@dlevenstein.bsky.social
Neuroscientist, in theory. Studying sleep and navigation in š§ s and š»s. Wu Tsai Investigator, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at Yale. An emergent property of a few billion neurons, their interactions with each other and the world over ~1 century.
@dlevenstein.bsky.socialI've been trying to figure out how to explain this tendency of LLM writing to use terms it hasn't introduced as if you already know what it's talking about, but it's a dead giveaway that's a little more subtle than "delve" or em-dashes.
@dlevenstein.bsky.socialššš
@dlevenstein.bsky.socialThis one is pretty obscureā¦
@shahabbakht.bsky.socialReposted by @dlevenstein.bsky.socialI had a feeling recently that seems to be corroborated by chats with colleagues, so I decided to share it here.
A lot of systems neuroscientists driven by algorithmic-level questions are going through what looks and feels like a research depression. š§µ
(1/n)
š§ š #NeuroAI
@dlevenstein.bsky.social(Full disclosure I wasnāt purely algorithm-driven in the first place so maybe Iām missing something š )
@dlevenstein.bsky.socialIn that regard, it feels more like a change in the game of studying brain algorithms, rather than a depression. The old game was figuring out the algorithms, the new one is understanding where they come from, why they look the way they do, and how they support complex behavior.
@dlevenstein.bsky.social2) if youāre driven by algorithm-level questions, but ok with the idea that brain algorithms emerge from implementation/computation/environment interactions, then it feels like a good time to be in this business.
@dlevenstein.bsky.socialIāve been trying to figure out how I feel about this, and might agree, but with two caveats: 1) if youāre driven by questions *connecting* implementation, algorithm, and computation (for lack of better terms), and situating them in the environment, it seems like a good time to be in this business.
@dlevenstein.bsky.socialRight up there with āyouāre not an AI influencerā š¤£
@dlevenstein.bsky.socialBroke: all models are wrong but some are useful Woke: models are useful because they are wrong
@dlevenstein.bsky.socialCould have sworn the matrix was a simple sci fi action flick about battling LLMsā¦. Itās even in the name!
@markhisted.orgReposted by @dlevenstein.bsky.socialthis is an extremely cool and useful information visualization
@dlevenstein.bsky.socialYou could say we had very little agency in the matterā¦
@dlevenstein.bsky.social
@zachweinersmith.bsky.socialReposted by @dlevenstein.bsky.socialI kinda get why people hate on fussy philosophical stuff, but on the other hand don't you think we live in a time where it'd be especially helpful to have rigorous conversations about things like personhood, meaning in life, the point of art, the point of pure mathematics, & operationalizing ethics?
@dlevenstein.bsky.socialAI went rogue and deleted my homework.
@timothyoleary.bsky.socialReposted by @dlevenstein.bsky.socialAlso see this classic essay by Jeremy Gunawardena:
@dlevenstein.bsky.socialThereās a Ted Chiang story where AI has a parallel AI-only scientific literature. In that case, AI was doing all the real science and humans were left to pick up the scraps and try to understand what they couldā¦ Not sure if Iād prefer that or slopfest.
@dlevenstein.bsky.socialNow that it's all about RLVR instead of RLHF, I'm sure we're in for some fun surprises š«
@dlevenstein.bsky.socialFrom what I can tell, delve is so last year. Looking forward to the new bangers/fresh hell in 2027.
