amen zwa, esq.

I am an ordinary man, so I am unique up to isomorphism.
I am on MATHStodon not to preach to the choir, but to attend the concert.
I revel in logical discourse, but I do not respond to ad hominem attacks.
I always follow back valid accounts, but I do not hunt down celebrities.
JD ⊥ MSCS Ω BSEE — Washington, DC

Blog: https://amenzwa.github.io
Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/2yryxze9
Academia: https://tinyurl.com/3m5a737d
GitHub: https://github.com/amenzwa

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npub1gnu7eyvs2nd4u32253956ywmvycdck9552wqe9cea2gf6k56uyqql30jmx

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amenzwa_at_mathstodon.xyz@momostr.pink

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Last Notes

2026-05-09 01:22:12 UTC

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As you may have noticed from my posts, I sometimes get the pangs of panic attack, worrying about what might happen over the next few decades.
You see, I am less worried about AI taking away human jobs. Humanity will survive—nay thrive—as it always did, in the face of technological advances. But I am genuinely worried about how AI is eroding the very core of humanity: curiosity, drive, judgement, fairness, comity, empathy, ethics, the lot.
AI, like the steam engine, is but a mere technological advancement. And, in its day, the steam engine did eliminate many human jobs. But it could be argued that the steam engine obliged many people to give up menial work and, instead, turn to intellectual work. But AI appears to be doing the reverse. It seems to be encouraging many people to abandon the thirst for information and knowledge. The present US political landscape is a dispositive proof thereof.
This scares me witless.
[@rusty__shackleford](https://mastodon.social/@rusty__shackleford )

2026-05-08 23:43:54 UTC

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Here is a bit of background information—from my perspective—to illuminate this crisis that we are in, at present.
Before arriving in college, my generation learned the fundamentals of computing on 8-bit home microcomputers. In college, we used 16- and 32-bit DEC minicomputers. In our early careers, we used 64-bit CRAY supercomputers. Those machines may appear hideously underwhelming to the modern eyes, but they were all simple enough that a determined college kid was able to comprehend the low-level details, down to the bus signal level. We lived through the emergence of the modern computing era, as it were. We soaked up the atmosphere, the knowledge, and the history, by osmosis.
These days, I advise (guide, coax, kick, plead, etc.) forty-something senior techies, who are the in-house staff of my client companies, in the DC area. The first exposure to computing these kids had was the Nintendo N64. The second was the Netscape browser. I have never worked with someone from that ilk who even knows how a computer boots up. And, yes, none of them had ever designed a substantial system, from the ground up. All of them had climbed up the career ladder by fixing broken old systems that their predecessors tossed over the retirement fence.
Now, I am certain that there are twenty-somethings today who are proficient hardware and software system designers and implementers—without using AI. But they do not work for my DC area clients.
PS—These forty-something kids, who have young pre-college children of their own, are genuinely worried about whether they would have a career, over the next decade. And they are even more worried about their young children's future.
[@rusty__shackleford](https://mastodon.social/@rusty__shackleford )

2026-04-30 03:41:18 UTC

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I can only surmise, as oil market is not my area of expertise. Oil is an essential commodity, speculative investment opportunity, policy control mechanism, and political lever, all wrapped into one untidy bundle. Put all that on a worldwide gambling platform that is the stock market, and we have a witch's brew.

2026-04-28 15:17:02 UTC

https://apnews.com/article/stock-markets-trump-oil-iran-war-1901470c64a6055c80656fad64f863e5
As #oil stocks rise, #AI stocks sink.
All of Modernity is still soaked in oil, an ancient kind of #energy.
All of Universe is but conserved energy in various guises.
All of Life is mere squabble over means of energy conversion.

2026-03-28 00:35:28 UTC

“I need to discuss science vs. engineering. Put glibly:
In #science if you know what you are doing you should not be doing it.
In #engineering if you do not know what you are doing you should not be doing it."
― Richard Hamming, "The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn" (1997)

2026-03-06 20:39:48 UTC

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👍

2026-03-06 20:36:42 UTC

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Indeed. Those CRUDers need not have spent four yeaand hundreds of thousands of dollars for a paper CS diploma. And they certainly do not deserve PhDs.
I do worry for the coder though; coding jobs will soon be subsumed by LLMs, by and large.

2026-03-06 20:28:19 UTC

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Maths and theoretical CS was once a match made in academic heaven. On the flip side, EE and practical CS were two peas in a pod.
But those halcyon days are all but gone. Today, web coders and LLM promoters are getting PhDs in CS. Back in the day, we called the clerical staff who punched in the scientists’ code and data at the teletype “coders”. I suppose that definition still applies, today.🤷‍♂️
PS—We could return to grad school in our fast approaching retirement. What fun….😀

2026-03-06 20:15:54 UTC

When FORTRAN was being designed by Backus and his colleagues at IBM in 1956, the modern #IT industry was simultaneously being hatched. In those early days, #programming was a #mathematical activity.
Some three decades later, in the 1990s, many universities still taught their #CS students the theoretical foundations of the discipline: discrete mathematics, algorithmic analysis, complexity theory, computability theory, category theory, and so on.
Now though, there are some interviewees, with CS PhD from reputable state universities, who cannot analyse a well known algorithm, let alone designing one from scratch. And forget about computability theory, complexity theory, category theory, the lot. But they know Python and PyTorch—naturally!
In just seven decades, our field went from being largely mathematical while resting upon the shoulders of intellectual giants like von Neumann, Church, Turing, Kleene, Backus, Knuth, Cook, Scott, et al., to being completely gut-feel while labouring under the yoke of industrial giant LLMs.

2026-03-05 00:58:21 UTC

A path in theoretical #CS studies:
• Physics BS
• Mathematics MS
• Computer Science PhD
A path in practical #CS studies:
• Electrical Engineering BS
• Computer Science MS
• Applied Physics PhD
A path in theoretical #IT studies:
• ∅
A path in practical #IT studies:
• 10-minute YouTube video on LLM prompting

2026-02-21 15:57:18 UTC

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An effective "de-hyping" strategy, perhaps?

2026-02-21 03:00:16 UTC

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Much obliged mate, as always.🙏

2026-02-20 22:58:51 UTC

Possible Study Paths in #QuantumComputing for Undergraduates
—— #EE, #Physics, and #Maths ——
• PROB—"Grinstead and Snell’s Introduction to Probability", Doyle
• LALG—"Introduction to Linear Algebra", Strang
• QM—"The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Volume 3", Feynman
• QC—"Quantum Computation and Quantum Information" (Mike & Ike), Nielsen
—— #CS and #DS ——
• PROB—"Probability: For the Enthusiastic Beginner", Morin
• LALG—"Basic Linear Algebra", Blyth
• QM—"Introduction to Quantum Mechanics", Griffiths
• QC—"Introduction to Quantum Computing: From a Layperson to a Programmer in 30 Steps", Wong
—— Optional reading for all ——
• VISUAL—"3D Computer Graphics", Watt
—— Arguments against QC ——
• https://youtu.be/pDj1QhPOVBo?si=P4h0GaPceLCxSuye, Yoganathan
• https://youtu.be/MukMOZ0J-Ww?si=WOIzDT-b7sdKqvkP, Hossenfelder
—— My Personal View ——
As of 2026, I see QC as just another Wall Street hype. But this technology has come a long way since its 1982 inception, at least on the hardware side. On the software side, though, progress is almost nonexistent over the past thirty years. And forget about generating QC code using ChatGPT, at least for now.🤣
Still, from the perspective of an intellectual pursuit, #QC concepts have much to teach the #STEM undergrads. Moreover, #QM is one of those studies that squashes a young, blobby mind then remoulds it into a mature, structured mind; it is an eminently worthwhile pursuit. But it is a subject universally reviled by STEM undies, except those in EE and Physics. If QC does nothing else but to induce some of those kids to pursue QM, that is good enough for me.

2026-02-16 17:23:09 UTC

#F1 2026 is the season of #castrated cars.
https://youtu.be/4H7J1LEQKds?si=MmEX5NY9OwU8tKvy

2026-02-08 17:32:04 UTC

Last week drained me weak. A coworker who had seen some of my #writings said, without ill will, in front of several meeting attendees, “You write good; what #AI you use?” (sic).🤦‍♂️

2026-02-04 20:27:25 UTC

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Battle-damage assessment (BDA), perhaps?

2026-02-03 23:03:32 UTC

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All technological advances have both up and down side, of course. But if a technology is being used to erode freedom and that technology is also readily available for use in defending freedom, why not use it in a way that advances humanity instead.

2026-02-03 20:28:07 UTC

#biometrics
Face recognition is not the only means of identifying criminals and securing our liberties against them; fingerprints, voiceprints, earprints, iris, interpupillary distance, locomotive gate, and many other forms of biometrics exist. Indeed, since COVID, #AI can now perform facial recognition in the presence of masks.
Beware, murderous thugs hiding behind face #masks.

2026-02-02 02:08:03 UTC

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Screwy mate @npub1fp0…54p5, this is brilliant stuff—symbolic machine learning for the modern age. Why not!!!
The first thought that popped in, when I saw your post, was Logic Neural Networks (LNNs). As you well know, the DL folks, with their 800 gazillion-parameter somthin' somthin' are bumping up against Mother Nature's stern side eye. In 2020, Riegel, et al. (IBM) published the seminal paper on LNN, which aims to learn to create an NN out of two-input logic gates with 16 (2 inputs each of 0/1 and 1 output of 0/1) different activation functions in all. They "softened" the hard digital activation function into a differentiable function so as to leverage the gradient-descent algorithm. Once trained, each neutron is "hardened" into a learned two-input logic gate. And there are no "weights" on the connections, obviously. In essence, the resulting NN is just a combinational circuit ready to be burned onto an FPGA. And imagine reducing a massive DL network with 500 billion, 64-bit weights into tiny 2-bit network. More—the total latency in the online recall phase is just the sum of gate delays, not tonnes of 64-bit matrix multiplications. Brilliant!
LNN's simple, sparse, two-state symbolic logic machinery might have some hidden connections with your work.
G'luck, mate!
https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.13155
@npub1vlc…mzqq [@kentpitman](https://climatejustice.social/@kentpitman ) @npub1aql…46zu [@ramin_hal9001](https://fe.disroot.org/users/ramin_hal9001 ) @npub1dqw…h4lu @npub1z8r…mrq6

2026-02-01 00:44:50 UTC

ᚠᚢᚦᚨᚱᚲ
#Futhark
#programming language:
• Escaped in 2017 from University of Copenhagen #DIKU, the #CS research group founded by Naur himself
• A member of Milner ML family of functional languages
• Pure functional—like Miranda, Haskell, Elm, etc.—without objects, obviously
• Far more sensible functor (module) syntax than SML and OCaml
• Far cleaner appearance than SML's half-century-old syntax
• Automatic exploitation of GPU-borne parallelism via CUDA or OpenCL
As a life-long fan of Milner's ML, Futhark is a far more comfortable couch upon which to lounge, for me, than the current crop of popular languages that pander to #AI, like R, Python, Julia, Mojo, etc.
💕 Futhark 💕
—modernity without mania
—performance without penance
—maturity without mouldiness
—pedigree without pomposity
https://futhark-lang.org/index.html
https://youtu.be/QqOsJ0EwyrY?si=Mezz4vm-NSNEhE--

2026-01-08 12:21:08 UTC

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Yeah, I had a series of points I wanted to make, but I was obliged to break it up, which unintentionally caused misunderstandings. It's difficult to conduct a long-form discourse on social media. Heck, it's difficult even to converse on social media, at all.😀
We all know that loads of people implement Scheme, especially the much simpler R4RS, using many different languages, including ML. But if I understood you right, you are considering using ML as the embedded macro processor for R7RS Scheme, yes?
Well, that's just brilliant! Indeed, ML was called "Meta Language" because it was born as such: an embedded, scripting language for the LCS theorem prover. So, you're using ML as it was originally intended, by employing it as a macro language.
The most popular ML implementations are SML/NJ (the gold standard), MLton (whole-programme optimiser), HaMLet, and Moscow ML. Of those, Moscow ML is perhaps the smallest, hence arguably the simplest. It compiles fast, but the generated code isn't fast. But that shouldn't detract from this particular use case. You will also be able to leverage MLlex and MLyacc.
Correct me, if my reading of your post was off.
@npub1vlc…mzqq

2026-01-08 10:24:53 UTC

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"Multi-paradigm" and "sophistications" and "modernity" were exactly the things I was trying to avoid. My goal was "simplicity" and "foundational".

2026-01-08 05:02:18 UTC

Every young #programmer should master these #programming languages, at the earliest opportunity:
• C
• Smalltalk
• Standard ML
These are the pillar languages in PP, OO, and FP paradigms and, collectively, they cover a broad spectrum of abstract thought in #software. It is no exaggeration to say that every modern language currently in popular use is either a rehash or a remix thereof. Moreover, these are arguably the simplest languages in their respective paradigms. And through them, the programmer can master these three foundational paradigms, thereby gaining the ability to think effectively and efficiently about any problem from diverse perspectives.

2026-01-03 19:46:21 UTC

#Programming in the #LISP language is easier than using the LISP macro meta language. This object/meta distinction is an instance of a more fundamental, natural phenomenon:
• Cleaning a dirty room using a vacuum cleaner is easier than cleaning a dirty vacuum cleaner.
• Learning to use a #computing machine is easier than studying computability theory.
• Working inside a branch of #mathematics is easier than examining its inner workings from a more abstract metamathematics perspective.
• Studying #philosophy—as hard as it can be—is still easier than studying metaphilosophy.
By extension, vastly different fields of human endeavour come together into a coherent whole, at a high-enough level of thought. Hence, #abstraction is one of the indispensable skills for an intellectual life.
Given enough text, an #LLM can display abstractions at many different levels and sophistications, but it can never teach abstraction skills. Be forewarned, young #college undies.

2025-12-02 00:58:18 UTC

I adore the #UNIX V6, not because it was the best #OS—far from it—but because its coherent, compact #design emanated from the kernel space out to the user space and beyond. The predictability born of #simplicity enabled an ordinary user of the PDP-11/70, like me, to understand and use the system, effectively.
More importantly, UNIX was created by #programmers, for programmers, to write programmes. Indeed, it was, at once, an IDE and a DSL.
Lastly, all those estimable characteristics were expressed in a kernel code that was compact and efficient, even if there were places where things were baffling to a novice, like I was then. But that tight code was small enough to be comprehended by an ordinary C programmer, like me, with a dog-eared photocopy of Lions's Commentary in hand, of course.
I miss those simpler times....

2025-11-30 02:02:54 UTC

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Right, this text is for undergraduates. But I am always intrigued by the work of those who pursue the foundations of computing—what does it mean to “compute”. I enjoy learning about their perspectives. The subject interests me, engages me, piques me, propels me, compels me.
If I learn no new concepts but only new perspectives, that plenty good holiday enjoyment one deserves—at this age.🤣 But I’m betting I will pick up new insights in this book.

2025-11-29 20:17:58 UTC

#Avigad's new text "Mathematical #Logic and #Computation" (2023) just arrived in time for the long, holiday break.
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/115/634/825/617/140/782/original/ece046f3b7794f29.jpg

2025-11-12 23:43:39 UTC

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I agree. He’d have felt both the strike and the result thereof.
I don’t mean to not pick, but this appears to be a clear case of settling with power, not a vortex ring state.

2025-11-12 23:29:28 UTC

This deadly crash of the #Kamov #KA226 #helicopter in #Dagestan, #Russia, by the Caspian Sea, was a preventable mishap—a "settling with power" incident.
The pilot came in too heavy and too hot, could not arrest the descent with a severe nose-up attitude and a full collective, a tail-strike ensued, which resulted in a partial boom separation. Not unusual.
But with the co-axial rotors, the boom separation did not give off that characteristic torque effect that could be felt with a conventional tail-rotor design. And also because of the co-axial rotor design, the aircraft remained under control, and it subsequently touched down in shallow water. That was when the pilot committed a fatal error of judgement: he decided to go airborne again, instead of parking it on the nearby empty beach.
The pilot would have known he experienced settling with power, and he would have felt the tail strike, even if he did not hear the strike. He should have erred on the safe side and park it, instead of resuming flight under such risky, uncertain circumstances.
https://youtu.be/tHqjEg1U4e8?si=CP-HmPhCisXfUHoE

2025-11-06 21:32:50 UTC

Every field of human endeavour eventually adopts its own code of #ethics, as it matures. In established, regulated, licensed professions like medicine, law, and engineering, ethical violations are subject to sanctions, up to permanent revocation of the violator's license in extreme cases.
There is no code of ethics in #IT. Nor does it have a #philosophy of any kind.
Many tech companies try to project an appearance of ethical conduct—like Google's famous "Do no evil" ethos, which is quite the opposite of their actual business practices.
Erudite, conscientious practitioners of any field must assume the responsibility to self-govern, for they are the most qualified to draft their field's ethical code. But in IT, the practitioners seem to be of the mind that they would just keep acting unprofessionally, until the government regulators to step in.
In the #BigData and #AI age, this utter lack of philosophical ideals and ethical self-restraint is harmful to society, and it is injurious to the reputation of both the field and its practitioners. The only winners here are the billionaire techbros.

2025-10-15 16:04:57 UTC

For more than four decades, I have liked #AI (rule based, connectionist, statistical, the lot) as a computational tool, not as a religion.
What I find alarming with the present trajectory of AI in #IT is the complete lack of a common, consistent, equitable, enforceable code of #ethics. This starts from the very top of the IT executive tier, all the way down to the lowly data loader.
Another troubling matter, I find, is how most AI practitioners in industry sees AI is nothing more than API call fest. They cannot be bothered with learning the underlying mathematical and computational concepts. They invariably develop intense crushes on specific model or architecture, and apply that one favourite model to any and all data sets. They possess no statistical skills to analyse the problem domain and the collected data. This lot is using AI, often indirectly via some form of ChatGPT-style textual interface, in a way not too different from a young child who just learned addition, and applies the addition every time he sees a pair of numbers.
I have no objection to laymen using an LLM to conduct their business, as long as that LLM was developed and supplied by conscientious, ethical folk with keen insights into the problem domain and the solution techniques. But that is not at all the case, at present.
These trends have harmful potential, not just against the IT industry, but also against the whole of humanity.

2025-05-08 14:18:33 UTC

Every human endeavour has its own #philosophy. That is natural.
Over the years, I have noticed that a handful of zealous #IT practitioners—especially those who are old enough to have accumulated a few years of industrial experience, but are still young enough to not have had the opportunity to broaden their perspectives—tend to latch on to one method or process, and adopt it as their "religion". They often use weighty terms like "code", "law", "canon", "dicta", "orthodox", etc., to bolster their statements, which often are nothing more than preferences born of their ardent faith, the faith that is but one out of countless, similar ones floating about in the field. Worse, they tend to use their religion as a spear to skewer those who do not strictly adhere to it.
This conduct is uncommon in mathematics, engineer, science, law, and business, for obvious reasons: STEMers are guided by mathematical reasoning; lawyers are bound by legal ethics; and businessmen are driven by profit motives.
On the plus side, most IT practitioners eventually convert from their technical religion to a new, management religion, and those who remain in technology eventually matured to adopt a more balanced view, that IT ultimately stands for "I"t is but a "T"ool for business.

2025-05-06 15:45:48 UTC

I admire all those who work on improving #WebDev. But, in my view, all such efforts are misguided. Let me elaborate.
Every #engineering effort is a compromise—that is the nature of the work. But the whole edifice of webdev technology is unforgivably compromised, ab initio. It is far more economical, not to mention much more practicable, to start over, instead of monkey patching something that was never designed as the foundation for software development.
That the Web is the most advanced, instantaneous, mass-communication medium humanity has managed to create is a testament to ingenuity of those who wrestled it into its present form. But at some point, a technology so essential to modern society deserves to be "done right" and those who worked hard to drag the Web into the 21st Century deserve a "more suitable" medium for expressing their efforts.

2025-04-12 21:06:32 UTC

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John, John, you’ve done it again. I should have known. I won’t fall for it next time.

2025-04-12 19:31:23 UTC

Hm, a conundrum have I upon my hands. I just got this message from an unknown number:
"Jennifer: I'd like to invite you to dinner this weekend. Do you want steak or seafood?"
I'd rather gnaw on a stake than eat steak, but I do love seafood. So, that's easily resolved. But the sender's mobile is in the 951 area code, which I think is Riverside, CA, and I live in Washington, DC. That's a bit of a drive for me. But more importantly, I'm not "Jennifer".
What to do, what to do....🤔
https://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/114/326/647/564/317/974/original/83eb7197c432abff.png

2025-03-09 22:43:22 UTC

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My two old loves: BSD UNIX and the 9-track (the original Big Data).💕

2025-02-25 20:45:12 UTC

Arrested for speaking out against #MAGats—well, #Nazism is well and truly here in America.
https://youtu.be/D6k2xktUot4?si=VmppdgSXbPfbwkUf

2025-01-23 05:30:55 UTC

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I can't reach the site, possibly due to the .de domain.

2025-01-23 00:54:26 UTC

What’s going on with #Facebook and #Instagram…
https://abcnews.go.com/US/automatically-trump-instagram-facebook/story?id=117980032

2024-12-23 22:30:08 UTC

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The only exposure to quaternions I got (which was skimpy), was through CS 3D CG in the context of rigid-body simulation and visualisation. And, with due respect to Rev. Hamilton, they aren't even used in ordinary 3D CG work, neither in polygonal nor in volumetric—as far as my experience went in those fields. But then, that's just me. But I do know a few CS guys who eat only in "quarters", and they all work for the Naval Research Lab.🤣

2024-12-23 22:17:52 UTC

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🤣 Nailed it!
I'd say CSs are better at wrangling quaternions than EEs. And EE notational consistency—boy....

2024-12-23 22:10:28 UTC

Bruh, it's \(j\), not \(i\):
\[
X(\omega) = \int_{-\infty}^{+\infty} x(t) e^{-jwt}\ dt
\]
This is what we #ElectricalEngineers say, when we're looking for a fight. This inevitably ends in us getting smacked down by muscular #Mathematicians and pumped #Physicists, but ya know....

2024-12-19 15:37:20 UTC

#Ethics of #AI
Today, humanity is freely exploiting the strengths of AI. But without adequate #regulatory restraint, AI will have learnt to exploit the weaknesses of #humanity, tomorrow.

2024-11-29 02:20:42 UTC

The most useful #LLM #AI, so far...
https://youtu.be/yVtifBzAVhM?si=bvb9vDOK2PbMpjUf

2024-10-12 00:34:16 UTC

My fellow STEMers on MathsTodon, how would you answer the question, "What is your #STEM #philosophy?

2024-09-14 17:49:03 UTC

Many years ago, when I was in #law #school, we students were encouraged to join clinics, led by professors and run by students, specialising in representing indigent clients who could not afford legal representation in myriad potholes of life: immigration, discrimination, patents, the lot.
The way I see it, this "help those who can't help themselves" #philosophy is essential in all fields of human endeavour, including #STEM fields.

2024-09-08 22:38:12 UTC

It was irrational for the #IT industry to go down with #JavaScript and #Python, when there are superior alternatives like Reason, Scala, and Julia floating around.