iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

This new SLAM 3D reconstruction model (LingBot-Map) looks pretty amazing: github.com/Robbyant/lin...

Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 07/10/2026

One of the annoying things about AI is the way it uses the word "honest" almost exclusively in the context of begrudging admissions of failure. AI text is becoming so common that it starts to twist the connotations of the word itself. Honesty used to be a virtue!

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 04/10/2026

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy basically describes Wikipedia running on a smartphone. At the time both elements were completely fantastical, but today's new readers surely find the "book" itself completely unremarkable?

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Zilong Ji @zilong-ji.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Excited that our paper, “The limbic navigation system as a hierarchical RNN”, has been accepted at #NeurIPS! Joint work with two talented students, Huiwen Zhang, Krishna Gorantla, and @neilburgess10.bsky.social. We use a multi-module RNN to explore how the brain’s navigation circuits works.

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Ben Fulcher @bendfulcher.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Today I'm releasing the "1000×1000 collection": a unified place to learn about dynamical structure. 1000 simulated time series (1000 samples each) spanning 133 dynamical processes. Have a play? 🐛 #timeseries #dynamicalsystems #complexity #opendata dynamicsandneuralsystems.github.io/1000x1000/

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 16/09/2026

Eventually, but that's another X hundred dollars and a whole nother approval process too. On top of the Macbook and apple developer programme. They don't make it easy!

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 16/09/2026

Adding MacOS support to my reverb plugin. Exciting, expensive and daunting. On the plus side I got a beautiful new MacBook by far the best computer, I've ever had, the smallest and the most powerful, I think. There is a downside, too.

Prototype version of THeVerb (multi-instance spatial convolutional reverb plugin) running in Logic Pro on a Mac.

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 11/09/2026

I'm excited to share this preprint by my wonderful MSc student Yihsin who's thought deeply about how psychological & neurocognitive theories relate to different types of evidence. Beyond Empirical Success: Evaluating Theoretical Virtue Across the Computational Modeling Chain doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

Beyond Empirical Success: Evaluating Theoretical Virtue Across the Computational Modeling Chain
Authors/Creators

Chuang, Yihsin
ORCID icon
Guest, Olivia1
ORCID icon

Description

Computational models in psychology are typically judged by a single standard: empirical fit. Unfortunately, fit is insufficient, even misleading as a sole criterion, as the same result can arise from fundamentally different situations: theoretically faithful models, mathematically flexible ones, miscalibrated operationalizations, or implementations that compute something other than intended. Distinguishing between these is vital. Our evaluative metatheoretical account recognises that models stand in three distinct relations: a) toward the theory whose causal commitments it purports to capture, b) toward the specification and implementation it purports to compute, and c) toward the phenomenon it purports to explain. Each relation can succeed or fail independently, governed by criteria local to that stage. Importantly, relations are ordered such that theoretical content is transmitted or lost, and losses at earlier transitions are irrecoverable downstream. What a model's empirical success implicates about its theoretical commitments, therefore, depends on whether transitions are secured. Some success or failure profiles support explanatory claims; others only prediction; others establish theoretical coherence without empirical contact. Our account diagnoses what a given model shows, replacing the implicit assumption that empirical success transfers automatically to theoretical understanding with an explicit conditional rendition of what models can and cannot establish.

a figure that looks like a cloud that stays "cognitive capacity" with an arrow pointing to a lozenge with "theory" which points to a lozenge with "specification" which points to the same with "data" which is pointed to by a cloud that says "phenomenon"

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Saurabh @saurabhr.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

There are 17 different methods to measure whether confidence tracks accuracy, and these do not include Bayesian or Information Theory based measurements. We present MetaSignal with @makwana.bsky.social @lazyneuron.bsky.social and @brianodegaard.bsky.social to have common platform to access them.

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Tom Stafford @tomstafford.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 13/09/2026

👀 JOB: Chair in Psychology @ University of Liverpool www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSU859/chair-in-… Deadline: 30th Sept, full time, permanent "We are particularly seeking an individual with research expertise in neuroscience"

jobs.ac.uk

Chair in Psychology - Grade 10 at University of Liverpool

Discover Chair in Psychology - Grade 10 jobs and more in higher education on jobs.ac.uk. Apply for further details on the top job board.

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mahwishkittur.bsky.social @mahwishkittur.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

After years of analyzing thousands of drawings from hundreds of adults and children, I am excited to share my first ever paper (w/ @samiyousif.bsky.social )! Using a simple drawing task, we show how topological structure is represented in the mind and its importance in spatial memory.

elifesciences.org

Topological structure in human spatial representation revealed through drawing

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Saloni @scientificdiscovery.dev · 05/09/2026

This is interesting. You get assigned to being born at a random place and time in history, to see what a typical person's life might have been like then. Unfortunately I was born in 1403 in the valley of Mexico and died at age 4 from dysentery.

anyhumanever.com

Any Human Ever

One life, drawn at random from all who have ever lived.

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Michel Nivard @michelnivard.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

🚨& 🧵 Our new Nature paper is out! Across 46 cohorts and up to 1.14M people per Big Five trait, we do GWAS and ask how robust, generalizable and consequential the genetic signals underlying personality really are. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

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Caswell Barry @caswell.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Very excited to see this out — real teamwork, led by @laurenb29.bsky.social & Will de Cothi with @lgiocomo.bsky.social, @colinlever.bsky.social, Laurenz Muessig, Fábio Rodrigues, Francesca Cacucci, Tom Wills, Yanjun Sun & Steven Poulter. In Nature Comms: www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-76686-y

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 31/08/2026

Released my first audio plugin today. You can find out more, download a free trial at hartleydsp.com. Listen to the demo video with headphones for the full spatial effect. youtu.be/E5h1YP1ETZg?...

youtu.be

THeVerb 1.0 | Spatial Convolutional Reverb | VST3 Plugin | Windows

YouTube video by Tom Hartley

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 31/08/2026

Released my first audio plugin today. You can find out more, download a free trial at hartleydsp.com. Listen to the demo video with headphones for the full spatial effect. youtu.be/E5h1YP1ETZg?...

youtu.be

THeVerb 1.0 | Spatial Convolutional Reverb | VST3 Plugin | Windows

YouTube video by Tom Hartley

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 24/08/2026

This is a great song by a great artist @katherinepriddy.bsky.social who I saw at The Magpies Festival last week. She sang this song unaccompanied like this at the Songwriter's Circle. Well done @rachelphysics.bsky.social for finding the video. youtu.be/ltOVVU0hUnQ?...

youtu.be

Katherine Priddy - Matches | McClaren Guitars Workshop Sessions

YouTube video by Sam McClaren Guitars

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 24/08/2026

youtu.be

Katherine Priddy - Matches | McClaren Guitars Workshop Sessions

YouTube video by Sam McClaren Guitars

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 20/08/2026

So inventive. And the acting, the dialogue, the smallest background parts to the leads, was phenomenal.

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 20/08/2026

Also amazing writing, direction and cinematography. Amazed it didn't get an oscar but then I haven't seen One Battle After Another or Sinners yet. Of I remember rightly, TC was in the doghouse because of his comments on ballet or something. But yes, fantastic performance and a great choice to do it.

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 20/08/2026

Marty Supreme, which I just watched having heard very little about it, was *way* better than I expected. Ridiculously good.

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Ida Momennejad @neuroai.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

📣Algorithmic Grammar of Flexible Cognition: A Walk through Latent Operations osf.io/preprints/ps... Flexible behavior moves adaptively btwn cognitive modes. But units of analysis remain representations & few operations. Proposal: formalize open-ended cognition as walk over latent operations 1/n

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Andrew MacKellar @hansoliton.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I have ADHD. I'm also a physicist. I got the ADHD diagnosis about a year and a half ago, after really struggling with work for a few years. I didn't know about it when I was in school, or when I started a physics undergrad as a mature student, or through my PhD. I have thoughts:

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 18/08/2026

... These underpowered studies are destined for the file drawer, where I would argue they do little harm, and potentially save the cost of large N pre-registered studies with often predictable results. Great for hypothesis testing when you already have one, of course.

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 18/08/2026

... But the prize is greatly increases sensitivity to "serendipitous" discovery. In fact it's not merely serendipitous when you deliberately foster the circumstances to make new unanticipated observations. You "make your own luck"...

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 18/08/2026

Another way to do this, is to do multiple low N pilot experiments with no intention to publish. Each yields very low confidence and great care is needed to ensure justified confidence accumulates rather than being diluted...

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 18/08/2026

This is right IMO. The reason why we see increased diagnosis is because society (capitalism) is increasingly reliant on conformity, narrowing the range of what counts as "normal" - if you are sufficiently different, you are disabled. @drrobertchapman.bsky.social has written a book about it.

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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 18/08/2026

really does feel, as an ideology, like to them there is A Norm, and you can either obey The Norm and be exactly like everyone else, or you can be A Freak and not be meaningfully welcome in society, and everyone should be trying their hardest to fit The Norm a sad view of the world!

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Julia Schaefer @julia-sc.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Episodic memory forms through action: gaze shifts sequentially sample experience as it unfolds 👀🏞️ 🧠 But actions may also help organize how the brain reactivates episodic memories! 👀🧠💭 🏞️ Check out our new preprint 👇 doi.org/10.64898/202... 🎉 @tobiasstaudigl.bsky.social & Aditya Chowdhury 👇🧵

doi.org

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 17/08/2026

I think my answer was the only one you didn't mention! I do have some thoughts but I know you already get a lot of JAQ type responses, so perhaps it's best to just absorb.

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 12/08/2026

I think the key thing is to keep an eye on the shadow. If you are in the path of totality it races towards you. That's when you know it isn't just a circle covering up another similarly sized circle. It gives you an instinctive appreciation of the scale of the whole earth-moon-sun system.

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 12/08/2026

Ever seen a total eclipse, though? I found it pretty amazing.

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Matt Kirkcaldie @matttkk.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

This piece interviewing @masudhusain.bsky.social is a wonderful antidote and frustration cleanser m.youtube.com/watch?v=HZRG...

m.youtube.com

Myths v Science: What Does Dopamine Actually Do? | What’s Up Docs

YouTube video by BBC Sounds

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 05/08/2026

BTW, I realize you are an expert on this type of thing, and I am not, I am just trying to explain my limited understanding, since you seemed interested. Probably I do misunderstand and quite likely I am making implicit mistakes.

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 05/08/2026

Even though f is intractable, the organism can through a sequence of refinements (f', f''...) arrives at the observed capacity regardless of the theory. And the observed capacity and observed functions are the things we try to explain (e.g., as heuristics/approximations), perhaps inadequately.

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 05/08/2026

... but that argument can't invalidate the observation of f'. If a competing organism realizes f'' that is more adaptive than f', it is sufficient (and it may or may not be a better approximation of f - shedding light on whether the theory is right or wrong).

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 05/08/2026

I guess I am thinking aobut situations where you have an observable function (call it f'). If I understand your argument correctly, since it is observed/realized, it must be tractable? A theorist might argue that f' is an approximation of an intractable function f...

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 05/08/2026

In other words intractable problems exist in nature but this is evidently not an absolute barrier to evolving or learning a functional capacity (accepting that this does not require perfect performance on a given externally defined function).

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 05/08/2026

... But I think organisms do evolve such that they "solve" intractable "challenges" approximately.

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 05/08/2026

OK. Well I think I would probably have to read this (and everything else you and colleagues have written around the topic) to argue. But I am not even sure we disagree, anyway. I think scientists do have explanatory problems!

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 05/08/2026

Right. So f in my response would be one of these, noting the caveat that in each case f is being delimited by a external theorist who is not part of the system. This is artificial. In reality a change to morphology or metabolism can interact with a computation underlying behaviour, for example.

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 05/08/2026

It's a good question. Where does f come from in these arguments - if applied to some biological system (such as cognition, "intelligence", adaptive behaviour, but equally metabolism, morphology etc)? I think it's something we (who want to explain) impose on a system we are trying to analyze.

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Tom Hartley @tomhartley.me.uk · 04/08/2026

Maybe I am missing the point but in biology I think it would mean able to confer a selective advantage versus the current best solution. So a very lax criterion. And I don't think structure would be important, it would be all about value, if I have understood.

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