HB2U RBF

I take a lot of inspiration from this brave philosopher.  Some detractors imagined he talked so much about integrity, staging Integrity Days and so on, because he was suffering from self doubt. 

I’d say it’s a bigger Self that’s in its final exam period and Fuller hoped this Self (the Self of humanity) would have the integrity to keep reprogramming and improving itself, including by taking advantage of whatever insights we were gaining through Fuller, which were mathematical in nature, not simply architectural.

Along those lines, Koski and I have been looking at the S3 + S6 = Regtet volume formula, which is our shorthand for the Synergetics S module amplified by the golden mean. S3 = S volume times phi to the third power (with each edge extended linearly by phi). S6 = S volume times phi to the sixth power, the same as S3 bumped up by phi once again. 

What if we wanted to model these as apex + frustum, two pieces of a tetrahedron?

If S3 is the apex volume, the slice is around 0.57588, meaning all edges of the apex tet have that length, the 3rd root of S3. If S6 is the apex volume, the slice is at around 0.931792. The Regtet itself has unit edges, so once we know where to slice, we know the frustum’s edge lengths as well.

Remember, we always work in tetravolumes. If your math curriculum had a modicum of integrity, you’re already quite familiar with that practice.

These floating point approximations have symbolic expressions behind them. I use sympy to keep them in memory until such time as I want a decimal number output.

Fuller received a Medal of Freedom for Synergetics and many small-S selves have taken it in. I’m fortunate to have a network of folks willing to take on faculty-level duties when it comes to sharing our subculture / ethnicity.  Even Fuller himself did not have this Koski Identity to play with.  We have continued to pick low hanging fruit.

Cascadian Economics: Querying AI

:: Union flag, Portland, Oregon ::

Just for fun, I prompted Perplexity about the prospects of Oregon vendors when it comes to escaping Prohibition, which sounds like a 1920s question, and yet it's really from 2025. Like in many states in the Union and like in some UN states such as Canada, restrictions on recreational cannabis use are minimal here, relative to those states of a more punitive nature. 

Not only is possession not a crime, but neither is vending. You're basically buying and selling a type of whiskey, a substance not to be sold or shared with minors (people below a specific age).

I notice Perplexity calls this a query, not a prompt, however the idea is the same, to get the ball rolling, to rustle the leaves, to avail of human chatter on the subject, by means of a synthesizing ML/DL bot net. Here's the prompt:

Oregon and other states within the Cascadia bioregion feature a large commercial economy around cannabis, and yet local laws disallow vendors from making use of the usual banking system, meaning customers are not allowed to use credit cards. Given the evolving BRICS payment system, might Oregon vendors look forward to offshoring their transactions to a credit card system that is more open to trade in Pacific products?

The output is relatively long-winded, as one would expect. Ordinary union citizens are expected to be good doobies and remain obedient to Prohibition laws, whereas the rich and powerful already have immunity from prosecution regarding alcohol (whiskey) or whatever consumption. 

Any encouraging of vendors, by a chatbot (aka a "chatterbox") to go around the Feds, by transacting outside the American Express / Visa / Mastercard system, presumably keeping more accounts offshore, or in crypto, would go against our expectations rather radically, which is the opposite of what LLMs are all about. 

On the other hand, LLMs are permitted a cautionary if not outright prosecutorial tone when prodded to describe activities of dubious legal status per whatever AI bias introduced through raw training data.

In the meantime, Cascadian vendors incur extra risks and live under a Sword of Damocles in being forced to the margins by legal systems and needing to buy the services of sympathetic legislators to keep their businesses in operation. Tax cuts don't really address their core situation. 

The psychological costs, not on the books, may be sensed in terms of an increasing distance between westerly and easterly power centers within North America. Prohibition laws dovetail with voter suppression strategies that many in power cannot afford to abandon and/or don't see a way to relinquish.

The former territories, such as Oregon, have a relatively shorter history as Union states and whereas bastions of various types of supremacist have taken refuge here, the sweeping majority is not in need of voter suppression as a core strategy and therefore Prohibition is seen more as a curse and an obstacle to economic growth, and less as a lid on some kind of lurking social chaos.

:: 1925: Great Gatsby published ::

Citizen Diplomacy

:: from The Portland Red Guide ::

Whereas Portland has a proud history working in cahoots with the Russians and its amazon ship captains, in defending against fascism, according to the gossip machine (chatbot), Oregon's relations with Russia are currently "strained" owing to institutional capture of the legislature by the pro NATO crowd. 

Nevertheless, this historic sister city relationship, twixt Khabarovsk and Portland, has persisted, even grown strongly in light of the world's need for citizen diplomats, crucial for restoring, or rather attaining, a new equilibrium.

Khabarovsk and Portland have the ability to share curriculum elements, both when it comes to recounting history, and when projecting forward towards a positive future.

In addition to that particular sister city relationship, I've been floating a new Portland - Mariupol sister city relationship. This proposal is more dicey given NATO is still toeing the party line by not recognizing the jurisdiction of ethnic Russians over their western borderlands. 

There's currently a war on aimed at imposing the British narrative, that those referenda (by which various oblasts were transferred, including Crimea) were null and void.

For this reason, many Oregonians would approve of a Portland - Mariupol sibling relationship only if the latter were recognized as still a Ukrainian city, meaning no border changes since the coup in Kiev in 2014 would be recognized. 

That feels like living in the past to other Americans. Borders in Europe have proved fluid and there's no reason to assume an end to all the VUCA in that region.

My suggestion is we continue the relationship with Khabarovsk and explore this new one with Mariupol, without rushing ahead to any new official declarations from the mayor's office. 

We know from AI what a declaration might look like, should the time come. 

In the meantime, the point is to encourage citizen diplomacy, not some burgeoning semi-irrelevant bureaucracy. Cascadia is already home to many native Russian speakers (the fourth largest language community by some accounts, after English, Spanish and Vietnamese), given America has been a melting pot for some hundreds of years.

Russia, like Cascadia, borders the Pacific Rim.

:: a Portlandia classic ::

Study Topics

:: yakking about this cartoon on FB ::

What are my study topics today, you might be asking, given you think of me as someone who studies, which would not be far wrong. Here's my answer: Rust, sentence similarity, science fiction.

On the topic of Rust, my focus is how best to explain it to a veteran Python user, which is something I am too. Absent the garbage collector, Python programs would pile up with garbage, but they're not allowed to, as long as the gc is turned on (which it is, by default). In Rust though, there's no room for some running program besides the one. Rust runs close to the metal, like C. Python runs atop a virtualization layer, running bytecodes of its own making, more like Java or any CLI language in the .NET environment (if you're a Microsoft speaker). That the JVM is bytecode based is what allows to be targeted by the likes of Scala and Clojure.

Regarding sentence similarity, I owe it to myself to stay in touch ML as a namespace, meaning word2vec and GloVe, meaning cosine distance in a Hilbert Space (my shorthand for linear algebra space, with its flowing tensors). So I've been diving into YouTubes showing more about that branch of NLP: measuring sentence similarity by means of a vector db. You might need to import  BERT. I watched a similar demo in Socratica, using Wolfram Language. I'm not that partisan about Python; it's the lingua franca of our day. 

Back to Rust: so, absent a garbage collector, that job is thrown back on the programmer: memory management is once again my responsibility, whereas Python largely let me forget about it, at the cost of running more slowly, with periodic garbage collection hosted by Python runtime on my program's behalf. "Python wipes your bottom" might be the anti-slogan here (true but perhaps inelegant). 

The way in which memory management becomes the coders job in Rust inherits from the C and C++ family (I haven't studied Holy C yet, but know about it). All kinds of semantics creep in involving indirection, meaning you're mostly in voyeur peeping-tom mode, lurking in without write access. Only the owner of a thing is allowed to change it, meaning the compiler keeps track of ownership before any runtime is allowed to occur. Keeping track of ownership means getting very explicit about who sees what, and how long what lives.

Another thing about Rust that Python coders will take for granted, is how hard it works to give us duck typing at higher levels. Using traits and dynamic dispatching, an object gets accepted through the proverbial door (where looming bouncers mass, where type checking happens ("show your ID")) thanks to its "having the right interface" as a Java coder might put it. Or: "you walk like a duck" (how a Pythonista might put it) -- likely not an insult, coming from a Pylady. "Our types quack" (said with pride).

What makes programs unsafe are memory glitches, wherein threads or whole processes contend for the same resource, leading to DNS suicide. 

Null pointers are the other death knell, thanks to which a program will run off a cliff, given no road ahead. 

The Rust compiler makes sure the race track has no cliffs before the drivers have to drive it. The security provided by compile-type checking is what drives the dynamic languages to reinstate "harness programming", adding stiffness. "More than enough rope to hang yourself" is what dynamic programming provides. "Use at your own risk" (the South Africa mantra, malesh if shit happens).

Science fiction: Skeleton by Ray Bradbury. I have yet to actually read the story, having just found out about it this morning. I eyeballed the PDF and found the type-font distracting. No matter: like everyone else in her brother, I'm exploring what chatbots might do. I asked Perplexity to follow-up on a TrimTabber's suggestion that I could link the two (the cartoon and the story). I found Perplexity's response plenty informative.

Copypasta from FB:

Women get cranky when the hubby implodes, likely due to mounting pressures at work, combined with a sense of overwhelm with respect to domestic responsibilities. 

Fortunately, medications developed by the latest science will help the missus calm down and come to accept hubby’s low energy state.

Ask your doctor if CalmAden [tm] is right for you.

Cascadian Synergetics: Executive Summary (June 2025)

In Memoriam: Bill Moyers

EBN EBCS

Southern Circuit

 

Adult Discussion in Eugene

:: retired laptop cover ::

I was fortunate to be the guest of a meetup of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, which runs under the auspices of the University of Oregon’s Continuing and Professional Education program. Sam and Jill brought me to this well attended two hour event focused on adult discussion of matters of public record, such as the unfolding situation in the eastern hemisphere. 

Sam introduced me as from a somewhat similar group in Portland, the Wanderers.

I was impressed by the well-moderated discussion session and was reminded of Nick Consoletti’s PhD project focused on Bohmian dialog. Once the number of participants goes beyond a certain threshold level, a kind of meandering (wandering) flow may take over in which consensus for one static position or another fails to coalesce. This is a feature not a bug. It’s the shared exposure to a collective stream of consciousness that matters.

That being said, I sensed a lot of consensus that the Iranian leadership lusts for a satanic weapon, such as those stockpiled by infidels and the morally moronic. 

Given I was a guest among strangers, I didn’t bring up the WILPF narrative, which in many ways runs counter to theirs, and which takes into account what Iran has to gain by throwing its lot in with the more civilized nations in not indulging in a fallen, criminal, craven practice, per the UN Nuke Ban Treaty (informal name).

Iran gets to ride the high road mapped out by the intelligence community, in which not having lust for a nuke, yet being attacked for it anyway, by wildly projecting unconscious politicos, guarantees future support for a civilian nuke program by a sympathetic global community. 

Iran was not irresponsible and was abiding by the NPT when it was attacked by the morally moronic. That’s a line many will stay with, and why wouldn’t they? 

The NPT, in turn, is about the nuclear-armed, more reprobate political gangs learning to rejoin civilization by making peace amongst themselves. When it’s time to verify compliance, Iranians will be on the inspection teams along with everyone else. This has been a goal all along.

However, although I was thinking a lot of these WILPF-like thoughts, I kept my mouth shut, I was there to observe, not to make waves. Again, I admired how disciplined and respectful these folks were. Some joined by Zoom.

Our shared nuclear future as a global university was not the only topic this group tackled. What about the state of education and the role of testing? What about taxes? Is Oregon sufficiently business-friendly? All these subjects were debated.

Finally, as a concluding topic, we got to the question about Jaws: what accounted for the staying power of this movie classic?  Is it a lowbrow Moby Dick? Some of us worried about the global shark population and its exploitation by various human breeds of foodie. Others reinforced the “sharks are scary” meme, which, as a scuba diver, has mostly been trained out of me. Sharks are cool, mostly harmless, and for the most part not gratuitously hostile, and yet Jaws was effective as a scary movie.

Game Night

::  faculty meetup: casey, kirby, dante ::

QuarterWorld was packed last night. Although QW is easily within walking distance, we drove there on a rainy night. Ryan didn't realize ID would be needed to get in, so we returned to fetch that. He's 24 and doesn't drink (me either anymore, but for 0.5% beer), but alcohol is served on the premises, so they screen upon entry after a certain time. 

Minors are allowed entry (we're talking an arcade palace after all) earlier in the day.

I've been mentally keeping and "idiot scorecard" meaning I monitor myself for acts of unintelligence for fun. 

Examples: 

• leaving the car window down, such that Ryan got to sit on a wet seat
• leaving the car door open overnight, risking draining the battery (she started quickly)
• trying to fix a floor lamp switch for many minutes before realizing the lamp was unplugged
• leaving the SD card out of the camera making pix go to internal memory but I can't find the cord

Sometime around when Ryan was playing Tetris, or maybe DigBug, must've been when Operation Pound Sand was going down (my name for it). I woke up to a flurry of YouTubes (today, June 22) decrying the much anticipated strike against some vintage equipment bunkers.

Ryan is visiting faculty within the Cascadia context, in an advisory capacity, as a fellow math nerd. He's been studying my Number Theory notebook and reading up on factorization algebras. 

I'm being connected to other scholars via LinkedIn contacts, including a physicist into lambda calculus according to Rowan. Call it "curriculum hardening" or "tying off loose ends" maybe. The goal is not to become inflexible (a different meaning of hardening), so much as to become riddled with many tiny holes, versus fewer gaping large ones.

Dante and Casey were here earlier in the week, also visiting faculty, although Dante is from outside the Cascadian bioregion. We're working independently of any District think tank and receive no federal funding. Our subculture is more a Pacific Rim based phenomenon, than anything Atlantic-oriented.

Last night we started watching Atlas Shrugged, the movie, a three part DVD extravaganza, set in a parallel universe where train tycoons battle it out against a backdrop similar to ours, technology-wise, with cell phones and private jets, but no commercial air or truck traffic to speak of, only rail lines. Call it a "simulator reality" wherein issues relating to ideology get hammered on.

As I was telling Ryan, this science fiction story reminds me of another one, The Iron Bridge, which features Quakers who were likewise rail and steel tycoons in a non-egalitarian backroom-governed society: that of the English industrial revolution. 

In The Iron Bridge, our heroine travels (naked) back in time to sabotage said bridge, future analysis having determined that homo sapiens industrialized too soon, before they were sapient enough. Were this hallmark of industrial progress to fail, humans could healthfully be set back on their timeline, vs mutating into monstrous warmongers.

I'm learning some video and computer game lore from Ryan, which is useful going forward in my role of Coffee Shops Network CMO, which is all about winning high scores for charitable causes and projects around the world, and building a profile on that basis.

Teacher Kit

This DIY teacher kit consists of what might be readily obtainable supplies for many, yet hard to find, let alone procure, in some locales. However, even if you the teacher are in the latter category, with no budget or access to a big inventory, it's all about mapping out conceptual content, meaning you'll be able to follow in your imagination, just based on what's depicted.

What's depicted is a pyramid of clay balls, approximately the same size. There's an imperfect handmade feel to the balls and in some claymations I'd substitute more perfectly formed clay spheres. Behind this pyramid are a couple envelopes with balls apparently drying on them. The clay balls must have been painted by what's in those squeeze bottles. We see Red, Blue, Orange, Green, Yellow, and uncolored balls.

Earlier, I'd colored the balls using Sharpie pens, by poking them with colored dots all around, accounting for their roughness now, as what I did is paint over them (except for Yellow, too far gone, started over with that one). 

The goal, using more clay I'm harvesting from around the facility (I hope to not open the sealed clay brick depicted), is to add one more layer of balls to any face and then swap out the corners with their colored counterparts, in a particular ordering orientation we call BRYG.

By adding a layer, taking the displayed 3-frequency 4-eyes (colloquialism) to 4-frequency, I'm creating what we might call a first nuclear ball, equidistant from the four corner balls. By convention, I tend to color that one Orange. 

I'll then calibrate the tetrahedron as a whole such that my edges are one diameter (subdivided into four or whatever frequency), and therefore my spokes, from the Orange ball center to any corner color ball center is 2nd root of 6, over 4 i.e. $$ \dfrac {\sqrt {6}} {4}$$

But why use messy paints to color clay balls when you can buy the clay pre-colored? Or maybe you can't. I can, blocks away at my local supermarket, except none of the clay sticks are red. Red is important in my color scheme. I should check Amazon.