# Progress links and tweets, 2023-05-16

**Opportunities**
-----------------

*   [Animator needed for a molecular biology illustration project](https://www.upwork.com/freelance-jobs/apply/Make-molecular-biology-animation-video_~01035df3dd0f1c25e5/) (via [@kanzure](https://twitter.com/kanzure/status/1657122217640054802))
*   [Heidi Williams seeking a biotech VC co-author on improving university tech transfer](https://twitter.com/heidilwilliams_/status/1655975391990005760)

**Announcements**
-----------------

*   [Foresight Vision Weekend 2023](https://foresight.org/vision-weekends-2023/) (via [@foresightinst](https://twitter.com/foresightinst/status/1655999345357996033)). I’ll be speaking!
*   [Helion has sold some fusion energy, to be delivered in 2028](https://www.helionenergy.com/articles/announcing-helion-fusion-PPA-with-microsoft-constellation/). Buyer: Microsoft. [WSJ has coverage](https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-bets-that-fusion-power-is-closer-than-many-think-cb1b09dc). My guess: the most important impact of this is to focus Helion employees on an external deadline. (Via [@Helion_Energy](https://twitter.com/Helion_Energy/status/1656283665398403072), [@sama](https://twitter.com/sama/status/1656295333465587712))
*   [Hannah Ritchie’s new book: *Not the End of the World*, “an optimistic, data-driven look at how we solve our environmental problems”](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1784745006) (via [@_HannahRitchie](https://twitter.com/_HannahRitchie/status/1656927057723490305))
*   [ThereCraft has a 20-lb drone that can carry 10 lbs of cargo 180 miles](https://twitter.com/starsandrobots/status/1655999703065174021)

**Links**
---------

*   [Patrick Collison interview with Sam Altman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1egAKCKPKCk). And a [summary](https://twitter.com/joincolossus/status/1656258955780456448)
*   [Derek Lowe on a promising trial of an mRNA-based cancer treatment](https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/vaccine-pancreatic-cancer-treatment)
*   [Anthropic’s Claude gets ~75k-word context length](https://www.anthropic.com/index/100k-context-windows) (via [@finmoorhouse](https://twitter.com/finmoorhouse/status/1656730531592110081))
*   [OpenAI attempts to use GPT-4 to explain individual neurons in GPT-2](https://openai.com/research/language-models-can-explain-neurons-in-language-models) (via [@blader](https://twitter.com/blader/status/1655992260448886789))

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

*   [What’s the most wonderful textbook you’ve ever read?](https://twitter.com/michael_nielsen/status/1656708273343459328) (@michael_nielsen)
*   [Max Roser crowdsourcing suggestions for improvements to Our World in Data](https://twitter.com/MaxCRoser/status/1656246300940152832)
*   [Can desalination plants be started and stopped (to use intermittent power)?](https://twitter.com/benlandautaylor/status/1656001771800793089)
*   [Is there any sense of economic “waste heat?”](https://twitter.com/Ben_Reinhardt/status/1656347515497611286)
*   [Average number of math authors per paper 1900–2000?](https://twitter.com/eric_is_weird/status/1656398984699625474)

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

*   [“What man has done, cannot man aspire to?”](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1656004163979837440)
*   [In praise of clear thinking: “it makes life easier for those who disagree with you”](https://twitter.com/mbateman/status/1656868047217659906)

**Tweets & threads**
--------------------

*   [We eradicated smallpox for less than the cost of one mile of subway today in NYC](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1655949982070087681)
*   [Why does it seem easier for humans to drive than fly, but opposite for machines?](https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford/status/1655608326502199296)
*   [Build a canal from the sea the desert, create a new lake](https://twitter.com/tomaspueyo/status/1655941779739521027). No, [it’s not the Salton Sea](https://twitter.com/tomaspueyo/status/1656811737859883008)
*   [Why don’t whales get more cancer? Maybe their cells are good at DNA repair](https://twitter.com/JSheltzer/status/1656014350006599681)
*   [Classics + progress studies would be a powerful curriculum](https://twitter.com/mbateman/status/1655955828837318657). Maybe [like this](https://twitter.com/BenEspen/status/1655996712438337536)?
*   [“Machine Assisted Thought”, a seminar on AI for middle and high school students](https://twitter.com/mbateman/status/1656301171722657792)
*   [Kevin Kelly writing a book on feasible, desirable AI-enabled futures for humanity](https://twitter.com/finmoorhouse/status/1656339575072256003)
*   [An inadvertent, uncontrolled experiment in reverse geoengineering](https://twitter.com/CharlesCMann/status/1656676907503501313)
*   [The idea of a social tradeoff between GDP and “traditional values” is wrongheaded](https://twitter.com/jmhorp/status/1656001625876570113)
*   [Outlier events drive policy conversations, but solving for outliers makes bad policy](https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1655573320262090758)
*   [“Average” does not mean “typical.” The average Canadian lives in the US](https://twitter.com/realmemes6/status/1656033783244783616)
*   [Joyce Carol Oates reacts to Derik Parfit’s ideas about bereavement](https://twitter.com/KS1729/status/1657053640358522882)

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

*   [The inexorable decrease in kids’ ranges](https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1656189203321876481)

[![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fvv3FxdWcAAC0Vu.jpg)](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fvv3FxdWcAAC0Vu.jpg)

*   [Kondratieff waves](https://twitter.com/atrembath/status/1655990491228557313)

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