All posts tagged: slippery

AI and the Slippery Slope of Frictionless Intelligence

AI and the Slippery Slope of Frictionless Intelligence

Published by Jenni Sidey

Here’s what really strikes me. Artificial intelligence doesn’t just operate differently from human thought but inverts nearly every cognitive constraint we face. AI exists in computational antithesis to human thought, something I’ve been calling anti-intellgence. This is where human cognition is memory-bound, and stateless. Where we strive toward fluency, it generates instantly. Where our judgment emerges slowly through error and revision, its outputs appear complete. Where understanding requires a sort of metabolic effort, confidence arrives without cost. These aren’t simply differences in capability; they represent an inversion of the conditions under which intelligence itself is produced. For us, thinking carries weight because it carries cost. Understanding requires time, and judgment emerges through this struggle. And it’s this experience that shapes belief, and intelligence remains inseparable from this friction. We work toward insight, and that work matters because meaning emerges through this effort of human thought. So far, so good. But artificial intelligence operates under fundamentally different conditions. A large language model isn’t constrained by memory in the human sense. And let’s make this clear. It …

No One Is Quite Sure Why Ice Is Slippery

No One Is Quite Sure Why Ice Is Slippery

Published by skeptic

They intuited that molecules near the surface behave differently from those deep within the ice. Ice is a crystal, which means each water molecule is locked into a periodic lattice. However, at the surface, the water molecules have fewer neighbors to bond with and therefore have more freedom of movement than in solid ice. In that so-called premelted layer, molecules are easily displaced by a skate, a ski or a shoe. Today, scientists generally agree that the premelted layer exists, at least close to the melting point, but they disagree on its role in ice’s slipperiness. A few years ago, Luis MacDowell, a physicist at the Complutense University of Madrid, and his collaborators ran a series of simulations to establish which of the three hypotheses—pressure, friction or premelting—best explains the slipperiness of ice. “In computer simulations, you can see the atoms move,” he said—something that isn’t feasible in real experiments. “And you can actually look at the neighbors of those atoms” to see whether they are periodically spaced, like in a solid, or disordered, like …

Scientists finally know why ice is so slippery

Scientists finally know why ice is so slippery

Published by skeptic

atom: The basic unit of a chemical element. Atoms are made up of a dense nucleus that contains positively charged protons and uncharged neutrons. The nucleus is orbited by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. behavior: The way something, often a person or other organism, acts towards others, or conducts itself. computer model: A program that runs on a computer that creates a model, or simulation, of a real-world feature, phenomenon or event. develop: To emerge or to make come into being, either naturally or through human intervention, such as by manufacturing. diamond: One of the hardest known substances and rarest gems on Earth. Diamonds form deep within the planet when carbon is compressed under incredibly strong pressure. dipole: (in chemistry) A type of molecule in which a collection of positive electric charges are separated from a similar concentration of negative charges. (in physics) Two equal and oppositely charged electric or magnetic poles that are separated by some distance. disrupt: (n. disruption) To break apart something; interrupt the normal operation of something; or to throw …

Trump’s Slippery Definition of ‘Patriots’ and ‘Terrorists’

Trump’s Slippery Definition of ‘Patriots’ and ‘Terrorists’

Published by Sam Flores

On January 6, Donald Trump’s administration published an apologia for the Trump supporters whom he incited to storm the Capitol five years earlier. The next day, Stephen Miller, in response to news that an ICE agent had shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis, lambasted the Democratic Party on X for “inciting a violent insurrection.” The juxtaposition of the January 6 anniversary and the shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minnesota the next day is a coincidence of timing. But the echo of language between that which the Trump administration has attacked (alleged violence against federal law-enforcement officers) and that which it has defended (actual violence against federal law-enforcement officers) is striking. President Trump’s long-standing view has become official policy: His supporters are definitionally “patriotic” and therefore entitled to take any actions on his behalf, regardless of how violent or illegal they may be. His opponents are definitionally terrorists, and therefore constitute legitimate targets of state violence. This is how an organized mass attack to overthrow the government becomes “peaceful” and “patriotic,” while a single …

Decades-old mystery solved as scientists identify what really makes ice slippery

Decades-old mystery solved as scientists identify what really makes ice slippery

Published by Jenni Sidey

When you step onto an icy sidewalk or push off on skis, the surface can seem to vanish beneath you. For more than a century, scientists have debated why ice stays slippery, even well below freezing. The most common explanation has been a thin film of liquid water forming between the ice and whatever slides across it. What has never been settled is how that water appears in the first place. A new study led by Martin Müser, a professor at Saarland University, offers a fresh answer. Using large-scale computer simulations, Müser and his colleagues show that ice does not need to melt to become slippery. Instead, the crystal structure of ice can locally break down under motion, forming a disordered, water-like layer even at extreme cold. The findings were published in Physical Review Letters. For decades, textbooks have pointed to three main ideas. One is pressure melting, where the force from a skate blade or tire briefly melts ice. Another is surface melting, where the topmost molecular layers behave like a liquid below zero. …

Conservatives are more prone to slippery slope thinking

Conservatives are more prone to slippery slope thinking

Published by José Betancourt

New research suggests that individuals who identify as politically conservative are more likely than their liberal counterparts to find “slippery slope” arguments logically sound. This tendency appears to stem from a greater reliance on intuitive thinking styles rather than deliberate processing. The findings were published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Slippery slope arguments are a staple of rhetoric in law, ethics, and politics. These arguments suggest that a minor, seemingly harmless initial action will trigger a chain reaction leading to a catastrophic final outcome. A classic example is the idea that eating one cookie will lead to eating ten, which will eventually result in significant weight gain. Despite the prevalence of this argumentative structure, psychological research has historically lacked a clear understanding of who finds these arguments persuasive. “The most immediate motivation for this research was an observation that, despite being relatively common in everyday discussions and well-researched in philosophy and law, there is simply not much psychological research on slippery slope thinking and arguments,” explained study author Rajen A. Anderson, an assistant …

Assisted-Suicide Slippery Slope Keeps Slip-Sliding Away

Assisted-Suicide Slippery Slope Keeps Slip-Sliding Away

Published by Jenni Sidey

This article is republished from National Review with the permission of the author. When assisted suicide is first proposed for legalization, we are assured by death activists that strict guidelines will protect against abuse. But they don’t mean it. Once the laws pass, the supposed protections — which are always flaccid to begin with — are soon redefined by activists and the media as “barriers,” et voila, the laws are soon loosened. It’s all a con, but people seem to fall for it every time. Image Credit: Felipe Caparrós – Adobe Stock This pattern can be seen vividly playing out in Victoria, Australia. The state was the first in that country to legalize assisted suicide, and now the government is making more people eligible for legally hastened death. From the premier’s announcement: The new legislation will remove unnecessary barriers to accessing VAD, improve clarity for practitioners, strengthen safety measures and make the system fairer and more compassionate. See what I mean? “Strengthen safety,” (!!!) and “fairer and more compassionate,” really just means more people can become dead …