Author: robert.adlington
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Write Things Down – Stratechery by Ben Thompson
Biological evolution is the slowest and most permanent form of learning, but it takes millennia; oral communication is like a context window, effective but lossy; actually writing things down is what made learning extendable and scalable. — Read on stratechery.com/2026/write-things-down/
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A simple model of AI-aided economic growth – intelligence vs Polyani Knowledge
Polanyi knowledge. Michael Polanyi, that is. This refers to knowledge of time and place, inarticulable knowledge, custom and habit, and many other particularities that you can read about in Hayek and Polanyi and in many other social scientists, anthropologists too. Humans specialize in this. The AIs can aid in its production, but at least so…
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14 Reasons Robotics is Hard – by Steve Newman
Robots will need context, too: where are supplies kept? How do you like your meals cooked? How much assistance does that nursing home resident need, and is that hitch in their stride normal, or a sign that they’re about to stumble? Once they have context, robots will need to reason, plan, and exercise judgement and…
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Slime moulds and the bitter debate over the nature of intelligence
Levin doesn’t believe this should be incendiary in any way. “If you think brains and neurons are special, you have to ask yourself: ‘How did they get here?’” he said. In the yawning span of time before evolution produced the first neuron, cells found other ways to navigate their environment, “doing pretty much the same…
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Conceptual integrity and counting lines of code
That’s exactly the problem with coding agents and software: it’s very easy to keep adding new rooms, because the cost of adding those rooms is so much cheaper. What you end up with is something where the conceptual integrity falls apart — and then it’s harder to make decisions about it. It all keeps coming…
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Humans did not invent art. It was the other way around | Aeon Essays
Indeed, science begins – and can only begin – in the world that art has made. Ultimately, what we call art is the fruit of the human imagination’s capacity to go beyond immediate perception, to dream what lies around this corner, outside the human world. From this point of view, the hypothetical stage of the…
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How to spot a psychopath: ‘It’s like the difference between a domestic cat and a wild cat’ | Psychology | The Guardian
Mitchell built a template of 20 attributes, divided into four clusters, and 25 tactics that would identify a high-functioning persistent predatory personality type. Cluster one includes a need for control; a grandiose sense of self; pathological inner response to challenge; vengefulness; refusal to compromise. Cluster two includes being predatory or exploitative; sadistic and cruel; having…
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Pigeons May Sense Earth’s Magnetic Field Using Superparamagnetic Immune Cells in Their Livers | Sci.News
“We had some clues that the liver and spleen have magnetic properties, because they break down red blood cells and so store much iron in the body,” said Dr. Clivia Lisowski, a researcher at the University of Bonn and the University Hospital Bonn. “Iron is crystallized in oxide nanoparticles making the cells superparamagnetic and reactive…
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Why Are Rivers So Mathematical? | Quanta Magazine
Every square inch of land on Earth’s surface receives precipitation, and much of it drains out, eventually, to an ocean or lake. Rivers are the drainage system. In 1957, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist named John Hack discovered the most important law of river networks. In rivers and streams in Virginia and Maryland, Hack measured…