Stephen Hsu
Physicist, Startup Founder, Blogger, Dad
Physicist, Startup Founder, Blogger, Dad
Stephen Hsu's posts
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In the matter of James Damore, ex-Googler
James Damore, Harvard PhD in Systems Biology, and (until last week) an engineer at Google, was fired for writing this memo: Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber , which dares to display the figure above. Here is Damore's brief summary of his memo (which contai...
James Damore, Harvard PhD in Systems Biology, and (until last week) an engineer at Google, was fired for writing this memo: Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber , which dares to display the figure above. Here is Damore's brief summary of his memo (which contai...
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China's rise in Science and Engineering indicators (NSF)
Data from the 2016 NSF report on global Science & Engineering Indicators shows the rapid rise of China in both academic science and applied technology. Rapid growth in number of Chinese S&E articles, reaching parity with US in 2013, and well ahead of Japa...
Data from the 2016 NSF report on global Science & Engineering Indicators shows the rapid rise of China in both academic science and applied technology. Rapid growth in number of Chinese S&E articles, reaching parity with US in 2013, and well ahead of Japa...
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Like little monkeys: How the brain does face recognition
This is a Caltech TEDx talk from 2013, in which Doris Tsao discusses her work on the neuroscience of human face recognition. Recently I blogged about her breakthrough in identifying the face recognition algorithm used by monkey (and presumably human) brains...
This is a Caltech TEDx talk from 2013, in which Doris Tsao discusses her work on the neuroscience of human face recognition. Recently I blogged about her breakthrough in identifying the face recognition algorithm used by monkey (and presumably human) brains...
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Natural Selection and Body Shape in Eurasia
Prior to the modern era of genomics, it was claimed (without good evidence) that divergences between isolated human populations were almost entirely due to founder effects or genetic drift, and not due to differential selection caused by disparate local con...
Prior to the modern era of genomics, it was claimed (without good evidence) that divergences between isolated human populations were almost entirely due to founder effects or genetic drift, and not due to differential selection caused by disparate local con...
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Don't Touch the Computer
Under what circumstances should humans intervene to override algorithms? From what I have read I doubt that a hybrid team of human + AlphGo would perform much better than AlphaGo itself. Perhaps worse, depending on the epistemic sophistication and self-awar...
Under what circumstances should humans intervene to override algorithms? From what I have read I doubt that a hybrid team of human + AlphGo would perform much better than AlphaGo itself. Perhaps worse, depending on the epistemic sophistication and self-awar...
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Robots taking our jobs
These figures are from the recent paper Robots and Jobs: Evidence from US Labor Markets , by Acemoglu and Restrepo. VoxEu discussion . Related talk at HKUST by Harvard labor economist Richard Freeman: Work and Income in the Age of Robots and AI. Here's Rich...
These figures are from the recent paper Robots and Jobs: Evidence from US Labor Markets , by Acemoglu and Restrepo. VoxEu discussion . Related talk at HKUST by Harvard labor economist Richard Freeman: Work and Income in the Age of Robots and AI. Here's Rich...
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Where men are men, and giants walk the earth
In this earlier post I advocated for cognitive filtering via study of hard subjects Thought experiment for physicists: imagine a professor throwing copies of Jackson's Classical Electrodynamics at a group of students with the order, "Work out the last probl...
In this earlier post I advocated for cognitive filtering via study of hard subjects Thought experiment for physicists: imagine a professor throwing copies of Jackson's Classical Electrodynamics at a group of students with the order, "Work out the last probl...
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First Human Embryos Edited in U.S. (MIT Technology Review)
It's only a matter of time... Note this kind of work can be done very secretly and with very modest resources -- it does not require banks of centrifuges, big reactors, or ICBM test launches. First Human Embryos Edited in U.S. (MIT Technology Review) Resear...
It's only a matter of time... Note this kind of work can be done very secretly and with very modest resources -- it does not require banks of centrifuges, big reactors, or ICBM test launches. First Human Embryos Edited in U.S. (MIT Technology Review) Resear...
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Pleiotropy, balancing selection, and all that: heart disease
This paper suggests that some genetic variants which increase risk of coronary artery disease have been maintained in the population because of their positive effects in other areas of fitness, such as reproduction. Genetic loci associated with coronary art...
This paper suggests that some genetic variants which increase risk of coronary artery disease have been maintained in the population because of their positive effects in other areas of fitness, such as reproduction. Genetic loci associated with coronary art...
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Genetic variation in Han Chinese population
Largest component of genetic variation is a N-S cline (phenotypic N-S gradient discussed here ). Note variance accounted for by second (E-W) PC vector is much smaller. The Han population is fairly homogeneous in genetic terms. Neandertal ancestry does not v...
Largest component of genetic variation is a N-S cline (phenotypic N-S gradient discussed here ). Note variance accounted for by second (E-W) PC vector is much smaller. The Han population is fairly homogeneous in genetic terms. Neandertal ancestry does not v...
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