Dystopian or utopian — which AI future is coming our way? As an avid consumer of science fiction in my youth, and, truth be told, still an avid reader, the genre is rife with both sides: the Skynet apocalypse or the more benign futures of Isaac Asimov’s robot series. Yet today we are deluged with […]
Author: Omar
In late November 2025, the Republic of the Marshall Islands quietly made history. Every resident citizen received a payment — $200, deposited into a bank account, handed over as a paper cheque, or, for a small handful of early adopters, delivered as a stablecoin to a digital wallet. The scheme will pay out roughly $800 […]
I was reading and quietly reflecting on Unconditional versus Universal Basic Income last week while on vacation. It occurred to me that the implicit problems these two programs address are quite distinct — and that examining that distinction is critical to developing clarity about what we want to achieve and the tools to do so. […]
Scott Santens has written a compelling case for universal basic income – subscribe to his Substack! – and I agree with the overarching goal of designing more effective and humane welfare systems. Unconditional cash transfers are central to the dignity and agency of poor households, and the operational case against means-testing — that it excludes […]
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First Neural Network
In Machine Learning there is the “Hello World” problem – namely the classification of three species of irises using a 1936 dataset. Learning Agenda: Programming Goals:
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AI augmented research
Question of the Day: When is using AI, and AI tools, unethical and/or verge into plagiarism? What and when does one report out regarding the use of AI tools? How does that disclaimer influence the reader? My last post focused on my, preliminary, experimentation with agentic AI. Today I am reporting out on my next […]
My first AI agent
Or: Part of my learning journey as regards Artificial Intelligence. I cannot imagine that there is anyone capable of using a computer and the internet who has not been subjected to some Artificial Intelligence add-on. It is definitely a worthwhile endeavor to spend some time and play with AI tools – Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, CoPilot, […]
I am getting increasingly irritated with the “enshittification” of so many things tech – closely linked to the subscription model – of everything. Very tiring. With that inspiration, I am taking a cautious, and deeper, dip into the world of free and open source software. This month that meant purchasing a second hand computer (Dell […]
It is official, after a few months of sitting on the sidelines to see what would or would not happen, I decided to accept the so-called Deferred Resignation Program 2.0. This means that I am now effectively retired. As a consequence, I will now devote this blog to mostly my ruminations on intersection of project […]