In the mid-nineteenth century, a new industry emerged, based on the refining of petroleum. The human use of petroleum is ancient, and may (for all we know) date well into pre-history. In the form found most often in nature, as thick pools of bituminous tar, this sticky, potentially flammable substance found use as a caulk,…
As large language AI models are voracious consumers of data and also ease software creation, we now find that computation is abundant and data is the relatively scarce resource.
I often think about ancient civilizations. I’m sure you do too. I cogitate and ruminate on all the people who lived, loved, and died, and I’m saddened by the fact that we no longer remember their names. In many cases, we aren’t even aware that their civilizations existed (I base this on the fact we…