Sign in

Babak Farhang

@gnahraf.bsky.social
160 followers 155 following 486 posts

applied & engineering physics guy (Cornell) turned programmer Building something new. Here's the first part.. crums.io Working deck.. docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xDi… Aurora, CO

PostsRepliesMedia
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
@bsky.app historical art on wikipedia is NOT adult content. The labeling engine routinely mislabels wikipedia_dot_org content "adult". Never encountered a case where it can be genuinely argued it could be. Add a rule, whitelist the site pls: many false positves outweigh any potential false negative
100
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Should LLM's be viewed as prompt-decompression machines? The point of this viewpoint would be to develop a yardstick by which to measure a product's "originality", (the human hand) in a possibly agent-involved production. Something like a fuzzy attempt at reverse-engineering the input prompts.
100
Reposted by Babak Farhang
John Timmer @jtimmer.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Ok, this "there are two separate brains" thing appears to be making the rounds, and I want to be absolutely clear: this is a press office overhyping some perfectly reasonable science that won't come as a surprise to most developmental biologists.
32755238
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Superb high level walk-thru of what LLMs do: the surprise they do so well, but also their inability to handle surprises. I'd call the ability to handle surprises, "real-time learning". AI agents (LLMs harnessed to external programs) can't.. bsky.app/profile/gnah... Cory explains it way better 👇
001
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
LLMs generate Math proofs much the same way that they generate software. To succeed at either task, they rely on external tools for a host of sub-tasks, even basic arithmetic, and ultimately a compiler to check their work. They typically get plenty wrong at each try, but eventually get it right.
200
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Doodled this self portrait using "Keep". My profile pic, I did years ago in a .bmp file using Paint Brush 🙃
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Re AI and the regulatory capture angle.. A lot of people this side of the pond seem not to have gotten the memo: The US has lost international standing. We can regulate the fuck we want.. the world has moved on. To wit, Microsoft Office, EU, Canada, saga of an ICC judge losing access, on and on.
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Trump: The Sea of Tranquility (what a low testosterone name) shall henceforth be called the Sea of America. We planted a flag there, remember.
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
To be clear, Social Security is not a tax; it's a benefit you pay into until you retire. For years, the federal government counted & used social security surpluses to offset deficits. Now that that surplus is gone (for purely demographic reasons), they want you to forget it always was *your money.
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Cloud services, generally. Digital sovereignty is now also a serious biz risk. "Canadian Cloud" (AWS style) could do well I think. Geographic proximity suits CCs well for serving US markets. If combined with a sensible legal regime (not subservient to a capricious US) a serious competitive advantage
000
Reposted by Babak Farhang
Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
The only meeting Hakeem Jeffries should be having with Jared Kushner is to tell him he’ll be subpoenaed by the House for a corruption investigation on day one of Democratic control of the House. This is just pathetic stuff from the House Dem leader. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/23/u...
nytimes.com
Jeffries and Kushner Meet Privately as Midterm Attacks Fly
President Trump’s son-in-law and the man in line to be speaker of a Democratic-led House discussed how Democrats and the administration could work together.
42445791161
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
A note to our meek news editors: Stop it with *potential conflict of interest. It's just plain "conflict of interest". It already contains potentiality (potential corruption). Don't be a redundant suckup.
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Minefield? I've never heard of criming (bribes, extortion, and shakedowns) called this way. Do they mean a legal minefield? from the criminal trespasser's point of view?
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Power was out in neighborhood since early afternoon. It took over 9 hours to restore, and I don't dare open the fridge. www.outagemap-xcelenergy.com/outagemap/?s... No. of affected customers hugely under counted. Local media, please report on our incompetent utility company. Ridiculous. #xcel
outagemap-xcelenergy.com
Xcel - Outage Map
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Quera claims (per article) it can build 256 logical (error-corrected) qubits from 10,000 noisy ones, then goes on to say it will build a 1000 from 20,000. So error correction scales linearly (4x)? That's a bigger story (stretches credulity) arstechnica.com/science/2026... cc @jtimmer.bsky.social
arstechnica.com
Quantum computing startup says it will leapfrog everybody
But the system would require a massive leap from any of its existing hardware.
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
What a great project! I've had this crazy idea about animating how my cryptographic hash proofs work (eg crums.io/api/state ). I coded my scheme in java.. JMathAnim will fit my existing data structures. Should work great for static explanatory vids. If it had a JavaScript conversion lib, otoh 1/2
crums.io
110
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
The 1955 Treaty of Amity between Iran and the US, why it still matters.. www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpre...
lowyinstitute.org
The most-pressing world events explained by Lowy Institute experts and global contributors, in your inbox, every Wednesday.
010
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
A government by corporations for corporations. Everywhere, from municipal services, local gov't, to state and federal.. Wherever we contract out basic services to monopolized, for-profit, private companies, citizens lose autonomy and become their bitches. 1/2
100
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Keep leveling these thru November. It's perhaps the one issue most voters agree on. It can gather wind.. winds of change be a howling
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
I painted this oil the right side up, but I like it better upsidedown
Oil painting: upsidedown male torso, neck and armpits. Earth colors overlayed with shades of primary colors, mostly blue, some yellow.
100
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
To all would be investors, xAI, $SPCX bag holders.. Agents are quickly becoming commoditized; the only moat that could possibly justify valuations is Liability/Trust. Trust your IP will not be stolen, liability coverage in case you're the one stealing. I.e. Fiction. venturebeat.com/technology/x...
venturebeat.com
Xiaomi's new open source, agentic AI coding harness MiMo Code beats Claude Code at ultra-long, 200+ step tasks
The persistent memory system addresses a real and widely felt pain point in agentic development workflows — one that competitors are also racing to solve.
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
More and more interested in agentic coding that _reduces_ code. A good part of software maintenance involves deduplication, reorganizing, throwing away code. I pair-program (w/ claude) to help with such "reduction" tasks. But it feels less like coding.. more like being in a meeting all day, IIBH
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
A new foundational method for zero-knowledge proofs. I have read (elsewhere) current non-interactive zk proofs are provably flawed: this method seems to shows a path forward. Really well written article 👇
020
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Harley does not want her claws manicured
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
The AI summary of AI-generated content closes the enshittification loop. It's the snake eating its tail, only here, the tail is shitting
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
"CNBC spoke with 19 executives and investors at HumanX, some of whom asked not to be named in order to speak freely." Why on earth would peeps speak freely only if anonymous? Me thinks it's cuz Sam Altman's investors, having gone all in and bet the house on the wrong horse, are now his henchmen.
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
@zhitzig.bsky.social re how to deal w/ AI, I think knowing who (or what) created a piece of content (and when) can help. I've been working on a commitment scheme (and easy-to-use software SDK) for journals and ledgers. Can double as an attribution engine. More info linked from my profile.
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
"Technology executives will assume direct criminal liability.. The era of hiding behind servers is over." Fuck yea 👍
010
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
Great piece about the return of Big Oil to Washington. And an amusing behind-the-scenes thread about investigating the story
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Artificial Stupidity We named it wrong and early. You see, inanimate things cannot do stupid. It takes work (energy) to achieve the flip side of intelligence.
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
.@schumer.senate.gov the only good you accomplished this week was ending your political career. Your defining moment is already a historical footnote. Pathetic
010
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
Totally normal, well adjusted, human being in the foreground, just a little mad (a lot) at the fellow on the floor for interrupting his presentation.
000
Reposted by Babak Farhang
Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 04/10/2025
This morning, the Trump Administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will. It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.
1410237097305
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
Great new promo for Disney after the 20s mark 🤣
010
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
To all feckless employers for whom it concerns: Charlie Kirk was a bigot. ~ Also, forget the blacklist.. make a whitelist
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
If language itself is a live creature that we collectively host (many hypothesize it is), then LLMs are *foreign hosts, viruses, and it shouldn't surprise if it were to deploy antibodies to kill them.
000
Reposted by Babak Farhang
Steven Strogatz @stevenstrogatz.com · 30/06/2025
My latest for @nytimes.com -- please repost so your followers can see this for free. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
How a Puzzle About Fractions Got Brain Scans Rolling (Gift Article)
A story of bowling pins, patterns and medical miracles.
27251
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
The Age of Reason Strikes Back Meanwhile peoples across the galaxy were beginning to send mathematicians as their representatives. It began with a widely followed representative of the supreme being, then the Romanians ..
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
Fun discussion about Pope Leo XIV being a mathematician. www.reddit.com/r/math/s/F8y... References to The Book (Paul Erdos) and this one tidbit.. Greg Cantor apparently corresponded with Pope Leo XIII about his belief in the Absolute Infinite, something bigger than all cardinalities (?)
reddit.com
From the math community on Reddit
Explore this post and more from the math community
010
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
Unlike with ordinary assets, the OCC has no real power over #blockchain (nor does any other entity or gov't body). It can regulate all it wants, but the transactions it deems illegal can never be undone. "Regulating" this offers little but expose the US financial system to new forms of credit risk.
020
Reposted by Babak Farhang
Jamie Gangel @jamiegangel.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
NY Times Editorial Board: “The first 100 days of President Trump’s second term have done more damage to American democracy than anything else since the demise of Reconstruction. Mr. Trump is attempting to create a presidency unconstrained by Congress or the courts…” www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Fight Like Our Democracy Depends on It (Gift Article)
The patriotic response to today’s threat to American democracy is to oppose Trump soberly and strategically.
591162396
Reposted by Babak Farhang
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
I have followed you and learnt from your insights on the state of Big Science since your early blogging days. But your recent forays into political commentary, both-siding fascists, are quite disgusting. You should know better: science w/o civilization is worth nothing. Goodbye. Unfollowing.
132
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
half of us voted for this maligned moron. twice. but the great dictator cannot be wrong. not even once. so either he stays or the republic. he will not have both
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Can't buy me love, love, love.. 🎵
020
Reposted by Babak Farhang
Joshua Bloch @joshbloch.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Maybe fuck right the hell off? Your social media platform sucks (and it used to be good), your cars suck (they fall to pieces as you drive them, and calling them full-self-driving doesn't make them so), your satellites pollute the sky, and your rockets blow up. Stop whining.
2134
Reposted by Babak Farhang
Dare Obasanjo @carnage4life.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
I feel the exact same way about a person deriving joy from firing government workers and defunding programs helping the world’s poorest.
527244
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
Also check out the quote tweets.. looks like the [if Chuck Schumer replaced..] meme is just getting started 🤣🤣🤣
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
On psycopaths and psycopathy.. Where and when is its archetype first identified in fiction? I'm guessing recognition of their malevolent, deceitful character is relatively recent (e.g. Gas Light, the 1938 play, then movie). Many a classical hero would today be called a troubled, unparented dipshit.
000
Babak Farhang @gnahraf.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
Reading this ars article on AI tarpits arstechnica.com/tech-policy/... reminds me of a simpler solution.. The basic idea is to rate-limit (when needed) by requiring the client to solve a proof-of-work puzzle and encode it in the request URI like say my_article.html?PoW=.. #robots.txt 1/
arstechnica.com
AI haters build tarpits to trap and trick AI scrapers that ignore robots.txt
Attackers explain how an anti-spam defense became an AI weapon.
110