Lunch at the Labs

Various web links I found to be of interest recently.

• Large language mistake

  Cutting-edge research shows language is not the same as intelligence. The entire AI bubble is built on ignoring it.

  The problem is that according to current neuroscience, human thinking is largely independent of human language - and we have little reason to believe ever more sophisticated modeling of language will create a form of intelligence that meets or surpasses our own. Humans use language to communicate the results of our capacity to reason, form abstractions, and make generalizations, or what we might call our intelligence. We use language to think, but that does not make language the same as thought. Understanding this distinction is the key to separating scientific fact from the speculative science fiction of AI-exuberant CEOs.
  ...
  If you'd like to independently investigate this for yourself, here's one simple way: Find a baby and watch them (when they're not napping). What you will no doubt observe is a tiny human curiously exploring the world around them, playing with objects, making noises, imitating faces, and otherwise learning from interactions and experiences. "Studies suggest that children learn about the world in much the same way that scientists do-by conducting experiments, analyzing statistics, and forming intuitive theories of the physical, biological and psychological realms," the cognitive scientist Alison Gopnik notes, all before learning how to talk. Babies may not yet be able to use language, but of course they are thinking!

• Lithium Orotate Review: Benefits, Uses, Side Effects & Where to Buy

  Lithium orotate, a lesser-known form of lithium supplementation, has been gaining attention for its potential benefits in supporting mental health and cognitive function. Unlike the more widely recognized lithium carbonate, which is prescribed at high doses for the treatment of bipolar disorder, lithium orotate is available as an over-the-counter (OTC) supplement and is typically taken in much lower doses.

  Also see Eric Topol's detailed analysis Lithium and Its Potential Protection from Alzheimer's Disease which has the warning:

  Should people start taking lithium orotate, such as the low dose of 5 mg now, widely available as an unregulated supplement? The answer is no, even though we'd anticipate it would be safe, without worrisome side effects as seen with considerably higher doses of lithium carbonate used for BD. Yes, it's tempting, with the body of evidence presented here that exceeds supplements in common use, but we need a clinical trial to prove that the new study translates to a human benefit. If lithium orotate does work, we don't know the right or optimal dose.

• Some People Never Forget a Face, And Now We Know Their Secret

  "These findings suggest that the perceptual foundations of individual differences in face recognition ability may originate at the earliest stages of visual processing - at the level of retinal encoding," Dunn and colleagues write in their paper.
  ...
  The study builds on previous work from the same team, which found that super-recognizers turn a face into something like a jigsaw puzzle: They divide new faces into parts, before their brain processes those parts as composite images.

• Peter Thiel: Capitalism Isn't Working for Young People

  "When 70% of Millennials say they are pro-socialist," wrote Thiel, "we need to do better than simply dismiss them by saying that they are stupid or entitled or brainwashed; we should try and understand why."
  ...
  There is some kind of authenticity to Trump and Mamdani. I'm not sure that they're perfectly coherent, nor perfectly authentic. But this is what the establishment Republicans and establishment Democrats really don't like about Trump and Mamdani, is that they can't even call them inauthentic, because both are somehow more authentic than what the parties have.

• Maps Show Which States Give More to Federal Government Than They Get Back

  Over a third of the United States federal government's revenue comes from the country's four most-populous states, but they often get back less than they contribute.
  ...
  Known as "donor states," 19 states contribute more in federal taxes than they receives back in federal spending, according to data compiled by USAFacts, a non-partisan nonprofit that tracks government spending.

• UNIX Programmer's Manual, November 1973

  Fourth Edition by K. Thompson, D. M. Ritchie

• XCancel.com

  Read X/twitter if you don't have an X account.

  Nitter is a free and open source alternative Twitter front-end focused on privacy and performance.
  ...
  Using an instance of Nitter (hosted on a VPS for example), you can browse Twitter without JavaScript while retaining your privacy.

• No Lights No Lycra

  Casual free-form dance in NYC at Prime Produce Apprentice Cooperative.