Welcome to Dan’s brain

The contents of my head are not useful if they stay in there, so I regularly copy-paste them onto the internet, into this very website. Here you can find most of the things I am thinking about, in the form of a higgledy heap of half-finished notebooks and occasional polished essays. Themes include whatever shiny thing distracted me into taking notes about it, including, but not limited to,

You might be after information about me generally, or what I am doing right now.

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Common knowledge/shared knowledge

bandit problems
cooperation
culture
democracy
economics
ethics
mind
rhetoric
snarks
sociology
wonk

Worker- and founder-ownership

economics
ethics
incentive mechanisms
institutions
markets
money

Inductive biases

functional analysis
how do science
meta learning
model selection
optimization
statmech

Configuring machine learning experiments

computers are awful
faster pussycat
how do science
premature optimization
provenance
python

Retirement saving in Australia

diy
economics
money
Southeast Asia
utility

Dilemmas of collective action

bounded compute
distributed
economics
game theory
networks
squad
wonk

World models arising in foundation models.

approximation
Bayes
generative
language
machine learning
meta learning
Monte Carlo
neural nets
NLP
optimization
probabilistic algorithms
probability
statistics
stringology
time series

AI persuasion, AI manipulation

adversarial
AI safety
bounded compute
communicating
cooperation
culture
economics
faster pussycat
language
machine learning
mind
neural nets
NLP
security
technology
wonk

Spamularity

adversarial
AI safety
bounded compute
communicating
cooperation
culture
economics
faster pussycat
language
machine learning
mind
neural nets
NLP
security
technology
wonk

Image file formats

computers are awful
generative art
making things
photon choreography

Innovation

economics
innovation
intellectual property
making things
policy
sociology
spatial
technology
the rather superior sort of city

Procedurally generated diagrams

communicating
computers are awful
dataviz
faster pussycat
photon choreography
plain text
typography
UI
workflow

Configuring machine learning experiments with Fiddle

computers are awful
faster pussycat
how do science
premature optimization
provenance
python

Australia in data

data sets
place
Southeast Asia
straya

Visualizing data

communicating
computers are awful
faster pussycat
generative art
making things
photon choreography

Building AI Agents

AI safety
computers are awful together
faster pussycat
language
machine learning
neural nets
NLP
premature optimization
technology
UI

Deep generative models wat

approximation
Bayes
generative
likelihood free
Monte Carlo
neural nets
optimization
probabilistic algorithms
probability
statistics
unsupervised

Differentiable learning of automata

compsci
dynamical systems
machine learning
neural nets
NLP
signal processing
state space models
stochastic processes
stringology
time series

Utility and fitness

adaptive
agents
collective knowledge
cooperation
culture
economics
energy
evolution
extended self
game theory
gene
incentive mechanisms
learning
mind
networks
probability
social graph
sociology
statistics
statmech
utility
wonk

Fractal and self-similar behaviour in neural networks

AI safety
dynamical systems
machine learning
neural nets
physics
pseudorandomness
sciml
statistics
statmech
stochastic processes

Interpolation and extrapolation in neural networks

Bayes
compsci
graphical models
how do science
information
machine learning
meta learning
model selection
networks
probability
pseudorandomness
statistics
statmech
stringology

Memorization and retrieval in neural nets

economics
faster pussycat
innovation
language
machine learning
mind
neural nets
NLP
technology
UI

Utopian governance

economics
extended self
incentive mechanisms
institutions
markets
money
wonk

Self-organization

agents
compsci
distributed
extended self
game theory
generative art
hidden variables
incentive mechanisms
life
photon choreography
self similar
spatial
statmech

“Generalized” Bayesian inference

Bayes
estimator distribution
functional analysis
Markov processes
Monte Carlo
neural nets
optimization
probabilistic algorithms
probability
SDEs
stochastic processes

Singular Learning Theory

AI safety
dynamical systems
machine learning
neural nets
physics
pseudorandomness
sciml
statistics
statmech
stochastic processes

Developmental interpretability

AI safety
Bayes
bounded compute
dynamical systems
feature construction
high d
language
machine learning
metrics
mind
NLP
sparser than thou
statmech
stochastic processes

AI Safety Australia

adversarial
AI safety
economics
faster pussycat
innovation
language
machine learning
mind
neural nets
NLP
security
Southeast Asia
tail risk
technology

Learning Schrödinger bridges

approximation
Bayes
generative
Lévy processes
Monte Carlo
neural nets
optimal transport
optimization
point processes
probabilistic algorithms
probability
score function
spatial
statistics
stochastic processes

Large sample theory

Gaussian
likelihood
optimization
probability
statistics

Neural denoising diffusion models

approximation
Bayes
generative
Monte Carlo
neural nets
optimization
probabilistic algorithms
probability
score function
statistics

Neural flow matching models

approximation
Bayes
generative
Monte Carlo
neural nets
optimization
probabilistic algorithms
probability
score function
statistics

Real estate economics

cooperation
culture
economics
housing
incentive mechanisms
institutions
insurgency
making things
policy
spatial
straya
the rather superior sort of city
wonk

Conditioning neural denoising diffusion models

approximation
Bayes
generative
Monte Carlo
neural nets
optimization
probabilistic algorithms
probability
score function
statistics

Queerness

culture
diy
gender
personality
sex
sociology
wonk

Economics of foundation models

agents
AI safety
bounded compute
collective knowledge
distributed
economics
edge computing
extended self
faster pussycat
incentive mechanisms
innovation
language
machine learning
neural nets
NLP
technology
UI
when to compute

Data sets for machine learning for partial differential equations

calculus
data sets
dynamical systems
geometry
machine learning
neural nets
PDEs
physics
regression
sciml
SDEs
signal processing
statistics
statmech
stochastic processes
surrogate
time series

Gradient descent at scale

functional analysis
machine learning
model selection
optimization
premature optimization
statmech

Curators of nice bits of internet

computers are awful together
making things
provenance

Static website editors

computers are awful together
diy
doing internet
faster pussycat
plain text
UI
workflow

Being stroppy

adaptive
collective knowledge
economics
evolution
game theory
networks
social graph
sociology

ML benchmarks and their pitfalls

economics
game theory
how do science
incentive mechanisms
institutions
machine learning
neural nets
statistics
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