Links for 2023-01-09
How worried should we be about falling sperm counts? [The Spectator] https://archive.is/4EqXm
What To Expect From The Next Generation Of Brain-Computer Interfaces https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0686C-VTF9A
A deep-learning model of prescient ideas demonstrates that they emerge from the periphery https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/advance-article/doi/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac275/6874776
Economic impacts of AI-augmented R&D: “Recent applications of deep learning in science and engineering, such as AlphaFold and Copilot, have been astonishing. What does standard economic growth theory say about the economic effects of its adoption in R&D? If deep learning becomes good enough to be broadly adopted in the R&D sector, its adoption could induce an accumulation of relevant capital that could nearly double the productivity growth rate in the U.S.” https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.08198
Efficient neural codes naturally emerge through gradient descent learning https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35659-7
“We present an empirical analysis of the automatic generation of interesting experiments. In the first setting, we investigate self-invented experiments in a reinforcement-providing environment and show that they lead to effective exploration. In the second setting, pure thought experiments are implemented as the weights of recurrent neural networks generated by a neural experiment generator.” https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.14374
“...as an AI obsessive and long-time @ezraklein fan, I was excited to see yesterday's podcast with @GaryMarcus. Unfortunately, as I listened, my excitement gave way to frustration, and I felt compelled to write my first-ever megathread.” https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1611724185709027328.html
"Humanity's long term future can be amazing - let's make sure it is." https://baseratesblog.substack.com/p/deep-hope
“We therefore offer the hypothesis that the tapetum lucidum is a compensatory co-adaptation in the vertebrate retina made necessary by the inverted arrangement of the photoreceptors.” https://skepticalinquirer.org/2022/12/the-night-begins-to-shine-the-tapetum-lucidum-and-our-backward-retinas/
Comparing the Perceived Legitimacy of Content Mod. Processes" - "whether users agree with the decision ... has a greater impact on [perceived legitimacy] than the process itself." https://hci.stanford.edu/publications/2022/ComparingPerceivedLegitimacy.pdf
“The progressive war on merit continues. And it gets more ludicrous by the day.” https://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-facile-nonsense-2703005/