2026-02-02
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Chenchen Li and Tommy Blanchard have an interesting discussion on her series on the inability of OpenWorm and other projects to properly simulate C. elegans, despite having fully mapped its connectome of 302 neurons1. On that note, Ralph Stefan Weir has a great article in Asimov Press on the history of scientific confusion around the definition and boundaries of consciousness.
80K Hours podcast has an interview with David Duvenaud on gradual disempowerment. It seems to me that this issue is by and large overdiscussed, since due to self-selection the people who set the discourse are those who tend to disproportionately enjoy exercising power. It’s very interesting that Duvenaud describes the fate of the English aristocracy as an example to be avoided; my primary takeaway from this is that some people really would prefer to live in squalor than ever let anyone else to be in charge. Arguably, such people have already mostly succeeded in basically disempowering the rest of humanity, who nevertheless seem to me to be more or less doing fine. People living in “flyover country” retain their rights not because they are actually necessary to keep society functional, nor even entirely due to their ability to harness the sympathies and ideological beliefs of those who are, but primarily because they exist within a political structure which due to path-dependant reasons actually accords them arguably even disproportionate per-capita political power.
Rabbit Cavern with entertaining anecdotes on the utility of scents, which I’m going to pretend is the reason behind the candle budget meme, though whether it is pumpkin pie and lavender or licorice and cucumber is less clear to me.
Sachin argues that the appeal of watching internet streamers arises from the same source as does losing oneself in a riotous crowd. Personally, I think that internet streamers are overly maligned in the same manner as other groups which hover between niche and mainstream, where their most shocking and egregious actors are the ones which tend to enter the public consciousness. But psychologizing about a scene based on such examples doesn’t tell you about the psychology of the average creator or even the average viewer; it tells you more about how you yourself respond to a newly visible outgroup2.
Julia Wise describes how she limits her children’s screen usage, which is a good excuse for me to mention melissa’s lofi girl protocol.
Zijing Wu has an article in the FT on the state-run STEM gifted education program in China, which seems to be setting off a new round of discourse around Asian striving3. Somewhat related, Shaked Koplewitz on confounding which occurs in analysis of outliers. Also, Jenneral’s mom on the social dynamics of Chinese class reunions.
Rohit Krishnan notes on visiting Mexico. It does seem to me that most people who visit Asia before Mexico see the latter’s primary advantage as its greater proximity to the United States.
Tyler Cowen on how his efforts to write for AI are paying off4.
January linkthreads: Sam Enright, Smrithi Sunil biotech, Max Nussenbaum, Celine Nguyen literary.
Although it doesn’t seem to include recent progress from projects like BAAIWorm. It seems to me (totally unqualified as I am) that the solution actually is “more data”, specifically in recovering live neuron firing as the worm goes about its business. We need to build little worm brain-computer interfaces.
Similarly, carnival clowning is probably not a case where the medium is the message, but rather a product of innate human nature. After all, on Substack we have people like Richard Hanania (with all respect) or DeepLeft Analysis (partial paywall).
Itself part of increasing debate around American university admissions and contradictory feelings towards the Gaokao approach. For example, this article by Iza Ding in the recent LRB, reviewing The Highest Exam (Also interesting in this issue, Thomas Jones on Suetonius’ claims against the Caesars, Anna Della Subin with a revisionary perspective on El Cid).