Hot take of the day: investing in an AI company with posted results in benchmark X is equivalent to investing in the theory of intelligence belied by benchmark X. I.e. benchmarks are "mini-theories" of intelligence. (PS: we are biasing ourselves towards a quantitative theory of intelligence.)

Really enjoyed "Playing with reality" by @kellybclancy.bsky.social. Beautiful prose, well-organized, clearly written with deep subject matter expertise, and non-trivial broader social considerations. Enjoyable read and IMO underrated.

Journalists interested in AI--here's a great paid training fellowship with applications due Jan 7: www.tarbellcenter.org/fellowship

This will be a fascinating read!

Hadn't seen this "Cartography of Generative AI" before. From Estampa, a collective of programmers, filmmakers and researchers working in the fields of audiovisual media and digital environments: cartography-of-generative-ai.net

I reviewed two books about games, @kellybclancy.bsky.social's superb Playing with Reality: How Games Have Shaped Our World, and Marcus du Sautoy's more superficial Around the World in 80 Games, which come at some of the same subjects from different angles: meadowparty.com/blog/2025/09...

Any rich dems want to fund an independent science news and commentary outlet, hmu (climate, vaccines, energy, public health, biomedical research, assults on science writ large, etc)

What do caribou bones have to do with AI? Graphic artist Drew Dernavich made an awesome comic explainer for part of my book, Playing with Reality, and did an amazing job of crystallizing dense ideas into lovely art! whisperbubble.substack.com/p/the-dice-r...

There's gotta be a German word for the phenomenon whereby I like a particular book/show/media but consider it a red flag if someone else likes it.

Yes! What’s exciting is how cultural and technological systems can display macroevolutionary patterns we usually associate with biology — diversification, collapse, persistence. Arcade games are just one tractable case study.

In a crazy 1960s experiment, a patient was implanted with 50 different stimulating electrodes in his brain--including in an area that gave him orgasmic feelings. He could stimulate any of these at will.

Support indie magazines and pick up @thebeliever.net! I have a little story in this delightful new issue, which was mainly an excuse to get a cute illustration of my cats into the magazine. But every issue is packed with goodness! Why not subscribe and get strange and profound observations all year?

Those who have incorrectly ascribed much of the progress made in the last century to capitalism are about to learn where it really came from.

I recommend everyone consider reading the United Nation’s charter these days. I wonder why we don’t talk about it more. Imagine the world if we truly resolved ourselves to join efforts toward the aims of the UN charter. www.un.org/en/about-us/...

Yarvin attempting to justify autocracy with word play has precisely as much explanatory power as a New Age healer willfully mispronouncing disease as “dis-ease”

I wrote a quick-start guide for people to replicate this across the country. It was, in our experience, a very effective way to get real action in a short amount of time. People are willing to talk to scientists! And when you provide everything, they are happy to contact their reps too. Try it!

Pleased to say "Space, Time, and Memory", an academic book by Oxford University Press edited by the inimitable Lynn Nadel & Sara Aronowitz is now out. I contributed a chapter, "Memory and Planning in Brains and Machines". You can download the entire book for free: library.oapen.org/bitstream/ha...

🚨 New preprint! 🚨 I looked at 400+ years of cumulative cultural evolution in the Game of Go from feudalism to superhuman AI. Did AlphaGo etc. completely disrupt human play? No! More like human-machine convergence, rather than revolution. Check out these decision trees! osf.io/preprints/ps...

AI is moving forward at the hands of people utterly ignorant of 2500 years of epistemology. I beg philosophers to stop thinking that the only issues with AI are ethics issues.

An absolute honor to be included among these authors 🙏

Inspired by @sciencehomecoming.bsky.social , I wrote an op ed for my hometown newspaper (the Lexington Herald-Leader) about the importance of protecting science and universities from destruction by the government. Think about writing one of your own! www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-e...

What a world. Capitalism "externalizes" costs to the point where the costs are "externalized" into our own bodies.

I just received my copy of "Evolution Evolving," and I read chapter 1 and loved it: "nothing in evolution makes sense except in the light of development." @kevinlala.bsky.social

Truly believe that the ability of optimization-like processes to develop brain-like properties in sufficiently-complex distributed systems is one of the biggest insights in theoretical neuroscience.

Just finished 'Playing with Reality' by @kellybclancy.bsky.social. Loved it! I picked it up because I thought it was about the history of games, which it is... but it's also so much more than that. Touches upon game theory, minimax, RL, economics, auctions, evolution, Simcity, and more.

15 years ago I published a graphic novel about the US wars in the Middle East/Central Asia from the perspective of civilians. This page seems apt today.

Well this is an incredible opening paragraph

I've long wondered why indigo is considered a separate color in the rainbow. Is ROY G BIV just a pedagogical mnemonic for kids learning their colors? Nope! Turns out Isaac Newton wanted there to be 7 colors in the rainbow for the number's mysticism: 7 musical notes, 7 days for biblical creation, etc

So proud that my book is included among these amazing works!

Games have shaped our world in myriad ways and Kelly Clancy's “Playing With Reality” makes the history and future of game theory fascinating. Definitely worth picking up a copy. @kellybclancy.bsky.social

I'm delighted to share that my debut book, PLAYING WITH REALITY: HOW GAMES HAVE SHAPED OUR WORLD will be out June 18.