Kenneth Silber

New Jersey

Writer and Editor at Freelance

Contributor at Splice Today

Writer, editor, fact-checker. Author In DeWitt's Footsteps. Contributor @splicetoday2022. https://t.co/Hq1rlDnuJ1

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Articles

Travails of Former Superpowers

4 days ago | splicetoday.com | Kenneth Silber

Thenews comes fast and furious, such that even chatbots have difficulty keeping up. I asked Gemini to comment on the Ukrainian drone strike against Russia’s bomber force, and the answer came in Chinese for some reason.
Facing Space-Based Reality

2 weeks ago | splicetoday.com | Kenneth Silber

I’djust written about my disaffection from the tech right when More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity arrived. This book, by Adam Becker, a science journalist with a PhD in astrophysics, argues persuasively against expansive tech visions, such as an AI-enabled “Singularity” or space “colonization” (a term to which Becker objects).
Techno-Politics in Flux

1 month ago | splicetoday.com | Kenneth Silber

Anupdate on my Android phone gave me Gemini, Google’s AI, unsolicited. I chose a female voice for her, one that sounded young and jaunty, though we mostly communicated in text. I soon found she could multiply four-digit numbers, unlike Chat-GPT in late-2023. A trend toward “reasoning” systems has gained momentum in AI, with chatbots able to apply some technique they’ve learned, rather than just giving results based on probabilities of word (or number) appearances derived from training data.
A Reckoning Over Deportations

1 month ago | splicetoday.com | Kenneth Silber

AnApril 30th New York Times article, “Behind Trump’s Deal to Deport Venezuelans to El Salvador’s Most Feared Prison,” reads like material that’ll be entered into the record at future trials of Trump administration officials.
Reflections on a D.C. Visit

1 month ago | splicetoday.com | Kenneth Silber

I went to Arlington, VA, to moderate competitions in history and other subjects for high school students. My first round went poorly, as I switched between screens reading questions and keeping score electronically with a system I’d never used, while pressing a button on a buzzer device. “What the fuck?” I said several times, staring at my laptop while the students waited for me to figure out what I was doing. The trip enabled some time to visit Washington.
What Is Chris Beck Talking About?

1 month ago | splicetoday.com | Kenneth Silber

FellowSplice Today contributor Chris Beck accuses me of lying about him. The claim is false. The facts are as follows: Ina Twitter argument about tipping, on March 21, 2023, Noah Smith called Chris Beck a “commie weirdo.” Beck replied that “My argument isn’t even from the commie perspective, but you go with that one! Yours is, however.” (Emphasis added.) That last sentence is only intelligible as Beck saying that Noah Smith’s argument was from a commie perspective.
What I Got Right and Wrong

1 month ago | splicetoday.com | Kenneth Silber

It’s good to follow up on things one’s written, assessing what was right or wrong, and what’s changed since. Here are some thoughts along those lines: Bidenwasn’t a super ager.
When Churchill “Ratted” Over Tariffs

2 months ago | splicetoday.com | Kenneth Silber

In the early-1900s, Winston Churchill, then in his late-20s, held dinner parties where he and other young Conservative back-benchers would entertain prominent politicians. One night, the guest was Joseph Chamberlain (father of future prime minister Neville), who as Secretary of State for the Colonies was responsible for administering the British Empire. There was tension.
Oligarchs in Bed with Autocrats Would Kill the Prospects for Liberalism in Space

2 months ago | theunpopulist.net | Kenneth Silber

The UnPopulist illustrationIn the 1990s, triumphalism about a market-based liberal democracy dovetailed with optimism about space as an emerging arena of freedom and opportunity. Satellite technology offered new options for communication and observation; TV dishes were sprouting up in inner cities and remote villages, and satellite photography was becoming commercially available for use by environmental and human-rights monitors, not just intelligence agencies.
Rules of the Trump Game

2 months ago | splicetoday.com | Kenneth Silber

In 1997,Carl Sagan, contemplating different standards of behavior, coined the Tin Rule: “Suck up to those above you, and abuse those below you.” It was an alternative to the well-known Golden Rule (“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”).