Augmented Serendipity
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Everything, grouped by its home field. 348 posts in all. Prefer to browse visually? Open
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Artificial Intelligence
176 posts
"Humans are not great at exceptions, but we are still, at least for now, better than machines"
1 min
"It's the best time to be alive, when almost everything you thought you knew is wrong"
1 min
(Lack of) Creative Control
1 min
1,000 experiments
1 min
1,000 Simultaneous Experiments
1 min
3. Behavioral Dynamics
1 min
4. Communication Effectiveness
1 min
5. Sensitivity to Parameters
1 min
A different take on the homework machine
1 min
A small change in the title of a report led by MIT makes a big difference in interpretation
2 min
A small change in the title of a report led by MIT makes a big difference in interpretation
2 min
ACH
2 min
Advantage from AI
1 min
Agent-based modeling (ABM) and randomized clinical trials (RCTs)
1 min
Agentic workflows are a pipe dream...
2 min
Aha moments as percolation transitions
1 min
AI and illusions of understanding in scientific research
1 min
AI and Mental Health
1 min
AI Fatigue: Reflections on the Human Side of AI’s Rapid Advancement
1 min
AI for fusion
1 min
AI hashtagagents, evolution is coming for you
2 min
AI may lower the floor and raise the ceiling, but these are two very different things
2 min
AI Solves Million-Step Math Problems
3 min
AI-augmented work moves collectively towards areas richest in data
1 min
AIgent-Based Modeling
1 min
Alexis II: Fresh and relevant: Alexis de Tocqueville and Simone Weil
1 min
An artistic Turing Test from the 160s
1 min
ANDY CLARK rather than (or together with) JONY IVE
1 min
Are hashtagLLMs complex (alien) biological systems?
1 min
Assembly Theory
1 min
AX is the new UX
1 min
AX is the new UX, part II
1 min
Becoming a Super-Scientist
2 min
Behavioral Drives
1 min
Bernard Pivot left a lasting impression on me for a somewhat forgotten project
2 min
Bill Viola
1 min
Burger Joint Prompt Injection
1 min
Can AI solve Science?
2 min
Can you model biology mechanistically?
2 min
Cassie Kozyrkov
1 min
Changing Times Twice a Year Is (Probably) Bad for Your Health
2 min
ChatGPT is not a doctor
1 min
Chesky disappointment (Aspen)
2 min
Chollet
1 min
Click Not
2 min
Coalesix
2 min
Cognitive Biases as Sampling Limitations
34 min
Cognitive One-Way Functions
26 min
Complexity Science
3 min
Daron Acemoglu’s paper
1 min
Deadly Sins
1 min
DeepSeek
2 min
Delusions of grandeur and debates about illusions of thinking obscure from the actual, practical usefulness of AI
2 min
Democracy-as-a-wrapper
2 min
Discovering state-of-the-art reinforcement learning algorithms
1 min
Diverging Values
1 min
DOC Debate
1 min
Don’t Judge an Article by Its Title
4 min
Doomprompting is the new doomscrolling
1 min
Emergent misalignment
1 min
Enough with AGI, please
1 min
Evaluation I
1 min
Evaluation is what matters
1 min
Evolution is Accelerating
5 min
Evolution is definitely back, Part II
1 min
Evolving Surprises
2 min
Exact Instructions
2 min
Explosive Preprint about the AI "Leaderboard Illusion"
2 min
Food Printing
1 min
Foundation Rwanda
2 min
Founder Mode
1 min
Frank Bruni
1 min
From LLMs to LTMs?
1 min
Generative exaggeration
1 min
GitHub Registry
1 min
H Company
1 min
Hallucinations part I
1 min
Hallucinations part II
1 min
Hallucinations part III
1 min
hashtagFairness is hard, hashtagAI or not
1 min
How Might Artificial Intelligence Influence Human Evolution?
1 min
How to compose LLMs adaptively
2 min
https://thehardthing.substack.com/p/hundreds-of-daily-decisions
1 min
Human Nature, Unleashed!
3 min
Humans are still valuable after all (to other humans, that is)
1 min
If AI alone > (AI + Human) > Human alone, what is that telling us?
3 min
It is not about math vs. literature
1 min
Jack Cowan
1 min
Jagged AGI is not really AGI
1 min
Jagged Fascination
1 min
Jagged Fascination
1 min
Jagged Thresholds
1 min
Kahneman
1 min
Karpathy-level fatigue
1 min
LegoGPT is here
2 min
Lie to persuade
1 min
Lie to persuade
1 min
LLM Average?
1 min
Lots of yummy quotables at Human[X] this week, Part III
1 min
Lots of yummy quotables at Human[X] this week, Part IV
1 min
Luck and skill 1
1 min
Machines of Loving Grace
1 min
Managers who can’t understand a solution
1 min
Managers...
1 min
Marshmallow evidence
1 min
Mass Intelligence
1 min
Mathematical Exploration
1 min
MCP Night
1 min
Mikhail Belkin
1 min
Naïve Ng
1 min
Novelty and Camouflage
2 min
Now for a different kind of LLM benchmark!
1 min
Occam’s razor
2 min
On Its Head
89 min
On the "hallucination problem"
1 min
Paleo-robots and toilet paper
1 min
Personal Echo Chambers
2 min
Personal utopia vs. Immanentizing the eschaton
3 min
Precision
1 min
Prey Survey Part II
1 min
Probably not thinking enough about it!
1 min
Productivity gains from using AI are captured by individuals, not organizations
2 min
Prompt injections in the physical world
1 min
Proving a theorem is a one-way function
2 min
Recall vs Recognition
18 min
Reeks and Wrecks does not have to be the future
3 min
Reid Hoffman interview
1 min
Reward hacking (or "whatever works").
1 min
Reward hacking, constraint hacking and the infinite complexity of intent
2 min
Self-Verifying and Mutually Verifying Agents reduce hallucinations and false results
1 min
Slightly outside of my area of expertise?
2 min
Software is Dead (not)
1 min
Sorry but AGI is not a helpful concept
3 min
Spiritual
2 min
Spooky, and sometimes brilliant, ideas from AI in science
2 min
Stack Overflow
2 min
Stop the "it's just next-token prediction" nonsense
2 min
Super-long Prompts
1 min
Teaching LLMs to reason like Bayesians
1 min
Techbio Foundation Models
1 min
Ted Chiang and [Terence Tao](https://www.linkedin.com/in/terence-tao-621246/): art, math and AI
1 min
Terence Tao
1 min
The "G" in hashtagAGI is sending everyone down a deep and jagged rabbit hole
1 min
The "win-win" genAI answer engines should strive for
1 min
The anthropomorphization of AI and the AI-fication of humans
1 min
The best market days?
1 min
The Beta-Lactam Band and the Bogus Upsides
2 min
The Bonabeau enterprise
1 min
The Fear That Originality Is No Longer Possible
1 min
The future belongs to curators!
2 min
The lazy and the curious
1 min
The logical next step: AI compute for Universal Basic Income
1 min
The ONE thing I find most exciting about hashtagDeepSeek
1 min
The Perils of the Imitation Age
2 min
The weirdness of AI mistakes
1 min
Thinking Machines... Lab
1 min
This has nothing to do with AGI
2 min
Thomas Insel on chatbots
1 min
Three?
1 min
Time Spent Eating (cheese)
2 min
Turing Test for AI Chatbots
1 min
Use Cases
1 min
Use cases gone wild with Dunning-Kruger AI
1 min
Used Meta AI to edit a selfie, now Instagram is using my face on ads targeted at me
1 min
Vibe reporting at MIT
1 min
Wall Street still doesn’t understand AI
1 min
We need a Journal of Disappointing Results
1 min
What IS Formal Analyses?
1 min
When I was a rockstar
1 min
When Not to Use AI as a Cognitive Escalator
2 min
Who Is the Endosymbiont?
2 min
Who is using AI to code?
1 min
Why Programming Was Never About Code
1 min
Winning at bullshit
1 min
With Hod
1 min
You can't tell the difference between AI Slop and great content in your job? Consider another profession.
1 min
Human + Machine
4 posts
Augment and Invent
2 min
Reverse Centaurs
2 min
Reverse Centaurs, Part II
1 min
The great value migration
2 min
Evolutionary Computing
2 posts
Prey Survey Part I
1 min
Swarms, gratitude and good karma
2 min
Evolution & Life
5 posts
Competence without Comprehension
1 min
Fitness Beats Truth
9 min
Pasta Evolution
1 min
Speciation?
1 min
The 20/80 Rule of Exploration: Bees, Ants, and Scouts
4 min
Open-Endedness
6 posts
Gordon Pask's Evolved Ear and the Grounding Problem
6 min
Open-Endedness from a Computational Perspective
12 min
Open-Endedness from a Computational Perspective: A Conceptual Taxonomy
9 min
Open-Endedness: From Computational Mechanisms to Existential Implications
14 min
Pask's Electrochemical Pioneers: Self-Organization and Open-Ended Evolution
8 min
The Future Belongs to Curators
4 min
Complexity & Simulation
6 posts
Alexis I
1 min
Ants and robots
1 min
Da Vinci, Fukushima, the aerial screw and the neocognitron
2 min
Da Vinci, Fukushima, the aerial screw and the neocognitron
3 min
Luck and skill 2
1 min
Olfaction
2 min
Innovation & Discovery
10 posts
AHA
1 min
Cambrian explosion in innovation
1 min
Dating and Serendipity
2 min
Proving a theorem is a one-way function
2 min
Serendipity, penicilin and the prepared mind
1 min
Serendipity, penicilin and the prepared mind
1 min
The creativity of mathematical conjectures
1 min
The prepared mind favors chance
1 min
Thinking, super slow, about Danny
3 min
Weak(er) serendipity in Fleming's discovery?
1 min
Biology
82 posts
"From geroscience to precision geromedicine: Understanding and managing aging"
2 min
1 billion biochemical reactions occur every second in every cell of our bodies
1 min
10-2023: Infectious diseases down, non-communicable diseases up
2 min
11% of patients with dementia symptoms have a reversible condition. Did you know?
2 min
8 interventions in human trials for diseases of aging
1 min
A More Robust Measure of Gut Imbalance?
2 min
Adipose Memory
1 min
Aging research is going mainstream.
1 min
Aging: genes/diseases/hallmarks
1 min
An article I thought I would easily dismiss but couldn’t
2 min
An intriguing answer engine for biology
1 min
And now we present to you... the volatilome!
1 min
Antibiotics are not the only culprits
2 min
Bacterial ubiquitination
1 min
Beyond FMT
1 min
Biocomposite Bacillus
1 min
Biologists, stop putting UMAP plots in your papers
3 min
Blocking low-grade inflammation will create the new Lipitor(s)
2 min
Brain Microbiome
1 min
Cell Vaults
2 min
Chronic low-grade inflammation
2 min
Cognitive Dissonance
1 min
Comment on Tamsin Lewis
2 min
Control blood pressure, reduce risk of dementia
1 min
Discovering Intermediates in Biosynthetic Pathways that have Interesting Properties
2 min
Disentangled latent variables in the hippocampus
1 min
Distinct neuronal populations in the human brain combine content and context
1 min
DNA is not destiny
1 min
DNA Repair within Reach?
2 min
Engineered bacteria administered intranasally can propel molecules across the brain-blood barrier
1 min
Eukaryotic phase transition?
1 min
Exploration gene
2 min
Extending the years people live without the burden of major age-related diseases should be a national priority
1 min
FMT ‘Proof of Existence”
1 min
Food printing
1 min
Generative 3D printing
1 min
Genetic engineering of bacteria... inside the gut
1 min
Global Burden of Disease (2)
2 min
Health-Associated Core Keystone (HACK)
1 min
Healthspan, a macro-view
2 min
Heritability of intrinsic human life span is about 50% when confounding factors are addressed
1 min
How to Build the Virtual Cell with Artificial Intelligence
1 min
I knew it!
1 min
IL-11 and aging
1 min
Inflammatory lack of pleasure ...
2 min
It's like saying that everything in the Mona Lisa depends on the paint.
2 min
Measurable benefits of treating low-grade inflammation
2 min
Mind-blowing discovery if confirmed: viruses hiding inside gut bacteria as phages
3 min
New T2D peptide
1 min
Nonuniversality of inflammaging across human populations[?]
2 min
Not a U-Shape
1 min
Nothing is ever simple with the microbiome
2 min
Obesity-related inflammation or inflammation-related obesity?
1 min
Of mice and men: "Matthew effect" and lucky breaks
2 min
Personalized Medicine, Unevenly Distributed
3 min
Placebo Circuit
1 min
Predicting Disease Trajectories
1 min
Protein Data Bank
1 min
Protein monitoring and chronic inflammation
2 min
Reading Derek Lowe with Perplexity
2 min
Silver Linings
1 min
SleepFM
1 min
Social networks and microbiome sharing
2 min
Take metformin OR exercise, but don't do both
4 min
The cell is not a soup
1 min
The Epstein-Barr virus
1 min
The geometric shapes of life on Earth occupy a tiny fraction of the possible
1 min
The gut microbiome is always more complex than you think
2 min
The human gut microbiota can synthesize bioactive serotonin!
2 min
The rise of healthspan as the dominant longevity concept (as it should)
1 min
Tim Opler on the history of aging
1 min
Tim Opler’s Women’s Health history
1 min
Ultra-Processed Obesity
7 min
Vaults
1 min
Virtual interactions, real immune response
1 min
VO2 max and Inflammation
2 min
We have a lot of agency when it comes to increasing our healthspan
2 min
Weak Correlation Between DNA Methylation Clocks and Frailty
2 min
What is Life?
1 min
Who will pay for an anti-aging drug?
1 min
Why Greenland?
1 min
Winner-take-all molecular network
1 min
Biotech & Pharma
43 posts
Activation, inhibition, same effect: the infinite complexity of human biology
2 min
AI in the biotech/pharma R&D productivity equation
2 min
Algorithmic Control of Care
2 min
Approved Drugs
1 min
Are Chinese biotech cycle times really crazy?
1 min
BioAge Meeting
1 min
BioTechBio
1 min
Can protein expression be ‘solved’?
4 min
Change in P(ts) per US$
2 min
Chemical space(s), a concept still evolving
2 min
Chemical space(s), a concept still evolving, part II
2 min
China 1
1 min
Controlled colonization of the human gut with a genetically engineered microbial medicine
2 min
Could Life Insurance become the new Health Insurance?
1 min
E coli delivering serotonin
1 min
Elliot Hershberg unpacked
2 min
Fantastic Four
1 min
Fractal enzyme(s)
1 min
Full-Stack AI companies
2 min
GLP-1 payback time
2 min
Holistic Drug Development (HDD) = Holistic Decision Making
2 min
Is $112m really that cheap for a preclinical GLP-1 RA?
1 min
Is it time to retire druglikeness?
2 min
Is Texas cheaper than China?
1 min
Lack of standards is still impeding preclinical deals
1 min
Lots of yummy quotables at Human[X] this week, Part I
1 min
Lots of yummy quotables at Human[X] this week, Part II
1 min
Merck on a Chinese roll!
1 min
Pharma & Biotech has the "Magnificent One"
1 min
Pharmacomicrobiomics
1 min
Phenomenal Decoding Bio article by Zahra Khwaja and Matthew Nemeth about Benjamine Liu and Linhao Zhang's "AI-native biopharma" company, Formation Bio.
1 min
The Chorus Revolution: How Eli Lilly's Virtual R&D Unit Redefined Pharmaceutical Productivity
11 min
The cost of making Orforglipron
2 min
The Long Cycle of Pharma R&D
1 min
The Magnificent One!
1 min
The Phase II wall is the next monumental challenge for AI
1 min
There is something missing in the conversation about AI drugs
1 min
This compound looks too much like a detergent
2 min
Value Inflection Points
1 min
What Matters to Pharma and Biotech R&D Success?
1 min
Will all our drugs come from China?
2 min
Wing@JPM
1 min
Zbiotics
1 min
Cognitive Science
4 posts
As long as customers are human (agents anyone?)
2 min
Bias≠Discrimination
2 min
Inversions of Wisdom
3 min
Unskilled and unaware of it
1 min
Senses & Perception
9 posts
Alexis III
2 min
Core ideas that have persisted
2 min
Don’t Judge an Article by Its Title
2 min
Fruit flies are people too
1 min
Gradual change blindness
1 min
The Expanded Human Senses
18 min
The Perfect Egg
2 min
The verification bottleneck
2 min
Why do we have to watch podcasts?
1 min
Science & Method
1 posts
Types of Scientific Discovery
1 min
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