Around the Web #12

My Georgia Tech Talk, Philosophy of Matter, and Reversing Aging.

[Some notes:

[1]: MBB microgrant batch 2 is closed, winners of the grant will be announced towards the end of February, if you would like to be informed when the next batch is live, you can place your email here.

[2]: I built an app over the winter break, and I would like to know if it’s worth putting more effort in, try it out here, it works best on a laptop browser for now. Currently, you can autogenerate meal plans, grocery lists, and recipes. Kindly give me any feedbacks that you might have (there is button to do just that in the side bar.) Particularly, answer the question: For a subscription fee of, say, $1 or $5 every month, what new features would you like to see]

Now, around the web issue 12:

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1. [Biomedicine] 🩺🥼🧑🏻‍⚕️

[I]: Machine learning applications in metabolic phenotyping

I recently gave a talk at the Georgia Tech College of Sciences data science seminar.

Available to watch here. My talk covers my papers on detecting and staging kidney cancer in urine, interpretable machine learning for discriminating biological sex using urine samples, and my postdoctoral work on lipidome remodeling dynamics in a mouse model of ovarian cancer.

[II]: The puzzle of B and T cells.

The pandemic has improved immunology literacy among the general population, but this is a cool video to share/watch, nevertheless. a lesson on the adaptive immune system. The puzzle of B and T cells.

“It’s hard to imagine modern science without the brilliant B and T cells, and the most exciting part is what we might be able to do with them next.”

[III]: Why is progress in biology so slow?

When we speak of the technological progress of our time, we almost always speak to a narrow kind of progress in the ‘World of Bit” Mobile, internet, AI, etc.

Why is progress in biology so slow, for example? Here is an excellent, clear essay on the subject. On speed, knowledge, and talent.

[IV]: ‘Disruptive’ science has declined — and no one knows why

In a similar vein, ‘disruptive’ science has declined. “The proportion of publications that send a field in a new direction has plummeted over the past half-century.”

[V]: Loss of epigenetic information as a cause of mammalian aging

If you have read Sinclair’s book: Lifespan, this work should be familiar, it’s a paper that provides supporting evidence for the theory expatiated in the book – the information theory of aging. The work, published in Cell, shows that a) “cellular responses to double-stranded DNA breaks erode the epigenetic landscape,” b) “the loss of epigenetic information accelerates the hallmarks of aging,” c) “these changes are reversible by epigenetic reprogramming” and d) “by manipulating the epigenome, aging can be driven forward and backward.”

The TIME wrote a general audience-friendly essay about the published work: scientists have reached a key milestone in learning how to reverse aging. I also have an essay on this subject that you can check out: Why We Age.

2. [AI] 🤖🖥👨🏿‍💻

[I]: AI version: hopes for the new year

(Some) AI Experts: Hopes for the coming year.

Yoshua Bengio: Models that reason.

Alon Halevy: Your personal data timeline.

Douwe Kiela: Less Hype, More Caution.

Been Kim: A Scientific Approach to Interpretability

Reza Zadeh: Active Learning Takes Off

[II]: Large language vs. Search engines, Google vs. Microsoft.

“My take on LMs vs SEs can be summarized as follows: “Search engines are much more limited but better equipped for the task [of searching the web] … [but] I don’t think the [traditional] search engine will survive LMs.” The key word here—which I didn’t include in the original piece—is “traditional.”

SEs will be around, but they’ll be so different as to be unrecognizable. LMs will most likely be the reason why.”

[III]: New York City schools ban AI chatbot that writes essays and answers prompts

“New York City schools have banned ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot that generates human-like writing including essays, amid fears that students could use it to cheat.”

[IV]: ChatGPT and the Future (Present) We're Facing

Nice essays on the current chaotic state (and the future) of AI. Essay.

[V]: Atlas Gets a Grip | Boston dynamics

“It’s time for Atlas to pick up a new set of skills and get hands on. In this video, the humanoid robot manipulates the world around it: Atlas interacts with objects and modifies the course to reach its goal—pushing the limits of locomotion, sensing, and athleticism.”

[VI]: Understanding deep learning

By Simon J.D. Prince to be published by MIT Press. The book looks really good, the choice of topics + the figures are excellent. I will be reading this for sure.

3. [Philosophy] 🧐🧠🧐

[I]: How to begin reading philosophy

Some things that theologians (and all of us) need to know

“My advice, as a practical matter, is to ignore the modern stuff, that is everything from Descartes on, initially. You can come back to it later. An introductory survey of the whole 2500 years is a fine starting point. But what you really need to understand the development of Christian theology is a basic grasp of how four major figures have influenced Western thought: Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas.”

[II]: What is Matter?

What Is Matter (and Why Does It Matter)?

Nice essay on the philosophy of matter highlighting atomism, monism, and hylomorphism.

4. [Theology] ⛪️✝️⛪️

[I]: Why did the incarnation happen, and why did it happen when it did?

Feser on Aquinas on Incarnation.

[II]: The Incarnation of the Impassible God.

The Mystery of the Incarnation is Diluted by Theistic Mutualism

“It is simply not the case that the orthodox doctrine of God cannot be preached. In fact, the Church has not ceased to preach the Incarnation of the impassible God from the apostolic age to the present. Theistic mutualism is not needed in order to make God relevant. The doctrines of Trinity and Incarnation stand at the heart of Christian Faith and they explain how Jesus Christ can be both the impassible God and the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 at the same time.”

[III]: Last Things: Cardinal Pell

The late Georgia Cardinal Pell on salvation

“One need not believe with St. Francis Xavier that the unbaptized are damned, but sheltered sentimentalists like me ignore too easily the terrible suffering caused by sin and underestimate the obduracy of the human will.”

5. [Nigeria] 🇳🇬

[1]: Bishop Kukah on Nigeria

Nepotism, Corruption, Insecurity, have Magnified the Failure of the Buhari Administration.

[II]: Dele Farotimi on Nigeria

The labor party spokesman speaks to the various matter arising in Nigeria’s polity.

[III]: The Nigerian influencers paid to manipulate your vote

“A BBC investigation has discovered that political parties in Nigeria are secretly paying social media influencers to spread disinformation about their opponents ahead of general elections in February. The BBC's Global Disinformation Team has spoken to whistle-blowers working for two of Nigeria's political parties, and prominent influencers who have described it as "an industry." The whistle-blowers say parties give out cash, lavish gifts, government contracts and even political appointments for their work.”

[IV]: Nigeria’s biggest political party Accusatory Politics is Political Education for Voters to Make Informed Decisions

One the most level-headed analysis I have listened to on the state of Nigeria’s politics as the presidential elections draw nearer.