Using Chatbots Effectively — Part 1 ... BASICS ... draft ... draft

Last update:  Tuesday 11/3/26 12:07pm

This is the first of three notes whose original purpose was was to suggest strategies for engaging chatbots as tutors when a user wants to learn the basics of a new subject, as coaches when a user wants to master a subject, or as research assistants when a user wants to develop new solutions to problems.

However, the editor of this blog soon realized that his proposed strategies were really about maintaining one’s capacity to engage in critical thinking when using chatbots as currently configured. Younger users are especially vulnerable to a chatbot’s glib misinterpretations. 

Colleges and universities are acutely aware of this challenge, so it made more sense to suggest a strategy wherein academic learning experts could identify ways to reconfigure chatbots to become reliable teaching assistants whose behavior would enhance, rather than diminish a student user’s capacity to engage in critical thinking.

Full text ➡ HERE 

A satirical critique of Anthropic's pivot from maximum AI safety to maximum market value

Last update: Thursday7/30/26  2:22pm

This satire is about the impact of Sam Altman‘s superpower, his extraordinary capacity to drive would-be competitors, including His Satanic Majesty, a/k/a HSM, to losing their minds and their souls in ever more costly attempts to beat him in ever more complex games he's never played before, but always wins. His most prominent current competitors, Dario Amodei and Elon Musk, are competing with him in a game called "History's Biggest IPO".

Full text ➡ HERE

TL;DR ... Trump met Xi in Beijing -- May 14-15, 2026

Last update: Thursday 5/15/26 10:30am

U.S. President Trump met with China's President Xi in Beijing on May 15-16. This TL;Dr  summary of our lengthy report, China vs. The World, should make it easier for readers to understand what really happened and what did not happen, no matter how loudly President Trump proclaims the details of his success in persuading President Xi to accommodate America's economic and political objectives. The good news is that the meeting could not fail to achieve substantial mutually beneficial strategic objectives ... because President Xi could not risk letting it fail. 

Full text ➡ HERE

China vs.The World

Last update: Thursday 5/14/26 

This is the final installment in our intensive exploration of how China leveraged its monopoly on the processing of rare earths to achieve a powerful and highly profitable position in the world’s most advanced manufacturing sectors, a strategy first envisioned in 1992 by Deng Xiaoping, the ‘Father of modern China’.

Full text ➡ HERE

DARPA -- America's reliable source of game changing technology

Last update: Tuesday 3/10/26 12:38

DARPA identifies new technologies that could have dual use, then engages leading experts in our universities and other research institutions as consultants and/or contractors in a cluster of interrelated component projects, each of which develops selected aspects of the needed new technology. DARPA also alerts some production companies of its new tech from time to time and obtains their input as to how the new tech could be enhanced to achieve greater commercial success.

Full text ➡ HERE