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Machina Mirabilis - Michael Hla

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An experiment to see if an LLM trained from scratch on text prior to 1900 can come up with quantum mechanics and relativity. While it fails at most physics related tasks, the model shows glimpses of intuition. When given experimental observations the model can declare that “light is made up of definite quantities of energy” and can even suggest that gravity and acceleration are locally equivalent. (For results, click here) (For a mini essay on what this taught me about intelligence, click here) "The result is one of the greatest achievements of human thought." — J. J. Thomson, on the confirmation of Einstein's theory in 1919 The late 19th century was an interesting time to be a physicist. For the most part, physics, like fields before it, seemed to be nearing completion. Motion was described by Newton, electricity and magnetism were unified by Maxwell's equations, and heat had been explained by Boltzmann. In an 1894 speech at the University of Chicago, the legendary Albert Michelson cl

Annus Mirabilis "The result is one of the greatest achievements of human thought." — J. J. Thomson, on the confirmation of Einstein's theory in 1919 The late 19th century was an interesting time to be a physicist. For the most part, physics, like fields before it, seemed to be nearing completion. Motion was described by Newton, electricity and magnetism were unified by Maxwell's equations, and heat had been explained by Boltzmann. In an 1894 speech at the University of Chicago, the legendary Albert Michelson claimed that "the more important fundamental laws and facts of physical science…

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