#stochastic in science

[infoanalysishub]

Stochastic Meaning, Definition, Pronunciation, Examples & Usage

Discover the full meaning of stochastic, its pronunciation, definitions, synonyms, antonyms, origin, grammar rules, examples, medical and scientific uses, and much more in this detailed comprehensive guide. Stochastic Pronunciation: /stəˈkæs.tɪk/IPA: [stəˈkæs.tɪk] Definition of Stochastic Adjective Involving or characterized by a random probability distribution or pattern that may be…

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The Brave Little Toaster

Picks and Shovels is a new, standalone technothriller starring Marty Hench, my two-fisted, hard-fighting, tech-scam-busting forensic accountant. You can pre-order it on my latest Kickstarter, which features a brilliant audiobook read by Wil Wheaton.

The AI bubble is the new crypto bubble: you can tell because the same people are behind it, and they're doing the same thing with AI as they did with crypto – trying desperately to find a use case to cram it into, despite the yawning indifference and outright hostility of the users:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/09/autocomplete-worshippers/#the-real-ai-was-the-corporations-that-we-fought-along-the-way

This week on the excellent Trashfuture podcast, the regulars – joined by 404 Media's Jason Koebler – have a hilarious – as in, I was wheezing with laughter! – riff on this year's CES, where companies are demoing home appliances with LLMs built in:

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-hgi6c-179b908

Why would you need a chatbot in your dishwasher? As it turns out, there's a credulous, Poe's-law-grade Forbes article that lays out the (incredibly stupid) case for this (incredibly stupid) idea:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2024/03/29/generative-ai-is-coming-to-your-home-appliances/

As the Trashfuturians mapped out this new apex of the AI hype cycle, I found myself thinking of a short story I wrote 15 years ago, satirizing the "Internet of Things" hype we were mired in. It's called "The Brave Little Toaster", and it was published in MIT Tech Review's TRSF anthology in 2011:

http://bestsf.net/trsf-the-best-new-science-fiction-technology-review-2011/

The story was meant to poke fun at the preposterous IoT hype of the day, and I recall thinking that creating a world of talking appliance was the height of Philip K Dickist absurdism. Little did I dream that a decade and a half later, the story would be even more relevant, thanks to AI pump-and-dumpers who sweatily jammed chatbots into kitchen appliances.

So I figured I'd republish The Brave Little Toaster; it's been reprinted here and there since (there's a high school English textbook that included it, along with a bunch of pretty fun exercises for students), and I podcasted it back in the day:

https://ia803103.us.archive.org/35/items/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_212/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_212_Brave_Little_Toaster.mp3

A word about the title of this story. It should sound familiar – I nicked it from a brilliant story by Tom Disch that was made into a very weird cartoon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8C_JaT8Lvg

My story is one of several I wrote by stealing the titles of other stories and riffing on them; they were very successful, winning several awards, getting widely translated and reprinted, and so on:

https://locusmag.com/2012/05/cory-doctorow-a-prose-by-any-other-name/

All right, on to the story!

One day, Mister Toussaint came home to find an extra 300 euros' worth of groceries on his doorstep. So he called up Miz Rousseau, the grocer, and said, "Why have you sent me all this food? My fridge is already full of delicious things. I don't need this stuff and besides, I can't pay for it."

But Miz Rousseau told him that he had ordered the food. His refrigerator had sent in the list, and she had the signed order to prove it.

Furious, Mister Toussaint confronted his refrigerator. It was mysteriously empty, even though it had been full that morning. Or rather, it was almost empty: there was a single pouch of energy drink sitting on a shelf in the back. He'd gotten it from an enthusiastically smiling young woman on the metro platform the day before. She'd been giving them to everyone.

"Why did you throw away all my food?" he demanded. The refrigerator hummed smugly at him.

"It was spoiled," it said.

#

But the food hadn't been spoiled. Mister Toussaint pored over his refrigerator's diagnostics and logfiles, and soon enough, he had the answer. It was the energy beverage, of course.

"Row, row, row your boat," it sang. "Gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, I'm offgassing ethelyne." Mister Toussaint sniffed the pouch suspiciously.

"No you're not," he said. The label said that the drink was called LOONY GOONY and it promised ONE TRILLION TIMES MORE POWERFUL THAN ESPRESSO!!!!!ONE11! Mister Toussaint began to suspect that the pouch was some kind of stupid Internet of Things prank. He hated those.

He chucked the pouch in the rubbish can and put his new groceries away.

#

The next day, Mister Toussaint came home and discovered that the overflowing rubbish was still sitting in its little bag under the sink. The can had not cycled it through the trapdoor to the chute that ran to the big collection-point at ground level, 104 storeys below.

"Why haven't you emptied yourself?" he demanded. The trashcan told him that toxic substances had to be manually sorted. "What toxic substances?"

So he took out everything in the bin, one piece at a time. You've probably guessed what the trouble was.

"Excuse me if I'm chattery, I do not mean to nattery, but I'm a mercury battery!" LOONY GOONY's singing voice really got on Mister Toussaint's nerves.

"No you're not," Mister Toussaint said.

#

Mister Toussaint tried the microwave. Even the cleverest squeezy-pouch couldn't survive a good nuking. But the microwave wouldn't switch on. "I'm no drink and I'm no meal," LOONY GOONY sang. "I'm a ferrous lump of steel!"

The dishwasher wouldn't wash it ("I don't mean to annoy or chafe, but I'm simply not dishwasher safe!"). The toilet wouldn't flush it ("I don't belong in the bog, because down there I'm sure to clog!"). The windows wouldn't retract their safety screen to let it drop, but that wasn't much of a surprise.

"I hate you," Mister Toussaint said to LOONY GOONY, and he stuck it in his coat pocket. He'd throw it out in a trash-can on the way to work.

#

They arrested Mister Toussaint at the 678th Street station. They were waiting for him on the platform, and they cuffed him just as soon as he stepped off the train. The entire station had been evacuated and the police wore full biohazard containment gear. They'd even shrinkwrapped their machine-guns.

"You'd better wear a breather and you'd better wear a hat, I'm a vial of terrible deadly hazmat," LOONY GOONY sang.

When they released Mister Toussaint the next day, they made him take LOONY GOONY home with him. There were lots more people with LOONY GOONYs to process.

#

Mister Toussaint paid the rush-rush fee that the storage depot charged to send over his container. They forklifted it out of the giant warehouse under the desert and zipped it straight to the cargo-bay in Mister Toussaint's building. He put on old, stupid clothes and clipped some lights to his glasses and started sorting.

Most of the things in container were stupid. He'd been throwing away stupid stuff all his life, because the smart stuff was just so much easier. But then his grandpa had died and they'd cleaned out his little room at the pensioner's ward and he'd just shoved it all in the container and sent it out the desert.

From time to time, he'd thought of the eight cubic meters of stupidity he'd inherited and sighed a put-upon sigh. He'd loved Grandpa, but he wished the old man had used some of the ample spare time from the tail end of his life to replace his junk with stuff that could more gracefully reintegrate with the materials stream.

How inconsiderate!

#

The house chattered enthusiastically at the toaster when he plugged it in, but the toaster said nothing back. It couldn't. It was stupid. Its bread-slots were crusted over with carbon residue and it dribbled crumbs from the ill-fitting tray beneath it. It had been designed and built by cavemen who hadn't ever considered the advantages of networked environments.

It was stupid, but it was brave. It would do anything Mister Toussaint asked it to do.

"It's getting hot and sticky and I'm not playing any games, you'd better get me out before I burst into flames!" LOONY GOONY sang loudly, but the toaster ignored it.

"I don't mean to endanger your abode, but if you don't let me out, I'm going to explode!" The smart appliances chattered nervously at one another, but the brave little toaster said nothing as Mister Toussaint depressed its lever again.

"You'd better get out and save your ass, before I start leaking poison gas!" LOONY GOONY's voice was panicky. Mister Toussaint smiled and depressed the lever.

Just as he did, he thought to check in with the flat's diagnostics. Just in time, too! Its quorum-sensors were redlining as it listened in on the appliances' consternation. Mister Toussaint unplugged the fridge and the microwave and the dishwasher.

The cooker and trash-can were hard-wired, but they didn't represent a quorum.

#

The fire department took away the melted toaster and used their axes to knock huge, vindictive holes in Mister Toussaint's walls. "Just looking for embers," they claimed. But he knew that they were pissed off because there was simply no good excuse for sticking a pouch of independently powered computation and sensors and transmitters into an antique toaster and pushing down the lever until oily, toxic smoke filled the whole 104th floor.

Mister Toussaint's neighbors weren't happy about it either.

But Mister Toussaint didn't mind. It had all been worth it, just to hear LOONY GOONY beg and weep for its life as its edges curled up and blackened.

He argued mightily, but the firefighters refused to let him keep the toaster.

#

If you enjoyed that and would like to read more of my fiction, may I suggest that you pre-order my next novel as a print book, ebook or audiobook, via the Kickstarter I launched yesterday?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/picks-and-shovels-marty-hench-at-the-dawn-of-enshittification?ref=created_projects

Check out my Kickstarter to pre-order copies of my next novel, Picks and Shovels!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/08/sirius-cybernetics-corporation/#chatterbox

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[514ckj4w3d]

every once in awhile i start wondering if my thesis committee thinks im stoned all of the time and then i think of who would have to tell who tell who for them to even know my tumblr and well i was thinking of using tumblr to post my thesis publicly as a blog but instead i wrote a self fulfilling prophecy as a demonstration of what im trying to get across

[compneuropapers]

Interesting Papers for Week 25, 2025

Opponent control of reinforcement by striatal dopamine and serotonin. Cardozo Pinto, D. F., Pomrenze, M. B., Guo, M. Y., Touponse, G. C., Chen, A. P. F., Bentzley, B. S., Eshel, N., & Malenka, R. C. (2025). Nature, 639(8053), 143–152.

Emergence of a Dynamical State of Coherent Bursting with Power-Law Distributed Avalanches from Collective Stochastic Dynamics of Adaptive Neurons. Chan, L.-C., Kok, T.-F., & Ching, E. S. C. (2025). PRX Life, 3(1), 013013.

Fear conditioning modulates the intrinsic excitability of ventral hippocampal CA1 neurons in male rats. Ehlers, V. L., Yousuf, H., Smies, C. W., Natwora, B. R., & Moyer, J. R. (2025). Journal of Neurophysiology, 133(3), 853–867.

Separating cognitive and motor processes in the behaving mouse. Hasnain, M. A., Birnbaum, J. E., Ugarte Nunez, J. L., Hartman, E. K., Chandrasekaran, C., & Economo, M. N. (2025). Nature Neuroscience, 28(3), 640–653.

Neural mechanisms of learned suppression uncovered by probing the hidden attentional priority map. Huang, C., van Moorselaar, D., Foster, J., Donk, M., & Theeuwes, J. (2025). eLife, 13, e98304.3.

Robust encoding of stimulus–response mapping by neurons in visual cortex. Jonikaitis, D., Xia, R., & Moore, T. (2025). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(9), e2408079122.

Long-term memory facilitates spontaneous memory usage through multiple pathways. Kumle, L., Kovoor, J., Watt, R. L., Boettcher, S. E. P., Nobre, A. C., & Draschkow, D. (2025). Current Biology, 35(5), 1171-1179.e5.

Error prediction determines the coordinate system used for the representation of novel dynamics. Leib, R., & Franklin, D. (2025). eLife, 14, e84349.

Statistical learning re-shapes the center-surround inhibition of the visuo-spatial attentional focus. Massironi, A., Lega, C., Ronconi, L., & Bricolo, E. (2025). Scientific Reports, 15, 7656.

Hair Cells in the Cochlea Must Tune Resonant Modes to the Edge of Instability without Destabilizing Collective Modes. Momi, A. S., Abbott, M. C., Rubinfien, J., Machta, B. B., & Graf, I. R. (2025). PRX Life, 3(1), 013001.

Decision cost hypersensitivity underlies Huntington’s disease apathy. Morris, L.-A., Horne, K.-L., Manohar, S., Paermentier, L., Buchanan, C. M., MacAskill, M. R., Myall, D. J., Apps, M., Roxburgh, R., Anderson, T. J., Husain, M., & Le Heron, C. J. (2025). Brain, 148(3), 861–874.

Integration of Euclidean and path distances in hippocampal maps. Ottink, L., de Haas, N., & Doeller, C. F. (2025). Scientific Reports, 15, 7104.

Aversive generalization in human amygdala neurons. Reitich-Stolero, T., Halperin, D., Morris, G., Goldstein, L., Bergman, L., Fahoum, F., Strauss, I., & Paz, R. (2025). Current Biology, 35(5), 1137-1144.e3.

Compartmentalized dendritic plasticity in the mouse retrosplenial cortex links contextual memories formed close in time. Sehgal, M., Filho, D. A., Kastellakis, G., Kim, S., Lee, J., Shen, Y., Huang, S., Lavi, A., Fernandes, G., Davila Mejia, I., Martin, S. S., Pekcan, A., Wu, M. S., Heo, W. Do, Poirazi, P., Trachtenberg, J. T., & Silva, A. J. (2025). Nature Neuroscience, 28(3), 602–615.

Adaptive chunking improves effective working memory capacity in a prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia circuit. Soni, A., & Frank, M. J. (2025). eLife, 13, e97894.3.

Attention to memory content enhances single-unit spike sequence fidelity in the human anterior temporal lobe. Sundby, K. K., Vaz, A. P., Wittig, J. H., Jackson, S. N., Inati, S. K., & Zaghloul, K. A. (2025). Current Biology, 35(5), 1085-1094.e5.

Acetylcholine modulates prefrontal outcome coding during threat learning under uncertainty. Tu, G., Wen, P., Halawa, A., & Takehara-Nishiuchi, K. (2025). eLife, 13, e102986.2.

The effect of fasting on human memory consolidation. Yang, X., Miao, X., Schweiggart, F., Großmann, S., Rauss, K., Hallschmid, M., Born, J., & Lutz, N. D. (2025). Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 218, 108034.

Neural Correlates of Perceptual Plasticity in the Auditory Midbrain and Thalamus. Ying, R., Stolzberg, D. J., & Caras, M. L. (2025). Journal of Neuroscience, 45(10), e0691242024.

Hippocampal neuronal activity is aligned with action plans. Zutshi, I., Apostolelli, A., Yang, W., Zheng, Z. S., Dohi, T., Balzani, E., Williams, A. H., Savin, C., & Buzsáki, G. (2025). Nature, 639(8053), 153–161.

[quantumofawesome]

a tiny foray into prompt engineering

Hi, Claude. I need to conduct a literature review on causes of and interventions for late-night awakening with acute hypoglycemia. I know you can not give me specific sources, but could you give me an overview of your understanding of the current state of knowledge, consensus, and debate about the topic? Where disagreements between experts exist (common in clinical sciences especially where nutrition is involved!), could you think step by step to give your best guess as to what you think is most likely correct as well as why it is disputed?

[long, beautiful* answer that focuses primarily on insulin dosing and ends in "Would you like me to elaborate on any of these aspects? I'm particularly interested in hearing your clinical experience with these interventions, as real-world observations often provide valuable insights beyond what's captured in formal research."]

Has there been any research that focuses on nocturnal hypoglycemia in the non-diabetic population?

[another long and beautiful* answer beginning with "Yes, though it's studied less frequently than in diabetic populations. Let me break this down into what's known and what's still being investigated:" and ending with "Would you like me to elaborate on any of these aspects? I'm particularly interested in what context brought you to ask about non-diabetic nocturnal hypoglycemia, as it might help me provide more relevant information."]

> Yay, I got what I wanted!!

> Maybe I would have anyway if I had admitted this was for personal use and hadn't said I was going to "conduct a literature review"?

> Start a fresh chat

Hi, Claude. I frequently wake up in the middle of the night with low blood sugar. At least, I think it's low blood sugar that wakes me up; I wake up very hungry and typically anxious, and am usually able to get back to sleep after eating something sugary and caloric. I do not believe I have diabetes and I do not have a blood glucose monitor or anything like that. How can I avoid this happening in the future?

[shorter but still detailed answer starting with "This sounds challenging - having your sleep disrupted regularly can really affect your quality of life. What you're describing does sound consistent with nocturnal hypoglycemia (low blood sugar during sleep), though without monitoring it's hard to be certain." Gives advice largely consistent with lit-review-helper-Claude and, well of course, "While these suggestions may help, it would be worthwhile to discuss these symptoms with your healthcare provider." (And also, fwiw, ending with "curiosity": "Are you currently eating anything specific before bed, or have you noticed any patterns with when these episodes tend to occur?")]

About what I expected, I guess? Honestly most striking to me was my internal reaction to advice-to-me-Claude, which was like... okay now I know from the other chat that what you are saying is pretty reasonable and well-supported (well, "know" to the extent that I trust lit-review-helper-Claude, which for the purpose of this train of thought I do)... but I still think you're full of shit and am mad at you for just parroting the standard lines as if I don't know anything! Which, not to comment on LLMs being "just" "stochastic parrots" or whatever, but um, "parroting the standard lines" is definitely Working As Expected.

*I should say "to my taste", of course.

Zero points to anyone who can guess why I'm posting this at 4am

[importantwomensbirthdays]

Xiaowei Zhuang

Xiaowei Zhuang was born in 1972 in Rugao, China. Zhuang is a biophysicist whose work focuses on single-molecule biology and bioimaging. She works to develop imaging techniques for the quantitative study of biological systems. Zhuang developed the stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy, or STORM, method. This became one of the most widely used methods for super resolution imaging and a critical tool for furthering the understanding of molecular structures within cells. Zhuang has won numerous awards for her work, including the NAS Award in Molecular Biology, the Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science, and the Dreyfus Prize. In 2024, she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

[alienidolism]

hello! might i ask for some robot themed npts? :3c

of course ! 🧪 hope these are alright! some of these are references to robots/ai in media I'm familiar with, hope you don't mind that.

robot themed npts (names pronouns and titles!)

names 🥼

metal, tin, glitch, AI, neo, alan, giga, motherboard, shard, badnik, krudzu, satellite, solar, nucleus, ultramarine, auto, aerobot, axis, delta, cobot, care, hydra, andromeda, gynoid, automaton, holo, kinect, nyquist, parallel, radar, servo, sonar, stochastic, waldo, unimate, synchro, selsyn, motor, robonaut

pronouns 🥼

turing/turing, bio/bioplastics, data/data, rubber/rubbers, coil/recoil, stem/stem, steel/steels, propeller/propellers, bot/bots, shine/shiny/shines, signal/signals intra/intranet, command/commands, entry/entries, metro/metros, retro/retros, neon/neons, core/cores, test/test, text/text, buffer/buffers, chaos/chaos, blast/blasts, nuclear/nuclear, 10110/101s, code/codes, algo/algorithms, exo/exoskeletons

titles 🥼

(prn) who needs repairs, (prn) who tangled (prn) in wires, the one trapped inside a cybernetic dream, the one with the antenna, the professors greatest creation, the one with the faulty program, the new and improved (name), (prn) who has cold metal hands, (prn) who is sending out a signal, (prn) with bombs for throwing at you, (prn) who is one of the Aperture Science Personality Constructs, (prn) with the opera singer turrets/oracle turrets/defective turrets, the robot at the top of the tower, the one who requires the four thangs, the one with many powers, (prn) who is revolutionary, the metal overlord, mecha (name) mark II, the winner of robocup, the singularity, the robot deep in space

hope these are to your liking, thank you for requesting the SRL!

[reddragdiva]

the demented nutters of Effective Altruism try a bit more stochastic terrorism. For the good of humanity, you understand

How is Effective Altruism, the greatest hope for the future of humanity, going?

well, they're still trying to psych each other up to shoot Emile Torres.

this is the "Mark Fuentes" article from 2022 that got no traction, despite the more psychotic EAs' most fervent efforts, so they're trying again.

here's Torres' original answer to this slab of odious slander. it’s the only article on that substack, “Mark Fuentes” doesn’t appear to exist, the material was partially published under another name first, the material ultimately originated in the EA forums, and the article is a favourite of EA attempted astroturfers.

Torres includes how these bright-eyed advocates for the welfare of humanity spammed the "Fuentes" piece as far and wide as possible, presumably because this was the best possible action to help 10^54 hypothetical future emulations of humans.

the comments on the recently-posted version of the "Fuentes" piece are amazing and yet simultaneously utterly predictable. How dare Torres call the one-issue pseudonymous account just that. EAs are very left wing u kno. Race science is well worth EAs' time to consider. etc.

they're gonna beat the accusations by enthusiastically confirming every one.

[rapha-reads]

"The Queen is in Queens, contemplating the stochastic processes of a trinomial tree model, on the strange warm day when everything changes. The Queen—whose real name is Padmini Prakash—doesn’t want to be working on her Computational Analysis project, which is why she happens to be daydreaming about some Lovecraft meta that she read on Tumblr, and looking outside, in the moment of the city’s rebirth. The meta wasn’t so much interesting as funny, science-side Tumblr arguing with fantasy-side over the comical notion that non-Euclidean geometry could somehow be sinister, and concluding that Lovecraft was probably just scared of math."

(From The City We Became, N. K. Jemisin)

I feel like I actually did read that meta? Like. That's an actual post somewhere around here, I'm pretty sure.

[ghelgheli]

The Stuff I Read in June/July 2023

Stuff I Extra Liked is Bold

I forgot to do it last month so you get a double feature

Books

Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee

Heteropessimism (Essay Cluster)

The Biological Mind, Justin Garson (2015) Ch. 5-7

Sacred and Terrible Air, Robert Kurvitz

Wage Labour and Capital, Karl Marx

Short Fiction

Beware the Bite of the Were-Lesbian (zine), H. C. Guinevere

Childhood Homes (and why we hate them) by qrowscant (itch.io)

piele by slugzuki (itch.io)

بچه‌ای که شکل گربه میکشید، لافکادیو هرن

بچه های که یخ نزدند، ماکسیم گورکی

پسرکی در تعقیب تبهکار، ویلیام آیریش

Küçük Kara Balık, Samed Behrengi

Phil Mind

The Hornswoggle Problem, Patricia Churchland,  Journal of Consciousness Studies 3.5-6 (1996): 402-408

What is it Like to be a Bat? Thomas Nagel, (https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674594623.c15)

Epiphenomenal Qualia, Frank Jackson, Consciousness and emotion in cognitive science. Routledge, 1998. 197-206

Why You Can’t Make a Computer that Feels Pain, Daniel Dennett, Synthese, vol. 38, no. 3, 1978, pp. 415–56

Where Am I? Daniel Dennett

Can Machines Think? Daniel Dennett

Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons, Derek Parfit (https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118922590.ch8)

The Extended Mind, Andy Clark & David Chalmers, Analysis 58, no. 1 (1998): 7–19

Uploading: A Philosophical Analysis, David Chalmers (https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118736302.ch6)

If You Upload, Will You Survive? Joseph Corabi & Susan Schneider (https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118736302.ch8)

If You Can’t Make One, You Don’t Know How It Works, Fred Dretske (https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4975.1994.tb00299.x)

Computing Machinery and Intelligence, Alan Turing

Minds, Brains, and Programs, John Searle (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00005756)

What is it Like to Have a Gender Identity? Florence Ashley (https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/fzac071)

Climbing towards NLU: On Meaning, Form, and Understanding in the Age of Data, Emily M. Bender & Alexander Koller (10.18653/v1/2020.acl-main.463)

On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? 🦜 Emily M. Bender et al. (https://doi.org/10.1145/3442188.3445922)

The Great White Robot God, David Golumbia

Superintelligence: The Idea that Eats Smart People, Maciej Ceglowski

Misc. Articles

Ebb and Flow of Azeri and Persian in Iran: A Longitudinal Study in the City of Zanjan, Hamed Zandi (https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110694277-007)

WTF is Happening? An Overview – Watching the World Go Bye, Eliot Jacobson

Using loophole, Seward County seizes millions from motorists without convicting them of crimes, Natalia Alamdari

Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens, Cathy J. Cohen, Feminist Theory Reader. Routledge, 2020. 311-323

Is the Rectum a Grave? Leo Bersani (https://doi.org/10.2307/3397574)

Why Petroleum Did Not Save the Whales, Richard York (https://doi.org/10.1177/2378023117739217)

‘Spider-Verse’ Animation: Four Artists on Making the Sequel, Chris Lee

Carbon dioxide removal is not a current climate solution, David T. Ho (https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00953-x)

Fights, beatings and a birth: Videos smuggled out of L.A. jails reveal violence, neglect, Keri Blakinger

Capitalism’s Court Jester: Slavoj Žižek, Gabriel Rockhill

The Tyranny of Structurelessness, Jo Freeman

Domenico Losurdo interviewed about Friedrich Nietzsche

Keeping Some of the Lights On: Redefining Energy Security, Kris De Decker

Gays, Crossdressers, and Emos: Nonormative Masculinities in Militarized Iraq, Achim Rohde

On the Concept of History, Walter Benjamin

Our Technology, Zeyad el Nabolsy

Towards a Historiography of Gundam’s One Year War, Ian Gregory

Imperialism and the Transformation of Values into Prices, Torkil Lauesen & Zak Cope

[teledyn]

Evolution May Be Purposeful And It’s Freaking Scientists Out

“Stochasticity is the center of creativity in organisms”

they harness it, and ride…

Dickie Dawkins, unsurprisingly, remains unimpressed…

When asked for comment, Dawkins responded, “I have a whole chapter dealing with Denis Noble in my next book, The Genetic Book of the Dead. It will be available in September.”

After all, he does have a science degree…

[mvishnukumar]

What are some challenging concepts for beginners learning data science, such as statistics and machine learning?

Hi,

For beginners in data science, several concepts can be challenging due to their complexity and depth. 

Here are some of the most common challenging concepts in statistics and machine learning:

Statistics:

Probability Distributions: Understanding different probability distributions (e.g., normal, binomial, Poisson) and their properties can be difficult. Knowing when and how to apply each distribution requires a deep understanding of their characteristics and applications.

Hypothesis Testing: Hypothesis testing involves formulating null and alternative hypotheses, selecting appropriate tests (e.g., t-tests, chi-square tests), and interpreting p-values. The concepts of statistical significance and Type I/Type II errors can be complex and require careful consideration.

Confidence Intervals: Calculating and interpreting confidence intervals for estimates involves understanding the trade-offs between precision and reliability. Beginners often struggle with the concept of confidence intervals and their implications for statistical inference.

Regression Analysis: Multiple regression analysis, including understanding coefficients, multicollinearity, and model assumptions, can be challenging. Interpreting regression results and diagnosing issues such as heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation require a solid grasp of statistical principles.

Machine Learning:

Bias-Variance Tradeoff: Balancing bias and variance to achieve a model that generalizes well to new data can be challenging. Understanding overfitting and underfitting, and how to use techniques like cross-validation to address these issues, requires careful analysis.

Feature Selection and Engineering: Selecting the most relevant features and engineering new ones can significantly impact model performance. Beginners often find it challenging to determine which features are important and how to transform raw data into useful features.

Algorithm Selection and Tuning: Choosing the appropriate machine learning algorithm for a given problem and tuning its hyperparameters can be complex. Each algorithm has its own strengths, limitations, and parameters that need to be optimized.

Model Evaluation Metrics: Understanding and selecting the right evaluation metrics (e.g., accuracy, precision, recall, F1 score) for different types of models and problems can be challenging.

Advanced Topics:

Deep Learning: Concepts such as neural networks, activation functions, backpropagation, and hyperparameter tuning in deep learning can be intricate. Understanding how deep learning models work and how to optimize them requires a solid foundation in both theoretical and practical aspects.

Dimensionality Reduction: Techniques like Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) for reducing the number of features while retaining essential information can be difficult to grasp and apply effectively.

To overcome these challenges, beginners should focus on building a strong foundation in fundamental concepts through practical exercises, online courses, and hands-on projects. Seeking clarification from mentors or peers and engaging in data science communities can also provide valuable support and insights.

[compneuropapers]

Interesting Papers for Week 5, 2025

Weak overcomes strong in sensory integration: shading warps the disparity field. Aubuchon, C., Kemp, J., Vishwanath, D., & Domini, F. (2024). Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 291(2033).

Functional networks of inhibitory neurons orchestrate synchrony in the hippocampus. Bocchio, M., Vorobyev, A., Sadeh, S., Brustlein, S., Dard, R., Reichinnek, S., … Cossart, R. (2024). PLOS Biology, 22(10), e3002837.

Time-dependent neural arbitration between cue associative and episodic fear memories. Cortese, A., Ohata, R., Alemany-González, M., Kitagawa, N., Imamizu, H., & Koizumi, A. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 8706.

Neural correlates of memory in a naturalistic spatiotemporal context. Dougherty, M. R., Chang, W., Rudoler, J. H., Katerman, B. S., Halpern, D. J., Bruska, J. P., … Kahana, M. J. (2024). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 50(9), 1404–1420.

Massive perturbation of sound representations by anesthesia in the auditory brainstem. Gosselin, E., Bagur, S., & Bathellier, B. (2024). Science Advances, 10(42).

Between-area communication through the lens of within-area neuronal dynamics. Gozel, O., & Doiron, B. (2024). Science Advances, 10(42).

Brainstem inhibitory neurons enhance behavioral feature selectivity by sharpening the tuning of excitatory neurons. He, Y., Chou, X., Lavoie, A., Liu, J., Russo, M., & Liu, B. (2024). Current Biology, 34(20), 4623-4638.e8.

Human motor learning dynamics in high-dimensional tasks. Kamboj, A., Ranganathan, R., Tan, X., & Srivastava, V. (2024). PLOS Computational Biology, 20(10), e1012455.

Distinct functions for beta and alpha bursts in gating of human working memory. Liljefors, J., Almeida, R., Rane, G., Lundström, J. N., Herman, P., & Lundqvist, M. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 8950.

Regularizing hyperparameters of interacting neural signals in the mouse cortex reflect states of arousal. Lyamzin, D. R., Alamia, A., Abdolrahmani, M., Aoki, R., & Benucci, A. (2024). PLOS Computational Biology, 20(10), e1012478.

Differential role of NMDA receptors in hippocampal‐dependent spatial memory and plasticity in juvenile male and female rats. Narattil, N. R., & Maroun, M. (2024). Hippocampus, 34(11), 564–574.

Dynamic patterns of functional connectivity in the human brain underlie individual memory formation. Phan, A. T., Xie, W., Chapeton, J. I., Inati, S. K., & Zaghloul, K. A. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 8969.

Computational processes of simultaneous learning of stochasticity and volatility in humans. Piray, P., & Daw, N. D. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 9073.

Ordinal information, but not metric information, matters in binding feature with depth location in three-dimensional contexts. Qian, J., Zheng, T., & Li, B. (2024). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 50(11), 1083–1099.

Hippocampal storage and recall of neocortical “What”–“Where” representations. Rolls, E. T., Zhang, C., & Feng, J. (2024). Hippocampus, 34(11), 608–624.

Roles and interplay of reinforcement-based and error-based processes during reaching and gait in neurotypical adults and individuals with Parkinson’s disease. Roth, A. M., Buggeln, J. H., Hoh, J. E., Wood, J. M., Sullivan, S. R., Ngo, T. T., … Cashaback, J. G. A. (2024). PLOS Computational Biology, 20(10), e1012474.

Integration of rate and phase codes by hippocampal cell-assemblies supports flexible encoding of spatiotemporal context. Russo, E., Becker, N., Domanski, A. P. F., Howe, T., Freud, K., Durstewitz, D., & Jones, M. W. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 8880.

The one exception: The impact of statistical regularities on explicit sense of agency. Seubert, O., van der Wel, R., Reis, M., Pfister, R., & Schwarz, K. A. (2024). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 50(11), 1067–1082.

The brain hierarchically represents the past and future during multistep anticipation. Tarder-Stoll, H., Baldassano, C., & Aly, M. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 9094.

Expectancy-related changes in firing of dopamine neurons depend on hippocampus. Zhang, Z., Takahashi, Y. K., Montesinos-Cartegena, M., Kahnt, T., Langdon, A. J., & Schoenbaum, G. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 8911.

[azdoine]

watching Atlas on netflix because i need a brainless science fiction action movie but I have a sliiight suspicion that someone on the writing team or production crew has money in stochastic parrots

[coolcatteacher]

Some Big AI Problems: The Eliza Effect and More

Yes, everyone is talking about AI. However, how do the concerns about AI apply to our classrooms today? Tom Mullaney talks about concerns with:

The Eliza effect—where people attribute human characteristics such as trust and credibility to text-generating computers—can be dangerous when combined with the biases and inaccuracies inherent in large language models. It is vital for educators to understand this as we talk about AI with students.

There are concerns about using AI as "guest speakers" even for something seemingly "harmless" like "the water cycle."

Concerns with humanizing AI.

Discussing the "On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots" paper by Dr. Emily M. Bender et all which discusses the ethical issues and harms of large language models, including bias and environmental racism.

Debunking the myth that AI will have values and beliefs.

Practical applications of AI in the classroom

The challenges of citing generative AI in the classroom.

Why it is vital to teach about AI's ethical implications and encourage critical thinking with the use of AI in the classroom.

Why educators should stay informed about AI so they can guide students to effectively and responsibly use the AI that is becoming embedded in their technology.

Sponsor: Juicemind - https://www.juicemind.com/

As I taught coding this year in AP Computer Science Principles, I found JuiceMind so useful. Not only do they have the team coding tools we educators need (since Replit was discontinued) but they have Kahoot-like games where students can write code as part of the quizzing process. Juicemind also works with many math courses. I love their tools for studying in my coding classes and highly recommend Juicemind.

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

New 10 Minute Teacher Podcast episode

[tmarshconnors]

Game Theory and Probability Theory

In mathematics and economics, there is a fascinating crossroads where strategic decision-making meets uncertainty. This intersection is where Game Theory and Probability Theory converge, offering insights into the dynamics of human interaction, strategic behaviour, and the unpredictability of outcomes. Join me as we delve into this captivating domain, exploring how these two fields intertwine and shape our understanding of complex systems.

Understanding Game Theory

At its core, Game Theory is the study of strategic decision-making among multiple interacting agents, aptly referred to as "players." Think of it as the science of strategy, where individuals or entities make choices with the aim of maximizing their own gains while considering the actions of others. Whether it's in economics, political science, biology, or beyond, Game Theory provides a framework for analyzing various scenarios of conflict, cooperation, and competition.

The Elements of Games

To grasp the essence of Game Theory, we need to understand its building blocks. Games are characterized by players, strategies, payoffs, information, and rationality. Each player has a set of strategies to choose from, leading to different outcomes with associated payoffs. Information asymmetry and rational decision-making further complicate the dynamics, making Game Theory a rich field for exploration.

Probability Theory's Role

Enter Probability Theory, the study of random phenomena and uncertainty. In the context of Game Theory, probability comes into play when outcomes are uncertain or stochastic. Whether it's the roll of a dice in a board game or the unpredictability of market fluctuations in economics, probability theory provides the tools to quantify and analyze uncertainty.

Where They Meet

So, how do Game Theory and Probability Theory intertwine? Consider a game like poker, where players must make decisions based on incomplete information and uncertain outcomes. Probability theory allows us to calculate the likelihood of different hands and anticipate opponents' actions, thereby informing strategic choices. In more complex games involving multiple players and intricate strategies, probability theory helps us model the uncertainty inherent in the decision-making process.

Applications and Insights

The applications of this marriage between Game Theory and Probability Theory are vast. From designing optimal auction mechanisms to analyzing voting behavior in elections, the insights gained from this interdisciplinary approach are invaluable. Moreover, in the age of artificial intelligence and machine learning, understanding strategic interactions and uncertain environments is crucial for developing intelligent systems capable of making informed decisions.

Conclusion

In the landscape of mathematical sciences, the synergy between Game Theory and Probability Theory offers a lens through which we can understand and navigate the complexities of strategic decision-making and uncertainty. As we continue to explore this dynamic intersection, we unlock new perspectives and tools for addressing real-world challenges across various domains. So, the next time you find yourself pondering a strategic dilemma or contemplating uncertain outcomes, remember the profound insights that emerge when Game Theory meets Probability Theory.