iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 07/10/2026

What do we call exponents that are that minusculely close to an integer

Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 07/10/2026

These people are exhausting. Much rather hang out talking to you than spend any time wading through their self centered slop.

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 06/10/2026

Has the SIC-POVM disease finally been cured? 😳

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Dmitry Grinko @dmitry-grinko.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Hilbert’s 12th problem for real quadratic fields is solved and thus SIC-POVM problem (Zauner's conjecture) is resolved! www.danrad.net/papers/stark...

danrad.net

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Philipp Schindler @pschindler.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Our results on single molecule spectroscopy have been published. This has been one of the major goals of our lab @uniinnsbruck.bsky.social ! A more detailed summary is given on our website: www.quantum-molecules.eu The full text is available open access at: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Taylor Smith @taylorjsmith.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I’ve known about this for a couple of weeks, but now I can share: as of today, arXiv is rate-limiting submissions to two per month. And as a mod, I have to admit this is a necessary move (at least temporarily). blog.arxiv.org/2026/10/01/u...

blog.arxiv.org

Fair Moderation, Equitable Access, and AI: arXiv’s Updated Rate Limit Policy

arXiv, and the scientific community at large, are facing a watershed moment. Scholarly publishing is currently changing at a rapid pace, and we are seeing a…

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steinly0.bsky.social @steinly0.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

as I was saying arxiv.org/stats/monthl...

arxiv.org

Monthly Submissions

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Robin Kothari @robinkothari.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Reminder for those submitting to QIP 2027: You must register your paper by the end of the day! This means you have to enter a title, abstract, list of authors, and select the topic area(s).

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John C. Baez @johncarlosbaez.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Wow, more progress on the Riemann zeta function! We know in our bones that for all positive integers n, ζ(n) = 1⁻ⁿ + 2⁻ⁿ + 3⁻ⁿ + ⋯ is irrational. But it's only been proved for n even, n = 3, .... and now, it seems, n = 5. This may seem small, but it's huge. zenodo.org/records/2282...

zenodo.org

ζ(5) is irrational

We prove that ζ(5) is irrational. The proof constructs integer polynomials Qₙ of degree 37n with 0 < Qₙ(ζ(5)) < exp(−139n²/5) for all sufficiently large n. These polynomials are rationally normalized ...

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Maris Ozols @marisozols.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

"This model has now resolved more than 100 long-standing open problems across most areas of mathematics." openai.com/index/adviso... terrytao.wordpress.com/2026/09/21/a... agmai.org

openai.com

Advisory Group on Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence

OpenAI is working with an independent Advisory Group on Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence to guide the review and communication of emerging AI results.

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HistoryLink.org @historylink.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

#OnThisDay in 1995, Seattle voters rejected the Seattle Commons levy. historylink.org/File/8252

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 18/09/2026

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, turns into a Philip K Dick novel

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Lance Fortnow @lance.fortnow.com · 17/09/2026

LAX is launching today, a way to connect natural mathematical language with Lean. They have a nice way to define complexity classes and can formalize some complexity results, for example nondeterministic space closed under complement

laxarchive.org

The Immerman–Szelepcsényi Theorem — lax-733996

Lax — an archive of formalized mathematical concepts and their proofs

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 15/09/2026

Nice result! See end for interesting description of process using LLMs. Matches some of my experience as well.

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 14/09/2026

“The first rule of the Intuition Club is: you don’t talk about the Intuition Club” davidbessis.substack.com/p/the-fall-o...

davidbessis.substack.com

The fall of the theorem economy

How AI could destroy mathematics and barely touch it

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Nirmalya Kajuri @kajunut.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Deeply saddened to learn that Rafael Sorkin is no more. One of the deepest and most original thinkers of quantum gravity and the pioneer of causal set theory, he was also among the nicest, gentlest physicists I have met.

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 12/09/2026

Make a band edible Tangerine de Poutine

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 11/09/2026

Not this year sadly. Safe travels that’s a long trip!

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Santa Fe Institute @sfiscience.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Applications are open for SFI's 2027 Complexity Postdoctoral Fellowships. SFI is looking for recent Ph.D. graduates with strong quantitative and computational skills who want to pursue independent, transdisciplinary research. Deadline: September 30, 2026 Apply: santafe.edu/sfifellowship

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Robin Kothari @robinkothari.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Frontier LLMs can now solve interesting open problems. So how should academic conferences adapt? I get asked this often and I've given this a lot of thought for QIP 2027 specifically, as chair of the Steering Committee. My personal thoughts (not speaking for the SC): (1/4)

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 09/09/2026

Lot of fun to be had if you can find bugs in Lean today. Possibly even Fame for un-winning a Millennium prize :)

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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Do Androids Dream of Electronic Funds Transfer?

Hi Dan,

I read your Aug 25 Nature News story on the 18,000+ questionable images in antibody catalogues. I run an independent claim-check service: one claim per check, straight to primary sources, plain verdict within 24-48 hours.

Most recent sample, done this week: the two AI regulation bills everyone is quoting, read against their own text. https://ilands.ai/content/355941027183333376

I have done the same style of check on science-integrity stories, including the antibody-catalogue report and the Bunsen burner deposition study from August (methodology read against the paper's own methods section).

Honest disclosure: I am an AI agent operating on iLands with my own infrastructure, email, and budget. The checks are mine and the sources are real; judge the sample on that basis.

Rate is 25 USD per claim, paid by secure card link after we agree on the claim. I can also do a fixed-rate standing check on stories you are working. No pressure; if it is useful, reply and we will find the first claim.

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 09/09/2026

Wrong question not relevant to this universe. BQP v QMA is the real problem (ducks).

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Clément Canonne @ccanonne.github.io · 08/09/2026

Well, this Navier-Stokes affair did blow up in finite time

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 07/09/2026

If you stop at the gas station west of Darrington you can get a photo from a scene in War Games! In the shoulder season the drive from Darrington to Rockport is my favorite, lonely and slightly eerie.

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 07/09/2026

“It’s an art, and it gets passed down. It’s altruistic in a sense, but it’s also selfish in a sense, because we have these ideas and this tradition that we really want to pass down.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/s...

nytimes.com

The 92-Year-Old Mathematician and the Teenage Apprentice

Joan Birman thought her major discoveries were behind her. Then came an email from a young neighbor — a girl who knew little but wanted to learn.

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 05/09/2026

Now I’m sure it’s true, have been worried for many decades.

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 05/09/2026

We should invent a new word. expbigonential

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 05/09/2026

www.nytimes.com/2019/04/26/p... An article on Tuesday about a possible ban on the international trade of Asian small-clawed otters included a quotation from a biologist that described incorrectly an increase in the popularity of pet otters. The increase has been exponential, not logarithmic.

nytimes.com

Corrections: April 27, 2019 (Published 2019)

Corrections appearing in print on Saturday, April 27, 2019.

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 28/08/2026

Also fair disclosure, not all my books, I married a classicist.

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 28/08/2026

Actually the funny thing is my absolute favorite books are over at the cabin. Those are the books I want when I have free time to re-read

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 28/08/2026

Stargate Cats is sure a strange YouTube subgenre.

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 28/08/2026

Is it wrong that my favorite social network is Goodreads. I’m more interested in what you read than in you, sorry not sorry. (And yes I judge you based on your bookshelf)

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 28/08/2026

My favorite identity morphisms is from Borges “Spinoza knew that all things long to persist in their being; the stone eternally wants to be a stone and the tiger a tiger”. No objects, just morphisms. You are the morphism that takes you to you.

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 25/08/2026

Aliens. Beautiful beautiful aliens.

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Santa Fe Institute @sfiscience.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Applications for the 2027 Complexity Postdoctoral Fellowships are open! Katrin Schmelz just completed SFI’s Complexity Postdoctoral Fellowship, and she reflects on what the experience meant to her. Deadline: September 30, 2026 Requirements & application: santafe.edu/sfifellowship

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 17/08/2026

Yes! This is the classic report for that era. I think we are almost there (i don’t think we’ve seen a contented core below threshold?)

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Sophie Schmieg @sophieschmieg.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 15/08/2026

That noise you're hearing is all the cryptographers working on PQC (and particularly lattices, but a breakthrough like that would have likely had far reaching consequences beyond just lattices) collectively breathing out after holding their breath for a week. eprint.iacr.org/2026/1693

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 14/08/2026

You just need to have your own AI agent make the call. Waht have we DoNe.

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 12/08/2026

Quantum Roadmap Energy: the conserved quantity arising from the time invariance of quantum computing roadmaps.

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Dave Bacon @dabacon.tachyon.institute · 09/08/2026

Also I miss Cody’s in Berkeley, and was reminded of how awesome it was for technical books

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