I still ain?t buying it.
.
I recent /Science News/ article discussed using tensors to simply, >re-organize, and replace current AI models ><https://www.sciencenews.org/article/quantum-tensor-network-ai-model-reli= >ef>.
This apparently increases speed and reduces energy requirements. This
may or may not be related to the stuff I snipped.
"A penny's worth of better algorithm is worth a million dollars
worth of better hardware."
-- gus baird
On Sat, 14 Feb 2026 12:19:59 -0500 (EST), Scott Dorsey wrote:
"A penny's worth of better algorithm is worth a million dollars
worth of better hardware."
-- gus baird
Was that back when programmers were being paid pennies to program
computers worth millions of dollars?
Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?= <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
On Sat, 14 Feb 2026 12:19:59 -0500 (EST), Scott Dorsey wrote:
"A penny's worth of better algorithm is worth a million dollars
worth of better hardware."
-- gus baird
Was that back when programmers were being paid pennies to program
computers worth millions of dollars?
Yes, as opposed today when programmers are paid pennies to write
programs run on millions of computers each worth only a few dollars.
On Sun, 15 Feb 2026 08:11:51 -0500 (EST), kludge@panix.com (Scott
Dorsey) wrote:
Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?= <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
On Sat, 14 Feb 2026 12:19:59 -0500 (EST), Scott Dorsey wrote:
"A penny's worth of better algorithm is worth a million dollars
worth of better hardware."
-- gus baird
Was that back when programmers were being paid pennies to program
computers worth millions of dollars?
Yes, as opposed today when programmers are paid pennies to write
programs run on millions of computers each worth only a few dollars.
Then shouldn't the "penny" be adjusted for inflation?
Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
I recent /Science News/ article discussed using tensors to simply,
re-organize, and replace current AI models
<https://www.sciencenews.org/article/quantum-tensor-network-ai-model-reli= >> ef>.
This apparently increases speed and reduces energy requirements. This
may or may not be related to the stuff I snipped.
"A penny's worth of better algorithm is worth a million dollars worth of
better hardware."
-- gus baird
?The speed with which AI is evolving is startling?
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-speed-with-which- ai-is-evolving-is.html
?I?m obliged to the anonymous reader who sent me the link to Matt
Shumer?s latest blog article about the current state of artificial intelligence (AI).˙ It?s a remarkable article ? so much so that I can?t begin to cover all its points in a short post like this.˙ Here?s a small sample to whet your appetite.?
"For years, AI had been improving steadily. Big jumps here and there,
but each big jump was spaced out enough that you could absorb them as
they came. Then in 2025, new techniques for building these models
unlocked a much faster pace of progress. And then it got even faster.
And then faster again. Each new model wasn?t just better than the last?
it was better by a wider margin, and the time between new model releases
was shorter."
˙˙˙˙˙ https://shumer.dev/something-big-is-happening
˙˙˙ . . .
"I?ve always been early to adopt AI tools. But the last few months have shocked me. These new AI models aren?t incremental improvements. This is
a different thing entirely."
I still ain?t buying it.
Lynn
On 2/15/26 08:55, Paul S Person wrote:
On Sun, 15 Feb 2026 08:11:51 -0500 (EST), kludge@panix.com (Scott
Dorsey) wrote:
Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=˙ <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
On Sat, 14 Feb 2026 12:19:59 -0500 (EST), Scott Dorsey wrote:
"A penny's worth of better algorithm is worth a million dollars
˙ worth of better hardware."
˙˙˙˙˙ -- gus baird
Was that back when programmers were being paid pennies to program
computers worth millions of dollars?
Yes, as opposed today when programmers are paid pennies to write
programs run on millions of computers each worth only a few dollars.
Then shouldn't the "penny" be adjusted for inflation?
˙˙˙˙Yes but the US Penny is being eliminated due to cost. Last I read
was about
˙˙˙ 4.6 cents to make each penny.˙ And it is now mostly zinc so not a copper's worth.
On 2/13/26 15:30, Lynn McGuire wrote:
?The speed with which AI is evolving is startling?
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-speed-with-which-
ai-is-evolving-is.html
?I?m obliged to the anonymous reader who sent me the link to Matt
Shumer?s latest blog article about the current state of artificial
intelligence (AI).˙ It?s a remarkable article ? so much so that I
can?t begin to cover all its points in a short post like this.˙ Here?s
a small sample to whet your appetite.?
"For years, AI had been improving steadily. Big jumps here and there,
but each big jump was spaced out enough that you could absorb them as
they came. Then in 2025, new techniques for building these models
unlocked a much faster pace of progress. And then it got even faster.
And then faster again. Each new model wasn?t just better than the
last? it was better by a wider margin, and the time between new model
releases was shorter."
˙˙˙˙˙˙ https://shumer.dev/something-big-is-happening
˙˙˙˙ . . .
"I?ve always been early to adopt AI tools. But the last few months
have shocked me. These new AI models aren?t incremental improvements.
This is a different thing entirely."
I still ain?t buying it.
Lynn
˙˙˙˙It is still Large language Models trained on the internet which is
no place
to expect the truth.˙ Unless humans turn out to be meat merely trained
to use
Large Language Models then it ain't Intelligence of any sort.
˙˙˙˙Now there are sensory advances for our robotic overlords to be:
˙˙˙˙A new sort of eye.
˙˙˙˙<https://techxplore.com/news/2026-02-insect-bionic-eye-robots.html>
˙˙˙˙I am all for sensory advances for robots and for AI.
˙˙˙˙But digital dependency is impacting the food supply:
<https://phys.org/news/2026-02-humans-machines-truckloads-food- stranded.html>
˙˙˙˙These were found along with a lot of real science in the Saturday Overnight
News digest which is dedicated to the sciences and technology. <https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/14/2368796/-Overnight-News- Digest-February-14-2026>
˙˙˙˙If you like science then you might take a glance.
˙˙˙˙bliss
On 2/15/26 08:55, Paul S Person wrote:wrote:
On Sun, 15 Feb 2026 08:11:51 -0500 (EST), kludge@panix.com (Scott
Dorsey) wrote:
Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?= <ldo@nz.invalid>
aboutOn Sat, 14 Feb 2026 12:19:59 -0500 (EST), Scott Dorsey wrote:
"A penny's worth of better algorithm is worth a million dollars
worth of better hardware."
-- gus baird
Was that back when programmers were being paid pennies to program
computers worth millions of dollars?
Yes, as opposed today when programmers are paid pennies to write
programs run on millions of computers each worth only a few dollars.
Then shouldn't the "penny" be adjusted for inflation?
Yes but the US Penny is being eliminated due to cost. Last I read was
4.6 cents to make each penny. And it is now mostly zinc so not a
copper's worth.
I doubt that but then I started with the C=64 which was about $200are, I
dollars plus a floppy disk drive at about $210. The floppy was good to
store about 161 kilobytes
and a programmer really had use assembler to get anything done. We got
the first
boot block viruses and had anti-virus programs. Some publishers of
programs got
infected. Modernised C=64s with extra memory and maybe accelerators
believe, net-capable. Some compatible drives may be available. Butpeople
they still so many
years later have active programmers doing demonstration that other
enjoy. The manual was misprinted and it contained several code
sequences to be
used that simply did not work but it was still the most popular single >computer
model ever produced.
I still remember reading an article in (IIRC) BYTE pointing out that
cost of a then-current small computer had dropped to the price of a
common new car -- $5000.
Cars, of course, common or not, have gone up since then. Computers,
which specs nobody even dreamed of back then, have dropped. A lot.
On 2/15/26 08:55, Paul S Person wrote:
On Sun, 15 Feb 2026 08:11:51 -0500 (EST), kludge@panix.com (Scott
Dorsey) wrote:
Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=˙ <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
On Sat, 14 Feb 2026 12:19:59 -0500 (EST), Scott Dorsey wrote:
"A penny's worth of better algorithm is worth a million dollars
˙ worth of better hardware."
˙˙˙˙˙ -- gus baird
Was that back when programmers were being paid pennies to program
computers worth millions of dollars?
Yes, as opposed today when programmers are paid pennies to write
programs run on millions of computers each worth only a few dollars.
Then shouldn't the "penny" be adjusted for inflation?
˙˙˙˙Yes but the US Penny is being eliminated due to cost. Last I read
was about
˙˙˙ 4.6 cents to make each penny.˙ And it is now mostly zinc so not a copper's worth.
Should it cost less than 10 cents to make a dime? Less than a dollar
to make a dollar bill?
On Wed, 18 Feb 2026 16:19:46 -0500, Tony Nance wrote:
Should it cost less than 10 cents to make a dime? Less than a dollar
to make a dollar bill?
One would hope so. Otherwise the companies making the currency end up
being richer than the entire countries that are paying them to make
that currency.
Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?= <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
On Wed, 18 Feb 2026 16:19:46 -0500, Tony Nance wrote:
Should it cost less than 10 cents to make a dime? Less than a dollar
to make a dollar bill?
One would hope so. Otherwise the companies making the currency end up
being richer than the entire countries that are paying them to make
that currency.
That's what happened in Zimbabwe.
--scott
Ryk Spoor, (aka Sea Wasp) used to be a regular here. He still posts
on FB and his blog. Yesterday he posted an entry of interest on this
topic
Another AI Post -- on Assumptions and the Future https://seawasp.dreamwidth.org/642712.html
Its worth a look.
On 2/18/26 16:05, Scott Dorsey wrote:
Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?= <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
On Wed, 18 Feb 2026 16:19:46 -0500, Tony Nance wrote:
Should it cost less than 10 cents to make a dime? Less than a dollar
to make a dollar bill?
One would hope so. Otherwise the companies making the currency end up
being richer than the entire countries that are paying them to make
that currency.
That's what happened in Zimbabwe.
--scott
Once Rome slipped away from the copper standard it began its decline.
Should have hired it out to the US Mint. We used to print some other
nations currency...
I believe France still prints (and somewhat manages) the currency of
a number of its former colonies.
On 2/18/26 16:05, Scott Dorsey wrote:
Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=˙ <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
On Wed, 18 Feb 2026 16:19:46 -0500, Tony Nance wrote:
Should it cost less than 10 cents to make a dime? Less than a dollar
to make a dollar bill?
One would hope so. Otherwise the companies making the currency end up
being richer than the entire countries that are paying them to make
that currency.
That's what happened in Zimbabwe.
--scott
˙˙˙˙Once Rome slipped away from the copper standard it began its decline.
˙˙˙˙Should have hired it out to the US Mint.˙ We used to print some other nations currency...
I'm pretty sure the German Bundesdruckerei prints the banknotes for
any number of countries, although neither it nor the central banks
concerned seem eager to publish details.
On Thu, 19 Feb 2026 19:56:14 -0000 (UTC), Christian Weisgerber wrote:
I'm pretty sure the German Bundesdruckerei prints the banknotes for
any number of countries, although neither it nor the central banks
concerned seem eager to publish details.
I wonder how a business like that gets new customers ...
The <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Theresa_thaler> is produced
by the Austrian mint (among others) and is used in a lot more places
than I thought before reading that article, apparently always dated
1780. Yet both Maria Theresa and the Holy Roman Empire have been gone
for quite some time.
On Thu, 19 Feb 2026 19:56:14 -0000 (UTC), Christian Weisgerber wrote:
I'm pretty sure the German Bundesdruckerei prints the banknotes for
any number of countries, although neither it nor the central banks
concerned seem eager to publish details.
I wonder how a business like that gets new customers ...
On Sun, 15 Feb 2026 08:11:51 -0500 (EST), kludge@panix.com (Scott
Dorsey) wrote:
Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?= <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
On Sat, 14 Feb 2026 12:19:59 -0500 (EST), Scott Dorsey wrote:
"A penny's worth of better algorithm is worth a million dollars
worth of better hardware."
-- gus baird
Was that back when programmers were being paid pennies to program
computers worth millions of dollars?
Yes, as opposed today when programmers are paid pennies to write
programs run on millions of computers each worth only a few dollars.
Then shouldn't the "penny" be adjusted for inflation?
On 2/15/26 08:55, Paul S Person wrote:
On Sun, 15 Feb 2026 08:11:51 -0500 (EST), kludge@panix.com (Scott
Dorsey) wrote:
Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?=˙ <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
On Sat, 14 Feb 2026 12:19:59 -0500 (EST), Scott Dorsey wrote:
"A penny's worth of better algorithm is worth a million dollars
˙ worth of better hardware."
˙˙˙˙˙ -- gus baird
Was that back when programmers were being paid pennies to program
computers worth millions of dollars?
Yes, as opposed today when programmers are paid pennies to write
programs run on millions of computers each worth only a few dollars.
Then shouldn't the "penny" be adjusted for inflation?
˙˙˙˙Yes but the US Penny is being eliminated due to cost. Last I read
was about
˙˙˙ 4.6 cents to make each penny.˙ And it is now mostly zinc so not a copper's worth.
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