OpenAI was mocked for saying GPT-5 would display "PhD-level intelligence." If we took that concept seriously, what might it mean? Which capacity is uniquely cultivated through a PhD? I think it's mostly one thing: learning how to ask Goldilocks questions. open.substack.com/pub/unpublis...

Graduate school is hard, because sometimes it requires you to explain the word “boofing” to your grandparents. Context below! open.substack.com/pub/unpublis...

Not science, but wrote this short essay about Jesse Welles and the meaning of ‘Dylanesque.’ If you don’t know who Jesse is — you should check him out! open.substack.com/pub/unpublis...

Yes, I’m serious. But don’t get mad until you’ve read the piece! Ft. recommendations for work by @edhagen.net , @lukeglowacki.bsky.social , Will Buckner and others. open.substack.com/pub/unpublis...

Amidst the destruction of Gaza, what does it mean to be Jewish? In my latest Substack, I look for answers in an unlikely source: Superman. Link below! @jacobgeller.com open.substack.com/pub/unpublis...

What technologies, if any, should we expect any alien civilization to invent? Find out in my latest Substack, linked below. Inspiration creds to @etiennefd.blogsky.venki.dev and his lovely Historical Tech Tree 👽😃 open.substack.com/pub/unpublis...

For Substack (link below), I explore why the media won't shut up about trans athletes. It's because they're political cheesecake, to borrow a phrase from Steven Pinker. The special ingredient? Disgust. open.substack.com/pub/unpublis...

Hello, Bluesky! Pleased to share that my first public-press article, on the shifting debate over what makes human culture unique, was published today in @us.theconversation.com. I review recent literature suggesting that cultural open-endedness, not cumulative culture, is our true defining trait.