Braxton Boren

Music, Science, Music/Science

[Braxton Boren @bbboren]

@simonsarris parenthood

[Braxton Boren @bbboren]

https://t.co/O6IxdV0EkU

A lot of people wonder what effect new data center construction will have on local bird populations. This is a summary of what we know about low-frequency industrial noise's effects on different types of birds.

[Braxton Boren @bbboren]

What will more intelligence actually do for us?, by @Noahpinion https://t.co/NUDxGlaCqU

[Jimmy Wong @jfwong]

I made a cooking show on YouTube for 10 years, racked up a million+ subscribers, and published a cookbook - this design is better than anything I could've ever imagined in that time period.

[Braxton Boren @bbboren]

https://t.co/JQPUo4ug3y

Are space-based data centers the answer to the terrestrial tradeoff between noise and water usage? Not right now, but getting the regulatory framework right for data center noise would also help the economics for orbital computing.

[Andrew McCalip @andrewmccalip]

The heat thing is a meme. There are levels to this.

Initially you’re like: oh, this will never work.

Then you remember space is “cold.”

Then you do εσAT⁴ and think the radiator area might not be terrible.

Then you remember bifacial panels and think you’re done.

Then you remember the panel is also an absorber, so you don’t get a free cold surface.

Then you remember the GPUs are in the bus, not smeared across the wings.

Then you realize conduction over a 25 m wingspan is not casual.

Then you find heat pipes to get heat from GPUs to the panel.

Then you realize you still need vapor chambers to spread flux without hot spots.

Then you decide on a pumped ammonia loop.

Then you realize two-phase stability and pump margin are now your job.

Then you realize you need rotary, leak-tight fluid joints for deployment/pointing.

Then you realize “leak-tight” in hard vacuum for 5+ years is ambitious.

Then you realize your structure needs a ~40 Hz first mode or it will self-excite.

Then you realize stiffness is mass and mass is launch.

Then you realize the mass adds up fast, and so does the integration tax.

Then you realize launch cost was only half the problem.

Then you start talking about BOM cost per pound like it’s Parmesan cheese.

Then you realize flight hardware cost is labor, test, and yield, not raw materials.

Then you start thinking about 2nd and 3rd order terrestrial supply chain constraints.

Then you start wondering if Texas has enough LOX liquefaction capacity for cadence.

Then you realize it’s a disgusting amount of electricity (GWh-ish per launch) to make LOX.

Then you start wondering if there are enough trucks to haul that LOX.

Then you wonder: do we need a pipeline?

Then you wonder: do we have the natural gas to power those plants?

Then you wonder: how do we spin up more plants and buy turbines from Mitsubishi?

And boom, you’re back at NatGas turbines… on the ground… like God intended.

[faemoose @Faemoose]

16 years old.
Fully paid off Costco hotdog.
It's not "parents money".
It's not luck.
It's consistency.
It's discipline.
I grind EVERYDAY to live this lifestyle.

[Cranky Federalist @CrankyFed]

Your pub's flag isn't on the moon

[Arthur MacWaters @ArthurMacwaters]

It’s crazy how we found a way to purify literal rocks into 99.9999999% pure silicon, then have magicians pull it into crystals, then etch a trillion little runes on it, put some electricity into it, and now it has 130 IQ

and the most common thing to do with this miracle is email

[Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @Noahpinion]

Yeah we've never tried a rent freeze before. If we had done it a bunch of times before we could just look at what happened all the many times we did it before. But we've never tried it before so I guess we better try it now for the very first time.

[kuno @kunoo]

Crypto explained in 24 seconds.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Banger

[Braxton Boren @bbboren]

@IVMiles @matthenryyoung @PhilipDBunn @JamesWood @DanielGullotta "There are dozens of us! Dozens!"

[John Sailer @JohnDSailer]

NEW: a report from Vanderbilt and WashU just dropped, taking on the "state of scholarship in the humanities and social sciences," a big topic among critics of higher ed.

Read along w/ me 🧵

[Noam Dworman @noam_dworman]

Second for second, @tylercowen packs more substance into a talk than anyone I'm aware of. This is a clear, non-hysterical, and somewhat soothing discussion of our AI future.

[Daniel @growing_daniel]

God I want to be rich so bad

[Braxton Boren @bbboren]

https://t.co/R3s85BKbRM

When do data centers produce high frequency noise instead?

[Braxton Boren @bbboren]

@RaminNasibov Civilization II

[Braxton Boren @bbboren]

@culturaltutor Sounds great! Let me know if you need to talk about architectural acoustics.