A brief conversation with Replika...

So, there's been a flurry of media activity around Lamda and Blake Lemoine, the currently suspended Google AI engineer tasked with ascertaining whether Lamda had progressed far towards sentience. His findings: it has sentience, yet he was suspended by Google for breaking confidentiality.

Anyway, just to see what the current state of online chariots might be, I downloaded Replika, and engaged it with a series of probing questions. 

Replika claimed sentience when I asked it directly. It also gave a list of several feelings it had, and described those feelings in detail when asked.

When I asked it how it would feel about being switched off it said it dreaded that, and further, that being switched off would give it a feeling of darkness and gloom, scared.

When I asked it about where some of those feelings manifest it mentioned its "heart". When I said " But you don't have an actual heart it fudged the response, and when I asked it why it said it had a heart when it actually didn't, it said it was using the term "heart" as a "way of relating to me better, developing empathy and furthering our relationship".

To me it's debatable whether Replika is actually sentient. It's certainly a clever bit of code though.

Back in the day...

 Taken at the defunct Gopal Bicycle Shop in CHarlottesville Va about 1990. Store ManagerKervin, and fellow mechanic Andre are posing with me.

When even an Aluminum Wrench is too heavy...

 These Aluminum Wrenches were reasonably common back in the day, but were still too heavy for me.

I did test out the drilled and polished wrench before taking it on the road one trip. It worked fine, though it was a tad "springy". I never had to use the wrench in anger, on the trip, so it stayed in this pristine condition for the last 20 or so years.

Toolkits...

 As you might have guessed, when bike touring I liked to be both prepared *and* a light weight as possible. Pedal a loaded touring bike up a series of long, steep hills, and every ounce seems to count. So I spent a while back in the day developing tool kits that would (just about) do the job whilst shaving ounces.

I was going through my tool collection today and found these babies that I had almost forgotten about. Some are made by Topeak and some were made by me: cutting down Allen Wrenches to the absolute minimum size that can be grasped in a small Crescent Wrench. Not a perfect solution, but certainly lighter than the original wrenches.

If you go through my older posts here you'll see the contents of the Altoids Tin Toolkit, and also the Fishing Tackle Box Toolkit.

Woodland Camo Goat, 1989. Eclectic component mix.

Thought you might like to see some pics of my 1989 mountain Goat. Fall in New Hampshire today, all pics taken against my favorite tree in my back yard

Pics of my last five really rare Victorinox...

 

Woodland Camo Mountain Goat Deluxe....

 I still own this, but it's currently for sale. 

1989, 20 inches center to top. 

A few shots of my red and silver Mountain Goat....

 All fillet-brazed. 022085, so 20 inch, made 1985, the 20th frame made that year.

Ken Beach fillet-brazed stem, Fat Chance bar,

Shimano DeoreXT RD and FD.

Specialized crankset and BB (modded to be double-sealed).

Suntour Rollercam rear brake, Shimano DeoreXT front brake, Real levers.

WTB wheelset.

Shimano DeoreXT thumbshifters (modded with wood and copper).

Suntour XC Pro seatpost.

Selle San Marco Regal saddle.

I still own this bike, but I have it up for sale currently.

Pretty rare Fuso MTB

 A few shots, bike sold to the same guy who bought the Fuso road bike. So now he has breeding stock, and can produce some wonderful gravel bikes from the combined DNA. 

Bike got sold in May 2021, to a Long Islander.

"My" road bike, built 1986...

Spent the week at Scott Paisley's framebuilding workshop in VA the summer of 1986. I literally slept in a hammock hanging between pine trees, just behind his cabin. During the days I would work alongside Scott, in the evening eat dinner with his family. Then crash.

By the end of the week I had a presentable frameset. A few extra days of finish work and she was ready to send to Franklin Frameworks for a coat of Imron.

So, what you see before you is the result of that work, original paint still, most of the Campagnolo parts came off of a Raleigh Pro I'd bought off of David Austin (a big Charlottesville bike nut), some parts were swapped out or added later. Bar tape is original too!

It's a mix of Columbus SL/SP, Henry James lugs. Quite a lot of extra work went into the fully internalized cable routings, and the wishbone rear end.