Peter Bart Reiner

Call for Proposals // Laude Moonshots Laude Moonshots support computer science researchers taking big, urgent swings in AI

Call for moonshots. First phase: abstracts due on Oct 25, 2025. moonshots.laude.org/call-for-pro...

Minds, Artificial Intelligence, and Ethics October 14, 15, and 16, 2025 What is the potential of AI to alleviate suffering, advance equity, and support human and planetary flourishing—and what risks does it pose to health, work, education, politics, and climate action? And how might we infuse AI with ethical values so that it benefits the well-being of all life on Earth? … Continue reading "Minds, Artificial Intelligence, and Ethics"

AI is reshaping how we live, work & connect. How can it deepen compassion? 🌏

Join us live from Dharamsala, Oct 14–16 for Minds, Artificial Intelligence & Ethics with The Dalai Lama Trust & Mind & Life Europe.

👉 http://mindand.life/4tWl50X8I26

#MindsAIEthics #AI #Ethics #Compassion

Excellent advice but also: sign your review. Whether you actually sign it (I have for the last decade) or not, just thinking about it will nudge your review towards a more generous consideration of the authors, working to help them improve the paper rather than offering scathing criticism.

Thames Water removes 100-tonne fatberg from west London sewer Toxic mass chiselled out of Feltham pipes amid campaign to stop people tipping harmful substances down drains

It has come to this: Thames Water removes 100-tonne fatberg from west London sewer

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Opinion | We Are Watching a Scientific Superpower Destroy Itself

“Why on earth would we abandon institutions that have genuinely made America great?”

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/o...

Scottish government trial of four-day week improves productivity and staff wellbeing Employees at two public bodies reported less work-related stress and one organisation had drop in sick days Increased productivity and improved staff wellbeing were among the results of a year-long trial of the four-day week by the Scottish government. Two public bodies, South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE) and Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB), took part in the pilot, which was launched by Holyrood in early 2024. Continue reading...

Scottish government trial of four-day week improves productivity and staff wellbeing

Interplay of genetic predisposition, plasma metabolome and Mediterranean diet in dementia risk and cognitive function - Nature Medicine Genetic background, plasma metabolome and dietary data from 4,215 women and 1,490 men reveal 57 metabolites whose associations with dementia risk vary by APOE4 genotype and other risk variants.

Remember to eat your veggies.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

If the University of Chicago Won’t Defend the Humanities, Who Will? Why it matters that the University of Chicago is pausing admissions to doctoral programs in literature, philosophy, the arts, and languages

Oy! Apparently the sky really is falling.

www.theatlantic.com/culture/arch...

Here is the original paper.

www.cell.com/action/showP...

An inner-speech decoder reveals some mental privacy issues Words you’ll never speak still cause activity in the brain’s speech centers.

Cognitive privacy is getting real.

arstechnica.com/science/2025...

Counting lives saved is difficult, but it can show us the great difference some people have made Scientists can make an enormous difference in the world.

Scientists do more than you think towards saving lives.

ourworldindata.org/data-insight...

a novelty sign that reads: RATES Answers $1 Answers with Thought $20 Correct Answers $50 - Stupid Looks Are Free -

AI progress

UBC experiment aims to reignite cold fusion nuclear quest Scientists are split on the significance of the Thunderbird reactor, the first verified case of electrochemically enhanced nuclear fusion

www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/scien...

in case you wanted at least a bit of good news today

So much of media is bad news. And I think it’s intended to break your will. I think it’s important to purposely spend time to expose yourself to good news and things that improve your spirits. In simpler terms, put yourself in your own happy place. It makes you a better fighter.

Apparently we’re just fancy thermostats (OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration). At least that’s the analogy Herbert Harris uses to explain active inference as the underpinnings of our sense of free will.

3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily...

ChatGPT and the Meaning of Life: Guest Post by Harvey Lederman Scott Aaronson’s Brief Foreword: Harvey Lederman is a distinguished analytic philosopher who moved from Princeton to UT Austin a few years ago. Since his arrival, he’s become one of my …

Pretty damn great piece by @harveylederman.bsky.social thinking through the issues that we need to consider if AI’s take away all (or most) of the jobs. Definitely worth your consideration.

scottaaronson.blog?p=9030

As of this week, there is nobody left on Earth who witnessed this moment live.

Lithium deficiency and the onset of Alzheimer’s disease - Nature Lithium has an essential role in the brain and is deficient early in Alzheimer’s disease, which can be recapitulated in mice and treated with a novel lithium salt that restores the physiological level...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Alzheimer's Breakthrough: Lithium Reverses Memory Loss in Mice We may have new hope in the battle against Alzheimer's disease.

www.sciencealert.com/alzheimers-b...

Pretty wild/worrisome seeing people completely flip out about losing access to previous models of ChatGPT, namely 4o, so much so that OpenAI changed its mind about a GPT-5 only world.

One of the big differences in the new model was reduced sycophancy. Evidently users don’t want to give that up.

From Iceland — Don't Walk On The Fucking Lava People have been seen walking on both new and recent lava, which is extremely dangerous. The police and the Icelandic...

From the department of stupid.

grapevine.is/news/2025/07...

“I’m quite worried about the risks & think that the most important thing to work on is mitigating them,” said Kaufman. He’s not alone. His brother, roommate & girlfriend have also taken leave from Harvard for similar reasons. THE 3 OF THEM CURRENTLY WORK FOR OpenAI.”

Mitigating AI risks at OpenAI!

Renewables have taken the lead in Dutch electricity production For the first time, in 2024, more than half of the electricity produced in the Netherlands came from renewable sources, and almost all of it (45%) from solar and wind.

It’s important to note that there is good news too.

ourworldindata.org/data-insight...

Spectacular timelapse capturing an entire night from sunset to sunrise over the ALMA Observatory on the Chajnantor Plateau in the Chilean Atacama Desert.

Video Credit: ESO/C. Malin (christophmalin.com)

Every Scientific Empire Comes to an End America’s run as the premiere techno-superpower may be over.

@rosspanderson.bsky.social captures the essence of the current crisis (tragedy?) of scientific research in the (dis)United States. A shocking example of self harm for essentially no gain.

www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...

Daily steps and health outcomes in adults: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis Although 10 000 steps per day can still be a viable target for those who are more active, 7000 steps per day is associated with clinically meaningful improvements in health outcomes and might be a mor...

What's the optimal number of steps of physical activity this is associated with multiple (9) favorable outcomes?
The largest, systematic review of 57 studies, 35 cohorts.
7,000 steps is clinically meaningful, benefit also seen for 4,000 steps cf 2,000 steps
thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results In a March 2025 analysis, Google users who encountered an AI summary were less likely to click on links to other websites than users who did not see one.

Googles AI appears to be eating itself up from the inside.

www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...