It’s finally, really feels like spring in the Pacific Northwest, and my heart has never been readier for a winter to end. I have projects planned, and getting my son outside this summer is going to be just the best thing ever. In honor of that, here are a bunch of fun links you can look at while sitting at your computer inside!
The A.I. Age is arriving around us, part N+1—Microsoft and OpenAI are teaming up to build a 100 Billion Dollar supercomputer called Stargate. No one—not even the people who will build it—really understand what will happen when they turn this machine on. Gulp!
Via Reddit, an incredibly well-done video about the scale and scope of black holes. Seen many of the type, never one quite like this!
Amazing interview of Patrick Collison (CEO of Stripe, the payments company) by Dwarkesh Patel, who has exploded onto the youtube scene in the last year or two. Patrick and his brother John are two of the truly great leaders and entrepreneurs of the world. I could listen to them endlessly.
The A.I. age is arriving around us, part N+2—A credible white paper arguing that A.I. is now better than actual junior lawyers at contract review, with a cost reduction of 99.97% (!). “The era of LLM dominance in contract review is upon us.”
I don’t really understand this thread, but apparently they have taught an A.I. how to communicate in DNA code. This is unbelievable enough that I probably wouldn’t put it in a story because it sounds too obviously made up. What it real need not be plausible!
Brilliant and handsome commenter-on-the-substack Jon recently brought this brilliant piece of found-art to my attention. His description: “In 2006 AOL released "anonymized" search logs of many of its users. User 711391 frequently typed her thoughts into AOL's search engine, and reading through her search history tells a tale of a middle aged woman unhappy in her marriage, questioning her sexuality, dreaming of traveling to Alaska, meeting a "friend" online, and proceeding to have an affair which she immediately regrets.” I have read it and it is hilarious and incredible. Here is a lengthy and vibey video version.
The A.I. age is arriving all around us, part N+3—One *week’s* worth of progress in medical A.I. I don’t even have time or space to cover all of these individually, but glancing at the section headings will give you a taste. What A.I. has done for us so far is overrated by enthusiasts. What it will do for us in the future is underrated by everyone else. Get ready.
An interview with the inimitable Jacob Collier, the greatest musician of the current generation. If you haven’t seen what he’s doing, do yourself a favor and catch up, because he’s breaking new ground with every step he takes. Here is the video that made him famous, catching the attention of all-time greats like Quincy Jones and Herbie Hancock.
Great reddit thread of people’s all-time favorite sci fi short stories, perhaps the most on-brand thing I’ve ever put in this newsletter. I endorse many of these, and found a number of things I’m looking forward to checking out when time and energy permit.
The best video I’ve ever seen on the use of the Black-Scholes physics equation in the pricing and calculation of Options in financial markets. In other worse, the answer to the question “why are so many Physics PhDs making 5x the money on Wall Street and spending their entire careers never doing any actual physics?
That’s my payload for this Sunday, now I’m off to enjoy the sunshine and my very silly toddler! Hope everyone has an excellent week, and I will be back next Sunday with another original story.
Great set of resources, Owen. We chuckled at the phrase: "The best video I’ve ever seen on the use of the Black-Scholes..." - how many have you seen? In the same spirit, here is a link we will share for all your readers. https://sites.google.com/view/thegreenelephantintheroom/a-call-to-act Not sci-fi or AI. More like a digital Whole Earth Catalog.