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Rumors of my death are slightly exaggerated

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Re: Rumors of my death are slightly exaggerated

#201

Post by CliffStoll »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #186

I'm not anyone you would know, so this probably isn't worth a whole lot, but you're one of my favorite people (in the set of people I'm not personally familiar with). I really appreciated everything you did for young students in science and your position on the role of computers in schools. You're a brilliant human and a good human. It's a treat to see both in the same package.

Thank you Miraclemaker. By luck and coincidence, I've had a lot of fun fooling with the early networks, astronomy, radio, teaching, and topology.

Now, as I hear that distant bell tolling, it's time to pass the torch: it's your turn to take over and make this world a better place. You can't do much worse than my generation...

Warm wishes, -Cliff

Re: Rumors of my death are slightly exaggerated

#202

Post by CliffStoll »

monegator wrote: post #32

"The stories and information posted here are artistic works of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact" - The whole internet, AD 2026

Once upon a time, MoneGator, things posted to the internet were assumed to be true unless proven otherwise. Oh, how things have inverted!

Re: Rumors of my death are slightly exaggerated

#204

Post by tantalor »

altmanaltman wrote: post #41
klempner wrote: post #39

I do not believe the death here is an AI hallucination -- it is very likely deliberate engagement fodder. Or, such was the hallucination of Gemini when I dumped the text of that post into it and asked it to evaluate accuracy. (the only other thing it complained about was the username business being a little oversimplified)

Is AI hallucinating false information or is a human using the fact that AI hallucinates false information to create a fake post to drive engagement but likley used the AI to create that false post itself. 2026 is going pretty well so far, why do you ask

Maybe they are trying to drive up the price of Klein bottles for some nefarious reason. Maybe they bought call options, or running a pump'n'dump scam.

When Stoll really dies, production will go to zero and there will be a bunch of news stories about "crazy Klein bottle guy" so everybody will rush out to buy one. Prices will go through the roof.

Re: Rumors of my death are slightly exaggerated

#205

Post by jcdny »

So sorry to hear you have died. I was recently at the exploratorium and saw they had Klein bottles and wondered if they were yours. I was also at your talk at LBL when The Cuckoo’s Egg first came out and remember vividly you coming out on stage in wizard robes and a pointy hat :)

Re: Rumors of my death are slightly exaggerated

#209

Post by ClikeX »

ignoramous wrote: post #97
sokoloff wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classic Wikipedia. “I spoke with Cliff today; now I have to go discuss on the Talk page whether or not he’s dead.”

For living persons, Wikipedia takes misleading / contentious material quite seriously: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Biographies_of_livin... That said, Wikipedia is pretty unapologetic about its preference for verifiability , not truth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability,_not_t...

They did add nuance to that quote a long time ago. It's a good stance, it's fine if someone knows something to be true. But other visitors of Wikipedia don't know that, so anything that's added without a source is questionable.
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