Shawn Hurst

Bringing emotional cognition to deep time In a new article, my coauthors and I draw upon cognitive science to draw out archaeological traces of ancient social lives

I'm really pleased that my first coauthored article of 2026 is out. With some amazing folks @marckissel.bsky.social @anthrofuentes.bsky.social we think through a synthesis of behavioral ecology, emotional cognition, and archaeology.

www.johnhawks.net/p/bringing-e...

@johnhawks.net

One of world’s most detailed virtual brain simulations is changing how we study the brain Scientists use supercomputer that can process quadrillions of calculations per second to simulate mouse cortex for “virtual experiments”

Researchers have used Japan’s Fugaku supercomputer to build a virtual mouse cortex. The model lets scientists run “virtual experiments” on diseases such as epilepsy or Alzheimer’s, tracing how disruptions spread, and testing interventions. buff.ly/JqiLr9q
#ShareGoodNewsToo

Guilty.

I want my ashes spread up at Makuleke so you’ll have to pick somewhere other than northern Kruger to spread yours John. I call dibs!

Good collaborators sharpen your jokes. 😂

Taking “I’ll never retire” to new lengths.

At no point has this been about anything ohter than these people being very upset that they aren't the main character, and the whole world does not in fact revolve around them.

Now they want to be absolved of their misdeeds, and to be told it's not their fault. Because it's always about them.

I avoid free content that comes with adds. Why would I put up with it in content I bought or pay a subscription for? They stole my attention and now they owe me money!

I wonder if fear of diluting solid Republican districts to wipe out blue ones is the reason for this. The midterms will be ugly for Rs and no one in a donut county wants to risk his seat just to get rid of Andre Carson.

This sounds reasonable but is 100% wrong. Whether you or agree or disagree with a study is completely immaterial. What matters is whether the study was conducted properly and generates valid results. And it's impolitic to say but it's true: you have to have some level of expertise to judge that.

spoke with the executive director of my local food bank today and got this really incredible line: "if you donate 1 can of green beans, we can give away 1 can of green beans. but if you donate a dollar, we can give away 6 cans of green beans"

Prominent Afrikaners refuse to be 'pawns,' and hit back at Trump's claims about South Africa Prominent Afrikaners are pushing back after President Trump announced no U.S. officials will attend the G20 in Johannesburg, rejecting his claims of "white persecution" in South Africa as false and politically driven.

Prominent Afrikaners are pushing back after President Trump announced no U.S. officials will attend the G20 in Johannesburg, rejecting his claims of "white persecution" in South Africa as false and politically driven.

When a chatbot gets something wrong, it’s not because it made an error. It’s because on that roll of the dice, it happened to string together a group of words that, when read by a human, represents something false. But it was working entirely as designed. It was supposed to make a sentence & it did.

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

This video from Portland is a metaphor for what is going on in America. ICE trying so hard to get Americans to cross a line and if they don't, dragging them across the line and violently attacking.

Leopards faces etc.

Maybe if we pointed out the Bible had white slavery and anyone could become a slave due to bad luck then conservatives would be less excited by it. 🤷‍♂️

IU vs Michigan State but Purdue wins the game.

IU may be playing Michigan State for Homecoming but the Purdue Exponent and the Indiana Daily Student have won the game.

There are a couple of great books showcasing his work which can be found on Amazon and elsewhere.

Sorry today to hear about the death of Drew Struzan. He was probably the artist that was most globally well-known without most people knowing his name. He invented an entire style of art, which just like the movies themselves, borrowed from everywhere and became part of our whole culture.

The reason why LLMs fail to play a game of chess, even though they can cite the rules from their training data, is an awesome example of what's stopping autonomous AI agents from being reliable.

Great discussion between @garrykasparov.bsky.social ♟️ and @garymarcus.bsky.social 🧠 on limits of GenAI.

Opinion | We Are Watching a Scientific Superpower Destroy Itself

8 of the 10 top-ranked research institutions worldwide are in China. Only 1 is in the United States.

"If this does not constitute a Sputnik moment, it is hard to imagine what would."

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

Easy test, ask an LLM what the weather was 3 months ago at your location. They will give an plausible sounding answer, which in 90% of cases will be completely wrong. Any "junior researcher" can answer that for you correctly.

A @robert_zubrin article on the Black Horse spaceplane:
www.ai.mit.edu/projects/im/...
It takes off on small wings and lightweight wheels with only fuel onboard, then loads up H2O2 oxidizer after aerial refueling. Switching to rocket mode at Mach 0.8 requires 8.5 km/s dV, Mach 5.5 takes 6.3 km/s.

Democrats’ 2026 Rallying Cry Is Staring Them in the Face Plus: The big difference in where money for the midterms is going so far.

The Democratic party "has clearly begun to string together a cohesive narrative that Trump is not a scourge of, but a protector of, the elites, and he has abandoned the working-class voters he promised to help." Better late than never. @lauren-egan.bsky.social: www.thebulwark.com/p/democrats-...

My spidey senses tell me there's a particular Left Anterior Descending Artery in Washington DC whose lumen is narrowing.

Listen closely as Carl Sagan explains how regular people can create change!

The Inconvenient Faith of Stephen Colbert The core of why Trump World hates him.

"It’s statements like these from Mr. Colbert that have rankled many rightwing fundamentalists over the years because they can’t simply claim he’s being inaccurate or even particularly judgy."