This year I decided to listen to 1000 new albums (i.e. released in 2024). The returns were not commensurate with efforts.

(My original goals for the year were get into dancing and to watch every Herzog film. These were abject failures.)

This year I at last quit being a student.


Threads

Work

  • Feasibility analysis of the Open Agency Architecture.
  • ESPR Queen’s College
  • https://gleech.org/dennis


Breakthroughs

This is just anything which gave me the feeling “wow, it’s the future”.

  • Separate thread on AlphaFold. It’s been out for 3 years. Bio and drugs are slow but we should see something, as Ben loses his shit

https://x.com/CameronPasser/status/1844582414452236622 https://x.com/albrgr/status/1642963509159018499

  • Objectively the biggest story of all time
  • Primary endosymbiosis found! https://twitter.com/davidmanheim/status/1781788388900614254 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adk1075
    • If you think about it, this is two discoveries in one, since this is also the first known eukaryote that can fix nitrogen
  • Essentially a 100% HIV vaccine (though yes yes, it’s actually a preventative antiviral which lasts 6 months) https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2407001
  • https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=8088
  • https://www.anthropic.com/research/mapping-mind-language-model
  • “some bacteria use reverse transcriptase to synthesise new genes and associated proteins as a defence mechanism against bacteriophages”
  • https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02865-w
  • https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.adn0137
  • https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01480-8
  • https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/may/09/uk-toddler-has-hearing-restored-in-world-first-gene-therapy-trial
  • https://twitter.com/TimothyDuignan/status/1789622259927351324
  • https://twitter.com/salonium/status/1770815167032442959
  • https://twitter.com/pdhsu/status/1762512557565456825
  • https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stae1186/7665761
  • https://twitter.com/sarahzhang/status/1780955955296948515
  • https://x.com/AliHShaib/status/1844028698359382491
  • https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-024-02335-1 https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.03078
  • https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/09/fix-food-allergies-xolair/679754
  • https://www.nature.com/articles/s42256-024-00809-7
  • https://www.bmj.com/content/385/bmj-2023-077341
  • https://x.com/as_bates/status/1791915932341719379
  • https://arxiv.org/pdf/2404.06757
  • https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/28/climate/chickens-egg-industry-humane.html?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.13687
  • https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-48150-2
  • Gears of war
  • It’s not flashy and doesn’t shake the foundations of any big incumbent, but machine forecasting (or in a more stark phrasing, machine judgment of arbitrary pieces of our likely future) is finally useful. https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.03230 https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.18563. Still well short of the gold standard (“superteams”), but for how long?
  • https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-44785-1 ??
  • First private machine to land on the moon
  • and https://x.com/atroyn/status/1834330684519055592
  • https://x.com/NunoSempere/status/1811400780378693675
  • https://www.thetransmitter.org/defining-cell-types/welcome-to-the-second-single-cell-revolution-new-high-throughput-technologies-are-transforming-how-we-define-neurons/
  • https://twitter.com/pdhsu/status/175031651813369473
  • https://twitter.com/MikeIrvo/status/1752123455125016839?t=71FHFcJT39gniwwmGFe9Rg&s=19
  • https://twitter.com/natfriedman/status/1754519304471814555
  • https://twitter.com/VGaneshMDPhD/status/1755708315181744330
  • https://twitter.com/s_r_constantin/status/1760769535978676373
  • https://x.com/rtenews/status/1794017539372007772
  • https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-023-01500-7
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.10430
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.20552
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.09629

Maybe

  • An actual test for discrete theories of spacetime https://x.com/getjonwithit/status/1853233148462506478
  • https://x.com/adamlewisgreen/status/1853206279499751531
  • https://arxiv.org/pdf/2409.10606
  • https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a60952102/tooth-regrowth-human-trials-japan/?utm_source=reddit.com
  • Famous last words https://www.ans.org/news/article-6241/china-pebblebed-reactor-passes-meltdown-test/
  • https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.20.585943v1 ??????
  • https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07163-z
  • https://www.newscientist.com/article/2426183-one-of-the-biggest-mysteries-of-cosmology-may-finally-be-solved/
  • Sadly one must be cautious when reading Deepmind releases
  • https://www.academia.edu/78867798/Deciphering_Indus_script_as_a_cryptogram
  • https://x.com/robertghrist/status/1841462507543949581

uh oh

  • F#1M/504281. https://transformer-circuits.pub/2024/scaling-monosemanticity/index.html
  • https://www.economist.com/europe/2024/12/02/how-ukraine-uses-cheap-ai-guided-drones-to-deadly-effect-against-russia
  • https://osf.io/5rf2m/
  • https://apnews.com/article/fluoride-water-brain-neurology-iq-0a671d2de3b386947e2bd5a661f437a5
  • https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.19.599691v1
  • https://twitter.com/chheinzel/status/1776453935156560020
  • https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/

Belated from 2023

  • https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-archaeological-journal/article/an-upper-palaeolithic-protowriting-system-and-phenological-calendar/6F2AD8A705888F2226FE857840B4FE19

Nonbreakthroughs

  • https://twitter.com/hamandcheese/status/1787853882745332066
  • https://twitter.com/Robert_Palgrave/status/1730358675523424344
  • https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adg8538?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
  • https://twitter.com/GaryMarcus/status/1775165136455831928


Papers

  • Why concepts are probably vectors
  • It is next token
  • https://twitter.com/ev_fedorenko/status/1778758537583210783
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.12358
  • https://github.com/facebookresearch/schedule_free
  • https://arxiv.org/pdf/2408.04093
  • https://twitter.com/arankomatsuzaki/status/1776057023697731913
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.16984
  • https://twitter.com/katie_kang_/status/1709643099310555268
  • Ternary LLM https://huggingface.co/blog/joey00072/experiments-with-bitnet-1-5
  • https://intrinsic-lora.github.io/
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.09629
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.05372
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.09629
  • https://arxiv.org/pdf/2403.05612.pdf

  • When Tao rolls around the floor solving topological problems, did you think that was illness? https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07973-1

  • https://www.nber.org/papers/w32255
  • https://twitter.com/g_leech_/status/1769651951363301629
  • https://twitter.com/_saurabh/status/1763626711407816930
  • https://twitter.com/im_td/status/1745083338887508253
  • https://twitter.com/teortaxesTex/status/1764392878107664719
  • https://twitter.com/oh_that_hat/status/1716999856294891612
  • https://www.nature.com/articles/s44159-024-00283-3
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.05566
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.01130
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.01032
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.06327
  • https://twitter.com/BrianMGuay/status/1773808675250958550
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.02843
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.05812
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.14740?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
  • https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adg8538
  • https://huggingface.co/papers/2402.14083
  • https://x.com/GhaffariMaani/status/1801677244797997181
  • https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.13.598710v1
  • https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.02478
  • Weight averaging? Hype? https://twitter.com/rasbt/status/1750180383398744106
  • Pretty independent account of what of EA work on AI safety is important https://alignment-w2024.notion.site/CSC2547-AI-Alignment-b44359978f3a4a8f95c90adb0a6e7d53
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.14440
  • https://arxiv.org/pdf/2409.05513
  • https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/gTZ2SxesbHckJ3CkF/transformers-represent-belief-state-geometry-in-their
  • https://t.co/8vLDUPFl6Z
  • https://cdn.openai.com/prover-verifier-games-improve-legibility-of-llm-outputs/legibility.pdf
  • https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38327122/
  • https://downloads.webis.de/publications/papers/bevendorff_2024a.pdf?ref=404media.co
  • https://twitter.com/ibomohsin/status/1754912601165775296
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.01781
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.13647
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.03683
  • https://twitter.com/nlp_ceo/status/1759635223250182500
  • https://twitter.com/spiantado/status/1755293775197548789
  • https://huggingface.co/papers/2402.04494
  • https://www.academia.edu/120938603/Consequentialism_for_Deontologists_The_Harm_Reduction_Approach
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.05110
  • https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ejop.12975
  • https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.11870


Alignment

  • https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kcKrE9mzEHrdqtDpE/the-case-for-ensuring-that-powerful-ais-are-controlled
  • https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/j9Ndzm7fNL9hRAdCt/critiques-of-the-ai-control-agenda


Books

  • Poor Things by Gray
  • The Singularity by Buzzati
  • Void Star by Mason
  • Master Incapable by Wunengzi

Worst book:


Essays and sites

  • https://sarahconstantin.substack.com/p/neutrality
  • https://josephheath.substack.com/p/john-rawls-and-the-death-of-western
  • http://www.tobyord.com/writing/progress/
  • https://dynomight.net/things/
  • https://epistem.ink/570c388dff0e4eeb9de16c35129baac2
  • https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/6h9p6NZ5RRFvAqWq5/the-summoned-heroine-s-prediction-markets-keep-providing
  • https://harpers.org/archive/2024/12/the-painted-protest-dean-kissick-contemporary-art/
  • https://interconnected.org/home/2024/02/21/adams
  • https://dynomight.net/taste-games/
  • Scott on Nietzsche
  • https://scottsumner.substack.com/p/italian-mannerism-david-lynch-and
  • https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kbnJHpapusMJZb6Gs/truthseeking-is-the-ground-in-which-other-principles-grow#Conclusion
  • https://andymasley.substack.com/p/strategies-for-learning
  • https://eiko-fried.com/antidotes-to-cynicism-creep/
  • https://dynomight.substack.com/p/things?publication_id=327510&post_id=142828807&isFreemail=true&r=17svsz&triedRedirect=true&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
  • https://josephheath.substack.com/p/why-philosophers-should-worry-about
  • https://gist.github.com/ivan/a36e2489623469d96c1ad79077b6dcf9
  • https://all-cats-are-beautiful.ghost.io/image-without-metaphor-dune-2-and-the-return-of-socialist-realism/
  • https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/craigold/
  • https://sophiefuji.com/travels.html
  • https://danfrank.ca/my-favourite-joseph-heath-articles-canadas-most-important-canadian-thinker/
  • https://ai.objectives.institute/blog/the-problem-with-alignment
  • https://joecarlsmith.com/2024/01/04/deep-atheism-and-ai-risk
  • https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/yQSmcfN4kA7rATHGK/many-arguments-for-ai-x-risk-are-wrong
  • https://www.theintrinsicperspective.com/p/here-lies-the-internet-murdered-by
  • https://www.alexirpan.com/2024/01/10/ai-timelines-2024.html
  • https://malmesbury.substack.com/p/there-is-way-too-much-serendipity
  • https://maximumprogress.substack.com/p/surgery-works-well-without-the-fda
  • https://www.writingruxandrabio.com/p/autism-and-the-internet-will-defeat?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1553777&post_id=143802978&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=3o9&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email#footnote-anchor-1-143802978
  • https://generative.ink/prophecies/#1967
  • https://danwang.co/2023-letter/
  • https://www.overcomingbias.com/p/conquest-and-liberation-of-academia?publication_id=1245641&post_id=152921959&isFreemail=true&r=1phot&triedRedirect=true&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
  • https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QEBFZtP64DdhjE3Sz/self-awareness-taxonomy-and-eval-suite-proposal
  • https://dynomight.net/automated/
  • https://nostalgebraist.tumblr.com/post/740164510909890560/information-flow-in-transformers
  • https://nostalgebraist.tumblr.com/post/741247180226052096/i-dont-think-youre-drawing-the-right-lesson-from
  • https://www.wired.com/story/i-went-undercover-secret-onlyfans-chatter-wasnt-pretty/
  • https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/shifting-views-frameshifting
  • https://blog.wtf.sg/posts/2023-02-03-the-new-xor-problem/
  • https://research.swtch.com/nih
  • https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/i-will-fucking-piledrive-you-if-you-mention-ai-again/


  • https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1FjMfDvIuV/?igsh=ZWI2YzEzYmMxYg==


Tweets and poems

  • https://twitter.com/NickXHall/status/1781631866094723215
  • https://centrally-unplanned.tumblr.com/post/745955131410055168
  • https://twitter.com/poitevin/status/1750181834997059831
  • https://twitter.com/sherjilozair/status/1719665475452592495
  • https://amalianegreponti.com/why-did-you-come-here/
  • https://twitter.com/yashkaf/status/1760428872607400115
  • https://x.com/jessi_cata/status/1831152278004498814
  • https://twitter.com/MaxNadeau_/status/1760226664091664694
  • https://twitter.com/jd_pressman/status/1779188061945172067
  • https://dreams-of-an-electric-mind.webflow.io/
  • https://x.com/karlbykarlsmith/status/1834579640712618089
  • https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/verses-on-five-people-being-killed


Art and vids

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=g5XVrBvtX6M
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjzSFa03i2U
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Kz8Nxb-Bg
  • https://www.covidphotomuseum.org/


Films / TV

  • Scavenger’s Reign


Podcasts


Games


Albums

pop album of the year: https://open.spotify.com/album/7r0oaJO4WR0KLgg1rZu6kg?si=LAsFw9OKS02F5DE0pIeT9w https://www.albumoftheyear.org/album/1000651-bicep-chroma-004-rola.php https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4TUtTS7c9EYO9FYriXmbO8 https://bluegenetyranny.bandcamp.com/album/real-life-and-the-movies-volume-1


Songs

  • https://twitter.com/Scottcrates/status/1763985622933586057
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E9l_i6HPYM
  • https://chatnoirrec.bandcamp.com/album/moments-in-love-ep