Daniel Dvorkin @medigoth@qoto.org
Bioinformaticist / biostatistician, veteran USAF medic and Army infantryman, armchair paleontologist, occasional science fiction author, long-ago kickboxer, oldbat goth, vaccinated liberal patriot.
Joined Oct 2022
#Creationists love the idea that the #genetic #code and #computer code are fundamentally the same thing. Since of course #programs are #designed (not always #intelligently, but that's another post) they think this is proof that life was too.
They seize on one-liners from those they regard as infidels and heretics, because then they can say, "See? Even unbelievers admit that ..." Bill Gates and Richard Dawkins, both known for going outside their lanes, are popular choices. Gates: "#DNA is like a computer program but far, far more advanced than any software ever created." Dawkins: "I'm fascinated by the idea that genetics is digital. A #gene is a long sequence of coded letters, like computer information."
I get why this is a popular analogy. Unfortunately, it's also a bad one. Those of us with one foot in each field know the differences far outweigh the similarities. Which leads me to the following epigram:
Many #programmers say genes look like code. Many #biologists say code looks like genes. No #bioinformaticist says either.
For anyone who's really looking for an excuse to scrub their brain out with bleach and a wire brush:
Since #Trump pardoned every member of the #J6 mob, 33 out of the approximately 1,500 released have been convicted of other #violent #crimes, a rate of 2.2%.
Elsenet, sumdood is arguing that this is no big deal because, and I quote, "The national violent crime rate is 4.4%." He argues that therefore, J6ers are less violent than the average person. Unfortunately for him (but fortunately for everyone else!) he's not even close.
There were about 1.3 million violent crimes *reported* in the US last year, out of a population of about 330 million. Assuming one criminal and one victim per crime—which isn't necessarily the case, of course, but it's a reasonable approximation—that's a rate of 0.4%, not 4% or more.
The #arrest and #conviction rates are much lower. There are about 500,000 violent crime arrests each year, or 0.15%. I can't find conviction numbers at the moment, but they must be lower than arrest numbers: for convenience, let's say 0.10% of the population, 2/3 of those arrested, are convicted.
2.2% is a lot more than 0.10%. Even a #Republican ought to be able to figure that out.
Fuck these mass-murdering motherfuckers. And if you support them in any way, shape, or form, fuck you too.
So many things to be angry about. I need to triage. "Okay, the shithead in exam room 8 will probably be admitted to a jerk ward, but the fuckface in trauma bed 3 is definitely going to the ICU [idiot care unit], and someone prep the asshat we parked out in the hallway for a cephalanalectomy ..."
Dipping my toe in the waters of prediction:
I will be very surprised if there is not a large, open #US ground presence in #Venezuela in the next six months, if not sooner. Maybe a significant #Chinese presence too, but that will be quieter, a la the #USSR in #Vietnam.
The funny thing is, there's a way we probably *could* install a government that would be popular enough to survive with just US support rather than #GIs bleeding out in the jungle—namely, back #Machado and give her whatever she needs to consolidate power. But #Trump is too angry about a #Hispanic woman getting the #Nobel he so clearly deserved for that ever to happen. Not to mention his crew of chest-and-Bible-thumpers who don't want to see any woman in charge of any country, ever.
So instead we'll end up keeping most of #Maduro's machinery of dictatorship in place, and supporting it against an ever-growing resistance armed with Chinese weaponry. "Advisers" in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...
Tell the DJ to put Fortunate Son on repeat.
The #slipperyslope is not a #fallacy.
Proof: [gestures vaguely at everything] #QED.
I just opened a feature request on #GitHub that got assigned issue number 404. Hopefully someone will see it even so!
Another addendum: like many #SF writers, I'm a bit of a #Luddite when it comes to the writing process. After decades of messing around with various word processors, these days I do my writing in #Markdown using a text editor, then convert it to Word for sharing it with the rest of the world. I'm genuinely happier that way. #Grammar checkers and the like can fuck right off.
But I'm uneasy with people who create #sciencefiction rejecting the *idea* that #AI might be useful for #creative endeavors. I don't yet know what a good use case would be, and I doubt I'll ever want #ChatGPT or one of its descendants to write a draft for me. Making it my work would feel like editing someone else's manuscript, even if it's good—which of course current AI writing isn't, but that could change. I just don't want people who think about the future professionally to assume that we'll never advance past the present.
Jamming the two together: I'm alternately amused and annoyed by how much #ScienceFiction has #humans doing things like #flying #spaceships, but relegates #medical care to #robots. Uh ...
As both a #medic and a #writer, I'm going to go out on a limb and say the ethical bar for #fiction #writing is *far* lower than the bar for #medicine. Reading a bad story may make you feel like you've wasted an irretrievable chunk of your life, but it's very unlikely to land you in the morgue. So the idea that there might be ethical uses for #AI in medicine but not in writing seems rather strange to me.
"Well, *I* thought it was funny."
— my tombstone, probably
Speaking as someone whose entire adult life has been spent keeping people alive, I'm going to go out on a limb and say Lillian #Bonsignore knows a hell of a lot more about saving lives than Elon #Musk.
Hello, #Republicans.
#Democrats have been telling you for months that we don’t care if #Clinton is in the #Epstein files. If he raped kids, he should pay the same penalty as anyone else. But I guess y’all have your talking points and you are by God going to stick with them.
You know as well as we do that #Trump is all over the redacted parts. Every time you pretend otherwise, you’re announcing to the world that you’re just fine with pedos as long as they’re on your side. For some of you, it’s a selling point.
We see you, and we won’t forget.
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Texting is fine for short communications, to be clear. But anything more than a few sentences is actively painful.
Also, that 30-minute video you want me to watch could and should have been an essay. If there's no transcript, fuggedaboudit.
Something you may not know about me: I dislike reading long-form content on my phone, or really doing anything on my phone more than necessary. E.g. if you want to have an in-depth conversation with me, please send me a direct message rather than texting.
Bioinformaticist / biostatistician, veteran USAF medic and Army infantryman, armchair paleontologist, occasional science fiction author, long-ago kickboxer, oldbat goth, vaccinated liberal patriot.
Joined Oct 2022
