I like optimization of all kinds - productivity, creativity, happiness, investing, tea. Former music software entrepreneur; co-inventor of Sibelius
London
Joined February 2020
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Ben Finn retweeted
Worrying about recursive self-improvement in 1996 is very impressive, but few know that George Eliot, of Middlemarch brilliance, wrote about the threat of RSI leading to human obsolescence way back in 1879 (!)
She glimpsed this idea at the very start of the second industrial revolution, just by contemplating an automated weighing machine at the Bank of England.
From "Shadows of the Coming Race":
Ben Finn retweeted
Ordinary Abundance. This is the greatest thing I've read in weeks. No kidding. This should win a Pulitzer in a category not yet invented. ordinaryabundance.com/
The parallels between them are so numerous that “the only reasonable explanation is
that the two epics go back to a common origin from which they diverged in the course of separate
oral transmission”, argued anthropologist Nicholas Allen
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nichol…
Ben Finn retweeted
what the Fuck arxiv.org/html/2603.21852v2
ALT screenshot from the linked paper "All elementary functions from a single operator"
TIL the position of punctuation marks in ASCII and Unicode was mostly based on the Remington no. 2 typewriter of 1878, which had set the de facto standard for punctuation marks on Shift + number keys
Striking astronomical & statistical evidence of shiny objects orbiting the earth before the space age, and correlated with UFO sightings (as well as nuclear tests)
Wonderful news. 🌟💫✨
Our two new VASCO papers are now peer-reviewed, accepted and published — and they reveal some extraordinary things:
- We find statistically significant correlations between short-lived transients on pre-Sputnik sky plates, UFO sightings, and above-ground nuclear tests.
- We show a 22σ deficit of transients inside Earth’s shadow — consistent with a fraction of these events originating from solar reflections from flat, highly reflective surfaces in orbit before the human Space Age began.
Together with our earlier MNRAS paper, these results form a triptych of new methods to investigate UAP using astronomical data. Three independent high-level journals — and three independent peer review processes.
These latest results raise a bold question.
And yes… you know which.
Press release (Stockholm University): su.se/english/news/unexpecte…
Scientific Reports: nature.com/articles/s41598-0…
PASP: iopscience.iop.org/article/1…
Ben Finn retweeted
🟣 World Happiness Report 2025 is here! This year’s edition, the second to be published from Oxford, presents the latest global evidence on caring and sharing.
Read more 👉 worldhappiness.report/news/w…
ALT Two women using a computer tablet together.
Lest there be any doubt about the state of degradation of America:
In a fancyish tea/coffee shop in Chicago. Ordered Earl Grey tea with milk. Teapot arrived but no milk. This mystery suddenly ‘explained’ by pouring (examine closely the liquid emerging from the teapot). WTAF?!!
Ben Finn retweeted
Aggressive move by this wikipedia contributor to geometrically visualize the binomial theorem.
Oh, do you "have trouble" seeing things in 4D? Sorry that life is so difficult for you. Stop whining and try harder.
Ben Finn retweeted
Wow, I did NOT know this: Buddhist logicians had discovered the Gettier problem c. 770 AD:
