Why does King of Dumbs exist?

There’s a question almost nobody asks out loud: “OK, but what is this, explained for fools?” It’s embarrassing, because it feels like everyone else already knows. This site exists to ask that question without embarrassment, again and again, until the answer makes sense.

Hence the name. Of all the fools asking questions, I’m the king.

My science and tech notes, turned into lessons you can poke at. The first topics are:

• Artificial intelligence, machine learning and data: what a neural network actually does, why a model gets things wrong and how it’s trained.
• Quantum physics and nanoscience: qubits, superposition and what happens when things are so small they stop behaving like things.

There’s also a blog with three kinds of posts: news about AI and science, explained; a journal of what I’m learning (and what goes wrong); and science of fiction: fiction taken apart with real physics. The first one is the alchemy of Fullmetal Alchemist.

Every lesson is explained three times, like three cards from a deck:

• ♣ Newbie: no background needed. One analogy per idea and no strange word left unexplained.
• ♦ Intermediate: if you know what a function or an average is. The real mechanism, with a simple formula or two.
• ♠ Technical: for people who study or work in the field. Notation, short derivations and links to papers.

You pick your card once and the site remembers it for every lesson. All three versions are always on the page, so you can switch levels halfway through if an explanation feels too thin or too much.

The jester in the bottom-right corner is me in clown mode. One eye is a circle, the other a cross, and the grin has too many teeth. It keeps you company on every page, comments on what you’re reading and reacts when you get a challenge right or wrong. If it bothers you, minimize it or mute it with the ♪ button.

• I write the content, sometimes with help from Claude, an AI, to organize notes and draft. Every number comes with its source.
• Translations into English and Chinese are done by Claude, from the Spanish original. If you spot a mistake, write to me and I’ll fix it.
• The widgets (moving charts, simulations and challenges) are built to help you understand, not to decorate. And the page works even if they don’t load.
• Your data: your theme, chosen level and progress stay in your browser. Analytics only turns on if you accept it. Details are on the privacy page.
• The anime references in the lessons are picked by me. The drawings are my own: never screenshots or official art.

The first lessons are already in the lessons section, and more are coming. If a strange symbol trips you up, every lesson tells you at the top which ones appear and links to their cheat sheet.