Barrett Ames

Build more. Build better. CTO at @REK.

[Barrett Ames @cbames]

"Hardware is hard" was the warning, and now it's the moat.

[Naval @naval]

Pure software is rapidly becoming un-investable.

[Barrett Ames @cbames]

In a world of VLAs it's exciting to see new analytical IK approaches! IK has always been near and dear to my heart.

[Siddhartha Srinivasa @siddhss5]

Fifteen years ago, I had the privilege of working with Rosen Diankov at CMU on his PhD thesis. The capstone was IKFast — for a generation of roboticists, the definition of what analytical inverse kinematics could be.

Today, I'm excited to release the next chapter: ssik.

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[Nile McMillion @NileMcmillion]

Today America gains a new Instant-quote manufacturer!

Very proud to present https://t.co/bjbWQlyuSs where you can make custom packaging inserts for anything and get a price instantly!

Use code REINDUSTRIALZE to get $5 off your first order!

[Barrett Ames @cbames]

@adcock_brett Who's secondaries are valued at 15B then?

[Barrett Ames @cbames]

@zanehengsperger @jared_western

[Barrett Ames @cbames]

@pnickdurham epic bet. love it.

[Barrett Ames @cbames]

@simonkalouche Crossing the deployment moat enables data collection at a whole new level. It's the same play that @elonmusk did with FSD.

[Barrett Ames @cbames]

@InsiderPresider in this case the solution is found in the abdomen.

[Barrett Ames @cbames]

Talk about bug being a feature.

[kai @ssvankai]

accidentally stumbled upon this crazy paper abstract

[Barrett Ames @cbames]

@boxcardavid @jimbelosic @sendcutsend I just had two SoMa Costco Dogs today for lunch. Can confirm highest quality, build skill went up 10x afterwards. So did concern for health.

[Barrett Ames @cbames]

@tao_robotics Ya this was literally the first thing I tried, not as a effective as a full fine tune.

[Barrett Ames @cbames]

@CooperZurad No, it's Cooper.

[Barrett Ames @cbames]

@brysonkjones Some of my children seem to have inherited two wonderful gifts.

1.) ticks/mosquitoa appear to not be interested in them.

2.) no reaction to poison ivy.

[Barrett Ames @cbames]

This is the biggest thing CA has going for it right now. No Ticks.

And the highest density of tech oriented capital in human history.

[TFTC @TFTC21]

A peer-reviewed paper published last year in the journal Bioethics by two professors at Western Michigan University School of Medicine argues that it is "morally obligatory" to genetically engineer ticks to spread alpha-gal syndrome, a permanent condition that makes you violently allergic to red meat.

The paper is called "Beneficial Bloodsucking."

Their argument: if eating meat is morally wrong, then preventing the spread of a disease that forces people to stop eating meat is also morally wrong. Scientists should gene-edit lone star ticks to enhance their ability to carry alpha-gal syndrome and expand their range into urban environments to infect more people.

They call this a "moral bioenhancer." They frame releasing genetically modified disease-carrying ticks as a "vaccination" that only "infringes" on your bodily autonomy rather than "violating" it. The distinction, apparently, is that a tick bit you instead of a government official holding you down.

Alpha-gal syndrome is not mild. The CDC estimates up to 450,000 Americans are already affected. Cases have surged 100-fold in the last decade. Symptoms include anaphylaxis. There is no cure.

Alpha-gal cases are exploding across the United States. The lone star tick's range is expanding far beyond its historical territory. And two academics at a medical school published a paper arguing this is a good thing that should be accelerated.

At what point do we stop treating papers like this as fringe academic exercises and start asking whether anyone is already acting on them?

[Barrett Ames @cbames]

@Tri_Stanisaurus Interesting, hadn't heard that one. Could have used that before getting 10 of them wandering through the ozarks.

[Barrett Ames @cbames]

Well I stand corrected, there are 50 species of tick in CA. So I guess I'm moving to Antartica.

[Barrett Ames @cbames]

@Tri_Stanisaurus Really? Fuck. I'm a tick magnet.

[Barrett Ames @cbames]

@DoWCTO @DeptofWar @DOWResponse Love to see War Daddy building up the science and tech bench!

[Barrett Ames @cbames]

@JarettGross @NickFreiling Great point, thanks !

[Barrett Ames @cbames]

@Austen Ya I generally agree, but there's annoying piece of psychology where people value higher priced things more just because the price is higher