionism simply isn't a viable option if you don't enjoy the protection of other countries like Germany does. Take, for example, China. 500 years ago, China destroyed its world-dominating navy and thereby ceded world domination to Western colonial powers. Why does half of the world population speak Indo-European languages rather than Mandarin? This is it.
Or take the US navy. It was created because pirates captured American merchant ships. Had the American Congress been of the opinion that the use of a country's military should be restricted to the defense of its homeland then the United States would not be a world power today. Some interventionist forces like Nazism or communism would have taken over the world and eventually consumed America as well.
To see how this idea of restricting your focus on the place you live cannot possibly work let's take this idea to its logical conclusion by considering aliens. Yes, aliens!
Would it be a viable strategy for humanity to restrict its sphere of influence to the solar system and watch grabby aliens take over the Laniakea Supercluster? Obviously not. You cannot defend one solar system against an intergalactic civilization. Even if they are relatively incompetent and their forces have low morals, we would succumb to their superior numbers.
There is no choice but to try to project your power and shape the world according to your values. Otherwise, someone else will shape the world in their image. And you might not be a part of this image.
P.S. Yes, interventionism is a source of the very problem it tries to ameliorate. But we have no choice because if one party defects from peaceful coexistence and starts building doomsday weapons we have no choice but to intervene.
And regarding aliens, the question is of probabilistic nature. It's not about knowing whether such aliens exist but the possibility that they might exist. Once we detect them it is too late to build up. We have to start our colonization wave before their detection.