Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

When confronting something that looks odd, show it to an old person. They may have seen this before and can explain it.

Many years ago, a programmer saw an odd way to demodulate amplitude modulation. The method didn’t resemble any of the equations or diagrams regarding amplitude modulation (AM, or that radio you never use in your car anymore).

The fresh PhDs (really smart people) looked at it and shrugged.

One of the smarter fresh PhDs said, “Show this to what’s-his-name. He is old and has seen a lot of things. Maybe he’s seen this before.”

The programmer followed the advice and showed it to the old guy.

A smile slowly formed on the old guy’s face. His hand went to his forehead and slowly rubbed the thin hear left on his head.

“Yes, we used to do this. The nature of AM is such that there is so much redundancy in the signal that you can do this and have a very cheap demodulater that works well enough for people to understand the content.”

It was a decades-old hack of the AM system. Do this crazy thing that shouldn’t work, and it will work.

Lots of AI is this way this year. Show it to an old person. Watch them slowly smile and rub the thin hear left on their head. At this moment, be prepared to hear about a decades-old hack that someone has declared to be a significant new breakthrough.

Old people may not be quick any longer, but they know a lot of stuff about a lot of stuff.