# Progress links and tweets, 2023-05-03

**The Progress Forum**
----------------------

*   [Reflections from seeing the Starship launch firsthand](https://progressforum.org/posts/NskMryyCmndEx2wtY)
*   [When America received a message from the future: the 1939 World’s Fair](https://progressforum.org/posts/6JS3HS4hvXbgrwW6a/when-america-received-a-message-from-the-future)

**Announcements**
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*   [Speculative Technologies recruiting “field strategists.”](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScr5cYGqaZOOzCQjlRWqVtPtHJIiUrba1uZoM3xvNkK7dYKDQ/viewform) “Come design a research program to unlock powerful materials or manufacturing technology that is too research-y to be a startup but too coordination- or engineering- heavy for a single academic lab” (via [@Spec__Tech](https://twitter.com/Spec__Tech/status/1650910647620714503))
*   [Sam Arbseman is writing a new book: *The Magic of Code: How Digital Language Built Our Modern World—and Shapes Our Future*](https://twitter.com/arbesman/status/1651216220618719234)
*   [*Nuclear Now: Time to Look Again*, a new documentary from Oliver Stone](https://www.nuclearnowfilm.com/)

**Links**
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*   [“Tales of Edison’s Lab,” the first episode of Eric Gilliam’s new podcast, with a “format similar to Hardcore History”](https://freaktakes.substack.com/p/tales-of-edisons-lab#details) (via [@eric\_is\_weird](https://twitter.com/eric_is_weird/status/1651316364789915648))
*   [We should have air sanitation for disease, like water sanitation](https://finmoorhouse.com/writing/clean-air/) (by [@finmoorhouse](https://twitter.com/finmoorhouse/status/1652735193193627650))
*   [Pro-nuclear opinion piece in NYT (!) on the waste issue](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/28/opinion/climate-change-nuclear-waste.html) (via [@atrembath](https://twitter.com/atrembath/status/1651941852478865409)). “Every cask of spent nuclear fuel represents about 2.2 million tons of carbon that weren’t emitted”
*   [There is no climate tipping point](https://thebreakthrough.org/journal/climate-change-banned-words/climate-tipping-point-real) (by [@wang_seaver](https://twitter.com/wang_seaver/status/1651720906249744385))
*   [“Capitalism has plenty of agency relationships… but so do all other systems”](https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2023/04/another-bit-on-short-termism.html)

**AI**
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*   [AI as a complex adaptive system and implications for risk](https://bounded-regret.ghost.io/complex-systems-are-hard-to-control/) (via [@JacobSteinhardt](https://twitter.com/JacobSteinhardt/status/1643321228466458624); see also my [lenses on AI risk](https://rootsofprogress.org/four-lenses-on-ai-risks))
*   [Scott Aaronson podcast interview on AI safety](https://axrp.net/episode/2023/04/11/episode-20-reform-ai-alignment-scott-aaronson.html) (or just see this [key excerpt](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1651693097137340417))
*   [Chad Jones paper on AI, economic growth, and existential risk](https://web.stanford.edu/~chadj/existentialrisk.pdf) (PDF) (via [@ChadJonesEcon](https://twitter.com/ChadJonesEcon/status/1651219721205977088), see [my thread](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1651331314392395777))
*   [Movie trailer made with text-to-video AI](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1653023630270275585)
*   [A programming language for generative protein design using AI](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.21.521526v1) (via [@BrianHie](https://twitter.com/BrianHie/status/1606074806620737536))

[![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fkl6INvVUAACcLX.jpg)](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fkl6INvVUAACcLX.jpg)

*   [Five possible scenarios for how AI will evolve in the future](https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=7266)

![image](https://www.scottaaronson.com/fiveworlds.jpg)

*   [ChatGPT vs. doctors answering medical questions on Reddit](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2804309) (via [@TamarHaspel](https://twitter.com/TamarHaspel/status/1651971492488380418))

[![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fuz7KJyWAAMNSPJ.jpg)](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fuz7KJyWAAMNSPJ.jpg)

**Queries**
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*   [Why is it that in the past it was not uncommon for people to live in hotels?](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1650906400292327427) (turns out the answer is probably [building codes, zoning laws, rent control, urban renewal, etc.](https://slate.com/business/2022/07/hotels-rental-market-housing-prices-shortage-solution.html))
*   [What are the best new space tech companies/projects in the making?](https://twitter.com/allisondman/status/1650948081662283779) (@allisondman)
*   [Who should Dwarkesh have on the podcast to discuss human evolution?](https://twitter.com/dwarkesh_sp/status/1652351235197120513)
*   [Anybody know much about 17th–18th century land tenancy rules?](https://twitter.com/antonhowes/status/1652316047620415488) (@antonhowes)
*   [Explanation of the differences between LLMs and chess AIs / AlphaFold?](https://twitter.com/MTabarrok/status/1651965527626006537)
*   [An overview on the impact of modern tech on archaeology?](https://twitter.com/josephflaherty/status/1651617568166166530)
*   [Reference for the idea that CASP disabused researchers of the notion that protein folding was near-solved?](https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/status/1652053936076132352) (@michael_nielsen)

**Quotes**
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*   [“There is no great invention… which has not been hailed as an insult to some god”](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1650899377370681344)
*   [The spirit of progress, as experienced by Edward Teller in his youth](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1652434681701310464)
*   [The reaction to the Wright Brothers’ first public demonstration](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1652687879850668035)
*   [The first refrigerators weighed several tons and were powered by steam](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1652435218358231041)
*   [Child labor was once seen as a good thing](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1652449270170091526)

**Tweets & retweets**
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*   [Elon Musk is optimistic Starship will launch again in 4-6 weeks](https://twitter.com/moreisdifferent/status/1652771428335251461)
*   [White House advisor outlines a vision for the new world economic order](https://twitter.com/jennifermharris/status/1651698131682066438)
*   [Without AI, each of us is assuredly doomed as an individual](https://twitter.com/prestonjbyrne/status/1651014213962280961)
*   [Over 15,000 people have participated in human challenge trials, with no deaths](https://twitter.com/AlecStapp/status/1652783849338724352)
*   [Palmer Luckey says the future of energy is… steam?](https://twitter.com/JosephNWalker/status/1650993313095491590)
*   [Sales, marketing, tech support, management, etc. are real jobs](https://twitter.com/Scholars_Stage/status/1652661349615272027) (@Scholars_Stage)
*   [Wanted: a comparison between modern complaints about regulation and mistakes/near-misses in the history of technology](https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/status/1652430064804577281) (@michael_nielsen)
*   [Things with the word “innovation” in their name tend to have little effect](https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1651160686766981120) (@paulg)
*   [A remake of *Sneakers* (1992) but centered on cryptocurrency](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1651942443175084033)
*   [“Bowling pin setter” used to be a real job](https://twitter.com/rex_woodbury/status/1651574637820518401)

[![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuuQeTsXgAQKYRM.png)](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuuQeTsXgAQKYRM.png)

*   [“When I was a kid, I believed this was where we’d all be living by now”](https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1650941389708881945) (@paulg)

[![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FulSPzxWIB0_YKW.jpg)](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FulSPzxWIB0_YKW.jpg)

**Charts**
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*   [“Cruise AVs perform more safely on average than human drivers”](https://twitter.com/kvogt/status/1651934421367545856) (@kvogt)

[![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuzWj2OaUAAonwM.png)](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuzWj2OaUAAonwM.png)