Sutskever's List

Pseudo technical review: 

Foundational ideas of modern AI
Richard Heimann
MEAP began September 2025 Last updated September 2025 Publication in Spring 2026

 

 

Solaria

Talk with ChapGpt:
(it makes me wonder if we are going to Solaria...)

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I remember in Naked Sun from Asimov, there was a family in a planet that couldn't live near each other

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Exactly — you’re remembering The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov quite well.

In that novel, the story takes place on the planet Solaria, one of the “Spacer worlds.”
The people there are indeed so isolated that they can’t stand physical proximity to others — even being in the same room is unbearable to them.

Here’s what’s going on in more detail 👇

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🌍 Solaria: The Anti-Social Planet

• Solaria has a tiny human population (only about 20,000 people) spread across an entire planet.

• Each person lives on a huge estate, served by thousands of robots.

• Over centuries, this extreme comfort and automation led to social isolation:

  • People interact only through “viewing” (a kind of holographic video communication).

  • “Seeing” someone in person — physical presence — became psychologically intolerable.

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🧠 Social consequences

• They raise children apart; even spouses don’t live together.

• Physical contact is seen as dirty or obscene.

• Ironically, they have no fear of death or robots, but a deep fear of other humans.

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🔍 In the story

Detective Elijah Baley (from Earth) is sent to Solaria to investigate a murder — the first murder in centuries on that planet.
He’s partnered again with R. Daneel Olivaw, his robot companion.
Baley’s discomfort with robots (as an Earthman) contrasts with the Solarians’ discomfort with people.

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🧩 Theme

Asimov uses Solaria to explore:

• The dangers of technological isolation.

• How a society’s environment and habits can reshape human psychology.

• The idea that too much comfort and automation can erode empathy and connection.

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Knowledge Pyramid

Neal Ford on Mark's Pyramid about breadth vs depth knowledge.

https://nealford.com/memeagora/2015/09/08/knowledge-breadth-versus-depth.html

Backtracking Algorithms Letter

 

Dr. Dobb's Journal Volume 29, Issue 9, Number 364, September 2004

ITTF Obstruction

Regla de obstruccion de la pelota en donde genera confusiones.

En el mundial de dobles mixtos Chengdu 2024 revisan el Table Tennis Review (TTR), y queda clara la falta. (a pesar del reclamo del equipo chino)

Under the ITTF rules, a player commits an obstruction by touching the ball in play when it is above or moving towards the playing surface, provided it hasn't yet bounced on their side of the table since being hit by the opponent. This includes the player or anything they are wearing or carrying. The intent is to penalize actions that prevent an opponent from making a good return, rather than simply accidentally stopping the ball. 

 

 

Server-Side WebAssembly

Tech Review:

Server-Side WebAssembly
Lightweight apps with Wasm
 

Danilo Chiarlone
MEAP began October 2024 Last updated August 2025 Publication in Early 2026

https://www.manning.com/books/server-side-webassembly

 

Data Preparation for AI and Analytics

Tech Review:

Data Preparation for AI and Analytics
From data to insights
Benoît Cayla

MEAP began December 2024 Last updated May 2025 Publication in October 2025 (estimated) 
ISBN 9781633435742 300 pages (estimated) 

We regret that we will not be publishing this title.

https://www.manning.com/books/data-preparation-for-ai-and-analytics-cx

Spider Legs

 An old prize from Pickover.

 

Why Learn C

Technical Reviewer

Why Learn C
Go Behind the Curtain of Modern Systems with C23
Aug 2025

https://github.com/Apress/Why-Learn-C

https://link.springer.com/book/9798868815966

Dominosa Problem 73

For the 3rd printing of TAOCP Volume 4B.

0 6 1 5 1 1 4 6
6 6 6 1 1 0 1 4
5 6 1 3 2 1 4 4
5 5 3 2 6 2 2 4
5 3 6 3 2 0 2 2
3 4 3 0 0 5 2 5
3 3 0 4 0 0 5 4

That gets 807,752 solutions.

 

https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/taocp.html

https://devwebcl.blogspot.com/2018/06/dominosa.html

 

https://devwebcl.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-art-of-computer-programming-volume.html

 

https://www.solitairelaboratory.com/puzzlelaboratory/DominoGG.html

 

Premature Optimization is the Root of all Evil.

• https://shreevatsa.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/premature-optimization-is-the-root-of-all-evil/
• https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Donald_Knuth#Computer_Programming_as_an_Art_(1974)
• https://wiki.c2.com/?PrematureOptimization

  

Surreal Numbers

Java 30 years

Remembering the Java 30th Anniversary

2008! 

Java 1.4

 

 

Laconismo

 

m. Cualidad de lacónico, especialmente aplicado a la brevedad de la expresión.

Sin.:

• brevedad, concisión, síntesis.

Ant.:

• locuacidad, verbosidad.

 

 Esto es especialmente útil por su eficacia (como en jerga militar), por razones filosóficas (para los minimalistas, como los estoicos), para desarmar discursos largos y demagógicos o por un especial esfuerzo educativo en este aspecto que es el verdadero origen de esta palabra. 

El laconismo puede ser un vicio del lenguaje, ya que la falta de palabras puede producir dificultades en la comprensión del mensaje. En otras circunstancias puede resultar útil y eficaz, como es el caso del ámbito militar o cuando se trata de explicar conceptos de manera breve y concisa.^[2]​  

Una de las anécdotas que da origen a este término se debe a que Filipo II de Macedonia lanzó a los laconios la siguiente advertencia: «Si invado Laconia, os arruinaré para siempre», a lo que los laconios contestaron escuetamente: «αἴκα» (que viene a significar un «si» condicional).^[3]​^[4]​

Otro ejemplo es la expresión que, según Plutarco, Leónidas I pronunció ante la demanda del ejército aqueménida de que depusieran sus armas, Molon labe, cuyo significado es ‘Ven y tómalas’.^[5]​

Otra famosa respuesta exponente del laconismo, y ligada a las virtudes militares de los espartanos, fue la que dio Diéneces en la batalla de las Termópilas: cuando un aliado traquinio dijo que había tantos arqueros persas que con sus flechas bloquearían la luz del sol, él respondió que de esa manera lucharían a la sombra.^[6]​^[7]

 

^{- https://dle.rae.es/laconismo}

^{- https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconismo}

 

What is Apache Camel?

 

 What is Apache Camel?

·Definition: Apache Camel is an open-source integration framework.

·Purpose: Simplifies integration tasks by providing a standardized approach.

·“Camel is an Open Source integration framework that empowers you to quickly and easily integrate various systems consuming or producing data.” https://camel.apache.org/

 

  Key Features

 

§DSL (Domain Specific Language): Supports Java, XML, Groovy, Kotlin, etc.

§Components: Over 300 components for various protocols (, including HTTP, JMS, FTP, Kafka, ActiveMQ, and databases) and data formats. (XML, Swift MT/MX)

§Routing and Mediation: Powerful routing and mediation engine.

§Enterprise Integration Patterns (EIPs) Apache Camel implements a wide range of EIPs, enabling developers to create complex integration logic using standardized patterns.

§Lightweight and Modular Camel can be embedded in various runtime environments such as Spring Boot, Quarkus, standalone Java applications, K8s

§Monitoring and Management Offers tools like JMX, Micrometer, and Camel K integrations for monitoring and managing routes.

 

Architecture

 

·Camel Context: Core container for routing rules.

·Routes: Define the flow of messages.

·Components: Connectors to external systems.

 

Example Route

 

 

uExplanation: Reads files from input, logs the content, transforms, and writes to output.

uCons: it uses XSLT for the transformation

uThe data format leverages the library Prowide ISO 20022 to encode and decode SWIFT MX messages.

 Use Cases 

·Enterprise Integration: Connecting different enterprise systems.

·Microservices: Integrating microservices in a cloud environment.

·Data Transformation: Converting data formats between systems and enrichment.

 

DSL 

●Choose Java DSL for:

○Complex routing and dynamic logic.

○Teams with Java expertise.

○Projects where integration routes are tightly
coupled with application logic.

●Choose XML DSL for:

○Readability by non-developers or integration-focused teams.

○Static routing requirements or Spring integration.

○Projects where routing is separated from application code.

●Choose YAML DSL for:

○Cloud-native environments (e.g., Camel K).

○Lightweight, declarative configurations.

○Quick and simple integrations with minimal custom logic.

Resources

 

·Documentation: Apache Camel Documentation https://camel.apache.org/docs/

·Community: Forums, mailing lists, and GitHub. 

·https://github.com/apache/camel

·https://medium.com/@lakshmeeshachar/a-basic-guide-to-apache-camel-architecture-dccaee8690ee