William M. Briggs

Two items over the past week revealed many who are pretty sure the End is Nigh. The Doomsday Clock clicked forward, and certain AI celebrities were caught wringing their hands.…

You'll do yourself, and the world, a tremendous service when every time you see or hear "AI" you substitute "computer model". This is because "AI", so-called artificial intelligence, is a…

There is nothing magical or mystical about simulations, and "randomness" has nothing to do with any of them. Let's remove the unrealistic thinking from simulations by understanding them for what…

This is on the philosophy (not mechanics) of the predictive limitations of so-called artificial intelligence models. AI is no different than other models in principle, being only statements which connect…

From time to time people come across what seems like paradoxes which invalidate probability (as logic). These are excellent devices to sharpen thought, but they all suffer from one of…

Two ladies, both involved in legal academia, have written an astonishing paper in the Journal of Criminology. They insist lawyers for the defense should be called "guilt deniers", and that…

The true test will be a television commercial that contains, and only contains, a happy white family. Say a family with a (seeming) husband and wife finding pleasure, humorous or…

From a recent issue of NEJM, "The Pediatrician’s Lament", with Abstract, "With U.S. politics threatening to erase the gains of science, reduce access to vaccines, and undermine their vast public…