iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Luke Sjulson

Manny Ares 👀 @mannyares.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

⚠️ Another problematic NIH policy needs your attention ⚠️ NOT-OD-26-112: grants.nih.gov/grants/guide... Redefines transient expression as "genetic modification". If adopted, mRNA medicines could be forbidden. Comments close October 19! Please go comment on this! osp.od.nih.gov/comment-form...

Screenshot of concerning policy proposal redefining "genetic modification".

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Neuroskeptic @neuroskeptic.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Biological brains "accept higher metabolic cost to gain both robustness and capability" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Brains are expensive but they're good at what they do.

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I have a dumber reason: Trump thinks scientists made him look bad during Covid. I really think that is the primary driver underneath the rest. It’s narcissism all the way down. I agree w what you’re saying but think it applies more to Vought than Trump

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I also don't mean to imply that the current winners don't deserve it. If the prize can only go to three people, and more than three people deserve it, an unfair outcome is inevitable. I would also put Ed Boyden higher on the people-who-were-robbed list than Pan

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Years ago, I wrote a thread back on the old site about this. I'm not saying Pan wasn't robbed, but Gero Miesenboeck was robbed a lot more x.com/lukesjulson/...

x.com

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Tobias Hohl, MD PhD @fungalspore.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

1/ The 2026 @nobelprize.org in Physiology and Medicine announcement honors an exceptional body of work - optogenetics - that has opened the nervous system to functional interrogation. The problem is that the founder of optogenetics, Gero Miesenböck, was not included in this honor.

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I agree it's a travesty Gero wasn't included. Not to take anything away from the winners, who certainly deserved it, but Gero should have been among them

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COSYNE @cosynemeeting.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

If you are eligible to apply, you shouldn't miss it! According to our last cohort, Attending COSYNE was a transforming experience!

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

This article just came out today. It confirms that a blown IV was the problem, and I share the author's opinions about the pseudo-medicalization of lethal injection www.nytimes.com/2026/10/04/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | I Consulted With Christa Pike’s Death Row Team. I Knew This Could Happen. (Gift Article)

Lethal injection failures are not glitches; they are features of the process.

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I found this so funny because the smell of phenol/chloroform brings back such nostalgia for my own good old days

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Also, if someone were using that much, they would go into withdrawal. Generally the place where you see people getting shockingly high doses of benzos or barbiturates is in treatment of benzo/barbiturate/alcohol withdrawal

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

number of reasons, I find the attempted medicalization of it somehow even more offensive

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

most places use KCl for lethal injection is that once it's in, the person cannot be resuscitated. Of course, that also has to be given IV, and some people don't have good veins. A prison presumably doesn't have a vascular access team with an ultrasound machine. I'm opposed to execution for a

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I mean, it's impossible to know for sure, but that seems most likely. People can have huge tolerances for sedative/hypnotics if they're actively using large amounts, but that seems unlikely if she has been in prison for years already. I talked to an anesthesiologist once who told me that the reason

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

As a physician, I can promise you #3 had nothing to do with it. They aren’t attempting to give a carefully calibrated therapeutic dose, it’s a massive overdose. The most likely cause was a bad IV, so only part of the dose made it into the bloodstream

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Manuscript submitted! 🍻🥳🎉

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Lol, I never thought about it that way, that matrix multiplication would be the undoing of humanity

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Maybe she didn’t understand The Matrix either 🤔

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Today I woke up my kids by playing the song “Wake Up,” and I learned my 12yo thought it was Rage Against the Machines with an S, as in she thought it was robots and AI. Weirdly, in today’s society, that actually makes more sense “It’s about the political system? but it’s in The Matrix soundtrack!”

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NE Ohio Regional Sewer District @neorsd.org · 29/09/2026

bold and wildly inexplicable photo choice here

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

This is truly awful. We all need to fight against this

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BWJones @bwjones.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Science peeps: Looks like SciENcv updated the digital certificate used to sign Biosketch and Current & Pending documents without notification. The old certificate expires Saturday, September 26, 2026. SciENcv docs before that date may fail validation in eRA Commons delaying or blocking submission.

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I think there are two separate questions here: 1) what process is the AI model using, and 2) does that qualify as “reasoning?” The first one is a substantive and interesting question worth discussing, and the second one is entirely semantic IMO

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I agree, but I don't think my definition of reasoning includes the second part. The point it comes back to is that it's largely a semantic debate that hides more interesting questions

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

question of whether next-token prediction creates "reasoning" or "understanding," but that's not an accurate description of current AI models

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Note: the reason I'm calling them AI's instead of LLMs is that I think it's an error to equate ChatGPT or Claude with LLMs. They contain internal LLMs trained on next token prediction, but they have additional capabilities gained from subsequent reinforcement learning. A lot of people ask the

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Similarly, do current AI's "reason?" Do they "understand?" Not the same way a human does. But in the same sense that a chess program plays chess, I would argue that they do. It's hard to come up with operational definitions of "reason" or "understand" that a current AI couldn't fulfill.

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

A strong case could be made that they don't actually play chess, certainly not the way a human does. But in a colloquial, common-sense way, most people would say they are playing chess. That's because their actions are analogous to the actions a human would make if a human were playing chess.

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

It's like asking if a chess program plays chess. A game of chess is a human interaction involving competition between two people. Drama, fear, rage, joy, etc. Chess programs just input moves and output other moves.

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

3) Do current AI's reason and understand? They don't reason and understand like a human does, so if you are defining those terms from an anthropocentric perspective, no. However, if you are defining the terms from a more operational perspective, I would argue yes.

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

says. Anyone who disagrees is welcome to provide evidence of the magic brain juice. 2) Do current AI's have consciousness because they produce language output resembling that from a conscious human? No, that is stupid.

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Lots of conversations about whether AI can reason and etc. are frustratingly conflating several separate issues: 🧵 1) Could a future AI reason and have consciousness? Yes, in principle. Brains do not have magic capabilities that machines cannot have. At least, that's what neuroscience

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I have no idea where this is from, but @philoneurosci.bsky.social posted it on our lab slack, and it was so good I had to share it

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

What’s disturbing is that the actual outcome for the US was much worse than what Bin Laden had hoped for

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Reposted by Luke Sjulson

Mazen Kheirbek @mazenkheirbek.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Our new review is out now on the ventral hippocampus, highlighting a large body of recent work, from the information it represents to how internal state shapes its activity to how its circuits influence behavior.

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Newly added, Lecture 13: population coding analyses!

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

With the beginning of the new academic year, I'm reposting the info for our free online neuroscience methods course. If you're starting a PhD in neuroscience, or just want a refresher, this is for you!

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

After an unusually grueling review process, it’s finally out! Elie and Soyoun really did a fantastic job with this one

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Congrats to Renata Batista-Brito, Geoffrey, and Jacob on this monster paper! It’s an amazing piece of work, and I’m thrilled I got the chance to contribute to it

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

this is the kind of design costume designers make to tell you who are the bad guys in a space movie

Donald Trump posts an image on his Truth Social account. It shows a new uniform for US Space Force members, comprising of an all-black outfit with knee-high black leather boots, black cap, and minimalist looking suit.

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

According to the replies, some programs still require accepted papers for a student to graduate. In other words, anonymous reviewers get to decide when PhDs are conferred. I think that is absolutely insane

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Reposted by Luke Sjulson

Gaute Einevoll @gauteeinevoll.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I am very happy that the Theoretical Neuroscience Podcast (theoreticalneuroscience.no) is now featured in TheTransmitter. My goal is that everyone in the field should at least know about the podcast, whether they would like to listen to it or not. And being featured here is a big help. Thanks!

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

This is a fantastic free meeting that I recommend highly for everyone in the NYC area, particularly trainees. Please repost!

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

You should love neuroscience, and I do as well, but never forget that no matter what you do, it will never love you back. It will cast you aside without a second thought. Real relationships with real people are more important

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Tim Verstynen @tdverstynen.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

She’s a professor working in my field. She has no criminal record. Neither does her son. Neither does her husband. Yet they have all been kidnapped and sent to a concentration camp where they’ve languished for months in horrid conditions. Don’t for a second think they’ll stop at immigrants.

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Luke Sjulson @lukesjulson.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

I just showed my 6th grader clips of Clay Davis saying sheeeeeit until she was able to replicate it perfectly. Someday that skill will serve her well

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ghost malone ergo propter bones @proptermalone.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

and GOD IS EMPTY JUST LIKE ME

democrat is socialist and socialist is communist

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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 24/07/2026

Also: We keep hearing that a number of Congressmembers think that everything at NIH has gone back to normal, and the Trump appointees are in fact on the side of saving NIH. That is false. Things at NIH are WORSE than last year. Please reach out to your senators and reps and tell them that.

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