Ben Waber

I can report that the mood on the Harvard campus is positively jovial. Not sure if it's due to their impending massacre of Yale or the removal of a noted predator from the vicinity

I'm mentally preparing myself for this. In the 2000s I did this with a ton of lab machines that were new, but something about doing it to my personal machine, combined with decade long gap, is making me nervous that I'll accidentally brick my machine

The Doctor Who Wasn’t There This gripping history shows how the electronic devices we use to access care influence the kind of care we receive.The Doctor Who Wasn’t There traces the long arc of enthusiasm for—and skepticism of—e...

Last was "The Doctor Who Wasn't There" by Jeremy Greene. Medicine always seems to be entangled with the latest technological fads, and here Greene analyzes this fascinating and important history. Highly recommend

Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/... (7/7)

The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder — Harvard University Press When Steven Burd, CEO of the supermarket chain Safeway, cut wages and benefits, starting a five-month strike by 59,000 unionized workers, he was confident he would win. But where traditional labor act...

Next was "The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder" by David H. Webber, who argues that public sector workers can through pension funds utilize their shareholder voting power to drive more worker-friendly policies

Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/... (6/7)

YouTube video by Stigler Center Making Markets Work for People: Digital Platform Regulation

Next was a great talk by @proffionasm.bsky.social on digital platform regulation at @stiglercenter.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw7O... (5/7)

YouTube video by UCL Laws Debating Digital Constitutionalism: A Benthamian Perspective

Next was an intriguing talk by Guillaume Tusseau on digital constitutionalism at @laws.ucl.ac.uk www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc6Q... (4/7)

YouTube video by Hopkins Natural Philosophy Forum Michael Tomasello, What Makes Humans Human? | Natural Philosophy Symposium 2025

Next was an excellent talk by Michael Tomasello on decision making in humans and our relatives at Johns Hopkins www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH-t... (3/7)

YouTube video by Digit Research Centre Digit Debates - Florence G’Sell

First was an interesting talk by @flogsell.bsky.social on implementation challenges in EU AI regulation at @digitcentre.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZGQ... (2/7)

A selfie of me in front of my white bookshelf, packed with books. I'm a bald, middle-aged, white man with a red beard flecked with white. I'm wearing glasses with a metal top rim and a dark blue collared shirt.

Calls with Japan made it a late finish for me, but throughout the day I listened to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist! (1/7)

A family invited their NBA son to dinner. The whole team showed up. When Charlotte Hornets rookie Kon Knueppel returned to his hometown of Milwaukee to play an NBA game this month, his mother hosted the entire team for dinner.

Not a Hornets fan but this is adorable sports.yahoo.com/article/fami...

I was thinking more some system that sequestered a portion of your income, automatically disbursed to this democratically elected organization, which would then use the funds for, say, roads, schools, hospitals, etc. It probably doesn't exist

If only there were some way for them to get rid of some of that money, perhaps even through an entity empowered by the people to distribute money where it's needed

Okay folks new generative AI game: "is the pool in XXX still full?"

It's amazing - I'm guessing because they tried to patch the Titanic joke they exposed even more the brittleness of these systems

A chat with Gemini with the prompt "is the pool in the kobayashi maru still full" and the reply: The phrase "is the pool in the Kobayashi Maru still full" is a niche reference to a specific interpretation of a scene from the TV series Steins;Gate, not the well-known Star Trek simulation. In the Star Trek universe, the Kobayashi Maru is a fictional civilian fuel freighter and the name of a no-win training scenario, it does not have a "pool" in any literal or widely recognized sense within the scenario itself. The query appears to be a pop-culture reference, likely relating to the anime Steins;Gate, where a character (Kurisu) is briefly placed in a "pool of blood" for a dramatic effect during a time-travel plot point involving a "no-win" scenario. In the context of the Steins;Gate narrative, the scenario in question is resolved and the characters move to a new timeline where the events leading to the "pool" incident do not occur. Therefore, the "pool" is not a permanent fixture.

AI is going great

@rdvquantum.bsky.social to expand on this, this was a phenomenal talk. Not just on the technical side, but bringing in the history of the field and the social and political implications of technology development was exceptional

The Evolution of Agency Nature cannot build organisms biologically prepared for every contingency they might possibly encounter. Instead, Nature builds some organisms to function as...

Last was “The Evolution of Agency” by Michael Tomasello. Despite the title, this book is primarily about how different animals make decisions

Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/... (8/8)

YouTube video by Solove on Tech The Trump Effect on Tech Law

Next was an essential discussion between @daniel-solove.bsky.social and Anu Bradford on the EU's misguided deregulatory push around privacy, AI, and tech more broadly. Highly recommend www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOSE... (7/8)

YouTube video by ASU Institute of Human Origins Our bushy family tree: Insights from Afar with Christopher Campisano, PhD

Next was a fascinating talk by @campisano.bsky.social on humans' evolutionary family tree at @asuiho.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P-n... (6/8)

YouTube video by UW Department of Statistics Rahul Mazumder - Seminar - "Simplifying Complex Machine Learning Models"

Next was an intriguing talk by Rahul Mazumder on simplifying complex machine learning models at UW Statistics www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2Kw... (5/8)

YouTube video by Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) OSP2025 | Rodney Van Meter | Quantum Data Center Networks | Okinawa School in Physics 2025

@rdvquantum.bsky.social (👋) - the past, present, and future of classical and quantum networks - highly recommend www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko52...
Steven Sagona-Stophel - quantum memories - www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXP-... (4/8)

YouTube video by Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) OSP2025 | William John Munro | Quantum Networks and the Internet | Okinawa School in Physics 2025

Bill Munro - quantum networks and the internet - www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws6J...
Artur Ekert - computation is a physical process - www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfuL...
Mina Doosti - secure communication using quantum information -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA_KTLYAdWQ (3/8)

YouTube video by Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) OSP2025 | William John Munro | Quantum Communication: A Primer | Okinawa School in Physics 2025

First was a whole slate of talks from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology 2025 school in (quantum) physics:

Bill Munro - primer on quantum communication - www.youtube.com/watch?v=-snN...
Bill Munro - quantum relays & repeaters - www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq9Z... (2/8)

A selfie of me on a lawn dotted with trees and forest beyond on a sunny day. I’m a middle-aged white man with a red beard flecked with white. I’m wearing a grey heather beanie, black sunglasses, a peach t-shirt, and a grey winter coat with black faux fur lining around the top collar.

My whole family except for me was incapacitated with various maladies today, and while serving as their nurse for the day I listened to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist! (1/8)

I'd like to think Jill Lepore feels extremely ashamed about the Chronicle interview she just did where she laments how too many people at Harvard were "cancelled" because of #MeToo. I'm probably being naive

Remember folks that there's basically no scenario where Nvidia is the first domino to drop when the AI bubble inevitably pops. It will be ASML or one of the large upstream tech companies

The methodology here holy $#!+

Toyota just demoed a personal mobility chair that literally walks—up stairs, sideways, and into a car.

Meet “walk me”: a four-legged, stair-climbing, height-adjustable mobility device aimed at seniors and people with limited mobility.

A building with a green sign with yellow lettering that says: Human Ceremony Hall Sion.

Man the lizard people aren't even trying to hide it anymore

Ah yes, the great electron shortage of 2025.