tim Plato is an unexpected architect of progressive thought, but his name has come up as the bad guy in some conservative circles lately. This is partly because at the heart of Plato’s political philosophy lies the concept of the philosopher-king, a notion that resonates with progressive governance and control. The philosopher-king concept fundamentally assumes that … Read more
Our gate is the most important motor in our home. It’s critical for security, and if it’s open, the dog escapes. As all our kids cars go in and out, it’s always the gate opening and closing. It matters. The problem is that we have to open it and we don’t always have our phones … Read more
In today’s educational landscape, the concept of tolerance has become a foundational aspect of many school policies and curricula, aimed at fostering environments where all students can flourish regardless of their background. The intent is commendable, as it seeks to promote respect and understanding among students of various cultural, ethnic, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds. However, … Read more
Before ChatGPT, human looking robotics defined AI in the public imagination. That might be true again in the near future. With AI models online, it’s awesome to have AI automate our writing and art, but we still have to wash the dishes and chop the firewood. That may change soon. AI is finding bodies fast … Read more
The Growing Power Needs for Large Language Models In 2024, AI is awesome, empowering and available to everyone. Unfortunately, while AI is free to consumers, these models are expensive to train and operate at scale. Training them is expected to be the most expensive thing ever. Yes, more than the Manhattan project, pyramids and the … Read more
I lead autonomy at Boeing. What exactly do I do? We engineers have kidnapped a word that doesn’t belong to us. Autonomy is not a tech word, it’s the ability to act independently. It’s freedom that we design in and give to machines. It’s also a bit more. Autonomy is the ability to make decisions … Read more
Article views are my own and not coordinated with my employer, Boeing, the National Academies, DARPA or the US Air Force. Aerospace and Defense work is super technical, rewarding and meaningful. But it’s more than that. Everyone in this industry deeply cares about protecting the people who fly and fight in these planes. You feel … Read more
I’m going dive into the theory of laser alignment, show the math and the jigs I built to put that math into practice. This post is for someone who wants the “why” behind a lot of the online material on laser cutters. If you just want some practical tips on how to better align your … Read more
Note: these results are still new and will need to be replicated and further studied by the scientific community. This whole thing may be nonsense, but I did some thinking on the impact if it’s true. Researchers from Korea University have synthesized a superconductor that works at ambient pressure and mild oven-like temperatures (like 260 … Read more
If you are like us, you get too many mice and keyboards lying around. With 5 or six devices, and an equal number of receivers you can just plug stuff in to find what matches. That assumes the peripherals are working and haven’t been lost. Can we interrogate the usb receivers and discover their associated … Read more