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- Lessons from a Young Department HeadN.B. You might want to grab a libation before reading. This is a long post. What does a young researcher do when he is suddenly thrust into leading a top-tier computer science department? He learns to fix problems before others see them, outwit university bureaucracy, make decisions that can change people’s lives, and protect the… Read more: Lessons from a Young Department Head
- Who’s Doing Your Thinking (and Writing)?N.B. This essay is about three interrelated topics: (a) the art and soul of human writing, (b) the ethics of intellectual delegation via AI, and (c) the mechanistic reality of intelligence. Many years ago, I sat in a university cabinet meeting as we debated some forgotten, but seemingly momentous issue. At some point during the… Read more: Who’s Doing Your Thinking (and Writing)?
- The AI Whispered Your Name …You have probably been the unwitting protagonist in the following social horror movie. A stranger approaches you and begins chatting animatedly, like an old acquaintance or confidant. Meanwhile, you nod vaguely, half-listening while seized by internal panic. You frantically attempt to triangulate a face, name and a context. It is a study in cognitive dissonance,… Read more: The AI Whispered Your Name …
- HPC In An AI WorldWe need a moonshot that rebuilds our core computing infrastructure based on 21st century ideas, not just variants of those from the past century. It will not be for timid, the nostalgic, or the underfunded. Bold ideas and new approaches never are.
- Geek Versus ChicFor much of my time at Microsoft, I wore two hats. As head of the eXtreme Computing Group (XCG), I oversaw research and advanced technology prototyping. Simultaneously, I also headed the Technology Strategy and Policy Group (TSPG), navigating the interplay between business and global regulation. This duality kept me in a state of near-constant motion.… Read more: Geek Versus Chic
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I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned. — Richard Feynman
Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic. — Carl Sagan
I am often asked, ‘What made you become a scientist?’ But I can’t stand far enough away from myself to give a really satisfactory answer, for I cannot distinctly remember a time when I did not think that a scientist was the most exciting possible thing to be.” — Peter Medawar