Links for 2023-02-28
For executing Transformers, optical hardware has an asymptotic efficiency advantage over digital electronics as model sizes increase https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.10360
“Can AI automate a software engineer? Multi line, syntactically correct pull requests involving reasoning in a matter of seconds… 🤯 It’s faster, cheaper and better than me, a human, at mundane code fixes! The future of software development is telling the AI what to build in English!” https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1629990471744512000.html
GitHub co-pilot for LaTeX? https://blog.computationalcomplexity.org/2023/02/the-virtual-grad-student.html
Humans Who Are Not Concentrating Are Not General Intelligences [published in 2019] https://srconstantin.wordpress.com/2019/02/25/humans-who-are-not-concentrating-are-not-general-intelligences/
“OpenAI's leaked Foundry pricing says a lot – if you know how to read it – about GPT4, The Great Implementation, a move from Generative to Productive AI, OpenAI's safety & growth strategies, and the future of work.” https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1630284912853917697.html
“UC Davis Health offers first comprehensive robotic neurosurgery program in the region” https://health.ucdavis.edu/news/headlines/uc-davis-health-offers-first-comprehensive-robotic-neurosurgery-program-in-the-region-/2023/02
“Let's build a Chrome extension that steals everything” https://mattfrisbie.substack.com/p/spy-chrome-extension
“We have successfully achieved electrochemical ammonia synthesis by N2 reduction coupled with H2 oxidation in continuous-flow reactor at 1 bar and room temperature. When the gas-phase NH3 trapped in the HCl solution was evaporated, high-purity NH4Cl was obtained. It's amazing!” https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf4403
Hypothalamic neurons that mirror aggression https://cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(23)00052-1
“The ITU says we're now at about 95% global population coverage of internet (mostly, cellular data) - well over 80% even in the poorest countries.” https://twitter.com/benedictevans/status/1625645060476862465
“In Herodotus, Athens discovered silver mines in laurium and used them to build a large fleet that would end up saving Greece in the Persian war. Isotope analysis of athenian coins confirm this showing Increasing use of silver from laurium by the end of 6th century BC.” https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1625607949124075522.html
We could disassemble the Earth in 78 days, and turn it into a star-sized shell. https://aleph.se/andart2/space/what-is-the-natural-timescale-for-making-a-dyson-shell/
“The White House said there is no consensus within the Biden administration over the origins of the Covid-19 virus, a day after the disclosure of an Energy Department assessment that the pandemic most likely originated with a leak from a Chinese lab.” [Wall Street Journal] https://archive.is/yADwO
Taiwan is ramping up missile production. 1000 to be produced this year, including long-range ones that can reach far into China. https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4802562
It's easy to forget that we live in a world that, not so long ago, was the stuff of science fiction: https://axisofordinary.substack.com/p/the-future-is-now-750
Never in human history has there been less reason to believe that the world will look the same in ten years' time as it does today.
The great thing about the truck is its automatic container loading system. It allows me to load the container relatively quickly, transport it somewhere and unload it again. That's perfect for the logistics of the Ukrainians, who never operate a large warehouse anywhere, but handle everything in a flexible and mobile way. They always move weapons, ammunition, spare parts, fuel in small doses, decentralized and via different routes. This German truck is ideal for that, because it makes it incredibly fast. And good logistics are an important factor in war.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMMV_HX_range_of_tactical_trucks