What was the most important transition in human history, the thing that most drastically altered our species' way of life? David Reich's lab has found evidence pointing to a new answer.
— Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp) May 9, 2026
There are two standard candidates:
1. The shift from hunting and gathering to farming, around… pic.twitter.com/649RdS9Bl4
Interesting. I would think that the recent explosion of tech would be a similar driver, but it’s happening too fast to affect natural selection.
It’s official now that it was always a scam.
I generally do this, only putting on sandals or slippers to go outside. I’ve had issues with fungus in the past, and it helps to let my feet breathe. And only having cats, and not kids, there is no Lego danger.
I’ve been waiting for this for years. I’m about to do an implant, but I’m wondering if I should just wait. I wonder how much it will cost. It sounds like it shouldn’t cost much.
Your cat is leaving a chemical on your face. Its name is F4. The translation is “you’re family,” and cats only leave it on people and animals they trust. F4 was identified in 1998 by a French researcher named Patrick Pageat.
— Anish Moonka (@anishmoonka) April 29, 2026
Pageat found five different chemicals coming out of… https://t.co/E99rR1y0c6
Interesting thoughts. One of the purposes of the Senate was to be the wise house, to tamp down the impetuosity of the People’s House. We lost a lot of that with the 17th Amendment.
[Update a few minutes later]
Related: “An AI trained on engagement will optimize for engagement. An AI trained on profit will optimize for profit. An AI trained on wisdom would optimize for something else entirely, but we would have to know what wisdom looks like before we could train for it. And we have spent the last century systematically dismantling every institution that once tried to answer that question.”
We saw it a week ago and, while it was a good movie, I wasn’t as blown away by it as many seem to have been. But Matt Shapiro thought it was great.
They could be useful in understanding it for humans as well.
This is of particular current interest, given that we just spent several thousand dollars for surgery for one of the cats to remove a tumor in the small intestine. Fortunately, it appears that they got it all, and the prognosis for the 7YO is good.
The legacy of Al Gore’s religious polemic, twenty years on.
He, I think more than anyone, was responsible for the politicization of science.
Peter Suderman likes it.
[Afternoon update]
You're watching a $248 million film and not a single green or blue screen was used. The alien is a handmade puppet. The cockpit physically rotates to simulate gravity. I looked at the production tech behind this 95% score, and the engineering is wild.
— Anish Moonka (@AnishA_Moonka) March 20, 2026
Phil Lord and Chris Miller,… https://t.co/dNqGFCikE3
[Late-afternoon update]
Most movies, I leave going “yes, but.”
— Stephen Fleming (@StephenFleming) March 20, 2026
“Yes, but the lighting was too dim.”
“Yes, but the sound mix was terrible.”
“Yes, but they skipped this major plot point.” (If based on a book.)
“Yes, but they completely miscast this character.”
Not “Project Hail Mary.” It hits all the…