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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“Opponent shaping” as a model for manipulation and cooperation

adaptive
agents
bandit problems
bounded compute
collective knowledge
control
cooperation
distributed
economics
evolution
extended self
game theory
incentive mechanisms
learning
machine learning
mind
networks
utility

Distributed community NN training

bounded compute
collective knowledge
concurrency hell
distributed
diy
economics
edge computing
extended self
faster pussycat
incentive mechanisms
innovation
language
machine learning
model selection
neural nets
NLP
optimization
premature optimization
statmech
technology
UI

Creating scientific knowledge

adaptive
bounded compute
collective knowledge
distributed
economics
how do science
incentive mechanisms
institutions
learning
mind
networks
provenance
sociology
standards

Building and Running Scientific Institutions

adaptive
bounded compute
collective knowledge
distributed
economics
how do science
incentive mechanisms
institutions
learning
mind
networks
provenance
sociology
standards

Degrees of freedom in NNs

estimator distribution
information
likelihood
model selection
statistics

The deep history of intelligence

adversarial
AI safety
catastrophe
economics
faster pussycat
innovation
language
machine learning
mind
neural nets
NLP
security
technology

Quasi-gradients of discrete parameters

calculus
classification
optimization
probabilistic algorithms
probability
score function
statistics

Discretizing and quantizing neural nets

edge computing
machine learning
model selection
neural nets
sparser than thou

Foundation models for geoscience

dynamical systems
machine learning
neural nets
sciml
SDEs
signal processing
spatial
stochastic processes
time series

Fine tuning foundation models

adaptive
agents
approximation
bandit problems
Bayes
control
generative
incentive mechanisms
language
learning
machine learning
meta learning
networks
neural nets
NLP
optimization
stochastic processes
stringology
time series
utility

Conditioning neural denoising diffusion models

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

Backprop-free methods for training neural networks

Bayes
dynamical systems
likelihood free
linear algebra
machine learning
Monte Carlo
neural nets
nonparametric
particle
probability
sciml
signal processing
sparser than thou
statistics
statmech
uncertainty

Numerical Python

compsci
computers are awful
premature optimization
python

Architecture and construction (doing it)

design
the rather superior sort of city
cooperation
culture
diy
economics
housing
making things

Utopian governance

economics
extended self
incentive mechanisms
institutions
markets
money
wonk

Democratization of generative AI

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

Cooperation in evolutionary context

adaptive
cooperation
culture
economics
evolution
gene
incentive mechanisms
wonk

Explorables and interactives

academe
communicating
computers are awful
data sets
dataviz
faster pussycat
generative art
how do science
learning
making things
mind
number crunching
photon choreography
statistics
UI
workflow

Zotero

academe
collective knowledge
computers are awful
faster pussycat
how do science
workflow

Innovation

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

Neural Bayes posteriors

Bayes
convolution
density
how do science
likelihood free
machine learning
neural nets
nonparametric
sparser than thou
statistics
uncertainty

Big history

adaptive
collective knowledge
economics
evolution
game theory
networks
social graph
sociology

Singular Learning Theory

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

Multi-level agency

agents
AI safety
bounded compute
collective knowledge
computers are awful together
concurrency hell
distributed
economics
edge computing
extended self
game theory
incentive mechanisms
machine learning
networks

Models of human cultural reproduction

adaptive
collective knowledge
economics
evolution
game theory
networks
social graph
sociology

Android hacks

computers are awful
portable

Political Economy of Australia

confidentiality
Southeast Asia
straya
wonk

Internet for the occasionally online

computers are awful
computers are awful together
confidentiality
distributed
diy
economics

Betting and prediction markets

catastrophe
economics
how do science
incentive mechanisms
markets
probability
tail risk

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

Probabilistic neural nets

Bayes
convolution
density
likelihood free
machine learning
neural nets
nonparametric
sparser than thou
uncertainty

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
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