Cosmic microwave background anisotropy by 
Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-06-17 +Created 1970-01-01
Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-06-17 +Created 1970-01-01There is a slight variation in temperature of CMB across the sky of the order of 200 microKelvin. It is small to the ~2.7 K average temperature, but it can be measured.
If the initial conditions of the Big Bang and the laws of physics were perfectly symmetric, then we could expect the universe to just be one perfectly uniform boring soup.
But instead some asymetry made all the fun weird things we see today happen eventually, like galaxies and life.
And the cosmic microwave background serves as a way for us to look back in time to the early conditions of the universe, as it was set in stone as soon as the universe became transparent to this light during recombination.
Or if you want to get poetic, it is the closest we can ever get to listening to the original word of God when he setup the initial conditions of the universe.
The ansiotropies of CMB is the ultimate astronomical compass we will ever have, as it is the thing with the least proper motion.
Ciro Santilli's hardware Lenovo ThinkPad P51 (2017) log by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-06-17 +Created 1970-01-01
Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-06-17 +Created 1970-01-01- battery life:
- 2023-04: on-browser streaming + light browsing on Ubuntu 22.10: about 2h45. Too low! Gotta try buying a new battery.
- 2022-01-04 updated firmward after noticing that ubuntu 21.10 does not wake up from suspend seemed to happen every time when not connected to external power.
dmidecodediff excerpt:used the "Ubuntu Software" GUI as mentioned at: support.lenovo.com/gb/en/solutions/ht510810-how-to-do-software-updates-linux. Kudos for making this accessible to newbs.BIOS Information Vendor: LENOVO - Version: N1UET40W (1.14 ) - Release Date: 09/28/2017 + Version: N1UET71W (1.45 ) + Release Date: 07/18/2018After doing that, another update became available to: 0.1.56, clicked it and was much faster than the previous one, and didn't auto reboot. After manual reboot,dmidecodediffed again:plus a bunch of other lines.BIOS Information Vendor: LENOVO - Version: N1UET71W (1.45 ) - Release Date: 07/18/2018 + Version: N1UET82W (1.56 ) + Release Date: 08/12/2021 - 2021-06-05 upgraded to Ubuntu 21.04 with a clean install from an ISO. SelectedAfter this, the GUI felt fast, who would have thought that erasing a bunch of stuff would make the system faster!
- "Minimal installation"
- "Erase disk and install Ubuntu". Notably, this erased the Microsoft Windows that came with the computer and was never used not even once
- "Erase disk ans use ZFS"
- Encrypt the new Ubuntu installation for security
lsblkcontains:andzd0 230:0 0 500M 0 disk └─keystore-rpool 253:0 0 484M 0 crypt /run/keystore/rpool nvme0n1 259:0 0 476.9G 0 disk ├─nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 512M 0 part /boot/efi ├─nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 2G 0 part │ └─cryptoswap 253:1 0 2G 0 crypt ├─nvme0n1p3 259:3 0 2G 0 part └─nvme0n1p4 259:4 0 472.4G 0 partlsblk -f:zd0 crypto_LUKS 2 └─keystore-rpool ext4 1.0 keystore-rpool nvme0n1 ├─nvme0n1p1 vfat FAT32 ├─nvme0n1p2 crypto_LUKS 2 │ └─cryptoswap ├─nvme0n1p3 zfs_member 5000 bpool └─nvme0n1p4 zfs_member 5000 rpooThen:contains:grep '[rb]pool' /proc/mountswhich gives an idea of how the above map to mountpoints.rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq / zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/USERDATA/ciro_czngbg /home/ciro zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/USERDATA/root_czngbg /root zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/srv /srv zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/usr/local /usr/local zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/games /var/games zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/log /var/log zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/lib /var/lib zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/mail /var/mail zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/snap /var/snap zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/www /var/www zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/spool /var/spool zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/lib/AccountsService /var/lib/AccountsService zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/lib/NetworkManager /var/lib/NetworkManager zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/lib/apt /var/lib/apt zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq/var/lib/dpkg /var/lib/dpkg zfs rw,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0 bpool/BOOT/ubuntu_uvs1fq /boot zfs rw,nodev,relatime,xattr,posixacl 0 0
2020-06-06: dropped some lemon juice on the bottom left of touchpad. Bottom left button not working anymore... I'm an idiot. There are many other alternatives, but very aggravating, I'll replace it for sure. Can't find the exact replacement part or any videos showing its replacement online easliy, dang. For the T430: www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3lzV9uXRjU Asked at: forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-P-and-W-Series-Mobile-Workstations/P51-left-bottom-button-below-trackpad-mouse-left-click-stopped-working-possible-to-replace/m-p/5019903 Also I could not access it because you need to remove the HDD first: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Klawxc7T_Y and I can't pull it out even with considerable force, unlike in the video... And OMG, those button caps are impossible to re-install once removed!!! Then when I put the whole thing back together, the upper buttons were not working anymore. FUUUUUUUUCK. When first opening I pulled on it without properly removing the cap and it came off, but it didn't look broken in any way and I put it back in. Keyboard works thank God, so right black connector is fine, left white one oppears to be the one for upper keys and trackpoint, both of which stopped working. The hardware manual confirms that they are both part of the same device, so basically a mouse :-) TODO can it be bought separately from te keyboard? Doesn't look like it, photo of keyboard part includes those buttons. The manual also confirms that the bottom buttons are one device with the trackpad "trackpad with buttons", thus forming the second entire mouse.
2019-04-17: popup asking about "ThinkPad P51 Management Engine Update" from from 182.29.3287 to 184.60.3561, said yes.
- partition setup: askubuntu.com/questions/343268/how-to-use-manual-partitioning-during-installation/976430#976430
- BIOS:
- for NVIDIA driver:
- for KVM, required by Android Emulator: enable virtualization extensions
- TODO fix the brightness keys:
Bibliography:
- www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02559-9 The quest to map the mouse brain by Diana Kwon (2023)
The missing link between continuous and discrete AI by Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-06-17 +Created 1970-01-01
Ciro Santilli 37 Updated 2025-06-17 +Created 1970-01-01Ciro Santilli has felt that perhaps what is missing in 2020's AGI research is:
- the interface between:The key question is somewhat how to extract symbols out of the space-time continuous experiences.
- the continuous/noisy level (now well developed under artificial neural network techniques of the 2010's)
- and symbolic AI level AI
- more specialized accelerators that somehow interface with more generic artificial neural networks. Notably some kind of speialized processing of spacial elements is obviously hardcoded into the brain, see e.g. Section "Grid cell"
Forcing these boundaries to be tested was one of the main design goals of Ciro's 2D reinforcement learning games.
In those games, for example:Therefore, those continuous objects would also have "magic" effects that could not be explained by "simple" "what is touching what" ideas.
- when you press a button here, a door opens somewhere far away
- when you touch certain types of objects, a chemical reaction may happen, but not other types of objects
Bibliography:
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