Milan Cvitkovic
@MWCvitkovic
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Neurotech, mostly | cofounder @IntegralNeuro
San Francisco, CA
Joined June 2015
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Pinned Tweet
If you:
1. are an engineer or startup operator
2. want to build the next generation of transformative neurotech
3. want to do outstanding work with an outstanding team
come be one of our first team members at Integral!
(details in thread ↓)
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Things you're allowed to do. For reference. Ping me if I've forgotten any.
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Are there any good Anki + LLM integrations yet?
There are so many features I want: 🧵1/n
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Visualizations let us exploit our mind's beefy visual processing system to do useful reasoning.
Is there an equivalent tool for thought but leveraging our brain's auditory processing system?
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@catehall
- curing this disability will destroy the subculture of people who have it --> maybe don't do it
- overcoming suffering is good --> suffering is important to keep around
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Anyone can study mitochondria. Only DARPA can achieve:
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Wrote up some notes on neurotechnology development for an EA audience:
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Approximately every neuropharmacology researcher I've gotten to know well enough to ask about this has self-experimented.
Approximately none will ever reveal this in any public form. Sad waste of data.
Here's a list of nobel prize winners who experimented on themselves, something which is now highly taboo in the medical research community.
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Periodic reminder that if you want to work in neurotechnology, regardless of your skillset, msg me and I will try to help you
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Things that can happen when you implant electrodes deep in someone's brain:
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@sashachapin
Reminds me of that old line about "I prefer you without makeup" really meaning "I prefer not being able to tell that you're wearing makeup"
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I think neurotechnology is probably necessary, though not sufficient, for AI alignment.
And no, this post isn't about merging with AI or uploading people to the cloud.
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Corollary: if you're a non-technical founder type, science needs you.
Seriously, we're hiring.
You *can* learn the science. You *can* do the cool thing. You *don't* have to make an app.
Unpopular opinion but - on average, scientists make bad founder-CEOs (without a lot of work)
IMO the founder-led bio "movement" should focus more on getting general founder-types interested in building in bio - similar founder profile to what you see in other deeptech co's today
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Reminder that, by default, this work WILL NOT turn into a product that you can use.
UNLESS someone (maybe you!) rolls up their sleeves and does the work to turn it into one!
#PleaseMorePeopleWorkOnTranslatingMedicalTechnology
New in
@NatureNano
, we report a wearable nanobiosensor capable of non-invasive monitoring of picomolar-level estradiol for fertility management and women health monitoring. Congrats to
@CuiYe0702
,
@MinqiangW
!
@Caltech
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Orthogonality Thesis, neuro edition: a conscious agent can have any combination of subjective wellbeing and reproductive fitness.
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as someone with a cold right now this is the only accelerationism I care about
Far-UVC light is a promising potential tool for pandemic control. CR's biosecurity road-mappers convened a workshop with top experts on UV emitters to figure out how to make this tool affordable and scalable. Read the report here:
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Running thread of neuro/bio pronunciation shibboleths, for those trying to avoid gatekeepers.
Additions welcome.
1/n
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serious team, scientifically grounded effort ⏩
I founded
@nudge
with
@quintinfrerichs
.
We’re building an ultrasound headset to enhance human experience. Press a button to shift your brain state: go to sleep, boost focus, break habits, elevate mood, etc. We believe this device has the potential to improve people’s daily lives
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Updated with newer refs, for the 10 people who follow me who care about this sort of thing:
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people in all industries will want an ai pin to read their texts aloud in public, experts say
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A therapist is an expert in manipulating people, whose entire financial incentive is to keep you coming back forever, and with whom you can enter into an un-auditable treatment regime with zero criteria for when you'll stop.
But psilocybin is illegal.
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I am once again asking all of us to stop describing neurotechnology as "(non)invasive".
You can blast a lethal hole in your brainstem with a "noninvasive" ultrasound rig at the same time as the caffeine from your cortado "invades" the cytoplasm of half the neurons in your brain
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My bar for AGI is when “Hi Milan” gets transcribed correctly >10% of the time
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I have never felt more Croatian pride. Bravo to her.
An expert virologist prepares lab grade virus preps (measles and VSV) & self treats her recurrent breast cancer. What happened next? Apart from an ethical minefield! The reviewers comments & rebuttals are also published and make for an interesting read...
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2. Change the phrasing of a card each time I see it (but with exact same information). "Muscle confusion" for the brain.
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who bookmarked this? what evergreen wisdom are you expecting here?
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v. curious what unknown biomarkers are hidden in the full blood pressure waveform
Creative use of ultrasound to measure blood pressure continuously, w/o additional calibration, and nearly anywhere on the body! 🔊
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big day for neuropharmacologists
The U.S. Department of Energy confirmed its discovery of a 3,400-kiloton reserve of lithium in California's Salton Sea, making it one of the largest exploitable lithium deposits in the world.
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Progress Studies friends, please read this so I can stop cringing whenever I hear you saying that AlphaFold has/will revolutionize drug discovery.
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Convergent Research is hiring a Head of Talent.
If you want to play a pivotal role in starting some of the world’s most ambitious, unconventional scientific projects, get in touch!
Can’t overemphasize how critical this role will be to our success.
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I don't know enough history to contribute to the how-drugs-shape-culture discourse going on rn. But I will say that skillful drug use is an underrated ability of most top performers I know, and I would NEVER have guessed this until I entered the workforce.
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all this agency discourse is great, but let's get specific
Things You're Allowed to Do: At the Dentist (not by me)
(srsly I'd be so happy if people started writing these for the long tail of life scenarios)
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in a gluten-free, vegan, carnivore dieting, keto, low-calorie, non-alc world, only one hosting gift survives
fancy pickles
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the most potent, legal neurotechnologies:
- dogs
- music
- caffeine
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Based on recent experiences about which I will say nothing:
The variance in quality of university tech transfer offices is staggering.
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The current best trick for making internet friends is to pretend you just discovered
@RoamResearch
and write a blog post about it.
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It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a neurotech company in possession of thin films, must be in want of a foundry.
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It's good to have an aspirational name for your business
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I'm told when you feel butterflies in your stomach, that's your sensory nerves detecting a physical change in your gut caused by adrenaline.
But are there any feelings you "feel" in your periphery but that are actually all just inside your brain with no real sensory inputs?
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So MRI might never have existed if not for:
(1) The Beatles
(2) lack of grants forcing an academic into industry
(3) Certificates of Need, oft-maligned in the healthcare discussion, encouraging early adoption
Guest post by the excellent
@dreamyweather
.
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more terrifyingly: they don’t need to be final or correct. you’re allowed to be wrong and change your mind, in public.
Not everything you write needs to be a viral hit: you can just write up some thoughts and put them on your website. You don't even need to tell anyone!
Anxiety around this stops so many people I know from publishing anything online
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I recommend working at
@Convergent_FROs
in the strongest possible terms
We're hiring a Launch Manager at
@Convergent_FROs
!
This role will work closely with each new FRO as it starts as well as the whole CR team.
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What's the difference between civilization and chaos, you ask? Turns out about 3 volts a few centimeters behind your eyes.
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I'm probably late to the game, but I didn't realize ChatGPT knew SMILES
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(How) should we pursue human longevity?
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I recommend working at
@Convergent_FROs
in the strongest possible terms
Hey science twitter - come work directly with
@AdamMarblestone
and explore some of the most interesting projects out there as Chief of Staff.
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This dataset already exists.
@AmerChemSociety
has it in the form of Scifinder. AlphaChem could be trained now using it. I hope they can help make this happen.
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Recent life-changing purchase: peripheral-vision-blocking glasses (modified with tape).
Now I can finally read in cars without getting carsick. And work on planes without getting distracted by the episode of New Girl my seat neighbor is watching.
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And if you're a scientist and NOT seeking philanthropic funding for the most ambitious idea you have right now, you should reconsider. You are missing out.
See
And then send your best ideas to
@Convergent_FROs
, we can help direct you.
If you're seeking philanthropic funding for science or anything else, you should know how to pitch your project to both these groups.
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Updated.
As ever, I'll pay you $2 for any new number or correction (with citation) that you send me that I choose to include!
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These are worth doing for your life, too: your daily routine, your chore system, etc.
I’ve always called them annoyance audits. Seen them called bug hunts too
As software companies get bigger, product quality goes down: interactions break, screens freeze, etc
One technique to spot this is to do "friction logs":
You use the product and as you do, you log everything that causes you friction for the responsible team to fix later.
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Screw it. I've held this back for too long.
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The next Thiel Fellowship-style talent land-grab will be for older experts around their mid-life crises.
A startup instead of a Harley for your 50th.
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@sashachapin
A favorite: literally anything that interacts physically with you (or any animal) is technically a medical device (or a drug) and can be regulated as such at the whim of the FDA.
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Ron Howard narrating: They included him because he’s fantastic.
Not sure why they included me among this otherwise excellent lineup of podcast guests but this was a fun conversation!
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"Direct costs dictate research directions."
Underrated point. Lots to think about here in terms of how we organize markets to get research done.
Science has a blindspot around tools and equipment.
TLDR: Scientists aren't incentivized to create cheaper tools, but it's a worthwhile effort. When and where it happens, fields advance quickly.
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Minimum viable uploading of a fly
How useful is a connectome? We show that you can predict quite a bit about the neural activity of a circuit from just measurements of its connectivity. Led by star graduate student
@lappalainenjk
, collaboration with
@jakhmack
.
#connectome
1/n
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Bonus points if it somehow lets us get past 3 dimensions. Not sure what the dimensionality of audio representations in the brain is...
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more!
all this agency discourse is great, but let's get specific
Things You're Allowed to Do: At the Dentist (not by me)
(srsly I'd be so happy if people started writing these for the long tail of life scenarios)
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I thought FDA accelerated approval for rare diseases was for...y'know...accelerating the approval of drugs for rare diseases.
Turns out nope: cos can sell the vouchers to each other and use them to accelerate *any* drug:
Brilliant or 🤦♂️, can't tell which
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8. Inject false or impossible cards randomly into your deck. Keep your epistemics up! If you know there's always an answer, you'll get complacent!
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me: I want my life’s work to be good and philosophically serious
Wittgenstein: “A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes.”
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Tired of hearing people complain about the US healthcare system. What other nation insures 111% of its population? 🇺🇸💪🥧
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NN stuck in bad local minima? Give it a digital psychedelic.
Giving neural networks some serotonin: "opportunities for the integration of neuromodulatory principles into deep neural networks"
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@SpencrGreenberg
The brahma-viharas, updated:
Loving-kindness: Zoom
Near enemy – clinging: Instagram
Far enemy – hatred: Twitter
Compassion: EA Forum
NE – pity: NYT
FE – cruelty: 4chan
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How did art and art criticism become two separate jobs? And why doesn't science have this division of labor?
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My dream high-school health class of the future involves students taking examples of each major psychoactive drug class and receiving guidance on their biological effects and risks.
Dopamine day, GABA day, acetylcholine day, etc. They're going to be trying them anyway
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It's time to start thinking very hard about what's going to happen when people can modify their own reward functions.
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Turns out the original home decor style I've been cultivating is just Myst.
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Can't believe I'd never seen this
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Can confirm personal anecdata. My cold lasted 2 days - I can't ever remember having one for <5 days before, and I have them a lot
@MWCvitkovic
@ArtirKel
Aha oh no. This one. Proven vs covid. Anecdotally very effective vs colds in my experience. Shortens them from horrible 7 days to 2 manageable days
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“[my husband] even said he would do anything so I could keep [the BCI]. […] Buy it even. He would have taken a second mortgage on our home for me to keep it.”
Case study worth reading. "BCI" here is implanted user-in-the-loop epilepsy monitor.
Results section has the quotes.
Frederic Gilbert et al. discusses ethical considerations of brain-computer Interface implantation and its effects on patient experience of agency
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Scientists in NY, FYI: a NY Public Library card gives you online access to Nature journals. Handy for when SciHub doesn't have the article yet.
ht
@paulmromer
for the tip!
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@ArtirKel
I know you're doing Alzheimer's rn but can you do the common cold next? Strongly considering devoting the rest of my life to eradicating it.
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I am once again reminding futurists that uploads are just another type of AI and are not a magic solution to any type of AI risk
(I can’t believe how often this comes up in my life)
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when a disorder is named after a symptom, like "depression", it's a bad sign, suggesting lack of understanding of the pathophysiology.
I will therefore henceforth be referring to my lactose intolerance as Pasteur's Pox
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TIL it's legal to sell p̶h̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶r̶a̶p̶y̶ phage solutions direct-to-consumer.
h/t
@Nicole_Paulk
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@devonzuegel
I almost can’t believe how different your pre estimate is from my empirical data of hanging out with you
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I do, hmu
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Looking for an operational/executive cofounder for an emerging, high-impact neuropharmacology project.
DM if interested, or know someone who might be!
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1. Obviously: generate from articles or my notes.
People are playing with this, but I bet many best practices to learn
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Whole-Brain Emulation is the most ridiculous and ill-specified goal of fundamental neuroscience except for all the others.
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It me
It's very encouraging that the NSF provisions were able to make it into the CHIPS package.
A key part of the Congressional mandate given to the new TIP directorate is to experiment with diverse funding models for science.
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Flip side of every drug side effect is a chance for repurposing or new target discovery.
In infosec every bug is a potential exploit. But infosec also has chained exploits: combining separate bugs into a full exploit.
Are there examples of chaining in pharmacology?
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actually nvm we solved it:
The biggest open question in AI alignment is whether "human values" is a coherent concept.
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Babe, I love the arts. Would a philistine have 2 Anki decks of haiku?
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The only force powerful enough to convince humanity to put adequate effort into understanding our own brains...
...is our vanity, desperately impelling us to find some way that they're different from artificial ones.
Nothing like a little competition.
At
@MSFTResearch
we had early access to the marvelous
#GPT4
from
@OpenAI
for our work on
@bing
. We took this opportunity to document our experience. We're so excited to share our findings. In short: time to face it, the sparks of
#AGI
have been ignited.
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Scientists not citing
@gwern
, example a billion and one
The reported benefits of microdosing "can be explained by the placebo effect" according to a 'self-blinding' citizen science initiative
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