Sean Downes

coffee math physics trails whatever just glad to be here.

[Sean Downes @seanforscience]

But honestly, the take away that we need to rebuild a social esteem and public good that doesn’t rely on blind credentialism something else worth meditating on.

[Sean Downes @seanforscience]

I happen to be in the process of porting all my content to a new platform, but since it came up again I thought I’d drop some really ancient writing I did (backed up thank god):

https://t.co/oFOP3hRUPE

[Sean Downes @seanforscience]

And if you like more mostly unsubstantiated ranting on this issue, you can read more here: https://t.co/LxuBBDd8wa

[Sean Downes @seanforscience]

@WKCosmo @CosmicDaryl Will I appreciate the sentiment, but there’s been good and bad faith people on both sides and has been since I was a kid. It’s more nuanced than that. The astronomers have historically been real shitheads too.

[Sean Downes @seanforscience]

@alz_zyd_ I dunno. I asked a few models to do some relatively simple matrix calculations (admittedly for general n) and I caught them making all kinds of sign errors, and other mistakes just like people.

[Sean Downes @seanforscience]

@DallasAptGP lol, Summer! That was one of the most brutal decades of my life.

[Sean Downes @seanforscience]

@AmProsperity Tell Mike Lee to keep his wealthy benefactors’ grubby hands off our public lands!

[Sean Downes @seanforscience]

@thePiggsBoson I remember enjoying Zettili when I found it in the library. But Sakurai and Baym really where my formative ones.

[Sean Downes @seanforscience]

@The_Astral_ If *anything* you’d think that would suggest that a certain class of interpretations of QM should be discarded as unphysical.

[Sean Downes @seanforscience]

@The_Astral_ No. That’s only true if you *disallow* the reality of states in superposition. Which is a pretty unorthodox take.

[Sean Downes @seanforscience]

@CburgesCliff Ripping a textbook in half mid lecture would definitely help keep students in line. 💪

[Sean Downes @seanforscience]

Not that you can’t work remotely or whatever. But not from home.

[Sean Downes @seanforscience]

Hot take. Working from home was always a mistake.

[Sean Downes @seanforscience]

Reminding ourselves that reality is what we make of it feels empowering until the sheer weight of responsibility hits.

I still prefer it that way.

[Sean Downes @seanforscience]

Science feels like the closest thing we have to an objective sense of right and wrong, but even it needs us to assume and agree upon on something things.

It’s harder but I like it that way.

[Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @Noahpinion]

I'm not an atheist, but I never understood why God is able to determine right and wrong.

If God says "it's wrong to be gay", is it really wrong? Why? Sure, He can send you to Hell if He wants, but punishment doesn't determine what's right and what's wrong.

[Sean Downes @seanforscience]

In the category of things fundamentally unsurprising and probably dangerously close to catharsis. Amusing read though.

[Steve McGuire @sfmcguire79]

Link: https://t.co/wzyHZ6Hdh6

[Sean Downes @seanforscience]

Maybe. But in the mean time they seem to struggle with calculations involving quadratic polynomials, for instance working with representations of sp(2n,R).

If anything it’s endearing to think that machines also struggle with moving too fast and making sign errors.

[Anthony Bonato @Anthony_Bonato]

"Soon LLMs will do research-level math and mathematicians will be irrelevant."
Me: Great, I can finally catch up on my sleep