No one should be able to order a bioweapon through the mail.
@IFP & @JoinFAI are proud to co-lead an open letter calling for mandatory DNA synthesis screening & recordkeeping.
Signatories include:
- Sam Altman, CEO & Co-Founder, OpenAI
- Dario Amodei, CEO & Co-Founder,
If the idea of spending a day with me and @fiiiiiist prototyping Fully Automated Luxury Policy Wonking is your idea of a good time, you can do no better than attending the joint @IFP@JoinFAI Hacking the Think Tank hackathon on July 31.
Register today:
There's been a lot of conversation in the science community about NSF's new X-labs program. @CorreaDan’s newly posted piece does an excellent job explaining why the government has a role in scaling experimentation with new models for conducting science.
I have always believed
Important point here:
X-Labs are an opportunity for academic institutions to innovate and show they’re worth their salt.
Experimentation in science funding should be embraced, not feared.
There’s recently been a ton of discussion (and some real concern) across the science community about NSF’s new X-Labs program.
But I hadn’t seen anyone make the affirmative case for why scaling team science is actually the experiment we need right now. So I wrote it.
In short,
Technology is making the world worse. Nothing good has been invented in the last 25 years. Superfluous, spurious innovations that seem impressive at first, like the iPhone, take back more than they give and ultimately benefit only oppressive governments and their oligarch allies.
The ROAD to Housing Act makes major changes to federal housing NEPA practice. I dug into the law --here's a summary of what's changed & why it matters:
First, some context: HUD (and USDA) provide grants, loans, mortgage insurance, and rental assistance to support affordable
The first major federal housing package in 30 years is now law. It combines over 50 bills, and puts the federal government on the side of legalizing housing:
1. Cuts some federal funding from expensive places that don't allow housing and gives it to places that do. The first
Let me just say, if Democrats reject a permitting deal with a robust transmission provision because of NHPA angst, I will be very, very disappointed.
(Also: some of the most important aspects of NHPA analysis burden clean energy disproportionately: ifp.org/reforming-sect…).
It just doesn't make sense.
Dems top priority = transmission.
A top impediment to transmission build = NHPA.
No deal materializes until Dems accept that clean energy abundance requires major reform of NEPA & NHPA. These laws simply weren’t built for the moment we’re in.
Let me just say, if Democrats reject a permitting deal with a robust transmission provision because of NHPA angst, I will be very, very disappointed.
(Also: some of the most important aspects of NHPA analysis burden clean energy disproportionately: ifp.org/reforming-sect…).
This is an important point to remember in pro-housing policy. We have lots of places like San Francisco that are resistant to change, but also places like Minneapolis and Austin that took action to make housing more affordable.
ROAD to Housing is about encouraging more Austins,
Yes there are many NIMBY communities, but there are also many places in the middle or neutral on housing construction. This may be just enough of a carrot to make sure they fall on the side of construction instead of stasis.
On Mon., I'm going to talk with folks from @IFP about their "Transit Abundance Playbook." What is transit abundance & how do we get it in a country where the federal govt is transit-hostile, state govts are broke, & most citizens are car-brained? Got Qs?
.@jasonhehehe and I in @CityJournal today. We argue that the Trump Admin's H-1B fee is doomed. But he can fix the H-1B program by selecting H-1Bs based on an applicant's earning potential.
In 2018, I discovered a new mechanism that explains how animals learn how to navigate.
This novel form of learning combines two different types of neuromodulators - dopamine and octopamine - to tether a fruit fly's internal sense of direction to visual landmarks that it sees
It was lots of fun helping run this course over this past spring, and super excited to have the lectures releasing out into the world via Macroscience over the coming months!
If you feel like you still need more after watching (or reading) the first lecture, I'd recommend the
Since 2022, @IFP has hosted the Economics of Ideas, Science and Innovation online PhD course. It includes lectures from luminaries of innovation economics like @ChadJonesEcon, @KRoyMyers, @inaganguli, @pierre_azoulay, @Afinetheorem, and others.
Until now, the only way to see
