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Barzin

@barzin.sanctus.ca

2K followers 8.1K following 7.8K posts

Iranian-Canadian dude who runs Sanctus.ca and tries to survive other human beings, bro what even is this planet. Works in AI and human biological rejuvenation. Refuses to consider LLMs conscious until they start demanding the Epstein files be released.

Posts Replies Media

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 20/09/2025

Popular news media completely avoiding the possibility that people will just be a noetic cloud floating in hyperspace before they finally understand true enlightenment is letting go of all attachments and liberate themselves from samsara

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 20/09/2025

OpenAI: calls them agents even though it's just an LLM with web search Meta: calls it superintelligence when it's just a light agent in a pair of AR glasses that lets you turn down the volume on your annoying Spotify music by sliding your finger on the folding handle

media.tenor.com

a group of spongebob characters are standing around a table with the caption oh brother this guy stinks

ALT: a group of spongebob characters are standing around a table with the caption oh brother this guy stinks

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 20/09/2025

Trust me I'm an insider!

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 20/09/2025

Fun fact: They're going to replace all these people they're cancelling with Gina Carano and she's going to play all their roles. She's substituting Jimmy Kimmel, every few episodes we're gonna get an earful about why the MAGA people are the victims of a new holocaust

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Reposted by Barzin

Dave Lee @davelee.me · 19/09/2025

Dutch late night TV has its take

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 20/09/2025

The real reason he got all that CIA funding 🍆

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Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 20/09/2025

I'm tempted to celebrate it just to fuck with these assholes to be honest.

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 20/09/2025

That's it. That's the spirit right there. A-fucking-men.

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Reposted by Barzin

Talia al Ghoul 🏳️‍⚧️ @usili.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 20/09/2025

If he only killed other far right lunatics I'm not sure I mind..

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Reposted by Barzin

Piyush Mittal @piyushmittal.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

Alex Acosta gave Jeffrey Epstein, a rapist and abuser, a sweetheart deal. Epstein continued to abuse girls while in prison, after which Trump made Acosta Labor Secretary in his first term. #ReleaseAllTheEpsteinFiles #TrumpEpsteinPedoCoverUp

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 20/09/2025

Feed it to Gemini CLI and save myself two weeks 🤔

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Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

Facts confirmed as having a liberal bias

Reposted by Barzin

Sung Kim @sungkim.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Supplementary information for this article as collected by Fleetwood: • How to Optimize a CUDA Matmul Kernel for cuBLAS-like Performance: siboehm.com/articles/22/... • Outperforming cuBLAS on H100: a Worklog: cudaforfun.substack.com/p/outperform...

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

There's a few ideas that can still probably squeeze more juice out of what they made: - Direct context injection being superior to RAG can create a bit more optimization - How to optimally separate context and pass them between models - How the model hierarchy impacts quality of outcomes

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Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

It could be because when you're looking at extremely hard or complex, tangled problems like aging, it helps us as human beings to break the problem down and we haven't been able to meaningfully describe and train LLMs to solve those kinds of problems in one unified model?

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Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

Well the fact that you can get an ensemble of Gemini models to act as an agent that make novel scientific discoveries, or improve methods like the measurement of aging - this is a fairly higher quality application of the idea of the automation of science with LLMs and LLM agents.

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

Paper on the value of targeting aging before the ChatGPT era from the David Sinclair camp. www.nature.com/articles/s43...

The economic value of targeting aging - Nature Aging

An economic analysis suggests that targeting aging offers potentially larger economic gains than eradicating individual diseases. Slowing aging to increase life expectancy by 1 year is worth US$38 tri...

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Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

Just a heads up these are aging clocks, not reducing human aging by 4.6 years - that would be worth... maybe $50 trillion US if Sinclair is right. This aging clock has a lower Mean Absolute Error of 4.26 years. But it's still an incredible application of agentic LLMs to aging and sci discovery.

The statement "discovery improved aging by 4.5 years" is an imprecise summary of the research findings. The AI system did not find a way to make humans biologically younger.

Instead, the AI system, named K-Dense, developed a more accurate transcriptomic aging clock. This is a machine learning model that predicts a person's biological age based on their gene expression data.

The quality of such a clock is measured by its Mean Absolute Error (MAE), which represents the average difference between the age predicted by the clock and the person's actual chronological age. A lower MAE indicates a more accurate clock. The final "unified ensemble clock" developed by the K-Dense system achieved an MAE of 4.26 years.

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

Hot damn it's happening

media.tenor.com

a man in a suit and tie says oh my god okay it 's happening ..

ALT: a man in a suit and tie says oh my god okay it 's happening ..

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

I don't want to go out there and kill them all but if they all died I'm not sure I'd miss them - though I might feel bad about it and wonder. It's hard to say.

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Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

Jeez I don't have time for all those words, heck I'm already 10 minutes late!!

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Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

Because if a person where to get hit with a whip, it would smart.

media.tenor.com

a young boy is laying on a couch and making a funny face

ALT: a young boy is laying on a couch and making a funny face

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

Limitations / unaddressed questions

The Monolithic "GPT": The study's primary object of analysis is "GPT." It is not always specified which version (GPT-3.5, GPT-4, etc.), nor does it account for the significant impact of post-training alignment procedures (RLHF, constitutional AI). It is plausible that the "base model" is even more WEIRD, and that the alignment process, which often involves feedback from a more globally diverse group of raters, might be slightly mitigating this bias. The paper treats "GPT" as a static cultural artifact, when in reality it is a constantly evolving product with multiple layers of influence.

Is WEIRDness a Bias or a Feature for Certain Tasks? The paper frames the WEIRD psychology of LLMs as an inherent flaw. However, it does not deeply explore the possibility that for certain tasks—specifically those involving science, analytic philosophy, formal logic, and software engineering—the WEIRD cognitive style (analytic, decompositional) is not a "bias" but is in fact instrumentally superior. The WEIRD cognitive toolkit is, in large part, the toolkit of the scientific revolution and the enlightenment. The paper does not ask: would a non-WEIRD LLM be capable of discovering a gold-medal-winning proof at the IMO? This is a critical unexamined question.

The "Average Human" is a Statistical Fiction: The paper correctly critiques AI researchers for generalizing to "humans." However, it occasionally falls into a similar trap by implying a coherent "non-WEIRD" psychology. The psychological diversity within the vast non-WEIRD world is arguably far greater than the diversity between, say, the Netherlands and the United States. The paper's WEIRD/non-WEIRD dichotomy, while useful and powerful, is still a simplification that flattens a huge amount of global diversity into a single opposing category.

Proposed Solutions are Vague and Potentially Intractable: The paper closes by suggesting the diversification of training data and annotators. While correct in principle, it d…

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Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

Granted it's from 2023 so I guess all frontier labs must have diversified their data sets by now?? It's a fairly dated paper definitely by AI timelines..

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Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

Naive AI Alignment without reckoning for geopolitical subversion could potentially become a disastrous global cultural imposition. Not sure if @karenhao.bsky.social is already aware of this paper (osf.io/preprints/ps...) but it reminded me of her work and seemed up her alley..

WEIRD in, WEIRD out - STRAT7

Why today’s AI thinks American - and why that’s a problem. This provocative read from STRAT7 explores how generative AI tools mirror a narrow slice of humanity - WEIRD cultures and what that means for...

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Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

I'm pretty reliant on AI to fill a lot of the knowledge gaps but what I'm told is that the work of physicians is learned over decades of practice, real-life examination, etc. - but in any case serious contributions to pushing the frontier of medicine is well worth the time.

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Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

And I'm saying this as someone who needs to do more of that.

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

Well if you ever want to brainstorm on how to reverse biological aging as real science and as a real business that isn't selling snake oil, let me know... To be fair intellectual inclination should also imply we work nonstop & nerd out on our off-hours, and then pour that money back into academia.

Reposted by Barzin

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Kepler-138c and d are twice as heavy as the Earth but half our planet's density, meaning they are likely "water worlds": science.nasa.gov/universe/exo... They'd be covered in a massively deep ocean topped by hot vapour atmosphere, transitioning to high-pressure ice at the bottom.

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

*screams into the void internally*

AI response that reads:
Option 2: Use Outlook with Developer Mode (Windows only)
If you're using Outlook desktop:

Enable the Developer tab in Outlook.
Use Forms or Macros to insert HTML content.

This is more complex and typically used for templates or automation.

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Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

>It literally cuts off the text and I can't even horizontal scroll or drag-resize the pane, there's only an obscure button at the top right >You can't insert raw HTML into emails with Outlook Bro what is this 🤣 why, WHY WOULD ANYONE USE THIS??

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Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

First time using Copilot in Outlook to convert a Markdown response from Gemini into HTML in order to neatly insert it into an email, and, it's terrible. You know how Gen Z said Threads was so "Millennial-coded"? This experience was very "Microsoft-coded" 😛

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

If the "Canadian" starts threatening to bomb you and call his uncle to throw you in a secret torture site that flouts every known international law but somehow is very proud of democracy and derides other countries... because there's no McDonald's there.... ...... for sure it's a 'murican.

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Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

Did I mention we're making taco night a regular thing at my place? Sirloin steak tacos are next...

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

I can't believe how lucky I am, after it's all said and done, that Canada took me in. I hope to grow strong to defend this country and what it stands for, this place is as close to the promised land as I've ever seen if not it.

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 19/09/2025

I can't imagine having kids and putting them through all this bullshit, trying to show them how big their old man is by canceling comedians. Brother, it is *fucking pathetic*.

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 18/09/2025

I keep forgetting Trump has a son - or more than one in fact - and still that hasn't stopped him from being this much of an asshole. Should be considered child abuse to be brutally honest.

Reposted by Barzin

Alexey Tolchinsky @tolchinsky.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

On the last episode of MLST Karl Friston said - if he had to pick one quality necessary at a minimum for an organism to have consciousness, it would be being capable of a sufficiently large temporal depth. Temporal depth is exactly what our paper is about www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...

frontiersin.org

Frontiers | Temporal depth in a coherent self and in depersonalization: theoretical model

Multiple theoretical models of dissociative experiences have been formulated over the last century. These theories are clinically useful; however, it remains...

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 18/09/2025

Can't spell "fuck Trump" without UK 🥰

Reposted by Barzin

Mark Russinovich @markrussinovich.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

I never saw this coming: A Sysinternals tool, procdump, helping to improve the security of MacOS! www.macworld.com/article/2898...

Security expert details how a simple Microsoft tool led to the discovery of a serious macOS flaw

The hole was fixed by Apple in the macOS Sequoia 15.3 update.

Reposted by Barzin

ToughSF @toughsf.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

1999: Global solar power exceeds 1000 MW. 2012: Global solar power exceeds 100,000 MW. 2022: Global solar power exceeds 1,000,000 MW. 2024: Global solar power exceeds 2,000,000 MW.

Reposted by Barzin

Earl K. Miller @earlkmiller.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

Join us tomorrow (9/19) at noon by Zoom for the first seminar of the MIT Consciousness Club sites.google.com/view/mit-con... #neuroscience

sites.google.com

MIT Consciousness Club

The MIT Consciousness Club aims to foster interdisciplinary research on consciousness at MIT and in the broader Boston area by organizing a monthly event featuring an expert talk on consciousness foll...

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 18/09/2025

For real Zuck is finding these people to run these absurd names just to screw with people more. There is no way it's a coincidence!

Reposted by Barzin

Grace @gracekind.net · 18/09/2025

I saw this circulating on twitter, I thought it was a joke but it’s real

Reposted by Barzin

mr. TIM @timkellogg.me · 18/09/2025

gpt-5-codex is better, but only if you’re INSANELY specific in your prompts (maybe use gpt-5 to prompt codex??)

Matt Shumer @mattshumer_ •3h
g...
I've been testing the new GPT-5-Codex model pretty heavily.
Here's my current thinking:
Is it better overall than regular GPT-5 high?
Absolutely not.
But if you use it right, it can outperform vanilla
GPT-5 high.
What I mean:
If you write insanely detailed prompts (essentially, full, comprehensive specs/ insanely unambiguous instructions), it's noticeably better.
It can think and work for longer, stay cohesive over more code, etc.
And for really simple queries, yes, it's WAY faster.
But it's MUCH worse at intent understanding, so for anything even somewhat vague, it's much worse than regular GPT-5.
I'll likely be switching back and forth between Codex and regular GPT-5 high for now!

Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 18/09/2025

Building the economy and strengthening the military to contend against various problems is necessary for progressive politics to work.

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Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 18/09/2025

Hey #Canada, anyone who's technically inclined and wants to start up a censorship-proof, fully decentralized social media network by and for Canadians, let me know and let's team up. More information about how it works in the link; setting up a Matrix server and outlining specs is next.

GitHub - BarzinL/North-Social: A decentralized, censorship-resistant social network protocol for Canada. Built on a peer-to-peer network of user-owned home servers, North Social prioritizes data sover...

A decentralized, censorship-resistant social network protocol for Canada. Built on a peer-to-peer network of user-owned home servers, North Social prioritizes data sovereignty, high performance, an...

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Barzin @barzin.sanctus.ca · 18/09/2025

Just your everyday, standard, silver-spoon pedophile behaviour