Could the crisis in modern science be a result of fallacious probabilistic thinking? Mathematical researcher and writer Aubrey Clayton joins the Local Maximum to discuss his book Bernoulli’s Fallacy: Statistical Illogic and the Crisis of Modern Science. Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe
We are joined by Software Engineer, Data Scientist, and Author Joel Grus for a discussion that ranges from the latest NLP techniques to thoughts on how to think about complexity costs. Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe
Max talks about the multi-armed bandit - an important concept in the Data Science world. The news of the day is Microsoft's plan to integrate generative text (from open AI) into it's Bing search engine, and whether Google can turn around from negative news stories and compete with this. Probability Distribution of the Week: Dirichlet Distribution localmaxradio.com/265 Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
Max talks to Adam Kovacevich, the Founder and CEO of Chamber of Progress in DC, to talk about several issues that have caught to attention of policymakers. We discuss the concerns of the rise of Tik Tok as a potential arm of the Chinese government, and whether similar concerns about domestic services are warranted. Chamber of Progress: https://progresschamber.org/ Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
Aaron talks to Max about his new pamphlet entitled "Relative Probability on Finite Outcome Spaces". arXiv Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.14555 Probability Distribution of the Week: The Normal Distribution Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe
Max describes category theory as a branch of mathematics, and asks whether it will become more important in the age of AI. We then discuss the issues of the day: - looks at John Stossel's Video on how governments responded to Covid, and where their decisions stand three years later - Google's Recent Moves in Response to ChatGPT as well as layoffs Probability Distribution of the Week: Beta Distribution Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
As Generative AI has captured the imagination, Max thinks about it from many different angles. How does it actually work under the hood? What does it mean for media creators, investors, and job seekers? And what does it mean for humans and their comparative advantage with respect to this new technology? All the big questions of our time! Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
Max and Aaron start off the New Year with a predictions show for the short, medium, and long term outlook for technical advances. Today's episode focuses on generative AI and self driving cars. Probability Distribution of the Week: Continuous Uniform Distribution Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe
Max looks back at the previous New Year's episode, and was surprised by how right he was on the changes we saw in our channels of information online this year. He reviews the news of the year, particularly the innovations in AI that have come to the forefront, and comments on Clay Shirky's Twitter rant. Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe
Max interviews SportsVisio CEO Jason Syversen about how artificial intelligence can be applied to sports video, including automated highlights, scoring, and refereeing. Jason also shares details about his startup's innovative product for basketball. Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe
Gene Epstein, founder of the Soho Forum monthly debate series, comes on The Local Maximum to discuss and critique Max's recent debate performance on Democracy vs Monarchy. - Also: Max's 9 Things I learned from the Debate, Gene's debate with Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times. localmaxradio.com/257 Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
Max talks about the breakage in both the crypto industry and the social media landscape in 2022, and the long term ways of thinking about it. Probability Distribution of the Week: Non-Homogeneous Poisson localmaxradio.com/256 Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe
Max and Aaron discuss the launch of the chatGPT product demo taking the internet by storm and the potential applications of this technology. The title of this episode doesn't make sense 100% - but it was generated by chatGPT when asked for an amusing title. Probability distribution of the week: Poisson Distribution Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
Max talks about the developments surrounding Amazon's Alexa, where it's been revealed that layoffs are coming and the initiative has been costing an eye-popping 10 Billion per year. Max believes there is a future for these devices, and discusses where that might be. Max also adds some details that he missed from the discussion on hurricane Sandy, and his experience in a Tesla self-driving car. Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
Max talks to guests Helen and Dave Edwards about the human side of decision making, and how we can use research in behavioral and cognitive science to practice better decision making. Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe
Max recalls to Aaron his experiences in New York in 2012, and the hurricane (Superstorm Sandy / Frankenstorm) that cut power in Manhattan for days during Halloween and devastated the coastal areas. Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe
Max defends representative democracy in an October 26th public debate for the Live Free and Debate series in New Hampshire. The resolution was "Monarchy is better than representative democracy" with Alu Axelman arguing in the affirmative and Max arguing in the negative. It's a long one, but it was a good time with expanded perspectives all around! Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
As the keys to Twitter get turned over to Elon Musk, Max talks about how the development of the open internet is proceeding. He traces back to previous predictions about the upcoming fallout from short-sighted content politics of the previous social media management, and how the dream of a decentralized communication network is progressing. localmaxradio.com/250 Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
Max and Aaron dive deeper into the sleeping beauty problem, which starts as a probability question, then wades into philosophy and finally theoretical cosmology. They take a listener email on the MLB playoff rules, and the distribution of the week is the Zeta distribution. localmaxradio.com/249 Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
Today's guest is Foursquare Principal Engineer and Unfolded Founder Isaac Brodsky, talking about the mission of location visualization and how this was achieved by tiling the world with Hexagons using the H3 open source framework and Foursquare's Hex Tiles. We learn a lot about the geometry of the globe! localmaxradio.com/248 Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
Headlining today is Elon Musk's re-takeover of Twitter, after seemingly backing out earlier. Updates from the war in Ukraine. Paypal says it will fine you $2500 if you say certain forbidden things - but then quickly backtrack. Biden's administration aspires for new "AI" regulations - and finally - Ziph's Law is the distribution of the week! Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
Today's Guest is AJ Jacobs, author of The Puzzler: One Max's Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life. Max and AJ talk about what he's learned about puzzles on the way, the benefits and strategies of problem solving, and finally wade into the sleeping beauty problem probability controversy. Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
Max starts with a brief news update on ethereum, and then moves to the Kolmogorov axioms of probability. What is an axiom system anyway - and why would someone want to change it? Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe
Phyl Terry - a pioneer in customer experience for decades - talks to Max about how he has applied these principles to crack the job search (and even revolutionize it!) in the new book "Never Search Alone". Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe
Todays guest is CEO and co-founder of Conexus, the first spinoff of the MIT math department that takes discoveries in high level mathematics (category theory) and applies them to make databases intelligent across many industries. Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe
This week's news update starts with a discussion of an AI project that won an art competition, followed by Cloudflare's decision to block access to one of its clients. The probability distribution of the week is the roll of a pair of dice, and we down a deep philosophical rabbit hole that leads to the multiverse. Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe...
Today's guest is Žiga Fajfar, a tech entrepreneur who is focusing on scaling Flowout, who talks to Max about the "no-code" trend in building software. Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe
Max looks at what's next in the Cryptocosm following the recently declared "winter". He covers the complicated Ethereum merge as well as the government crackdown on tornado cash and what that means for privacy. Distribution of the week: Multinomial Distribution Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe
Over the weekend, listeners and friends gathered in Rollinsford New Hampshire to discuss technology, ideas, and predictions. We ended up getting on stage and running a free-for-all panel where participants and Max discuss the issues of the day Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe
Ok, maybe only when it's in other countries - but we'll look at that dichotomy. Also - we talk about the entertainment industry and the recently shelved Batgirl project. Probability distribution of the Week: Binomial Distribution Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe
