Link post
Stripe Press is publishing Poor Charlies Almanack (via @patrickc). Also, Londoners: sign up for events from Stripe Press and Works in Progress (via @WorksInProgMag)
Dwarkesh Patel’s podcast The Lunar Society now taking applications for advertisers. Also, Dwarkesh would really love to interview Robert Caro
The Ascent of Man turns 50. Here’s the premiere (via @BBCArchive & @drbronowski)
Celebrating Smallpox Eradication Day
How photographs could be sent by telephone in the 1930s (via @asallen)
Brian Potter on nuclear power plant construction costs (via @calebwatney)
The Hunterian Museum, on anatomy & the history of surgery (via @salonium)
Sears was basically Amazon one century earlier
“Humanities bros need to take more STEM classes”
Child labor was once seen as a good thing
Evidence for the use of water wheels early in the first century
Autopilots have been on airplanes for a long time
The Pasteur Institute was privately funded
Something to keep in mind the next time you contact customer service
What are the best reasons for optimism about AI risk? (@MaxCRoser)
What lessons can we learn about reasoning from Bayes’ rule?
What are the most impressive things we could build if we all really wanted it?
What to read to understand the history of the US electrical grid? (@_brianpotter)
What is going to enable $1/day continuous hormone monitoring?
Is there progress-studies work on the home/family dimensions of flourishing?
What’s the best way to help someone learn to understand another’s POV?
What are some of the most useful impossibility proofs?
Who is going to create the Cshirchive?
John Carmack: “the world is better than it has ever been… and the derivative is still positive… get on board the progress train.” Fortunately the malaise is not universal
Sam Altman’s “alternative path for society”
Dustin Moskovitz: “By 2030, I expect ~everyone will have a personal AI agent”
India building nuclear at < $2/W?
How LLMs can be used for causal inference
Could protein folding be ready for its fundamental theory?
Life in America 40 years ago vs. today
Adam Thierer’s progress bookshelf
Robotaxis were perhaps over hyped in 2017, but opposite is true now
Until 150 years ago people lived in a permanent power outage
We accept “the community decides” for land use, but not elsewhere
A neutron star is like a cargo ship crunched down to the size of a cake sprinkle
After all the banks fail, who provides liquidity?
How to use social media
“I am a language model of a modern major general”
The Stanford Torus, a space settlement megastructure
Infant mortality has improved so much that these J-curves have been straightened out
Staphylococcus killed by far-UVC light. Imagine using this in public spaces
Why LLMs will not “demolish white-collar employment overnight”
Progress links and tweets, 2023-05-09
Link post
Announcements
Stripe Press is publishing Poor Charlies Almanack (via @patrickc). Also, Londoners: sign up for events from Stripe Press and Works in Progress (via @WorksInProgMag)
Dwarkesh Patel’s podcast The Lunar Society now taking applications for advertisers. Also, Dwarkesh would really love to interview Robert Caro
Links
The Ascent of Man turns 50. Here’s the premiere (via @BBCArchive & @drbronowski)
Celebrating Smallpox Eradication Day
How photographs could be sent by telephone in the 1930s (via @asallen)
Brian Potter on nuclear power plant construction costs (via @calebwatney)
The Hunterian Museum, on anatomy & the history of surgery (via @salonium)
Quotes
Sears was basically Amazon one century earlier
“Humanities bros need to take more STEM classes”
Child labor was once seen as a good thing
Evidence for the use of water wheels early in the first century
Autopilots have been on airplanes for a long time
The Pasteur Institute was privately funded
Something to keep in mind the next time you contact customer service
Queries
What are the best reasons for optimism about AI risk? (@MaxCRoser)
What lessons can we learn about reasoning from Bayes’ rule?
What are the most impressive things we could build if we all really wanted it?
What to read to understand the history of the US electrical grid? (@_brianpotter)
What is going to enable $1/day continuous hormone monitoring?
Is there progress-studies work on the home/family dimensions of flourishing?
What’s the best way to help someone learn to understand another’s POV?
What are some of the most useful impossibility proofs?
Who is going to create the Cshirchive?
Tweets
John Carmack: “the world is better than it has ever been… and the derivative is still positive… get on board the progress train.” Fortunately the malaise is not universal
Sam Altman’s “alternative path for society”
Dustin Moskovitz: “By 2030, I expect ~everyone will have a personal AI agent”
India building nuclear at < $2/W?
How LLMs can be used for causal inference
Could protein folding be ready for its fundamental theory?
Life in America 40 years ago vs. today
Adam Thierer’s progress bookshelf
Robotaxis were perhaps over hyped in 2017, but opposite is true now
Until 150 years ago people lived in a permanent power outage
We accept “the community decides” for land use, but not elsewhere
A neutron star is like a cargo ship crunched down to the size of a cake sprinkle
After all the banks fail, who provides liquidity?
How to use social media
“I am a language model of a modern major general”
The Stanford Torus, a space settlement megastructure
Charts
Infant mortality has improved so much that these J-curves have been straightened out
Staphylococcus killed by far-UVC light. Imagine using this in public spaces
Why LLMs will not “demolish white-collar employment overnight”