The most notable thing to me in this risk forecasting story is the word SuperComputer.

A decade or so ago “cloud computing” (e.g. 1950s concepts of shared-time) was pitched to the market to replace SuperComputer forecast projects.

I vividly remember, however, executives at Amazon in a panic ringing phones off the hook to say “please stop sucking up all our compute resources, we can’t handle it”.

Why not?

We asked innocently. We were running simulations of what a big explosion would look like on the streets of San Francisco, and such insurance stuff using infinite scale was supposed to move to cloud (everything from pandemic modeling to misinformation spread).

So we had cranked up consumption of shared compute all the way to 11 and… ring, ring “go somewhere else, we can’t ramp selling knock-off brand underwear and cheap Chinese charging cables with you allocating all our server time to science and societal safety”.

Thus it’s interesting to read today’s SuperComputer news, evidence of dedicated and valuable engineering being very alive and well.

To calculate the CyberShake 22.12 hazard model, Maechling’s team used Pegasus, a workflow management system designed by research director Ewa Deelman and her team at the University of Southern California, or USC, Information Sciences Institute. Maechling’s team continuously ran a diverse collection of jobs on Summit over 10 weeks. Pegasus automatically managed 2.5 petabytes of data, which is equal to about 500 billion pages of standard printed text, including an automated transfer of 70 terabytes to USC’s archival storage.

Summit was born of the DoE CORAL program with an estimated $200m budget. Small potatoes to see 2,500 years into the future, or more powerfully, to avoid being constrained by a willful hyper-short-term ignorance culture of captalism.

Some excellent market analysis is just in from Hard Drive.

“Our product has completely changed the way Americans die in Teslas,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of marketing, in an in-store demo. “No longer will people simply burn alive or watch helplessly as their car drives itself into the side of an overpass. We see the potential for more.”

Joswiak then detailed specific ways the Apple Vision Pro can enhance the experience of not paying attention while driving.

“Imagine, you’re halfway through watching Killers Of The Flower Moon in full 4K on your Apple Vision Pro. Leonardo DiCaprio is eating a plate of very sweet dumplings…”

…and then boom, you’re dying in a fire, people you crashed into are dying, but you remain blissfully unaware and focused on high resolution dumplings being eaten instead of realizing your complete failure to family, friends and society.

Less than a month after its release, a Tesla Cybertruck caused major damage…

Police say the Tesla failed to avoid collision with a car right in front of it, but have not yet published details of speeds involved.

On February 7, 2024, at approximately 7:40 a.m., officers responded to a multi-vehicle crash on Annapolis Road (Route 175) at Piedmont Lane in Hanover. The investigation would reveal that a 2015 Dodge Dart was turning left from eastbound Annapolis Road onto Piedmont Lane when it was struck by a 2020 Tesla Model X traveling westbound on Annapolis Road, causing the Dodge to overturn.

A doctor used a Tesla to kill his friend and mentor, about eighteen months ago. He has just now pled guilty to homicide.

You may remember the video of this mangled blue Tesla. Joseph Yanta was behind the wheel, and Doug Rockacy was in the passenger seat. Both were UPMC doctors at the time and friends.

It was a very typical Tesla story, losing control when the road curved, excessive acceleration and unsafe speed.

…Yanta was driving over 120 mph in a 35-mph zone when he lost control around a bend and crashed the vehicle, data from his Tesla showed.

A very unique problem related to the “fail faster” management of the brand. Both doctors still would be alive today if they had been riding in any other EV. Deaths by Tesla: