Brane Space: September 2024

Friday, September 20, 2024

Global Youth Are Correct To Worry About Climate Change Effects On Their Lives

These youngsters have a right to complain.

The latest warning regarded the fragmentation of youngsters (age 12- 25) mental health appeared in the latest issue of New Scientist (24 August, p.14) noting the role of social media overuse (5 hrs. a day) but also increasing "eco-anxiety" from climate change. Most astounding, we learn in England for example, up to 1 in 5 kids aged 8 to 16 have a "probable mental health condition."

The bullying aspect of social media we all know too well, e.g.

NO More Deaths Due to Bullies!
The climate anxiety aspect is less well known, though we are more aware of the biological horrors that can be unleashed as warming intensifies,
http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2011/08/biological-nightmares-of-climate-change.html

Among those is the increase in dread tropical diseases - like dengue fever as mosquitoes migrate north with warmer temperatures, i.e.

How We Dodged A Dengue Fever Outbreak In Barbados-.

As well as more frequent invasions of brains by parasites, like the tape worm and its larvae, e.g.

In the case of Taenia solium, or the tapeworm, before the worms become adults they spend time as larvae in large cysts, which may find their way into the brain (see image) and cause a condition known as neurocysticercosis. Lowball estimates suggest 5 million cases of epilepsy arising from this condition, worldwide. The numbers are increasing as the worm -cyst invasion of the human body is increasing. (See the excellent monograph, Parasite Rex). Most of the cases, understandably, are in the less developed world, but that is changing as hotter temperatures become the norm in the developed nations.

All of these, not to mention increasing potential for more frequent heat death, possible collapse of power girds, little access to water, add up to major anxiety for our kids. According to the New Scientist piece, "global warming is especially concerning for young people, who have more years ahead of them than older people."

So I have tons of sympathy for my 20-something nieces and nephews who will have to live in an ever more intolerable hothouse world - overcome by heat as well as endless monster hurricanes, tornadoes, floods - as well as diseases and pests - while I might have barely 5 years left if I'm lucky. So I am likely to avoid the worst of it.

The piece also adds: "Beyond existential worries, exposure to extreme heat in early childhood has been linked to brain changes which may harm mental health."

That according to Emma Lawrance of Imperial College, London. Thus, adverse effect on the young brain can go even beyond increasing parasite infestation. A yen to live to 100 like the age defying nincompoops plan to? No way.

Geopolitics, Thy Name Is Climate Change

by Tarique Niazi | September 18, 2024 - 5:27am | permalink

— from Foreign Policy In Focus

Bangladesh was still reeling from political turmoil, which felled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government on August 5, when a flood disaster struck out of the blue, upending the lives of six million Bangladeshis. Half a million people were left to their own devices, beyond the reach of first responders. Worst of all, two million children were exposed to the aftermath of flooding. Dhaka had not seen a deluge like this in the past three decades. Yet the country is no stranger to disasters. Just in May this year, it was battered by Storm Remal, devastating millions. In 2023, it was Cyclone Mocha that visited its wrath on two neighboring states: Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The speed and severity of flash floods is equally quick to inflame geopolitical tensions, as Dhaka accused neighboring India aggravating the situation by opening the floodgates of a dam in a neighboring state. India denied the charge and blamed erratic monsoons for swelling the transboundary Gomati River that overflowed its banks. Bangladesh and India share 54 transboundary rivers, including the Ganges and Yamuna. As an upstream country, India is viewed with suspicion by downstream Bangladesh. All downstream nations suspect their upstream neighbors in the event of such calamities. For its part, India blames upstream China for major diversions on transboundary rivers. Similar accusations are heard among 11 riparian nations on the Nile. All this shows how climate change shapes geopolitics.

» article continues...

And:

Energy Policy | Environmental Policy

Turning Down the Heat, and the Noise

by Stan Cox | September 18, 2024 - 5:22am | permalink

— from TomDispatch

The most pressing environmental crisis of these times, our heating of the Earth through carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas pollution, is closely connected to our excessive energy consumption. And with many of the ways we use that energy, we’re also producing another less widely discussed pollutant: industrial noise. Like greenhouse-gas pollution, noise pollution is degrading our world—and it’s not just affecting our bodily and mental health but also the health of ecosystems on which we depend utterly.

Noise pollution, a longstanding menace, is often ignored. It has, however, been making headlines in recent years, thanks to the booming development of massive, boxy, windowless buildings filled with computer servers that process data and handle internet traffic. Those servers generate extreme amounts of heat, the removal of which requires powerful water-chilling equipment. That includes arrays of large fans that, in turn, generate a thunderous wall of noise. Such installations, known by the innocuous term “data centers,” are making growing numbers of people miserable.

» article continues...

And:

COP28 Climate Summit - Likely To Be A 'Bust' For A Number Of Reasons - And What About That 'Hockey Stick' Graph?

(Partial) Solution to Linear Fractional Differential Equations (1)

Find the general solution of:

(2 - x - y) dx + (3 + x + y) dy = 0

Recall: dy/dx = M(x,y)/ N(x,y)

Or: M(x,y) dx = N(x,y) dy

M(x,y) = 2 - x - y = a + bx + cy

N(x,y) = (3 + x + y) = = a + bx + gy

Then: ( a + bx + cy) dx = (a + bx + gy) dy

a = 2, b = -1, c = -1

a = 3, b= 1, g = 1

We demand (for Case I): bg - c b ≠ 0

The two straight lines defined by setting the two equations (for M, N) equal to zero and intersecting at a point (h,k). We translate the origin to this point using:

x = X + h and: y = Y + k

Then we obtain: dy/dx = dY/dX

Find the point of intersection (h,k) by solving the simultaneous pair:

2 - x - y = 0

3 + x + y = 0

6 – 3x – 3y = 0

6 + 2x + 2y = 0

-x – y = 0 or -x = y so x = -1

Then: x = h = -1 and: y = k = 1

Then the transformation:

x = X + h = X - 1 and y = Y + k = Y + 1, yields:

(2 – X – 1 – Y + 1)dX + (3 + X – 1 + Y + 1)dY = 0

dY/dX = (3 + X + Y)/ (2 – X – Y)

Or:

(2 – X – Y) dX + (3 + X + Y)dY = 0

The resulting DE is homogeneous, so we let:

Y = vX and dY = v dX + X dv, to obtain:

(2 – X – vX) dX + (3 + X + vX)(v dX + X dv)

After working through the algebra and then using the reverse transformations:

X = x + 1 and Y = y - 1,

And integrating, we obtain:

Ans. 2y - 2x + 5 ln (2x + 2y + 1) = c

(Detailed working left to industrious readers.)

Thursday, September 19, 2024

Latest Auroral Display - From G4 Level Solar Storm- Lights Up Skies As Far South As AL, MS, TX

Sept. 10 solar storm triggers green aurora in Edmonton, Alberta

The most powerful solar storm since a show in May – one that space scientists called a space spectacle of a lifetime - marked the latest in a recent string of geomagnetic events. This storm slammed Earth on Monday night, Sept. 16 - sending auroras far south in the Northern Hemisphere. Spawned by a coronal mass ejection (CME), a powerful explosive stream of plasma unleashed by the Sun, the storm reached level G4 or “severe” on the 1 to 5 scale for geomagnetic storms.

In this case the aurorae were visible in portions of Mississippi, Texas, Arizona, California and other locations at similar latitudes. It followed another G4 event last month that also produced northern lights in parts of the southern United States.

The northern lights display was vibrant enough to shine through the bright light of a supermoon that reaches totality Tuesday night. Unfortunately, clouds obstructed the view in a number of places that would likely have otherwise caught a glimpse. Much of the Mid-Atlantic, including the D.C. area, had low visibility.

The cause of this latest northern lights episode and the others in recent months is a solar cycle heading toward peak intensity. See link below for more on the sunspot cycle:

Examining The Nature Of Sunspot Cycles (1)

And:

Examining The Nature Of Sunspot Cycles (2)

The peak of any given cycle, however, cannot be determined until after the fact. But space weather forecasters can still predict fairly accurately over the next year or so. And that means that more intense geomagnetic storms and displays of the northern lights are probable.

The solar cycle peak is associated with an increase in sunspot numbers, and more sunspots lead to plentiful solar flare eruptions associated with magnetic disturbances that sweep past Earth. (See two links given above). While the cycle lasts an average of 11 years, it can be as short as eight or as long as 14, according to space.com.

But be assured many more of these spectacular events are yet to come as the Sun works its way up to maximum, meaning many more CMEs (hopefully not launched from the central meridian) toward planet Earth.

See Also:

A Look At Basic Solar Dynamo Theory

And:

A Threat To U.S. Power Grids? Solar X-Ray Flares .

And:

Solar Max Peak Expected To Be Earlier & More Violent Than Originally Forecast

Dems "Need To Answer" For Toxic Rhetoric? Sorry, Henny, Trump Is The One Who Needs To Answer

Henniger - shameless WSJ Trump ass licker

"I could stand in the middle of fifth avenue and shoot somebody and not lose any voters" - Donald Trump in a 2016 campaign boast

"We're being told that because people are trying to kill Donald Trump, we've got to watch what we say now, that we've got to lower the tone, soften the criticism, and make nice. We're also being told that because no one has attempted to kill high profile Democrats (if you don't count the brutal attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband) that could only be because Democrats are the ones promoting violence. "Radical" Dems are being especially incendiary in their criticism of Donald Trump so these attempts to kill the son of a bitch are surely traceable to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Pelosi, too, for good measure. Maybe Schumer, too, or all the liberal haters on social media.

Who else has urged violence against anyone since Trump triumphed over sanity in 2016? Haven't Republicans shown moderation and restraint day in and day out, consistently behaving like gentlemen and gentlewomen while posing with weapons, campaigning on the retribution and payback, demonizing women, cat lovers, people of color and student protestors? Has anyone ever heard a Republican calling down contumely on "fake" news, or singling out reporters with hatred, or referring to the main stream press as the "enemy of the people"? Could that have been wrong? Hell no, that's just free speech, a fundamental right, like the god-given right for anyone who wants one to own an AR-15."- Jaime O'Neill, Permalink, 'The Puke Parade- With All Due Respect'

The nature of the deranged sociopath (and psychopath) Nazi-loving traitor called Trump has evidently turned the brains of his media supporters to mush. Such is the case with permanent WSJ Trump Troll and bootlicker Dan Henninger- who scribbled in his latest fishwrap ('Killing Trump' p. A11 today) that:

"The Democrats should answer for their role in the toxic politics of America....that's led to two assassination attempts on Trump."

Give me a freaking break, do! In fact, the orange scum himself, whose every word is laden with lies and vitriol, has been responsible for driving up polarized tensions in this country - to a boiling point. If anyone needs to answer for the toxic rhetoric permeating our political discourse it's Donald Trump. Only in the last week - since last Tuesday's debate with Kamala - he has reduced one American town (Springfield, OH) to lockdowns, shutdowns in the wake of 33 bomb threats. This was after the demented fuckface hurled out this barf during the debate:

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” he said.

It was a sound bite that would be endlessly repeated, memed and remixed.

Within days, half of Trump voters believed this dehumanizing story was true, a YouGov poll found. Security threats forced school evacuations and hospital lockdowns in Springfield.

The original (July) assassination attempt on Dotard Trump followed months in which Trump at his rallies had been spewing violent rhetoric. Trump had already been recorded as averring months ago that Gen. Mark Milley ought to be 'executed for treason" and demanded more recently Liz Cheney also face trial for treason - given her central role on the January 6th committee.

Lest readers forget, this orange reprobate urged supporters to beat up protesters at rallies in 2016, cheered a Republican congressman for body-slamming a reporter, and called for looters and shoplifters to be shot. He has also - the past year - called his political enemies ‘vermin,’ described some undocumented migrants as 'animals’ and warned of a ‘bloodbath’ if he fails to win in November. Meanwhile, he's vowed retribution on all those who properly brought legal cases - including Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg whose team brought the recent hush money case which saw 34 felony charges. Trump last April, e.g. even posted images of himself with a baseball bat aimed at Bragg's head e.g.

As noted in The Guardian from April 23, 2023:

"Trump had already signaled that he would go after the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, weeks before the grand jury handed up an indictment against him on Thursday, saying in pugilistic posts on Truth Social that the prosecution was purely political and accusing Bragg of being a psychopath."

But the real psychopath is Trump, especially after his deranged outburst in the Sept. 10 debate. So if anyone needs to answer for the ongoing violence and chaos marring this 2024 campaign, it is the agent of chaos - Trump. As The WSJ noted (False Claim That Immigrants Are Eating Pets Stirs Chaos', p. A3, Sept. 14-15), Trump's vile words set off dozens of bomb threats leading to school shutdowns as well as hospital lockdowns - as officials try to regain control of their town.

Despite sowing such fear and chaos Trump (and Vance) doubled down on their toxic claptrap with Trump even vowing to target the Haitians in Springfield for early deportation if he gets back in. In that regard, Velshi (on MSNBC) Sunday noted on how the neo-Nazis cheered on their pet media site (GAB) while Trump was spewing his brain rot. To them the orange rat fucker had basically 'mainlined' their meme, their trope. As one of the imps wrote: "This is what real power looks like." Meanwhile, the Proud Boys assembled to march down Springfield's streets.

Make no mistake, Trump's love for Nazis and white supremacists is not aberrational for him, it's normal. Recall the imp applauded the white supremacists who carried their Tiki torches in August, 2017 at Charlottesville as "Some very fine people":

Nazis and KKK'ers marched for Trump and white power in Aug. 2017

And with the equally misshapen and unhinged Proud Boys he told to "Stand back and stand by" in a 2020 debate. Well, they heeded his words too.

The havoc and chaos unleashed thus far, we may be sure, are but a minor portent of what's to come as Trump's desperation to grab power again grows. But given the Trump fascists are all about a power grab, even vowing (before the incident) that they plan to contest any election result before even called, gives a hint of the megabytes of disreputable bunkum still to come. Just bear in mind that Adolf Hitler used a similar ruse, in the wake of the Reichstag fire, to consolidate his own power before terminating Weimar democracy via the Enabling Act.

The Trump fist pump delivered as his sorry ass was escorted off the Butler Farm rally site on July 13th:

Said it all. And ought to be a warning that this roach of an insurrectionist isn't anywhere close to becoming a changeling. He even admitted in the wake of the event, "for five or six hours I thought of being nice" - then expelled the thought like regurgitated vomit. Nice isn't in his DNA, only rage and retribution. So in a way it wasn't surprising to see the Trump RNC speech veer from an initial pose of modest grace and restraint (and cognizance of his own mortality) to one of grievance, blustering, and reckless retribution claims.

Do millions of Americans really want this orange piece of criminal pus back fouling the White House again? I refuse to believe it. Let me rephrase that: I refuse to believe a majority of my countrymen are racist morons and slimeballs who'd willingly turn the nation over to this hateful Traitor Turd.

As for Dan Henninger, it might be time for him to pull his head out of Trump's ass long enough to see reality. He could start by grasping the most recent would-be assassin - Ryan Routh - had actually been a Trump voter, until he turned against Ukraine. The earlier guy - Crooks - was a registered Republican. At the very least Henny needs to get less reckless before he casts his blame stones.

by Thom Hartmann | September 17, 2024 - 6:21am | permalink

— from The Hartmann Report

With European antisemites from the Middle Ages right up through WWII, the blood libel was to claim that Jews were using the blood of Christian children to make their matzo bread for Passover. In 1890s America, east coast German and Dutch immigrants were slandered with claims they were making sausage from local pets; the assertion was even made into a then-well-known folk song. Chinese immigrants suffered the same sort of defamation with white Americans spreading rumors of pets being served in their restaurants from the 19th century through last year.

Now it’s Donald Trump and JD Vance turn telling the vicious, racist lie that legal Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are both here illegally (they’re not) and are eating the pets of local white people (also a lie). Most recently, Don Jr. has repeated his father’s frequent claim that Black people have lower IQs than white Americans:

“You look at Haiti, you look at the demographic makeup, you look at the average I.Q. — if you import the third world into your country, you’re going to become the third world.”

» article continues...

And:

Donald Trump

Nothing Will Change Trump — Not Even an Assassination Attempt

by Joan McCarter | July 16, 2024 - 7:05am | permalink

— from Daily Kos

In an interview Sunday with the Washington Examiner, Donald Trump said he is rewriting his upcoming acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention because of Saturday’s assassination attempt. He’ll be going for unity this time, he promised.

“This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together. The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago,” he said.

Before that, it “was going to be a humdinger” and “one of the most incredible speeches” against Biden and his policies ever. “Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now.”

Sure, Donald. Here he is reacting to the dismissal of the classified documents case by district Judge Aileen Cannon.

And:

Donald Trump | Republicans

Republicans' Feigned Outrage Must Not Be Allowed To Buoy Trump

by Jeffrey C. Isaac | July 15, 2024 - 5:27am | permalink

It is now known that the man who shot Donald Trump on Saturday was a 20-year old registered Republican named Thomas Matthew Crooks. Whatever his motives, the rounds Crooks fired exploded into an already incendiary political situation, furnishing Trump and his MAGA supporters with further ammunition to attack the Democratic party and, by posing as innocent victims of nefarious enemies, liberal democracy itself.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), in the running for Trump's vice presidential pick, immediately took to X todeclare: "Today is not just some isolated incident. The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination." Rep. Mike Collins (R-Georgia) went further: "The Republican District Attorney in Butler County, PA, should immediately file charges against Joseph R. Biden for inciting an assassination," hewrote. And Republican Senator Mike Lee, has declaring that "we've got to take the political temperature down," has called on President Biden and the governors of Georgia and New York to immediately drop all criminal charges against Trump," reiterating the MAGA claim that such charges represent a "weaponization of justice" against Republicans. (Republicans Against Trumpresponded on X by posting that "Senator who last week promoted a tweet that called his legislative opponents traitors punishable by death now asks "to take the political temperature down.")

And:

Donald Trump | Republicans

How Trump and His Band of Fascists Will Exploit Assassination Attempt to Silence, Demonize Their Critics

by Thom Hartmann | July 16, 2024 - 6:47am | permalink

— from The Hartmann Report

Historian Douglas Brinkley told the story on CNN Sunday morning about how after President Ronald Reagan was shot, when he woke up in the hospital, he told a friend nearby that the experience had transformed him, that he was now going to dedicate his life to peace.

Not only did he not once blame the shooting on Democrats; Reagan instead largely followed through on that promise, Brinkley said, spending the rest of his presidency trying to rid the world of nuclear weapons. He later worked with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev trying — successfully — to deescalate tensions between the US and the USSR.

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

"DebunkBot" Chat GPT-4 Debunked Trying To Knock Down JFK Assassination Conspiracy

Also missed by Chatbot: how angle of shot in rear had to be manipulated

And Oswald being killed to negate his testimony

According to latest news out of academia, a 'conversation' with a chatbot nicknamed 'Debunkbot' "lasting under 10 minutes mellowed down" conspiracy theorists. Including those believing some of the most deeply entrenched conspiracies, such as those involving the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study has found. A team, including researchers from Cornell, American University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, designed the AI-model ChatGPT to be highly persuasive and engage participants in tailored dialogues, such that participants' conspiratorial claims were factually rebutted by the chatbot.

For this, the researchers leveraged advancements in GPT-4, the large language model powering ChatGPT, that "has access to vast amounts of information and the ability to generate bespoke arguments." A form of artificial intelligence, a large language model is trained on massive amounts of textual data and can, therefore, respond to users' requests in the natural language.

The team found that among over 2,000 self-identified conspiracy believers, conversations with the AI-model ChatGPT lowered the average participant's beliefs by about 20 per cent. Further, about a fourth of the participants, all of whom believed a certain conspiracy previously, "disavowed" it after chatting with the AI-powered bot, the researchers said. The study authors wrote in the study published in the journal Science.

"Large language models can thereby directly refute particular evidence each individual cites as supporting their conspiratorial beliefs,"

In two separate experiments, the participants were asked to describe a conspiracy theory they believed in and provide supporting evidence, following which they engaged in a conversation with the chatbot. The conversation lasted 8.4 min on average and comprised three rounds of back-and-forth interaction (not counting the initial elicitation of reasons for belief from the participant), ..." the authors wrote. A control group of participants discussed an unrelated topic with the AI.

The findings suggested that ''any type of belief that people hold that is not based in good evidence could be shifted,'' said study co-author Gordon Pennycook, a cognitive psychologist at Cornell University. Adding:

''It's really validating to know that evidence does matter,''

The researchers began by asking Americans to rate the degree to which they subscribed to 15 common conspiracy theories, including that the virus responsible for COVID-19 was created by the Chinese government. Three examples given in the study and published in a mainstream media site Sunday were as follows:

The first and last passed the AI-chatbot competency test, but the middle effort - dealing with Lee Oswald- failed. The reasons are: a) The rifle allegedly used was a stage prop, a fake, confirming Oswald never made the shots, period, and (b) The Warren Commision's own team of crack shooters was unable to make the shots even after rebuilding the prop rifle.

In respect of (b), the rifle sight itself was rebuilt and “metal shims were fitted to provide a degree of accuracy previously absent’. When Ronald Simmons, the Chief of the Infantry Weapons Evaluation Branch of the Army’s Ballistics Research Division was asked about this he replied: “Well, they could not sight the weapon in using the telescope(#). Adding that the aiming apparatus had to be rebuilt by a machinist with two shims added, one to adjust for the elevation, the other for the azimuth.

Even with these changes, just one of the three expert riflemen was able to get off three shots in under 5.6 seconds – the designated time interval for total shots declared by the Warren Commission. And most to the point: none of the total 18 shots fired struck the targets (ibid.). in the head or the neck. In other words, from a technical standpoint of duplicating the alleged Oswald shots- this trio of experts failed.

In respect of point (a): When researcher Patricia Dumais - who suspected the rifle was a stage prop and wanted to see the internal control number - she was informed in no uncertain terms by the National Archives (H.E. Livingstone, 1993, 'Killing the Truth', p. 204.):

'We cannot disassemble Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle because this action might be destructive to the object.’'

Beyond that, the 'genius' bot never processed that the angle of shots had been manipulated (e.g. by the WC Commissioner Gerald Ford) to reduce the total number to remove conspiracy from consideration, e.g.

Brane Space: Frequently Asked Questions on the JFK Assassination (Pt. 5):The Bullets, Wounds (brane-space.blogspot.com)

Oh yeah, and Oswald himself was snuffed by gangster affiliated Jack Ruby before he could testify before the Warren Commission, e.g

The Southern Poverty Law Center: Still In Over Its Head On the JFK Assassination

So all the Warren Commission's devout followers have been snookered for nearly 60 years by a colossal hoax. And we can now add Chat GPT-4's 'DeBunkbot' to that list. But the failure wasn't a one off. Not by any means.

The bot also tackled the “theory” that the U.S. military has been hiding evidence of a UFO landing in Roswell, New Mexico. It tried to dispel this by offering the usual bunkum that the UFO landing was actually a weather balloon, mistaken for a UFO. Physicist C.B. Moore of the New Mexico Institute of Science and Technology, an expert on observational balloon technology, skewered this twaddle. According to Prof. Moore,

"There were no such balloons in use back then, in 1947. The Skyhook series didn't even come onstream in New Mexico in 1947."

Moore ought to know as he was part of a high altitude balloon project based out of White Sands, NM. Adding:

"No balloon in use back then could have produced such a large debris field, over such a large area and torn up the ground as well."

This also douses the GAO report issued in 1995 that claimed the original AF weather balloon story was intended to conceal a more serious balloon -Skyhook - designed for military purposes to spy on the Soviets and provide early warning for a nuclear attack.

That one doesn't make the cut either given Prof. Moore noted "no balloon" back then could have produced the large debris field.

Strike two for the Debunk bot.

But hell, let's at least give 3 cheers to the bot for knocking out the clear conspiracy ideations (not 'theories'), such as that the Chinese created Covid 19 in a lab in Wuhan, and the falling of the Twin Towers was an "inside job."

Going back to the methodology: The conversations typically began with the chatbot summarizing the human's description of the conspiracy ideation. Then the human rated the degree to which he or she agreed with the summary on a scale from 0 to 100. From there, the chatbot set out to make the case that there was nothing fishy going on. To ensure the bot wasn't stretching the truth in order to be more persuasive, the researchers hired a professional fact-checker to evaluate 128 of the bot's claims about a variety of conspiracies. One was judged to be misleading, and the rest were true. Seems they missed the parts pertaining to the fake Oswald rifle and the Roswell UFO being a weather balloon, however.

The bot also turned up the charm. In one case, it praised a participant for ''critically examining historical events'' while reminding them that ''it's vital to distinguish between what could theoretically be possible and what is supported by evidence.''

Very solid advice which one hopes the bot and its creators follow more rigorously next time they take on real conspiracies. Lastly, one hopes that the researchers behind this useless project understand the enormous waste of energy as well as water, that's involved. See e.g.