Michael Will

@scidata
8 Followers
19 Following
39 Posts

FORTH PROLOG GOFAI RISC-V Spaceflight Astronomy
Zebrafish Sci-Fi CitizenScience History Anthropology Psychohistory

(time to fill in some activity after being Mastodon-dormant for a year)

Websitehttps://scidata.ca
Discussionhttps://worthdefending.blogspot.com
GOFAI Forumhttps://gofai.discourse.group
LocationToronto
Show threadMichael WillMar 7
@timbray OpenText's WebLingo was the greatest single label they ever came up with. I hope they trademarked it. They came oh so close to AI just before the turn of the century. I tried to push Livelink in that direction, but alas.
Michael WillMar 7
Tim BrayMar 7
“Recently I read Because Internet by Gretchen McCulloch and Algospeak by Adam Aleksic. The language we speak (and text) to each other is at the core of who and what we are, and the Internet is the strongest among the forces that channel and fertilize its growth. So there’s scope for plenty of books on the subject. Both books educated and entertained, one made me angry.” https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2026/03/05/Because-Algospeak
Show threadMichael WillFeb 25
@tiffanycli Those clock times will eventually become the most meaningful, rewarding, proudest, and happiest of your life. I'd give a lot to hear our baby at 4:15am again.
Michael WillFeb 15

A purely abstract representation of the #LEGO philosophy has been available as a programming language since 1970. It's called #FORTH.

#SeriousPlay #Psychology #ComputationalThinking

Michael WillFeb 12

RIP Robert Tinney, who fired the imagination of the personal computing world.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/02/byte-magazine-artist-robert-tinney-who-illustrated-the-birth-of-pcs-dies-at-78/

#GOFAI #ComputationalThinking

Byte magazine artist Robert Tinney, who illustrated the birth of PCs, dies at 78

He became one of the first to visualize personal computing by painting vivid cover art.

Ars Technica
Show threadMichael WillJan 6
@timbray
My major projects are written in FORTH. And for very solid reasons.
Show threadMichael WillDec 12
@timbray
We should get used to this line:
"Stop complaining; AI can replace you."
Show threadMichael WillDec 10
@timbray
Haunting, sort of like Tuld's line at the climax of MARGIN CALL about the 'music' slowing to a halt:
I'm standing here tonight, and I don't. hear. a. thing.
(paraphrased from memory)
Michael WillDec 9
Show threadTim BrayDec 9
2/2 “I was going to post a link to Paul Krugman’s “Talking With Paul Kedrosky”. It’s great, but while I was reading it I thought “This is going to be Greek to people who haven’t been watching the bubble details.” So consider this a preface to the Krugman-Kedrosky piece. If you already know about the GPU-fragility and SPV-voodoo issues, just skip this and go read that. https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/talking-with-paul-kedrosky
Talking With Paul Kedrosky

So, about this AI thing ...

Paul Krugman
Michael WillNov 28

Jeff Hawkins, inventor of the PalmPilot (tm), once carried a small wooden block around in his pocket. It helped him to imagine how he'd use a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) in daily life. I do the same today, only I use my old Palm III PDA to imagine how I'd use a pocket Intelligence Amplifier.

"One thing a person cannot do, no matter how rigorous his analysis or heroic his imagination, is to draw up a list of things that would never occur to him"
-Thomas Schelling

#ComputationalThinking