Counting hash collisions with the birthday paradox

In theory, behavior change should be easy. At first glance, it seems like you control your behavior. So, if you desire different behavior, why doesn’t your behavior change as instantly as your desire to change it? In short, lasting change of habitual behaviors is a multi-stage process. In 1977, as psychologists James Prochaska and Carlo...

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Midjournery are able to replicate (and often exceed) human-like performance on tasks like taking exams, generating text and making art. Even to seasoned programmers, their abilities can seem magical. But, obviously, there is no magic. These things are “just” artificial neural networks – circuits inspired by...

Compared to prior versions, GPT-4 is more capable at writing fiction. Combined with its advances in reasoning, this allows it to maintain a consistent state in a fictional universe as it emulates a text-based adventure game like the classic Zork. In this article, I’ll explain how to convert GPT-4 into a game engine for interactive text-based...

I recently wrote about completing Advent of Code 2022 using a different programming language (or two) every day for 25 days. That note focused on the strategy, tactics and logistics involved in using 26 languages in 25 days without saying much about the languages or the experience itself. Using so many languages in such a short span provided...

Since making a sudden leap from computer science to academic medicine about seven years ago, I haven’t programmed as much. I love what I do in medicine and biology, and I love helping patients. But, I have missed programming – and programming languages. Then I came across the Advent of Code on Mastodon – a series of daily two-part puzzles for...