Link post
Introducing Speculative Technologies, a private DARPA-like research organization. See also coverage in Forbes and Ben Reinhardt’s AMA on the Progress Forum
I’ll be speaking on how to write about progress at the Thesis Festival this weekend
Day One policy memo on enabling faster NIH funding timelines (via @LNuzhna)
Convergent Research is hiring a Director of Development (via @AGamick)
Dwarkesh is looking for help with his podcast
A case for more techno-optimistic storytelling
Patrick Collison interviewed by Reid Hoffman
David Deutsch interviewed by Naval Ravikant
Marc Andreessen interviewed by Dwarkesh Patel
OpenAI will let you “define your AI’s values”
“Most of the rank and file at the NRC are not anti-nuclear”
Is there a historical price series for moving a cubic meter of dirt?
Why was the wind never used on roads? Why no carriages or wagons with sails?
When Carnegie hired a staff chemist: “great secrets did the doctor open up to us”
Why corporate R&D in the 1980s was mediocre compared to Bell Labs and GE
“Even the aspiration” to sustainability is dangerous, says David Deutsch
Francis Bacon with the understatement of the millennium
“It can be done”
The Martian as one of the only tech positive films out there (@brian_armstrong)
Katalin Karikó has received enough awards to fill a cabinet
Why is it so expensive to build transit in the US? Summary findings
LLMs are just a massively scaled up version of the “travesty generator”
Toolformer lets language models use tools like web search, calculators, and APIs. Original paper on arXiv
“Within a decade solar will be cheap enough that CO2 will be the best place to get carbon.” And how that will change the economy
Quantifying healthspan in dogs for longevity research (@celinehalioua)
Spy balloons have a long history
CGO poll: people think social media is important for policy discussions but avoid being political online
Progress links and tweets, 2023-02-22
Link post
Announcements
Introducing Speculative Technologies, a private DARPA-like research organization. See also coverage in Forbes and Ben Reinhardt’s AMA on the Progress Forum
I’ll be speaking on how to write about progress at the Thesis Festival this weekend
Day One policy memo on enabling faster NIH funding timelines (via @LNuzhna)
Opportunities
Convergent Research is hiring a Director of Development (via @AGamick)
Dwarkesh is looking for help with his podcast
Links
A case for more techno-optimistic storytelling
Patrick Collison interviewed by Reid Hoffman
David Deutsch interviewed by Naval Ravikant
Marc Andreessen interviewed by Dwarkesh Patel
OpenAI will let you “define your AI’s values”
“Most of the rank and file at the NRC are not anti-nuclear”
Queries
Is there a historical price series for moving a cubic meter of dirt?
Quotes
Why was the wind never used on roads? Why no carriages or wagons with sails?
When Carnegie hired a staff chemist: “great secrets did the doctor open up to us”
Why corporate R&D in the 1980s was mediocre compared to Bell Labs and GE
“Even the aspiration” to sustainability is dangerous, says David Deutsch
Francis Bacon with the understatement of the millennium
“It can be done”
Tweets & retweets
The Martian as one of the only tech positive films out there (@brian_armstrong)
Katalin Karikó has received enough awards to fill a cabinet
Why is it so expensive to build transit in the US? Summary findings
LLMs are just a massively scaled up version of the “travesty generator”
Toolformer lets language models use tools like web search, calculators, and APIs. Original paper on arXiv
“Within a decade solar will be cheap enough that CO2 will be the best place to get carbon.” And how that will change the economy
Quantifying healthspan in dogs for longevity research (@celinehalioua)
Spy balloons have a long history
Charts
CGO poll: people think social media is important for policy discussions but avoid being political online