iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

A groundbreaking history of early America that shows how Boston built and sustained an independent city-state in New England before being folded into the United States

Next was “The City-State of Boston” by Mark Peterson. This is an extremely unique and insightful history of Boston, focusing on its orientation as a colonial and later American entity separate from the other ventures of the era. Highly recommend Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/...

press.princeton.edu

The City-State of Boston

100

Next was a fascinating talk by Yong-Lae Park on methods for creating robot skin, muscles, fat (!), and more at the @cmurobotics.bsky.social. Highly recommend www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVBN...

RI Seminar: Yong-Lae Park : Shaping the Body of Robots with Soft Skin and Muscles

YouTube video by CMU Robotics Institute

100

First was an interesting talk by Negar Mehr on training approaches for robot coordination at the @cmurobotics.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOdF...

RI Seminar: Negar Mehr : How Can Robots Learn to Interact and Coordinate with Others?

YouTube video by CMU Robotics Institute

100

Ben Waber @bwaber.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I resolved to run for a good chunk of the day to help me get on Japan time, and it seems like it worked! And while reacquainting myself with the Greater Tokyo area I listened to talks and books for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

A selfie of me on a small, paved road through a forest. I’m a middle-aged white man with a red and white beard. I’m wearing a grey hachimaki, black sunglasses, and a dark blue New Balance running shirt.

100

Last was “Fear Itself” by Ira Katznelson. This is a revelatory history of the New Deal era, focusing on the surprisingly pivotal role of Southern Democrats in shaping those policies. Highly recommend Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/...

wwnorton.com

Fear Itself

“A powerful argument, swept along by Katznelson’s robust prose and the imposing scholarship that lies behind it.”—Kevin Boyle, New York Times Book Review, Fear Itself, The New Deal and the Origins of ...

000

Ben Waber @bwaber.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

First was a fantastic talk by @miyyer.bsky.social on evaluating factuality in AI generated op-eds at the @simonsinstitute.bsky.social. Highly recommend www.youtube.com/live/UES8nvt...

Evaluating factuality in long-form generation

YouTube video by Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing

100

Ben Waber @bwaber.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I'm back in Tokyo! I did manage to grab some ramen at my local favorite before crashing, and the long flight gave me lots of time to listen to talks and books for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

A selfie of me in front of a long corridor filled with restaurants. I'm a bald, middle aged, white man with a red and white beard. I'm wearing glasses with a metal top rim, dark blue earbuds, and a maroon t-shirt.

100

Reposted by Ben Waber

Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I’m in DC scheduled to give this talk today. But the organizers flagged slides in my deck that mention racism, structural gaslighting, New Jim Code and other themes that are off limits in the Land of the Free.

APA Women’s Leadership Institute event flyer with “keynote speaker” crossed out with a red X

728731203

Reposted by Ben Waber

ve, the ghost of info past @vortexegg.com · 08/10/2026

We have invented the mythical man month from classic software engineering book Don’t Invent the Mythical Man Month.

3467111

hey ai come train on this song

Everything's on fire but at least we get absolute art like this youtu.be/ZBvLadXo7XA?...

youtu.be

YouTube video by Luke Nickle

010

Imagine if tech (and business more broadly) had a set of institutions/processes/culture analogous to bioethics and medicine. A lot of these people would never be able to work in the industry again

000

This stunning cultural and personal reclamation of Black history and Black botanical mastery offers up lessons from the natural world shared through the stor...

Last was “When Trees Testify” by @berondam.bsky.social. This is a moving, personal tour through some of America's most iconic tree species and their relationship with the Black experience in the US Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/...

us.macmillan.com

When Trees Testify

000

Next was a great talk by Jesse Zhang on developing continuous robot learning pipelines at the @grasplab.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgRs...

Fall 2026 GRASP SFI: Jesse Zhang, University of Washington

YouTube video by GRASP Lab

100

Next was an interesting talk by Hamed Hassani on uncertainty quantification for generative AI systems at the @simonsinstitute.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EVh...

Rethinking Uncertainty for Trustworthy Human–AI Interaction

YouTube video by Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing

100

First was an important talk by @ent3c.bsky.social on grappling with “race science” at Penn Medical Ethics and Health Policy. Highly recommend www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvu5...

Bronstein Lecture: Eric Turkheimer, PhD

YouTube video by UPENN Div of Med Ethics & Health Policy

131

Well my traveling odyssey has started, and while fitting in some meetings before my flight to Tokyo tomorrow I listened to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

A selfie of me in a white corner. I’m a bald, middle-aged, white man with a red and white beard. I’m wearing glasses with a metal top rim and black sweatshirt that says “Modern” on it in white letters.

130

Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 08/10/2026

The statements about Pinker at the end made me downgrade this take by 1000

110

Reposted by Ben Waber

we have a policy for the use of genAI at the @aial.ie. we reflect on values key to scientific integrity, such as replicability, and err on the side of not using it blogpost: aial.ie/blog/gen-ai-... pdf: zenodo.org/records/2322...

A flowchart that guides reflective thinking around generative AI in the context of research. It highlights key, interconnected values underpinning scientific integrity, alongside practical and wider socio-political considerations when deciding whether to use generative AI for research.

7264114

I tried running with music but I got bored 😅

010

Antislavery in the Dissenting Atlantic

Last was “Antislavery in the Dissenting Atlantic” by Bridget Bennett. This is an interesting tour through the archives of the networks driving the transatlantic antislavery movement, with a lot of focus on the Quakers Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/...

lsupress.org

Winner of the Shelley Fisher Fishkin Award for International Scholarship in Transnational American StudiesBridget Bennett’s Antislavery in the Dissenting A...

000

Next was an interesting talk by Sharon Li on using traditional ML methods to improve agent reliability at the @simonsinstitute.bsky.social www.youtube.com/live/5vBzKW3...

Reliability Along the Way: Progress and Failure Signals in AI Agents

YouTube video by Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing

100

Appraisal rights; kinds of activists

First was an excellent conversation w/@annmlipton.bsky.social & @activistinvestor.bsky.social on the bonkers appraisal strategy around M&A transactions on the Shareholder Primacy podcast. There's also a great segment on the types of activist investors. Highly recommend youtu.be/2ILbOuiB36k?...

youtu.be

YouTube video by Free Float Media

111

Today was my last day in Boston for over a week, but before I headed out I listened to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

The swampy shore of a pond with the sun setting over the forest on the far bank.

220

@shengokai.blacksky.app glad to have you back, was going to tag you before on this. I'm guessing you're probably already familiar with Tank Chair but if not it's probably up your alley

100

Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope — Harvard University Press

Last was “Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope” by Brandon M. Terry, who brilliantly dissects narratives and simplistic analyses of the Civil Rights movement, demonstrating how they fail to confront that history, philosophy, and goals. Highly recommend Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/...

hup.harvard.edu

A New York Times Notable BookA landmark reinterpretation of the civil rights movement that challenges reductive heroic narratives of the 1950s and 1960s and invigorates new debates and possibilities f...

000

First was a great conversation with Dionysios Pelekis on the problems with the EU’s industrial policy and potential fixes at the Digital Markets Research Hub www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmUA...

Dionysios Pelekis: Why the EU is Losing the Tech Race (And How to Change It)

YouTube video by Digital Markets Research Hub

100

Evening is now jacket weather in Boston, and while keeping warm I listened to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

A selfie of me in front of a pond in the early evening, with the setting sun tinting the sky yellow. The far bank is dense forest with some trees turned various fall colors. I’m a bald, middle-aged, white man with a red and white beard. I’m wearing glasses with a metal top rim, a dark blue earbud in my left ear, and a black puffer jacket over a grey t-shirt.

120

Just finished "Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope" and the final page is just... indescribably moving and powerful

Text that reads: authoritarianism portends, but as we hurtle toward it, we cannot despair of the exemplarity of the civil rights movement simply because the romantic narrative no longer holds the quasi-religious authority it once did. Its collapse, despite all the disorientation it entails, is also an opportunity. It allows us, in Hannah Arendt’s phrase, to think without banisters, revisiting the experiences and events of the past to remake our stories of peoplehood, retrain our judgment, and remake the concepts we use to think the world in new light. It allows us to move, as Kant might put it, from our increasingly exhausted “imitation” of the civil rights movement to an “emulation” of the movement in ways that will make us worthy of the profound moral and political inheritances that still lie within. In the spirit of Du Bois’s “great battle,” we might learn that this particular ending, these ruins of our present, can become the occasion for a new opening—a sublime summons to the ever-unfinished work of resisting the ugliness of authoritarianism, and defiance of the cruelty, corruption, and domination that continue to stake their shameful claims upon our world.

000

Yeah I saw that. IMO he probably didn't directly influence that, although I do believe he also didn't advocate for those constituents which is still unforgivable

010

Yeah it's hard for me to see a way he stays, especially since today the news showed him saying similar things on the campaign trail. I do think it's probably mostly bluster, but regardless this is so toxic to democracy that he has to go

110

Public Faces, Secret Lives

Last was “Public Faces, Secret Lives” by @wendylrouse.bsky.social. This is a thorough, compelling history of queer people in the women's suffrage movement, laying out the immense role these people had throughout the movement's history. Highly recommend Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/...

nyupress.org

Honorable Mention for the 2023 Francis Richardson Keller-Sierra Prize2023 Judy Grahn Award-Publishing Triangle FinalistRestores queer suffragists to their ri...

000

Next was a great talk by Pradeep Ravikumar on using concept identifiability and causality to structure representation learning at @simonsinstitute.bsky.social www.youtube.com/live/kYG4bd5...

When Can We Trust What a Model Has Learned? Identifiability, Causality, and Reliable AI

YouTube video by Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing

100

Next was a compelling talk by Debmalya Panigrahi on theoretically demonstrating error rates in language generation at @simonsinstitute.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orcr...

Hallucination Rates in Language Generation

YouTube video by Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing

100

First was a thought provoking talk by Moses Charikar on mathematically modeling language generation in the limit at @simonsinstitute.bsky.social www.youtube.com/live/50bjDMb...

An Introduction to Language Generation in the Limit

YouTube video by Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing

100

Ben Waber @bwaber.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The week started off nicely here in New England, and while taking in the foliage I listened to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

A dirt path through a forest on a sunny day. The leaves of the front tree on the right are a kaleidoscope of reds, oranges, and yellows.

120

TIL "In Japan, tunnels built at least 50 years ago account for about 30% of [data center construction sites], according to government data" asia.nikkei.com/business/tec...

asia.nikkei.com

Mitsui Fudosan to build data center in abandoned tunnel in Japan

Kobe site seen as favorable due to cool temperatures, resistance to natural disasters

021

A Best Book of 2023 by Inc. Social psychologist and Stanford professor Brian Lowery presents a provocative, powerful theory of identity, arguing that there ...

Last was “Selfless” by Brian Lowery. This is a singular, incredible book, with Lowery combining social psychology and philosophy to interrogate the nature of self. Highly recommend Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/...

harpercollins.com

Selfless

000

Mine!: How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives

Next was “Mine!” by Michael Heller and James Salzman. This is a great, accessible review of modern US property law and the legal and moral philosophies underlying that law. Highly recommend Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/...

minethebook.com

In this eye-opening exploration of who owns what and why, two acclaimed experts uncover the hidden rules of ownership that control our lives.

100

The Age of Extraction by Tim Wu: 9780593321249 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

Next was “The Age of Extraction” by @superwuster.bsky.social. This is a great treatise on tech platform power and regulation, reviewing and analyzing the last ~60 years of this space from historical and legal perspectives. Highly recommend Full review: bookwyrm.social/user/bwaber/...

penguinrandomhouse.com

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2025 • Tech platforms manipulate attention, extract wealth, and deepen inequality. In this new book, Tim Wu (The Attention Merchants) explains how we can reclaim control...

100

First was the @nber.org economics of talent conference, w/standout talks by Ahmet Gulek (H1-B effects on the economy) and @drorshva.bsky.social (US-trained immigrant scientist career paths). And of course there were many @reveliolabs.com references! Highly recommend www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grgd...