This year I decided to get into dancing. I actually got into kayaking, gelato, Haskell. I theorised country music.

This year I quit nicotine. Zyban works! For a while.

Work

  • I worked 2103 hours, not counting fun stuff like the blog.
  • Arb
  • Proposal about developmental neuroscience and AI.
  • Proposal about backfiring AI safety
  • Off Road launch and handover.
  • Emergency research teams: writing and executive search.
  • Running an ESPR camp.


Other

  • I learned Haskell tolerably (did Euler). for loops are now hopelessly ugly to me.


Breakthroughs

  • Epstein-Barr as principal cause of multiple sclerosis
  • Immune therapy for MS https://twitter.com/newscientist/status/1513931415712374789
  • https://twitter.com/NeelNanda5/status/1559060507524403200
  • Q > 1 (fusion).
  • DALLE-2
  • Stem cell embryogenesis
  • Pan-influenza vaccine
  • Small modular reactor, NuScale
  • GLP agonist prescriptions take off
  • https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-63937438


Papers

https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010316 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2207.09238.pdf

  • https://transformer-circuits.pub/2022/toy_model/index.html
  • A Neural Network Solves and Generates Mathematics Problems by Program Synthesis
  • https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2203150119
  • https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0248793
  • Generalizing in the Real World with Representation Learning
  • https://arxiv.org/pdf/2104.01191.pdf
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.07287
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.00671
  • https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9996601
  • https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/1/e053820
  • https://openreview.net/forum?id=mxi1xKzNFrb
  • https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010027712002326
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1745691614556679
  • https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/nunn/files/handbook_chapter.pdf
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/1607.08289
  • https://arxiv.org/pdf/2208.01167.pdf
  • Citing Fiction
  • https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0020174X.2022.2124542
  • https://turingarchive.kings.cam.ac.uk/publications-lectures-and-talks-amtb/amt-b-6
  • https://philpapers.org/rec/KAHWEW
  • Cremer
  • https://twitter.com/hashtag/RobSelects
  • https://mariokrenn.wordpress.com/fancy-science/
  • https://arxiv.org/pdf/2206.07870.pdf
  • https://www.liamkofibright.com/uploads/4/8/9/8/48985425/on_being_of_some_use_lkb.pdf
  • https://www.newthingsunderthesun.com/pub/3wpc3plu/release/1?readingCollection=01a7b84d
  • So fucking metal. Weapons to come.
  • Someone actually thinking about thinking


Books

  • The Chemistry Book by God
  • Frank Ramsey by Misak
  • Robbery Under Law by Waugh
  • Learn You a Haskell by Lipovaca
  • Automation and Utopia by Danaher
  • Moral Mazes by Jackall

  • When We Cease to Understand the World by Labatut
  • Based on a True Story by Norm
  • Moby Dick
  • Diaspora by Egan
  • The Prince of Nothing by Bakker
  • Xenocide by Card
  • Shards of Honor by Bujold
  • Lord of Light by Zelazny
  • China Mountain Zhang by McHugh

Worst book: Mathematics for Human Flourishing


Shorts & poems


Essays and sites

  • I hope so much this is wrong. Used to hate the author but I read this blinded and came out very impressed.
  • Good easy picture of what GPT changed
  • The best essay on psychosomatic disease I’ve ever read. The key is compassion; he understands that even when purely mental or “functional neurological”, disease is real and deserves care. And yet awareness raising and the urge to medicalise seems to have massive costs.
  • One of the best products of the Tumblr Mindset. On the surface it’s about transphobia, but this is too narrow.
  • With you other idiots, I have been misreading Omelas for ever.
  • Jan Kirchner: on scaling academia
  • Jan Kirchner: on not reading papers
  • https://universalprior.substack.com/p/the-brain-that-builds-itself?sd=pf&s=r
  • metaismurder the charisma of leaders
  • https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/p/how-to-keep-cakes-moist-and-cause
  • buy things
  • How the world works
  • https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n11/jonathan-meades/hatpin-through-the-brain
  • https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/heuristics-that-almost-always-work
  • https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/motivated-reasoning-as-mis-applied
  • https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/book-review-sadly-porn
  • https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/justice-creep?s=r
  • https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/criticism-of-criticism-of-criticism
  • https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/the-prophet-and-caesars-wife
  • https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/california-gubernatorial-candidates?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyODY4OTQxLCJwb3N0X2lkIjo1NjAxNTk0NiwiXyI6IkhKSWp1IiwiaWF0IjoxNjUzNDI3MDczLCJleHAiOjE2NTM0MzA2NzMsImlzcyI6InB1Yi04OTEyMCIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.HJ33JceUkwVVMFy9feKdagGQ22jdCocDr3YlTdenF-A&s=r
  • https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/681995334169346048/prokopetz-the-fun-thing-about-speedrunning-is
  • https://www.alignmentforum.org/posts/CjFZeDD6iCnNubDoS/humans-provide-an-untapped-wealth-of-evidence-about
  • https://guzey.com/theses-on-sleep/
  • https://afeteworsethandeath.substack.com/p/in-praise-of-echo-chambers
  • https://jaydaigle.net/blog/replication-crisis-math/
  • https://economistwritingeveryday.com/2021/03/01/dolly-parton-and-the-danger-of-doing-what-you-love/
  • https://dynomight.net/thanks-2/
  • https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/sDk3RziupmzShN2RN/cryptoepistemology
  • https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uWs2PnvYsjXMnQ9GSECx1LkZObTk3T-99rwsQ_Jab_k/edit
  • https://anarchonomicon.substack.com/p/cocytarchy
  • https://kk.org/thetechnium/103-bits-of-advice-i-wish-i-had-known/
  • https://popehat.substack.com/p/alex-jones-at-the-tower-of-babel
  • https://reasonablypolymorphic.com/blog/monotonous-web/index.html
  • Lewis-Kraus on MacAskill
  • I Should Be Able To Mute America
  • https://carcinisation.com/2022/09/07/the-limits-of-help/
  • https://aella.substack.com/p/learning-the-elite-class
  • https://cungadero.tumblr.com/post/693894720342179840/cungadero-who-wants-a-list-of-some-of-my-best https://just-evo-now.tumblr.com/post/695080473435783168/just-evo-now-just-evo-now-just-evo-now
  • I was moved to tears by Stewart Brand, John Bull


Vids

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XWEVoI40sE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHOn8u-c2wk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrJ6_GAprFE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73Mx42zOet4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoZUjxstIZs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq5inG547JA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhXSlFjODvs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-DH4owYP1k&list=LL&index=10


Tweets

https://twitter.com/xuenay/status/1546453510920830978 https://twitter.com/sp_monte_carlo/status/1478783658714673159 https://twitter.com/the_aiju/status/1495582144009285632 https://twitter.com/zacharylipton/status/1488669529005821953 https://twitter.com/punk6529/status/1509832349986562048 https://twitter.com/micefearboggis/status/1554851031670001667 https://twitter.com/DanSchkade/status/1560552093684903938/photo/4 https://twitter.com/jackclarksf/status/1555980412333133824 https://twitter.com/ExileGrimm/status/1436340416513810434 https://twitter.com/ben_j_todd/status/1504439141924278278 https://twitter.com/BasisOfCulture/status/1505248977804951552 https://twitter.com/AgnesCallard/status/1507355908321468422 https://twitter.com/bantablack/status/1510289000812228609 https://twitter.com/land_planarian/status/1511549227658141705 https://twitter.com/XanderManshel/status/1538150707060215808 https://twitter.com/georainbolt/status/1554648828275347456 https://twitter.com/Wiglet1981/status/1580197903007907842 https://twitter.com/ben_golub/status/1582224782728495109 https://twitter.com/drewcoffman/status/1590527437418684417


Films / TV

  • The Lighthouse
  • Top Secret
  • Invention for Destruction
  • Uncut Gems
  • EEAAO
  • The General


Podcasts

-


Games

  • Inscryption
  • Two Crowns
  • Backpack Hero
  • Star Traders
  • https://sdkgames.itch.io/ecocoru
  • Iris and the Giant
  • The Devil’s Calculator


Albums

  • Dragon New Warm Mountain (2022) by Big Thief
  • Expert in a Dying Field (2022) by the Beths
  • Beach House - Once Twice Melody
  • Ab-Soul - Herbert
  • Half Man Half Biscuit - The Voltarol Years
  • Tourist - Inside Out
  • Click Click (2006) by Freschard
  • Spinoza (2022) by John Zorn
  • Musique Citadine de L’Ere Edo (2007) by Ensemble Hijiri-Kai
  • Out of the Blue (1979) by Blue Gene Tyranny
  • Live at the Star-Club (1964) by Jerry Lee
  • The Songs of Tony Sly (2013) by Various
  • 万能青年旅店 (2010) by 万能青年旅店.
  • An Elephant Sitting Still (2018) by Hualun
  • A Place to Call Home by Pontus Hulgren. Fanfic music!


Songs

  • ‘As the World Caves In’ by Matt Maltese
  • ‘Discourse on Accents’ by Amy Walker
  • ‘Better Days’ by Turner Cody
  • ‘Make Me Feel’ by Janelle Monae
  • ‘I Won’t Lie to You’ by Francis
  • ‘Something’ by Lasgo
  • ‘Piano Concerto 2’ by Rachmaninoff
  • ‘Вот такой пацан’ by TalanT
  • ‘Numb’ by Jerry Galeries
  • ‘Acroyear2’ by Autechre
  • ‘Seychelles’ by Masayoshi Takanaka
  • Expert in a Dying Field (2022) by the Beths
  • ‘An Ending, A Beginning’ by Dustin O’Halloran
  • ‘Fantasy Baseball’ by John Samson
  • ‘Swap Meet Louie’ by Sir Mixalot
  • ‘Nosetalgia’, the Kendrick verse
  • ‘Wow & Flutter’ by Jeffrey Lewis
  • ‘Ana Ng’ by They Might Be Giants
  • ‘Kids’ by Current Joys
  • ‘You Can Have the Crown’ by Sturgill
  • ‘Pretty Girls’ by Coco Peila
  • ‘Body Terror Song’ by AJJ
  • ‘Silk’ by Wolf Alice
  • Op 87 by Shostakovich
  • ‘Future of HUmanity’ by Tom Cardy


Deals

  • Lenovo Thinkpad Carbon X1 9th Gen (£60) ??????