iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 30/09/2026

What makes humans remarkable in the age of AI? @guykawasaki [1] and I dug into it on Remarkable People. Short answer: AI should make us better explorers, not better at outsourcing our thinking. Give it a listen: guykawasaki.com/what-makes-h... [1] Yes! That Guy Kawasaki!

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 14/09/2026

Look who's headlining at Techonomy26! Come hear me say non-insane things about AI that will nonetheless make some people apoplectic. The theme is "Intelligence at Scale". Buy some tickets: worth.com/event/techon...

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 11/09/2026

𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆: Ex Machina is film that most comes to mind as a study of how an artificial system weaponizes human social expectations, gender dynamics, and empathy to bypass security protocols. Does the artificial feme fatale ever “feel” anything the entire time? Can she?

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 25/08/2026

Sep 8 at the super{summit} 2026: Come hear me talk about my new research of hybrid intelligence and innovating innovation (w/ Possibility Sciences). The entire amazing event runs September 8–10 at Convene in downtown San Francisco. Get tickets here: rewirecon.com Come for me; stay for the pie! [1]

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 24/08/2026

Hey #Chicago, come see me on Oct 8!

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 17/08/2026

@forbes.com just named me to their #ForbesOver50 list, in the Innovation category. Keep doing things others are scared to do and you never grow old. [1] This was a genuine surprise, and I’m sincerely delighted. Thanks to Maggie McGrath, @mika-brzezinski.bsky.social and @knowyourvalue.bsky.social.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 14/08/2026

𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆: Intelligence With Nobody Home. Every time I watch an agentic AI churn through a task, I think about the Scramblers, 9-limbed anaerobic things in Peter Watts' “Blindsight”. They out-think humanity at every turn despite nobody doing the thinking.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 03/08/2026

Sam Altman just called cognitive atrophy an underexamined risk of the AI era. My lab has been measuring what protects against it…and it isn't “AI skill”. I talk about teens and atrophy in 2 new interviews.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 31/07/2026

𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆: Does anyone else think the Rick & Morty’s “Mortgully: The Last Rickforest” must have been a response to Adventure Time’s “Food Chain”? It begs the question, who’s worse: Magic Man or a selfish Ent?

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 26/07/2026

I was truly looking forward to speaking at San Diego ComicCon this year as part of a panel of scientist scifi fans. Unfortunately, the initial tentative invitation never turned into the real thing. I hope everyone is having fun (guessing wildly about Doomsday). Next Year!

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 20/07/2026

𝟑 𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝟏 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐲. I covered 3 studies this week. Separately, they're interesting. Together, they're a mugging in slow motion.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 14/07/2026

Signing 𝑹𝒐𝒃𝒐𝒕-𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒇 at MIT (and not looking puffy at all).

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 13/07/2026

Huge news! My working paper behind David Brooks’s Atlantic article and my WSJ & FT op-eds AND the audiobook of 𝑹𝒐𝒃𝒐𝒕-𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒇 dropped this week!

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 10/07/2026

𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆: The Subtle Art of Folding Space isn't hard scifi but it is twisty ideas of comfort food and multiversal physics in superposition. I can understand why it won awards even while confounding many readers. I wouldn’t be in the mood for this every day, but it was tasty and twisty to noodle on.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 03/07/2026

𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆: The Amazing Digital Circus came to me sideways, through an episode of the How Did This Get Made? podcast, with no idea what I was in for.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 02/07/2026

How fancy, schmancy: I'm giving a book talk at the Harvard Club in Manhattan next week (July 8). Join me if you dare!

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 26/06/2026

𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆: Two for the Price of One Good Time. This week's double feature pairs a snarky SecUnit with a squad of unhinged mages.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 22/06/2026

Back in Stockholm for the Future of Talent Summit! 🇸🇪✨

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 19/06/2026

2. Widow’s Bay is fun and creepy enough to satisfy. Matthew Rhys and Stephen Root everything better… even as they fail to make everything better. It’s almost more of an anthology series in some ways. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widow%2...

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 19/06/2026

𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆: I’ve worked my way through a third of my read/watch list from last week. 1. It’s an unneeded recommendation but narky, neurotic Murderbot and his favorite soap operas continue to make me happy. www.audible.com/pd/Platform-...

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 18/06/2026

…𝐨𝐫, 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐫𝐨-𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐇𝐲𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞. Famed economists Autor & Acemoglu argue that we are suffering from a pervasive "pro-automation ideology" and they propose a framework separating technologies that merely replace human labor from those that create new tasks and expand human expertise.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 17/06/2026

𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐈𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐚𝐲 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐈𝐭 [1] Does leaning on AI degrade human reasoning? A randomized trial of law students produced an appropriately messy result.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 15/06/2026

I'm thrilled to share that the Financial Times named 𝑹𝒐𝒃𝒐𝒕-𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒇: 𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑴𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝑯𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝑨𝒍𝒍 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝒏𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒔, 𝑩𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝑩𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑷𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 as one of its Best Books of the Summer. If you too have enjoyed it, please share it with friends! 📚

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 12/06/2026

𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆: I’m still looking for some science fiction and fantasy worth recommending. So, I’ll share my reading and watching list: 1. Children of Strife, Children of Time: Book #4 by Adrian Tchaikovsky (I’m starting with a definite win!)

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 11/06/2026

𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬 & 𝐀𝐜𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 & 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬. Do big companies buy innovative startups to help them grow or to bury them? Try to guess what the new paper “Killer Acquisitions” might reveal…

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 10/06/2026

𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐈𝐭 𝐖𝐞𝐢𝐫𝐝: 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐄𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. Men are more likely to be granted patents than women. As with many gender gaps in the economy, the “why” is often underexplored. What if something as seemingly innocent as bureaucratic design could explain (some of) the gap?

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 05/06/2026

𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆: Unfortunately, I've got nothing to recommend this week. I read two books recently but didn’t connect with either. So instead, I'm going to do the thing every writer eventually does and talk about my own unfinished project [1].

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 04/06/2026

𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭. A recent paper showed that YouTube’s recommendation algorithm had no political bias [1]. Can the same be said for X?

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 03/06/2026

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐓𝐨 𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦. The impacts of technology are rarely uniform. Across AI, social media, or smart phones, different people show differing usage patterns, and so averaging over them reveals very little. Take, for example, students and smartphones.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 01/06/2026

3 months ago, 𝑹𝒐𝒃𝒐𝒕-𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒇: 𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑴𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝑯𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝑨𝒍𝒍 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝒏𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒔, 𝑩𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝑩𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑷𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 hit shelves. I had no idea the conversation it would spark.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 27/05/2026

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐃𝐞𝐞𝐩 & 𝐃𝐲𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐜. They say there are no boring topics, only boring people. Nine pre-registered experiments find engagement is in the conversational dynamics.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 26/05/2026

𝐖𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐤. Want to resolve a conflict? Don’t text—talk.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 24/05/2026

Every Sunday, paid subscribers to my newsletter get the Director’s Cut: the longer, rougher, more experimental version of each chapter of 𝑹𝒐𝒃𝒐𝒕-𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒇: 𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑴𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝑯𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝑨𝒍𝒍 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝒏𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒔, 𝑩𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝑩𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑷𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 22/05/2026

𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆: I was not a fan of The Big Bang Theory (or Frazier) because I never found "smart people are socially inept buffoons" to be a great joke (my own social buffoonery notwithstanding). ...but then I saw the trailer for "Stuart Fails to Save the Universe" and I must know more.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 21/05/2026

𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐦𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐧. Industry wants the AI boom, but few communities want intrusive, costly data centers. A new paper maps every U.S. data center to its county and measures what happens after one shows up. The results are mixed in a way that should reshape how local governments think about these deals.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 20/05/2026

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐕𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞 𝟑.𝟏. I’ve written about how agentic AI is affecting education and employment, but what about one of the biggest drivers of economic growth in the world: entrepreneurship. A new paper analyzed data on the U.S. startup ecosystem before and after ChatGPT.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 19/05/2026

𝟑 𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫. If AI is saving you money on human labor, who’s the canary in the coal mine? The same labor you already used to replace full employees: contract workers. So, let’s peek in on the gig economy…

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 12/05/2026

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐟 . Believing that willpower is a limited resource, depleted by effort, predicts how well you hold up under sustained demand. It turns out these “lay” beliefs about willpower even shape whether people will put in effort in the first place.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 11/05/2026

The deadliest journey in human history wasn't a war. Pre-modern infant mortality: 25%. Pre-modern maternal mortality, lifetime risk: ~10%. US soldier mortality in WWII: 2.5%. Motherhood was 4 times deadlier than combat. Science and modern medicine changed that.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 01/05/2026

𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆: Smiling Friends is definitely not for everyone, but one of its most recent episode had some shockingly insightful things to say about AI…along with the regular grabbag of bizarre body horror and unmappable humor. www.imdb.com/title/tt3727...

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 27/04/2026

My WSJ article reveals that 5% flourish with AI and the rest are eroded. Some felt that my 5-10% "Cyborg" figure describes a sorting mechanism that benefits a small elite.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 24/04/2026

My latest op-ed, this time with @wsj.com www.wsj.com/tech/ai/is-a...

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 17/04/2026

𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆: I want to double down on 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑾𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑷𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒂𝒈𝒆. Read it! Also, what is going on in 𝑺𝒑𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓-𝑵𝒐𝒊𝒓. I need to know.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 15/04/2026

𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐎𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧. Compare the brains of expert birders with matched novices using diffusion-weighted MRI (as one does) and you notice a profound difference.

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 14/04/2026

The FT's review of my book is trending on their site right now. The WSJ is does an interactive feature this weekend. I wish my publisher hadn't made we take out all of the weird stuff. But whether the reviews are good or bad, I'm still proud of my book (and its residual weirdness).

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 10/04/2026

Hey #NYC, come hear me read 𝑹𝒐𝒃𝒐𝒕-𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒇 in person at ptknitwear.com/events/50196

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 30/03/2026

The 3 papers I covered this week converged on something I find genuinely hopeful (after last week's cognitive enrichment issue, I needed).

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Vivienne Ming @socos.org · 23/03/2026

It's looking like that #London AMA will be happening...in one form or another, Friday evening or Saturday. We're still working on the venue. (Anyone want to cover a fancy room someone like the National Gallery?)

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