I am back on this topic again.

In my world, Venkatesh Rao’s thinking on tis topic is front and center. Posting this now - because In other circles I found myself once more referencing his post from 2022 …

🔗 The Dawn of Mediocre Computing - Venkatesh Rao

A selection of quotes

Mediocre computing is computing that aims for parity with mediocre human performance in a realish domains where notions of excellence are ill-posed.

And ..

Excellent computing is computing that aims to surpass the best-performing humans in stylized, closed-world domains where notions of excellence are well-posed.

And ..

In the weird but realish world we live in, mediocre is actually harder than excellent, and way more useful.

And ..

In stylized domains like chess and Go, humans have to deliver exceptional performance (ie good enough to make money at them by winning championships) to ensure mediocre survival in the real world (enough prize money to live on).

There is a lot more besides, but I just realised that this journal had no connections back to this post - despite it being in my top 5 of VR posts (if number of references I have made is the measurement).

There’s also these ..

• His index to the 🔗 Mediocre Computing series.
• His index to a sister series; 🔗 Mediocratopia

Oh - and this ..

🔗 Survival of the mediocre-mediocre

Guy Ritchie .. who’s going to say no. Good cast. Fun story .. in the class of National Treasure and all the rest.

Guy Ritchie .. who’s going to say no. Good cast. Fun story .. in the class of National Treasure and all the rest.

It’s Vince Vaughan so of course I checked it out. Not his best, formulaic - think I’ve seen the story a few times before - but cute nonetheless.

It’s Vince Vaughan so of course I checked it out. Not his best, formulaic - think I’ve seen the story a few times before - but cute nonetheless.

Poking Wordland …

Reminder to self.

This is routing to Philpin.com which is currently flagged as an AI experiment. This is not an AI experiment.

Home alone and had heard good things. Just lovely. Just wonderful. And yes, I cried.

Home alone and had heard good things. Just lovely. Just wonderful. And yes, I cried.

🔗It’s not the colour of the pill that counts

Happened to be talking about Asimov to a friend of mine the other day. We both had read ‘everything’ he had written - and certainly for me I know that will not be true, but definitely I hit the 45 to 50 books range - I can still picture them on my my book shelf in my teenage bedroom.

BUT - we both agreed that the reading was a long time ago - and not sure if they would stand the test of time - based on writing quality (?) Not sure that is the right term.

So interesting to see this today …

among Isaac Asimov’s many faults, his total lack of interest in characters meant some deft footwork by the writers of the Foundation television series.

💬 William Gallagher

Yes - that is probably it. I don’t recall him being an ‘emotional’ writer, which as a teen I didn’t miss. It was the ideas that I was after.