I wrote a little semi-popular account of the Bell inequalities say here: michaelnielsen.org/blog/why-… Just a little high school mathematics is need to understand the core ideas.

This paragraph is fascinating, & I've reread it multiple times. The conclusions seem rather repugnant. I've often wondered at the alienating effect of big science on individuals, & this seems like an example of alienating forces (Not a critique of the paper, quite the reverse!)

The Schroedinger equation is a linear matrix equation, i d psi / dt = H psi. The solution isn't quite a series of multiplications - you need additions too! If matrix addition and multiplication can't support sentience, then you've just "proved" human beings aren't sentient.

What are the most beautiful titles you know? A few I love: "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace" (Richard Brautigan) "The Peace of Wild Things" (Wendell Berry) "The Language Instinct" (Stephen Pinker) "Desert Solitaire" (Edward Abbey)

I enjoyed this interview with Dorit Aharonov: medium.com/qiskit/why-this-q… (by @Liv_Lanes & Robert Davis)

In general, it's very striking: society.robinsloan.com/archi…

This entire thread is very, very good, on the impact of machine learning & business models & social media on culture. See also: simondedeo.com/?p=705 First we train our machines, then they train us.

I believe this is John Wheeler's original "It from bit" paper. Anything earlier? philpapers.org/archive/WHEIP…

I didn't know this - Starry Night apparently was inspired in part by a line in Hugo's "Les Miserables", "lighted like a lamp in the center of the starry night, expanding his soul in ecstasy in the universal radiance of creation".

The genetic code is redundant in many interesting ways: for instance, 64 different codons are used to code (redundantly) for 20 different amino acids. Last year, a group actually removed some of this redundancy in E. coli(!) ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article…

I love that this is true for fundamental reasons! "If you could see me, I would be destroyed. So I hide, invisible, to do my computation. And only if you look at the complete totality can you find me." Which sounds like mysticism, but is literally what is happening...

MIT has ended its contract with Elsevier: news.mit.edu/2020/guided-by-…

How to lobster

Protesters Say Statue Tripped, Fell Into Water

I suppose the natural consequences are: (a) a lot of money will be lost in this area, on companies that will never ever have any chance; & (b) investors with a good technical baseline have a chance at making some good - possibly extraordinary - investments

Read the horror that is Scott Aaronson's account of how quantum computing is discussed at Davos: scottaaronson.com/blog/#jan2… Here is a quote from a senior vice president at IBM:

Was just thinking about the (many!) reasons elections are often so close. One thought which keeps recurring is that the media have an incentive for elections to be nailbiters.