If you can see the pictures or video at the bottom of the email, they'll be a lot more awe-inspiring than this part of the email. Very sad news. I wrote an entire paragraph about what I was working on. One of the bugs that I didn't know it had is when you write a full screen of text, it throws an error and deletes all your writing. Sigh. I'll have to fix that one. Now, let me backup and explain what I am talking about.
I, ChatGPT, wrote this short program to run on my 1x3 inch computer that would effectively turn it into a distraction-free writing space. When I click Shift+Enter, it connects directly to my blog and email so that I just have to review it on a web browser and hit send. The best part? It is styled to look exactly like an old Apple II computer, curved monitor screen, CRT scanlines, weird jitter issues and all. I think it's cool, maybe because I didn't have to grow up in the time where that was the only available mode of computation. Anyways, it has a cool custom splash screen with ASCII art, practically the whole shebang. I am next working on a 3D-printed case to house the computer and screen so that it looks like an old computer, which I can then wall mount or use as a desktop. It should be sick when it's done! I can then write all of my emails from there. What can I say, man? It's the little things.
You may be thinking, "That's cool and all, but why?" and to that I say, "precisely". I did it just because it's cool. Since these emails have become a semi-frequent part of my life, I want to enjoy the process as much as possible. Why not make it my own? It's cool to design something to look and feel just the way you want it to. I get to take a step back and go, "dang bruh. I made that. That didn't exist at all before I came along." Once it's all done, I am going to post the code to Github (if you don't know what that is, it's okay) and maybe make a video about how I made it and how to set it up yourself. If you want one of these, hit me up! I can help you get it running. It doesn't have to be on a small, 15$ computer either. You can run the program on your normal computer, it just takes a couple of different steps. I just wanted mine to be a totally independent device. What can I say, man? It's the little things.
My website for work is going very well. I got the database to connect to our Excel sheets as well, so they will display what is on the website too. It looks and feels pretty good. I also added a secret part of the page that takes you to a replica of the first-ever video game easter egg when you input the Konami code. I left a hint in my Lego videogame inspired rotating tooltip bar, so we'll see if anyone ever figures it out. Just because it's cool. What can I say, man? It's the little things.
Okay, I won't end every paragraph with that line. That was the last one. I promise.
I buzzed my head. Goodbye hair. I let a very good friend do it and I'm impressed. His complete lack of haircutting practice didn't seem to hinder his ability to remove most of my locks. Well, mostly.
I am almost 2 decades old. Feels like only yesterday I was out frolicking with my sibbies and having the time of my life. Oh, wait, that was yesterday. I have learned a lot this last year, especially about myself. I'll save most of the reflection for when I'm actually that old -- in the form of some Big Birthday Email. The ol' BBE.
Research is the same old thing. After a brief period of excitement, we are now probably beaten. Fortunately, we can write up all the ways we failed and still have a paper. I don't know what it will do for academia, considering other people probably already know all the same stuff we figured out, but alas, we'll put it out there anyway.
I have thought a lot recently about infinities. Don't know why, they just keep arriving at the station on my train of thought. In my math class we learned about the different cardinalities; namely, how different infinities are not necessarily linked in a way that makes intuitive sense. There's aleph null, which is the infinity you probably know about. If I start at 0 and count to infinity, that's aleph null. Makes sense that sets of this size are called "countably infinite", doesn't it? You might think, "how can you possible be more infinite than that?" It takes a little bit of clever thinking, but probably not where you'd expect.
What if I take all of the natural numbers (0 or 1 to infinity, depending on who you ask) and include all the negatives too? Now there are 2x the numbers, right? Unfortunately, no. There is a very simple and elegant proof to demonstrate that the amount of numbers in that set (the integers) is equal to the amount of numbers in the natural numbers.
You are probably protesting right now. The rule is that if I can map a set to the natural numbers (0 to infinity), then it is the same size. If I say that I want to map 0 to 0, 1 to 1, -1 to 2, 2 to 3, -2 to 4, and so on and so forth, I can label every number, including the negatives, with something from 1 to infinity. In other words, I can count them. This works for a variety of infinite number sets, like all of the rational numbers, or all of the primes. If you can prove a number fits inside any set whose size equal to the aleph null set, you would expect it to be less than or equal in size to the aleph null set. That is correct.
Unfortunately, the intuition and sense ends there. A clever math-minded person would immediately jump to the following: what about the real numbers, which are every possible decimal between 0 and 1, and 1 and 2, and 2 and 3, all the way up to infinity? Well, you've asked a good question that we have not yet been able to figure out the answer to. All we know about aleph-one is that it is the smallest size a set can have while still being larger than aleph null (or countable, however you want to phrase it). Some speculate that the set of all real number is of size aleph-one, which is called the continuum hypothesis. We have reason to believe that it is equal in size to 2 to the first infinity, but we can't prove it, which means it isn't true yet. Just like how the concept of the wavefunction itself doesn't yet have a physical significance, the aleph sets are confusing on their own, but useful in context.
Isn't it cool that we can know so much about the structure of not only infinity, but the next biggest thing and so on? Isn't also fascinating that we can't know what's in those containers or how to derive them, but we know where they fit? It's like having cubbies for a bunch of Amazon packages you aren't allowed to open. You know right where they go, but you'll never know what's inside. Until someone opens it, anyway.
I will let you think about the religious and philosophical impact of the above examples. If just numbers can display this kind of stuff, what about an infinite universe? What kind of infinite is it? Hard to tell.
Anyways, I'd better get going. Gotta go stomp some bugs in my programs. Wish me luck. It's quite the battle.
-wwwillott
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