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Token-space geometry, organoid intelligence, constructor theory, active inference frontiers — where silicon and biology begin to share the same manifold. Explore the lattice → [M=T/C](/tag/m-t-c/) • [Theory](/tag/atom-theory/) • [Neurodiversity](/tag/neurodiversity/)

Neuromorphic Chips: Silicon Learns from Neurons

Neuromorphic Chips: Silicon Learns from Neurons

Neuromorphic Chips: Silicon Learns from Neurons If you can't grow a brain in a dish—or don't want to deal with the complications of keeping tissue alive—there's another option: build silicon that acts like a brain. This is the neuromorphic computing approach. Instead

Organoid Intelligence: Wetware as Compute

Organoid Intelligence: Wetware as Compute

Organoid Intelligence: Wetware as Compute In 2022, a company called Cortical Labs published a paper with an audacious title: "In vitro neurons learn and exhibit sentience when embodied in a simulated game-world." They had grown a small cluster of human neurons in a dish. They connected it

The Brain's Impossible Efficiency: 20 Watts

The Brain's Impossible Efficiency: 20 Watts

The Brain's Impossible Efficiency: 20 Watts Here's a number that should make every computer scientist uncomfortable: 20 watts. That's the power consumption of an adult human brain. A typical incandescent light bulb uses more. A laptop uses three to four times as much. A

A tiny figure erases a glowing bit of light, releasing a warm puff of heat into space

Landauer's Limit: The Physics of Erasing Information

One paradox, one number: the floor beneath all computing, how it was measured, and how far our machines are from it. Part two of two.

The Compute Ceiling: Why AI Hit a Wall

The Compute Ceiling: Why AI Hit a Wall

The Compute Ceiling: Why AI Hit a Wall In 2020, OpenAI trained GPT-3. It took approximately 1,287 megawatt-hours of electricity—enough to power 120 American homes for a year. The cost: somewhere between $4 million and $12 million, depending on how you count. In 2023, GPT-4

The Intelligence of Energy

The Intelligence of Energy

The Intelligence of Energy Every thought you think costs calories. Every AI response burns watts. Every calculation, biological or silicon, requires energy—and that energy has to come from somewhere. This isn't a metaphor. Intelligence is expensive, and the bill comes in joules. We're used to

Two glowing embryos holding DNA strands with editing scissors between them

The CRISPR Babies: When He Jiankui Edited the Human Germline

The CRISPR Babies: When He Jiankui Edited the Human Germline On November 25, 2018, a scientist named He Jiankui uploaded a series of videos to YouTube. He stood in what looked like a hotel conference room, speaking to the camera in careful English. He wore a blue button-down shirt.