# Progress links and tweets, 2023-06-01

**Richard Rhodes, illegal floor plans, and cyborg insects**
-----------------------------------------------------------

  
**Announcements/opportunities**

*   [Plymouth Street can help top talent get an O-1 or EB-1 visa](https://twitter.com/minney_cat/status/1662150546357379072)
*   [Econ Twitter science fiction summer book club, July 12](https://twitter.com/mattsclancy/status/1660719019123417107)

**Works in Progress Issue 11**
------------------------------

*   [Olivine weathering](https://worksinprogress.co/issue/olivine-weathering): “Fixing global warming is a simple matter of applying energy to an unfavorable material situation.” (Related, [sulfur stratospheric injection is cheap and easy for solar radiation management](https://twitter.com/CJHandmer/status/1660808737177866240))
*   [Edison as a technical entrepreneur](https://worksinprogress.co/issue/thomas-edison-tinkerer) (by [@eric\_is\_weird](https://twitter.com/eric_is_weird/status/1661067557456035872))
*   Also: why Britain is NIMBY, how we solved acid rain, and more in the [full issue](https://worksinprogress.co/issue-11)

**Other links**
---------------

*   [Richard Rhodes interview by Dwarkesh Patel](https://www.dwarkeshpatel.com/p/richard-rhodes)
*   [The birth of the electrical grid](https://www.construction-physics.com/p/the-birth-of-the-grid) (by [@_brianpotter](https://twitter.com/_brianpotter/status/1661745275130765312))
*   [Anton Howes in the *Telegraph* on a new Great Exhibition](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/22/a-new-great-exhibition-can-arrest-britains-long-decline/) (based on the [full essay](https://www.tenentrepreneurs.org/blueprint-for-a-new-great-exhibition-1) featured in [the last digest](https://rootsofprogress.org/links-and-tweets-2023-05-23))
*   [The Manual of Illegal Floor Plans](https://secondegress.ca/Manual-of-Illegal-Floor-Plans)

[![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fw_nNJqXgBggL7T.jpg)](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fw_nNJqXgBggL7T.jpg)

**News**
--------

*   [Neuralink receives FDA approval for a human clinical study](https://twitter.com/neuralink/status/1661857379460468736) (via [@shivon](https://twitter.com/shivon/status/1661863200290217984))
*   [Oklo announces two more sites for nuclear plants](https://twitter.com/oklo/status/1661111094734102546) (via [@caorilne](https://twitter.com/caorilne/status/1661112997027127337))

**Queries**
-----------

*   [Any private companies that hire metascientists to improve their internal processes?](https://twitter.com/mattsclancy/status/1662176348410920961)
*   [What is the best history of the climate crisis?](https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/status/1660682211161669632)
*   [Why did the open hearth process use external fuel, but Bessemer did not?](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1661102049050734593)
*   [As an economy grows, do zero-sum activities occupy a larger share?](https://twitter.com/mattsclancy/status/1661008414888329216)
*   [Before no-fault divorce, how widely did states differ in the “fault”?](https://twitter.com/Scholars_Stage/status/1661893826204557315)
*   [Is there a difference between an “institute” and a “center”?](https://twitter.com/Ben_Reinhardt/status/1660825913536151554)

**Quotes**
----------

*   [Extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1662137286329352211)
*   [What does rule of law require?](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1660454195294621696)

**Tweets**
----------

*   [Why I am reluctant to share stories about supposed breakthroughs](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1662142462524112908). E.g., [did AI really discover a new antibiotic against resistant bacteria?](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1662135936791060482) (Domain experts: [yes, but this isn’t actually interesting/important](https://twitter.com/varma_ashwin97/status/1662146504646340608))
*   [Allen vs. Mokyr on the limiting factor of innovation](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1662083834513354753) (excerpted from [my recent post](https://rootsofprogress.org/reflections-on-allen))
*   [I have questions for Bret Devereaux on “Why No Roman Industrial Revolution?”](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1661477409504505856)
*   [RL can’t learn long-horizon tasks with sparse rewards; LLMs can (e.g., in Minecraft)](https://twitter.com/karpathy/status/1662160997451431936)
*   [Alarmists, accelerationists, and pragmatists on AI](https://twitter.com/danielgross/status/1660366805263605762) (see also my essay on [solutionism](https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/07/13/1028295/proud-solutionist-history-technology-industry/))
*   [The “mac” in “tarmac” comes from John L. McAdam, 1756–1836, British surveyor](https://twitter.com/tophtucker/status/1660632502099140611)
*   [We already have a word for “degrowth.” It’s called impoverishment](https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1661467861334872066) (@paulg)
*   [Why does it take three years to restore… a carousel?](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1661013901742600192)
*   [Childhood should be serious; your life should be serious](https://twitter.com/mbateman/status/1661400447683375106)
*   [Cyborg insects](https://twitter.com/DrJimFan/status/1660334353300488198)

[![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwqvyJNaEAA560F.jpg)](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwqvyJNaEAA560F.jpg)

**Charts**
----------

*   [We are not running out of resources](https://twitter.com/FelixPretis/status/1661452486362923008)

[![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fw6o7ElaMAAM9gk.jpg)](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fw6o7ElaMAAM9gk.jpg)