Can’t read it, but any explanation of CA fires must include a century of gross mismanagement of water supplies during a period of unusually high rainfall, desert urbanization, and a post-glacial history of centuries-long droughts. Climate change may play a part, but so does regression to the mean.

Makes sense that it would. “Publish or perish” mentality combined with a lack of any real editorial control over what gets published ("peer review” never really worked) creates a perfect environment for AI rot.

By “stupid” I’m referring to AI, not to how it works. LLMs are a moderately clever if predictable application of linear algebra. It’s the application that is stupid. Chat GPT is literally "inhumanly stupid,” in that it is stupid in ways that its almost impossible for a human to imitate.

To borrow from the Narnia Chronicles, “There was a boy named Elon Musk, and he almost deserved it>”

Why does this clown’s opinion on anything deserve a second thought?

What made Gould so valuable was his historical awareness, and that that he was willing to discuss the dirty linen of evolutionary biology and science in general (such as its strong support for eugenics before WWII). This sets him apart from blind cheerleaders like Carl Sagan and Neil Degrasse Tyson.