Article in Physics Today about Robert Oppenheimer and Los Alamos.
https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/online/42547/Oppenheimer-s-science-beyond-the-Manhattan-Project?searchresult=1
The comment section for this article had a opinion of the current state of the Theoretical Division at Los Alamos.
"Oppenheimer's breadth of interests and ability to connect quite different fields of physics and engineering was essential to the success of the Manhattan Project, which typified the tradition of Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory for decades afterwards, and the reason I first enthusiastically joined Theoretical Division there in 1986. Unfortunately that tradition is now being lost, eroded by short-term thinking that discourages basic research in cutting edge physics --such as how quantum theory and general relativity can be reconciled in black holes.
This myopia is completely at odds with the tradition that Oppenheimer, Bethe and Feynman founded in T-Division at Los Alamos, and will make it increasingly difficult to attract the best and brightest of the next generation to the lab, as Oppenheimer was able to do so masterfully at its inception."
Comments
As you know he developed the modern computer and key algorithms that go with it, making him the founder of computational science in general, was also a nuclear strategist, and contributions in other areas are too numerous to list.
That would mean he was better than everyone below. Sure he was great but better than everyone in T-Div at the time?
Hans Bethe
Richard Feynman
Victor Weisskrofpt
Rudolf Peierls
R Serber
Fred Reines
Joe Firshfelder
Tony Skyrm
Roy Glauber
In fact, in the 1940's I believe, von Neumann proposed self-replicating robots with self-replicating AI, that could expand into the entire galaxy and beyond, the so-called von Neumann probe which could in principle convert the reachable universe into chatbots along with the infrastructure to support their endeavors (perhaps including humans or biological lifeforms).
For example, he reportedly said:
Computers are like humans - they do everything except think.
I am thinking about something much more important than bombs. I am thinking about computers.
There is no point in being precise if you do not even know what you are talking about.
Ulam's 1958 obituary article mentioned the following conversations with von Neumann:
Quite aware that the criteria of value in mathematical work are,
to some extent, purely aesthetic, he once expressed an apprehension
that the values put on abstract scientific achievement in our present
civilization might diminish: "The interests of humanity may change,
the present curiosities in science may cease, and entirely different
things may occupy the human mind in the future." One conversation
centered on the ever accelerating progress of technology and changes
in the mode of human life, which gives the appearance of approaching
some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which
human affairs, as we know them, could not continue.
In other words, he understood and predicted the nature of our current situation, leading up to the "technological singularity" some feel may happen soon, upending our current human institutions, way of life, and civilization.
All people who had met him and interacted with him realized that his brain was more powerful than anyone’s they have ever encountered. I remember Hans Bethe even said, only half in jest, that von Neumann’s brain was a new development of the human brain. Only a slight exaggeration.
Peter Lax, in Peter Lax’s Interview, Voices of the Manhattan Project, 2016.
Scooby, I am convinced that someone is using ChatGPT to post on this blog. Several of the posts above do not seem like they are written by humans. They go on and on but say very little. What gives, is LLN management using AI to try deluge the blog? For the past month or so some very odd posts are showing up.
https://youtu.be/mjlusi_h_XA
https://youtu.be/OVsK20z_GvA
https://youtu.be/FIxZu-d2bHI
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_spacecraft
Replicating seeder ships
Yet another variant on the idea of the self-replicating starship is that of the seeder ship. Such starships might store the genetic patterns of lifeforms from their home world, perhaps even of the species which created it. Upon finding a habitable exoplanet, or even one that might be terraformed, it would try to replicate such lifeforms – either from stored embryos or from stored information using molecular nanotechnology to build zygotes with varying genetic information from local raw materials.[11]
Such ships might be terraforming vessels, preparing colony worlds for later colonization by other vessels, or – should they be programmed to recreate, raise, and educate individuals of the species that created it – self-replicating colonizers themselves. Seeder ships would be a suitable alternative to generation ships as a way to colonize worlds too distant to travel to in one lifetime.
How would you combat that since some real people, especially scientists, write like bots?
https://unherd.com/2023/07/we-wouldnt-want-oppenheimer-today/
Evidently, he was having problems and brought in von Neumann to solve them, which he did of course. It mentions some of the other people on that list, too.
I understand in the "Oppenheimer" movie, they do not really mention von Neumann at all, by the way.
How would you combat that since some real people, especially scientists, write like bots?
8/15/2023 3:03 PM"
I think you did the correct thing and just said that posts should be concise. Was for certain people writing like "bots" ouch but I guess that is the case as well.
To be clear I am not sure if it just actual chatbot that someone is using to fill up the band width for some nefarious reason or if it someone who juts want to leave a comment but is using a chat bot to write which makes the posts much longer and stranger than they need to be. Of course it could just be somebody who write this way but the chabot text is pretty easy to pick out.
I know some relatives who found these chat devices are now using them to write everybody, some family reports, comments on news events, tips for how to fix your car and so on. For years they would write a few sentences on facebook or email, now it is War and Peace every week, they even said the are using these devices and how it allows them write way more than they ever could on their own. I am not sure it is adding that much to the conversation.