Progress links and short notes, 2025-02-17

post by jasoncrawford · 2025-02-17T19:18:29.422Z · LW · GW · 0 comments

This is a link post for https://newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/links-and-short-notes-2025-02-17

Contents

  Contents
  My writing (ICYMI)
  Job opportunities
  Funding opportunities
  Tech announcements
  Writing announcements
  Media announcements
  Nonprofit announcements
  Research announcements
  YIMBY announcements
  Queries
  Boom goes supersonic
None
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Much of this content originated on social media. To follow news and announcements in a more timely fashion, follow me on Twitter, Notes, Farcaster, Bluesky, or Threads.

Contents

• My writing (ICYMI)
• Job opportunities
• Funding opportunities
• Tech announcements
• Writing announcements
• Media announcements
• Nonprofit announcements
• Research announcements
• YIMBY announcements
• Queries
• Boom goes supersonic

For paying subscribers:

• The Ballad of the Semiconductor
• The Gods of Straight Lines
• Quotes
• Karpathy on AI
• Other people on AI
• More from social media
• Politics
• OpenAI’s “Intelligence Age” ad
• Charts
• Rocketscapes

My writing (ICYMI)

• The future of humanity is in management. Here I start to lay out a vision for human agency in the AI future
• Solutionism, part 1 (Chapter 5 of The Techno-Humanist Manifesto). Optimism vs. pessimism can be a false dichotomy. We need to fully acknowledge problems, while vigorously pursuing solutions

Job opportunities

• Boom Supersonic is hiring—see about their historic test flight below. “A small band of extremely talented and dedicated men and women made today happen. To build Overture and Symphony, we’ll need a few more. If you’d like to do something extraordinary, consider joining forces” (@bscholl)
• Laura Deming is hiring engineers and scientists for her cryopreservation startup, Cradle. “Team is moving very quickly, on the most impactful + fun problem ever (go 0→1 on new technologies that span neuroscience, applied physics, mol bio, engineering)” (@LauraDeming)
• Cam Wiese of the World’s Fair Co. is “assembling a crew for a mission and have two spots to fill. I’m looking for a technology-loving: 1) SF/LA based event producer; 2) SF based architect” (@camwiese)
• Lulu Meservey is hiring a “founding engineer to join Rostra and work with me on a novel tool for founders. … We’re building something that’s been badly needed yet never made, because the necessary tools haven’t existed before now, and even with them it’s devilishly hard to do just right” (@lulumeservey). The whole ad is well worth reading
• Nat Friedman, gentleman explorer extraordinaire, is “hiring full time engineers and geometry processing and computer vision researchers to help us read hundreds of ancient scrolls buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius 2000 years ago” (@natfriedman). Details here, apply to jobs@scrollprize.org
• Elad Gil is “hiring paid interns to help translate some of the greatest works of human knowledge using AI. Must be someone smart, technical, and willing to grind/GSD. DM @shreyanj98 if you know someone good,” or fill out this form (@eladgil)
• Lighthouse, an immigration company focused on “the world’s best and brightest,” is “hiring across the board. We’re a small but mighty team — focused on serving the startup and technology industry’s top talent with fast, scalable U.S. visa support” (@minney_cat)

Funding opportunities

• Longevity Bio & Molecular Nano Fast Grants from the Foresight Institute: “small grants fast to encourage you to derisk new ideas and launch new ventures that would otherwise go unexplored. Topics we’re interested in include but are not limited to biostasis, replacement, cryonics, nano design and simulation, AI automation, and much more. Apply by March 31” (@allisondman)
• Request for Proposals: Technical AI Safety Research, from Open Philanthropy. “We’re seeking proposals across 21 research areas to help make AI systems more trustworthy, rule-following, and aligned, even as they become more capable” (@MaxNadeau_)

Tech announcements

• OpenAI released its “deep research” model. “My very approximate vibe is that it can do a single-digit percentage of all economically valuable tasks in the world” (@sama). It “achieves twice the score of o3-mini on Humanity’s Last Exam, and can even perform some tasks that would take PhD experts 10+ hours to do!” (@_jasonwei). “Deep Research is capable of automating tasks that would have taken me at least a day, if not longer, of dedicated research. This might very well be the most productivity-enhancing technology product for me since GPT 3.5, and it could be bigger” (@deanwball). “OpenAI’s deep research and o3 is exceeding the value of the $150K i am paying a private research team to research craniopharyngioma treatments for my daughter” (@blader)
• OpenAI roadmap update for GPT-4.5 and GPT-5, coming in “weeks to months” (@sama)
• Reid Hoffman launches Manas AI, “a full stack AI company setting out to shift drug discovery from a decade-long process to one that takes a few years” (@reidhoffman)
• Helion (fusion) raises $425 million Series F (@dekirtley)

Writing announcements

• Abundance, by Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein, is “a book of history, economics, political commentary, and even a dash of philosophy. It’s a deep critique of how liberalism has gone wrong in the last 50 years—and a vision of an American future that prioritizes housing affordability, cheap clean energy supply, government that actually works, an invention agenda to accelerate scientific breakthroughs that save and improve our lives, and technology policy that allows those breakthroughs to be enjoyed by the most people.” Pre-order now, book is out March 18, and Derek and Ezra are going on tour across the country (@DKThomp)
• “How the System Works,” a series on the hidden mechanisms that support modern life, by Charles Mann (author of The Wizard and the Prophet). “Every American stands at the end of a decades-long effort to build & maintain systems—food, water, energy, public health—that support our lives. Schools should be teaching why it is imperative to join this effort, but aren’t” (@tnajournal). Amen
• The Anthropic Economic Index, “a new initiative aimed at understanding AI’s impact on the economy over time” (@AnthropicAI)
• Compute in America: A Policy Playbook from IFP, on “how to rapidly and securely build many Stargate-level projects across the US” using “Special Compute Zones” (@fiiiiiist)
• Freedom Cities: the White Paper. “Freedom Cities are new urban districts that unlock federal land and allow for opting out of federal regulations …. Conservative estimates create 750,000 jobs and nearly $100b investment in four years” (@MarkLutter)
• The End of Driving is a forthcoming book co-authored by RPI fellow Andrew Miller. “Will autonomous vehicles just reinforce private car ownership? Or can we use this tech to build more equitable, efficient & livable cities?” (@AndrewMillerYYZ)

Media announcements

• Story Company, from Jason Carman (of S3), is “an independent film studio … focused on creating the best science & technology films so we can make the best science fiction films.” (@jasonjoyride)

Nonprofit announcements

• The Center for Educational Progress launches, founded by Jack Despain Zhou (@tracewoodgrains) and Lillian Tara (@OptimismMommy). “The pursuit of excellence is not only possible, it is pleading to be tried. We already know what changes to start with—the failure to implement is one of will. We’re ready to do the work”
• Dean Ball (RPI fellow) joins Fathom, an AI policy nonprofit, “as a Fellow focused on private governance in AI, alongside my existing work with Mercatus and FAI” (@deanwball). Dean is the first participant in the Fathom Fellows program (@Fathom_org)

Research announcements

• Two efforts announced ~simultaneously to study “short sleeper” genes: Blake Byers announces a $400k research study (@byersblake): “There are people who genetically only need 4-6 hrs of sleep per night. … We know this can be driven by a single mutation in the gene ADRB1” (@byersblake). And Isaak Freeman is raising $100k on Manifund, following his post on “Ozempic for sleep” (@isaakfreeman)
• Spec Tech announces the 2025 class of Brains Fellows (@Spec__Tech)
• The new Communications Director for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy invites tech and science reporters to “reach out” (@VLaCivita)

YIMBY announcements

• “After years of advocacy, exclusionary zoning has ended in Cambridge. We just passed the single most comprehensive rezoning in the US—legalizing multifamily housing up to 6 stories citywide in a Paris style” (@realBurhanAzeem). Details in this primer

Queries

• Who are the smartest people who believe in (a) relatively explosive economic growth from AI, vs. (b) more slow/steady growth? If we held a dialog (say, at Progress Conference 2025), who would you want to see in it? (me)
• What is an “AI for Science” dataset that would have the impact of the Protein Data Bank? Prompted by Tom Kalil (thread here with some replies)
• “People who work in manufacturing. What are the coolest objects to watch get made?” (@ashleevance)
• “Do any of you have detailed examples of things you’ve learned through Deep Research? Not ‘Here’s a 10-page paper,’ but rather ‘Here’s a specific idea or fact that was surprising & very interesting to me’” (@michael_nielsen)
• “When a big new thing appears, we tend to think of it initially in terms of the old thing. For example, people thought of cars and trains as mechanized carriages initially, before starting to see them as their own thing. How are we doing this with AI?” (@paulg)

Boom goes supersonic

A few weeks ago I went to Mojave to witness the first supersonic flight test of the Boom XB-1 experimental plane. The flight made history by breaking the sound barrier three times, reaching a top speed of a bit over Mach 1.1. It is the first privately developed aircraft to break the sound barrier, and the first civilian aircraft to go supersonic over the continental US.

Even more amazing, afterwards, Boom announced that with the right engineering, a sonic boom can refract in the atmosphere and never reach the ground. A boomless Boom! This could enable supersonic flight over the US with only a minor regulatory change. (@bscholl)

Here’s a pic I took of XB-1 getting ready for its historic flight:

See here for a few videos, as well.

Some posts and thread from Blake, both before and after the event:

• “Having worked toward this moment for over a decade, this feels surreal. A few reflections” (@bscholl)
• “What’s the connection between XB-1 and Overture?” (@bscholl)
• “We can live in the future—but only if we have the courage to build it” (@bscholl)
• “I’m shocked and humbled by how much enthusiasm and support Boom and I are getting after yesterday’s supersonic flight. … I’m so grateful for those who were early believers and backers. … Supersonic passenger flight can and should exist” (@bscholl)

From others:

• “How did a Groupon PM go on to build a supersonic airplane company?” Great thread by @avichal, and I can vouch for it—I’ve known Blake since undergrad, almost as long as Avichal. I never predicted Blake would end up here, but it’s perfectly natural. First, he has always loved flight—even in undergrad he was taking flying lessons. Second, he has always loved speed. Impatience is one of his chief virtues. So, “fast planes” makes perfect sense as his unique passion!
• Worth revisiting: this 2016 paper, Make America Boom Again. “Supersonic won’t make a full comeback until the FAA’s ban on civil supersonic flight overland is overturned!” (@hamandcheese)
• “The future isn’t some distant dream—it’s right now. We truly are living in the golden age… but most people are too busy doomscrolling to notice” (@wildbarestepf)

News coverage:

• Boom Supersonic jet breaks sound barrier to open way for new ‘Concorde’ (Financial Times, via @MarceloPLima and @bscholl)

Some papers weren’t interested: “We offered pre brief interviews to both WSJ and NYT and invited both to come watch the flight. WSJ said supersonic isn’t newsworthy until the full-scale Overture is carrying passengers” (@bscholl). Which reminded me of this bit from David McCullough’s The Wright Brothers:

Writing his autobiography later, James Cox, publisher of the Dayton Daily News, remembered reports coming “to our office that the airship had been in the air over the Huffman Prairie . . . but our news staff would not believe the stories. Nor did they ever take the pains to go out to see.” Nor did Cox. When the city editor of the Daily News, Dan Kumler, was asked later why for so long nothing was reported of the momentous accomplishments taking place so nearby, he said after a moment’s reflection, “I guess the truth is that we were just plain dumb.”

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