Ernesto Llano

here for the golden age of biology

[Ernesto Llano @ernesto_llano]

@MelindaBChu1 I think we will see people making significant advances in cancer outside the traditional academic system (think @sytses ) and the academic system will oppose this. Nobody likes to lose control/status. It will come for all fields.

[Ernesto Llano @ernesto_llano]

biology is too complex for humans to efficiently figure out. superintelligence was always going to be required to master it.

[David @DavidSHolz]

@JoeGXu i think aliens probably not stupid and recognize biological life is the dominant force on earth rn. biology is a advanced form of molecular nanotechnology. quite impressive.

[David @DavidSHolz]

@JoeGXu i think aliens probably not stupid and recognize biological life is the dominant force on earth rn. biology is a advanced form of molecular nanotechnology. quite impressive.

[Ernesto Llano @ernesto_llano]

@billionsmustliv Your first statement is false and your second unintelligible. Wish you better luck next time.

[Ernesto Llano @ernesto_llano]

Math is advancing at an incredible rate thanks to superintelligence, and who’s mad? The mathematicians.

This dynamic is coming for all fields. The cancer scientists will oppose the cancer discoveries, etc.

This is because most of the people doing academic science today desperately want the credit, status and recognition of being a top expert in their field, rather than for the actual problem to be solved.

We will witness battles of the public (want problems solved) vs experts (want to get famous for solving problems) as this new world order ripples throughout each scientific field.

[Ernesto Llano @ernesto_llano]

@scekker Academic dean who posts on social media with “, Ph.D” in his username concurs with the scientific gatekeeping take. Who would’ve thought?

[Ernesto Llano @ernesto_llano]

That they don’t make a meaningful contribution is just true. Making a significant contribution to science is extremely difficult and most people who hold a PhD never were able to do so.

That they are low agency is subjective. But grad school is an easy safe path for many undergrads that don’t know what to do next. Much lower agency path than creating a new company, which is what the PhD-less subjects of Fyodor’s insults did.

[Ernesto Llano @ernesto_llano]

Fyodor thinks science can be gated off by requiring a PhD as an “entry ticket”.

The PhD is a modern invention. Nobody had received a scientific PhD in the US until 1861, or in Europe until a few decades before that.

Science progressed just fine from prehistory to the 1800s without the PhD existing.

Even after the invention of the PhD, there have been many scientific Nobel Prizes (ie, scientific peers that surpassed Fyodor) without PhDs.

Today, a PhD is mostly a sign of low agency, of not knowing what better thing to do with your life. And most PhDs never make a meaningful contribution to science.

As much as Fyodor wants it to be an “entry ticket” to science, it is not. And will never be.

[Fyodor Urnov @UrnovFyodor]

@navyadotbio Would you allow a person with no MD or licensure to practice - do surgery on you?
You do need a PhD to be my peer. This is a complex field. A PhD is not a guarantee - which is what you seem to be suggesting - it's the entry ticket to participating in the conversation.

[Ernesto Llano @ernesto_llano]

@josiezayner @JakeABoggs I would say give it a little bit of time. I agree with you that the progress doesn’t count until a human benefits. My intuition is that a massive amount of human benefit is on the way.

[Ernesto Llano @ernesto_llano]

@bimald I’ll remind you of this convo in some years.

[Ernesto Llano @ernesto_llano]

@bimald Have you seen what is happening in math? That is coming for all fields. You’re right that the biggest discoveries may come from people who haven’t even finished college. The pace of discovery will accelerate in such a way that the academic timelines will not be competitive.

[Ernesto Llano @ernesto_llano]

@bimald What am I misrepresenting? That he called them charlatans or that he suggested their redemption was via PhD?

[Ernesto Llano @ernesto_llano]

@bimald And if you wanna talk about overhyped, I think academic science has much more prestige than it deserves. It is rife with fraud, laziness, bureaucracy and produces very little. It will be easily outcompeted by PhD-less people outside the system in coming decades.

[Ernesto Llano @ernesto_llano]

Post below, combined with his reply to Cathy Tie where he says come back when you have a PhD.

Regarding your point about not wasting your time with unproductive randos, I totally agree, I just think increasingly the unproductive randos not worth engaging with will be the academicians.

[Fyodor Urnov @UrnovFyodor]

Cathy Tie is a vile charlatan. She is Elizabeth Holmes with a Cas9 expression plasmid.
Colossal's recent raise valued them at $20 billion. Their lead "product" is a dire "wolf" - a fraud that makes Theranos look legitimate by comparison.
= lying works
https://t.co/ajQXNEZTud

[Ernesto Llano @ernesto_llano]

Did you miss the part where he repeatedly insulted people doing science without a PhD as illegitimate charlatans, and suggested that the solution be that they get one?

Fyodor, and maybe you, have a very narrow view of science and this professional track to be pursued within academia.

That view will not age well. Most great discoveries of the next 50 years will happen outside the academic prison.

[Ernesto Llano @ernesto_llano]

@bimald You were just celebrating them winning the National Medal of Science…

[Ernesto Llano @ernesto_llano]

@nivek883 lmao I have worked in labs for years and am intimately familiar with PhDs. The typical “novel contribution to the field of science” of a PhD grad is a shoddy thesis/paper that few will read and even fewer will be able to replicate.

[Ernesto Llano @ernesto_llano]

@UrnovFyodor @InVivoPodOnX I agree with you then that a PhD is not the “entry ticket” to a scientific conversation. Glad you updated your flawed mental model.

[Ernesto Llano @ernesto_llano]

@UrnovFyodor @ericweinstein “I do”. Oh ok, so what’s the absolutely devastating bombshell evidence?