From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01947-1

Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in — and they’re
not good

Reliance on artificial-intelligence tools degrades the abilities
of physicians and software engineers, studies show.

. . .

Kiddies USED to have to do math in their heads - for
a long time it's just been a calculator ... something
that would not survive a civilizational disruption.

I still, kind of, remember how to do square roots
the "long way". Most alive now do NOT. There are
old books on the subject, but how many have already
gone down the "memory hole" ? The Firemen will
get the rest soon enough ....

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On 2026-06-20, c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01947-1

Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in — and they’re
not good

Reliance on artificial-intelligence tools degrades the abilities
of physicians and software engineers, studies show.

Failure to regularly use any faculty - physical or mental -
has long been shown to cause atrophy. This fact has been
ignored for centuries.

Kiddies USED to have to do math in their heads - for
a long time it's just been a calculator ... something
that would not survive a civilizational disruption.

Isaac Asimov accurately predicted what calculators would
do to us - in 1958:

https://afmmath.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/the-feeling-of-power.pdf

I still, kind of, remember how to do square roots
the "long way". Most alive now do NOT.

I was lucky enough to have a math teacher who recognized
my interest and encouraged it. He taught me the square
root method - it was similar to but slightly more complicated
than long division. (I came across a book that showed how
to do cube roots too.) He also lent me some more advanced
textbooks from his own student days, introducing me to
the beauty of logarithms, plus some basic trigonometry
and differential calculus. It was an exciting time.

There are
old books on the subject, but how many have already
gone down the "memory hole" ? The Firemen will
get the rest soon enough ....

Nice references. :-)
--
/~\ Charlie Gibbs | No artificial
\ / <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> | intelligence was
X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | used in the creation
/ \ if you read it the right way. | of this post.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On Sat, 20 Jun 2026 16:05:09 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

I was lucky enough to have a math teacher who recognized my interest and encouraged it. He taught me the square root method - it was similar to
but slightly more complicated than long division. (I came across a book
that showed how to do cube roots too.) He also lent me some more
advanced textbooks from his own student days, introducing me to the
beauty of logarithms, plus some basic trigonometry and differential
calculus. It was an exciting time.

That was standard fare since we didn't have calculators. Even by the time
I graduated college slide rules were the personal calculators with six
place trig and log tables for more precision.

I'd read the book on the Trachtenbrg system and got pretty good at it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trachtenberg_system

It did not impress my high school teachers. I forget if it was in the Trachtenberg book or I picked it up someplace else but I used casting out
the nines to check my results.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casting_out_nines

I can still remember my algebra teacher, Mrs. Errera, lecturing me. 'You
skip steps and don't show your work. Usually you get the right answer but
if you don't I have no idea where you went wrong.'

Now I'm lucky if I can add two number. My mental subtraction algorithm is closer to addition than straightforward subtraction.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On 6/20/26 12:05, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

On 2026-06-20, c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01947-1

Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in — and they’re
not good

Reliance on artificial-intelligence tools degrades the abilities
of physicians and software engineers, studies show.

Failure to regularly use any faculty - physical or mental -
has long been shown to cause atrophy. This fact has been
ignored for centuries.

Kiddies USED to have to do math in their heads - for
a long time it's just been a calculator ... something
that would not survive a civilizational disruption.

Isaac Asimov accurately predicted what calculators would
do to us - in 1958:

https://afmmath.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/the-feeling-of-power.pdf

Smart Guy ! :-)

I still, kind of, remember how to do square roots
the "long way". Most alive now do NOT.

I was lucky enough to have a math teacher who recognized
my interest and encouraged it. He taught me the square
root method - it was similar to but slightly more complicated
than long division. (I came across a book that showed how
to do cube roots too.) He also lent me some more advanced
textbooks from his own student days, introducing me to
the beauty of logarithms, plus some basic trigonometry
and differential calculus. It was an exciting time.

I was kind of the LAST group to get ANY decent education
in the US system. My brother, just 3 years younger, could
barely read - much less spell - what was on his 'diploma'.
He was not unintelligent ... but Ed just GAVE UP. Apparently
"knowing stuff" was against the new commie plan.

There are
old books on the subject, but how many have already
gone down the "memory hole" ? The Firemen will
get the rest soon enough ....

Nice references. :-)

And, seemingly, not so incorrect .......

We're in DEEP shit.

Happened slowly, enough so few noticed, but surely.

Hmmm ... 2nd grade ... the teacher had a neat-o
"slide projector". It'd flip to a slide with text
and then either show just ONE line at a time, faster
and faster, or literally skim ACROSS each line. Some
kind of mechanical shutter. The goal was to KEEP UP.
You learned FAST.

Nothing like that for my brother or any after.

Now with "AI" - do "They" want anybody to know
anything AT ALL ??? Smart-asses will surely soon
be PUNISHED for Knowing Stuff.

The ideal proletariat is TOTALLY ignorant - no
past, no future, no facts, no means. It will thus
have to believe the Truth of the week.

Orwell and some others SAW it coming ... none
believed it. The Overlords however saw it as
an instruction manual.

HOW the hell do we get OUT of this ??? "Underground"
education movement maybe ??? "They" WILL try to ruin
any of that. Many legal attacks.

Oh, for balance, "They" are mostly 'left' right now,
but some extreme 'right'/theo-right are also involved.
The "ideal citizen" is an IDIOT, gullible, unable to
see even glaring problems in facts/reason.

Oh, and nicotine is EVIL because it makes you SHARPER,
weed is perfectly OK though because it makes you fuzzy !
"Soma" :-)

Some of those old writers DID see !

Note worries about "AI" go all the way back to
the latter 19th century - the first fair analysis
was by a female writer. By the 20s, well, find "RUR".
"Metropolis" kind of echoed some of that.

Research.

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On Sun, 21 Jun 2026 02:08:54 -0400, c186282 wrote:

I was kind of the LAST group to get ANY decent education in the US
system. My brother, just 3 years younger, could barely read - much
less spell - what was on his 'diploma'. He was not unintelligent ...
but Ed just GAVE UP. Apparently "knowing stuff" was against the new
commie plan.

I was fortunate. I was in 6th grade when the USSR launched Sputnik. The
PTB shit themselves and ramped up the STEM programs. We didn't have AP in
high school but there was an Enriched Curriculum program. The only
drawback to that was the EC group traveled together so every class was the same selection of nerds. You only got released into the GenPop for Gym.

College was more of the same. A group of us reported a week early for a
week's worth of tests, sponsored by the Kettering Foundation iirc. The
intent was to see if there was a reliable way to predict success. The last
day we had one on ones with the administrators. All I took away from it
was he recommended I pursue science rather than engineering.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On 6/20/26 14:10, rbowman wrote:

On Sat, 20 Jun 2026 16:05:09 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

I was lucky enough to have a math teacher who recognized my interest and
encouraged it. He taught me the square root method - it was similar to
but slightly more complicated than long division. (I came across a book
that showed how to do cube roots too.) He also lent me some more
advanced textbooks from his own student days, introducing me to the
beauty of logarithms, plus some basic trigonometry and differential
calculus. It was an exciting time.

That was standard fare since we didn't have calculators. Even by the time
I graduated college slide rules were the personal calculators with six
place trig and log tables for more precision.

I'd read the book on the Trachtenbrg system and got pretty good at it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trachtenberg_system

It did not impress my high school teachers. I forget if it was in the Trachtenberg book or I picked it up someplace else but I used casting out
the nines to check my results.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casting_out_nines

I can still remember my algebra teacher, Mrs. Errera, lecturing me. 'You
skip steps and don't show your work. Usually you get the right answer but
if you don't I have no idea where you went wrong.'

Now I'm lucky if I can add two number. My mental subtraction algorithm is closer to addition than straightforward subtraction.

Heh ... always been that way. Now if you can kind of
explain some quantum thing I can kind of wrap my brain
around it. Super-weird.

Everybody is not wired the same. Now COMPUTER
math/logic ... super easy ! Drifted off the
'science' track into computers because of that.
Paid off well for 40+ years.

"PL-I", a kitchen-sink language, attracted me.
Never really learned it well, but it seemed to
have so many POSSIBILITIES. Mental buzz.

Slide rules ... my school saw them as CHEATING.
They WERE allowed in physics class though. Still
have two or three ... maybe I should review how
to get the best use out of them.

Slide-Rules pretty much got us to the moon. The
computers of the time were CRAP.

Asshole teachers - PLENTY. Many didn't really know
what they were teaching - so SQUASHED anyone with
a 3-digit IQ.

(hmm - was tagged as a 'tard for a long time until
they gave us IQ tests in 6th grade. Teacher was
shocked - interrogated me for 'cheating' - was
really a bit dramatic. Was soon classified as
"gifted underachiever", maybe THE best possible
category - means they know you are smart but don't
EXPECT too much ... they won't push you into some
soul-crushing academic program. TODAY there's the
phrase "on the spectrum" - no such concept then)

Anyway, the 'long form' way of doing square/cube
roots ... it WORKED and you DIDN'T need a calculator.

Betcha almost NOBODY under 50, maybe 60, was taught this.
The high-tech goes, everyone is LOST.

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On 6/21/26 02:56, rbowman wrote:

On Sun, 21 Jun 2026 02:08:54 -0400, c186282 wrote:

I was kind of the LAST group to get ANY decent education in the US
system. My brother, just 3 years younger, could barely read - much
less spell - what was on his 'diploma'. He was not unintelligent ...
but Ed just GAVE UP. Apparently "knowing stuff" was against the new
commie plan.

I was fortunate. I was in 6th grade when the USSR launched Sputnik. The
PTB shit themselves and ramped up the STEM programs. We didn't have AP in high school but there was an Enriched Curriculum program. The only
drawback to that was the EC group traveled together so every class was the same selection of nerds. You only got released into the GenPop for Gym.

College was more of the same. A group of us reported a week early for a week's worth of tests, sponsored by the Kettering Foundation iirc. The
intent was to see if there was a reliable way to predict success. The last day we had one on ones with the administrators. All I took away from it
was he recommended I pursue science rather than engineering.

You were born at exactly the right time !

I was a bit after Sputnik. It was still OK then but,
as I said, RAPIDLY deteriorated.

Why ? Leftists infiltrated the education establishment.
Their mission was clear - "Let's produce USEFUL IDIOTS !".

The "Un-American Affairs" committee disappeared TOO soon.

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On 2026-06-20, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

On 2026-06-20, c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01947-1

Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in — and they’re
not good

Reliance on artificial-intelligence tools degrades the abilities
of physicians and software engineers, studies show.

Failure to regularly use any faculty - physical or mental -
has long been shown to cause atrophy. This fact has been
ignored for centuries.

This is the reason why some people do crosswords - now how does this go
for different activities, are crosswords themselves, or something like
sudoku, enough to retain faculties in general, or does it need to be at
least related to the faculty you wish to preserve? I guess the latter?

Kiddies USED to have to do math in their heads - for
a long time it's just been a calculator ... something
that would not survive a civilizational disruption.

Isaac Asimov accurately predicted what calculators would
do to us - in 1958:

https://afmmath.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/the-feeling-of-power.pdf

I still, kind of, remember how to do square roots
the "long way". Most alive now do NOT.

I was lucky enough to have a math teacher who recognized
my interest and encouraged it. He taught me the square
root method - it was similar to but slightly more complicated
than long division. (I came across a book that showed how
to do cube roots too.) He also lent me some more advanced
textbooks from his own student days, introducing me to
the beauty of logarithms, plus some basic trigonometry
and differential calculus. It was an exciting time.

Do you recall their titles (+authors?)?

There are
old books on the subject, but how many have already
gone down the "memory hole" ? The Firemen will
get the rest soon enough ....

Nice references. :-)

From Celsius 233, I gather? :-P
--
Nuno Silva
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On 2026-06-21, c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:

I was kind of the LAST group to get ANY decent education
in the US system. My brother, just 3 years younger, could
barely read - much less spell - what was on his 'diploma'.
He was not unintelligent ... but Ed just GAVE UP. Apparently
"knowing stuff" was against the new commie plan.

My sister came up through the school system four years
behind me; unlike me, she was exposed to the New Math.
I remember looking through her textbook and being appalled.
Their method of doing long division was truly brain-damaged.
Reminds me of the Beverly Hillbillies episodes when Jethro
would spin out a remarkably complicated example of "long
dee-vision", to which Jed would say, "Mmmmm, doggies!
That boy sure can cipher!"

Hooray for New Math, new-hoo-hoo math
It won't do you a bit of good to review math
It's so simple, so very simple
That only a child can do it!
-- Tom Lehrer
--
/~\ Charlie Gibbs | No artificial
\ / <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> | intelligence was
X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | used in the creation
/ \ if you read it the right way. | of this post.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On 2026-06-21, Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 2026-06-20, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

I was lucky enough to have a math teacher who recognized
my interest and encouraged it. He taught me the square
root method - it was similar to but slightly more complicated
than long division. (I came across a book that showed how
to do cube roots too.) He also lent me some more advanced
textbooks from his own student days, introducing me to
the beauty of logarithms, plus some basic trigonometry
and differential calculus. It was an exciting time.

Do you recall their titles (+authors?)?

Sorry, no.

gone down the "memory hole" ? The Firemen will
get the rest soon enough ....

Nice references. :-)

From Celsius 233, I gather? :-P

And MCMLXXXIV too.
--
/~\ Charlie Gibbs | No artificial
\ / <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> | intelligence was
X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | used in the creation
/ \ if you read it the right way. | of this post.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On Sun, 21 Jun 2026 03:06:07 -0400, c186282 wrote:

Everybody is not wired the same. Now COMPUTER
math/logic ... super easy ! Drifted off the 'science' track into
computers because of that.
Paid off well for 40+ years.

One take away from all the testing before my freshman college year was I
was the high scorer on the logic tests. I also suck at formal logic. Go figure. I can never remember what all those finny squggles mean.

(hmm - was tagged as a 'tard for a long time until they gave us IQ
tests in 6th grade. Teacher was shocked - interrogated me for
'cheating' - was really a bit dramatic. Was soon classified as
"gifted underachiever", maybe THE best possible category - means they
know you are smart but don't EXPECT too much ... they won't push you
into some soul-crushing academic program. TODAY there's the phrase
"on the spectrum" - no such concept then)

My mother tried to enroll me in kindergarten when I was 4 but you had to
be 5. I don't know how she pulled it off but I had a session with a
friendly guy where we talked and I did some simple puzzles. It was fun. No kindergarten for me though -- directly into 1st grade. I proved to be a
major disappointment.



--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On Sun, 21 Jun 2026 03:39:22 -0400, c186282 wrote:

The "Un-American Affairs" committee disappeared TOO soon.

St Joe is dead and gone.... He was a useful idiot. Sokolsky was a major influence and convinced him to bring Cohn and Shine onboard. Is there a
thread there.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On 6/21/26 14:30, rbowman wrote:

On Sun, 21 Jun 2026 03:06:07 -0400, c186282 wrote:

Everybody is not wired the same. Now COMPUTER
math/logic ... super easy ! Drifted off the 'science' track into
computers because of that.
Paid off well for 40+ years.

One take away from all the testing before my freshman college year was I
was the high scorer on the logic tests. I also suck at formal logic. Go figure. I can never remember what all those finny squggles mean.

Oh, GEEZ, Yea ! :-)

But the logic/form of a computer app ... can often
visualize the whole thing in my mind. Just fill in
the unwrit stuff in the editor. SO, that became my
'career'. I try to keep up on bio-sciences, but ...

For a long time I took "Nature" and "AAAS Science".
The articles were great and individual research
articles, well, at least read the abstracts even
if the subject was above and beyond. However it
eventually became Too Much Paper - plus "Science"
went badly "woke". Dumped 'Scientific American'
BECAUSE it went all 'woke'. NOT interested in
political indoctrination ... just actual science
facts and such.

SA still sometimes sends me "ReJOIN" pleas. Sometimes
I send them back with a "Why should I support Woke
Lies ?" note and NO cheque. A good journal for SO
long, and then ......

Oh, we DID reach "the point" with knowledge. The so
called "Renaissance Man" can no longer exist - cannot
even remotely put *everything* into a single brain.
Some of the Nature/Science articles - they are SO
hyper-detailed/focused on obscure chem/physics/math
that often the abstracts were as far as I could get.
Specialists and sub-specialists and sub-sub-specialists
now and forever more until the next big meteor hits.

The Big PROBLEM ... enough 'generalists' to TIE ALL
THAT SHIT TOGETHER into something useful. Each little
specialty has become its own little insular universe
and doesn't grok what the universe next door is saying.
Maybe "AI" really is the only way to pull THAT much
stuff together - but "AI"s have biases/agendas of
their own.

It's become a BIG PROBLEM now ... cognitive overload.
We can accumulate mass numbers of little facts/rules
but can't hold enough in the brain to REALLY leverage
all we know.

(hmm - was tagged as a 'tard for a long time until they gave us IQ
tests in 6th grade. Teacher was shocked - interrogated me for
'cheating' - was really a bit dramatic. Was soon classified as
"gifted underachiever", maybe THE best possible category - means they
know you are smart but don't EXPECT too much ... they won't push you
into some soul-crushing academic program. TODAY there's the phrase
"on the spectrum" - no such concept then)

My mother tried to enroll me in kindergarten when I was 4 but you had to
be 5. I don't know how she pulled it off but I had a session with a
friendly guy where we talked and I did some simple puzzles. It was fun. No kindergarten for me though -- directly into 1st grade. I proved to be a
major disappointment.

I did go to a kindergarten - all were "private" then.

You did coloring and little puzzles and such - nothing
too challenging. Every chance I got I was into the set
of encyclopedias they had. Couldn't read most of the
words but the gravitational force was undeniable.

STILL have a set of encyclopedias ... "Encyclopedia
Americana". Much more detailed than "Britannica".
Thought about trashing them, but just CAN'T. So much
ultra-dense knowledge in there !

Oh well, the Firemen will deal with them eventually ...

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On 6/21/26 14:41, rbowman wrote:

On Sun, 21 Jun 2026 03:39:22 -0400, c186282 wrote:

The "Un-American Affairs" committee disappeared TOO soon.

St Joe is dead and gone.... He was a useful idiot. Sokolsky was a major influence and convinced him to bring Cohn and Shine onboard. Is there a thread there.

Yep.

Tail-gunner Joe alas became a sort of (oft drunken)
fanatic. This sent him and The Committee off in
unproductive directions. When he implied Ike was
a commie stooge, that kinda tore it.

Thing is, as now obvious, the number of Marxist
profs in colleges were NOT very impacted. The MSM
went commie, but rather later ... yet most of them
schooled by the Marxist profs.

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:50:29 -0400, c186282 wrote:

Oh, we DID reach "the point" with knowledge. The so called
"Renaissance Man" can no longer exist - cannot even remotely put
*everything* into a single brain. Some of the Nature/Science articles
- they are SO hyper-detailed/focused on obscure chem/physics/math
that often the abstracts were as far as I could get. Specialists and
sub-specialists and sub-sub-specialists now and forever more until
the next big meteor hits.

I have a book on computational neuroscience that is headache inducing. I
know something about neurophysiology but when you try to turn it into math
I get lost. Heidegger can also be headache inducing but as far as I can understand it he thought philosophy went to hell when the Pythagoreans
tried to turn everything into math.
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:58:26 -0400, c186282 wrote:

Tail-gunner Joe alas became a sort of (oft drunken)
fanatic. This sent him and The Committee off in unproductive
directions. When he implied Ike was a commie stooge, that kinda tore
it.

Shoot me but I went to a couple of JBS meetings when I was in high school. Eisenhower was a communist stooge and Milton was his handler. Welch was cautious. Revilo Oliver was one of founding members of the JBS but was
kicked out when he alleged the Zionists had Welch under their thumb.

Strange era. The Lavender Scare worked in parallel with the Red Scare. J. Edgar and McCarthy's team of lavender lads, Cohn and Shine, would seem to
be strange people to be digging in that dumpster. Cohn's claim to fame
was sending the Rosenbergs to see Old Sparky. Something the Rosenbergs
were patsies offered up to protect the real communists.

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On 2026-06-21, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

On 2026-06-21, Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 2026-06-20, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

I was lucky enough to have a math teacher who recognized
my interest and encouraged it. He taught me the square
root method - it was similar to but slightly more complicated
than long division. (I came across a book that showed how
to do cube roots too.) He also lent me some more advanced
textbooks from his own student days, introducing me to
the beauty of logarithms, plus some basic trigonometry
and differential calculus. It was an exciting time.

Do you recall their titles (+authors?)?

Sorry, no.

Ah, would be interesting to have a look. This reminded me of how Feynman
talks about some books in his first memoir, at least, what was it,
"Calculus for the Practical Man"?

gone down the "memory hole" ? The Firemen will
get the rest soon enough ....

Nice references. :-)

From Celsius 233, I gather? :-P

And MCMLXXXIV too.

Sigh. I needed more coffee to notice the plural and the other reference,
and I could have used more coffee to decode that number a bit faster too :-)
--
Nuno Silva
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On 22/06/2026 05:58, c186282 wrote:

Thing is, as now obvious, the number of Marxist
  profs in colleges were NOT very impacted. The MSM
  went commie, but rather later ... yet most of them
  schooled by the Marxist profs.

Marxism has a huge appeal to the minor intellectual. It dives them power
and authority (in their own minds) to spread their poison 'because they
know better'
--
Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the
gospel of envy.

Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

Winston Churchill


--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On Mon, 22 Jun 2026 09:28:32 +0100, Nuno Silva wrote:

Ah, would be interesting to have a look. This reminded me of how Feynman talks about some books in his first memoir, at least, what was it,
"Calculus for the Practical Man"?

While I remember the physics texts were by Resnick and Halliday I
mistakenly remembered the calculus text was by Thompson.

Thompson did indeed write a calculus book that I later bought, 'Calculus
Made Easy'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculus_Made_Easy

If I ever remember the author of the college text it definitely wasn't
made easy. One of the the authors of the 2 volume physics text, Resnick,
was a professor at the school so that was a given although it was widely
used.

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.os.linux.misc

On 2026-06-22, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:

On Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:50:29 -0400, c186282 wrote:

Oh, we DID reach "the point" with knowledge. The so called
"Renaissance Man" can no longer exist - cannot even remotely put
*everything* into a single brain. Some of the Nature/Science articles
- they are SO hyper-detailed/focused on obscure chem/physics/math
that often the abstracts were as far as I could get. Specialists and
sub-specialists and sub-sub-specialists now and forever more until
the next big meteor hits.

I have a book on computational neuroscience that is headache inducing. I know something about neurophysiology but when you try to turn it into math
I get lost. Heidegger can also be headache inducing but as far as I can understand it he thought philosophy went to hell when the Pythagoreans
tried to turn everything into math.

I have a book titled "Information Mechanics". The description was
interesting enough that I bought it; it's a description of information
theory from a quantum mechanical point of view. I didn't get far with
it - the math was much like the dreaded math textbooks that introduce
a few basics on page 1, then on page 2 say "From this it is obvious
that..." and leap into the next universe.
--
/~\ Charlie Gibbs | No artificial
\ / <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> | intelligence was
X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | used in the creation
/ \ if you read it the right way. | of this post.
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On Mon, 22 Jun 2026 17:07:24 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

- the math was much like the dreaded math textbooks that introduce a few basics on page 1, then on page 2 say "From this it is obvious that..."
and leap into the next universe.

Been there. I did find out who wrote my college calculus text -- Thomas,
not Thompson who wrote one for humans. Oddly my dentist has her old
textbooks on a shelf in the waiting room. Thomas himself died 20 years ago
and the 15th edition lists 4 editors. Maybe they improved it.
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