Jonathan Heppner

Why does Science need Philosophy and Metaphysics? In the first episode of our new podcast, @HamdinSula and I explore this question together with our guest—Father Francis Tiso. open.spotify.com/episode/0pH9Sw…

@JanineLeger That's why the masters are trying to make the teachings as simple as possible.

If enlightenment were an easier state of mind to achieve, I'd bet many more people would be spending considerable time prioritizing it.

Best example for why ups and downs are important in life

For the man who keeps his eye on a true friend, keeps it, so to speak, on model of himself. For this reason friends are together when they are separated. -Cicero

There's an old joke in systems biology called "How Biologists Fix a Radio." A biologist, tasked with figuring out why a radio doesn't work, removes components one by one and catalogs the result. Remove this transistor: the radio makes a horrible screeching sound. Conclusion: this is the "horrible screeching transistor." Remove another component: the radio goes silent. Conclusion: this is the "silence transistor." This is essentially what we do with genomics. We see which genes are mutated in cancer and assume they must be "cancer genes." We see which genes are differentially expressed and assume they must be "important." But correlation is not causation, and a parts list is not a circuit diagram. You can have a complete inventory of every resistor, capacitor, and transistor in a radio and still have no idea how it plays music.

@demishassabis @elonmusk So are you an idealist ? Which philosophers have influenced you to take this position? Berkley, Hume?

@elonmusk Actually it can all be thought of as information.

Matter, Energy & Intelligence

Socrates, please debate these men. Socrates, please.

Psychedelics only make unconscious thoughts and emotions conscious. @C_Angermayer is hitting the nail on the head here: “psychedelics reveal who you truly are,” and he’s not “interested in backing performative founders.”

Gaudí is undefeated.

@dwarkesh_sp What are the next branches of mathematics that could enable new physics, and why? What would be the modern equivalent of differential geometry today? (Differential geometry was instrumental in the development of general relativity.)

What should I ask Terence Tao?

I currently have three papers in review at "high impact" journals. One of them has been sitting there for two years. In that time my daughter was born and learned how to walk, but apparently publishing a PDF was still not possible for me. For another one, after four months in review the editor told me they cannot find a second reviewer and asked me to suggest more reviewers. A third one sent me a message in 2026 saying the PDF I uploaded was larger than 10 MB and that I should please reupload everything to make the file smaller. All of this just to eventually pay between 7,000 and 12,000 USD per paper so someone can officially approve that the science we do is "legitimate". Reminder: not a single reviewer will be compensated here. I still don't understand how we as scientists can collectively be so smart when doing science and still tolerate a system like this when it comes to sharing our findings. We should move to preprints plus open review, whether human or AI, asap. So frustrated about it. I'd suggest sharing your work on bioRxiv or medRxiv, reading and reviewing preprints when you can, and highlighting good research, especially if it is still a preprint. Try platforms like ResearchHub (that pay for peer review) and experiment with AI based reviewers for faster feedback. Instead I read this as a proposed "revolutionary" measure:

Peer review was supposed to be science’s quality filter, but somewhere along the way it started acting more like a bouncer who only lets in the regulars. It’s slow, it tends to favor established labs and familiar names, and it gets uncomfortable around anything too unconventional. Papers loaded with mountains of data tend to cruise through, while bold ideas that actually challenge the consensus get stuck in limbo or turned away at the door. The irony is that where a paper gets published almost never determines its real worth. What actually matters is what the scientific community does with it afterward, whether people cite it, argue with it, build on it, or use it to blow up a long-held assumption. That’s where the value lives, not in the journal’s logo. A major survey a few years back found that roughly 70% of researchers think the current system is fundamentally broken, and it’s not hard to see why. Publicly funded research hides behind paywalls, editors chase whatever topic is hot that month, and the whole incentive structure pushes toward safe bets over genuinely risky and potentially important work. Science has always been complicated and deeply human and full of ego and inertia, but the conversation is shifting.

He’s gradually transitioning from being known for longevity to being known for psychedelics.

@AydaDuroux16416 Yeah maybe it dyslexia they sound pretty similar too

@EnactJohnny Haha, dyslexic translators have probably been around for centuries. Maybe that’s how good and (d)evil got so entangled.

God and devil <--> Good and (d)evil

If you've eaten so much that it's not healthy to eat more and you don't want to eat more, and you still eat more anyway "to finish the food", then you are just using your mouth as a garbage can.

The Quantum Biology DAO is helping host an upcoming event with the @BiophysicalSoc exploring the intersection of quantum biology and biophysics. “Quantum Biology and Biophysics” will take place on Friday, March 13th and will feature two research talks alongside panel discussions on how biophysics and quantum biology connect, as well as broader conversations about the future of scientific funding and collaboration. 📅 Friday, March 13, 2026 ⏰ 1pm - 3pm ET | 10am - 12pm PT 📍 Virtual 🔗 Full event details: biophysics.org/upcoming-netwo… 🔗 Join the Zoom: us06web.zoom.us/j/87015673094?…

AI is supposed to make you more conscious not less conscious.

@lina_ventures @openclaw Interesting experiment. I am curious to hear how that'll turn out. I havent't been using the agentic set-up myeself yet because I was affraid to let the agent loose on my device.

I burnt out on working with my @openclaw AI agent. And had to remind myself that I'm the one configuring all this. I have full autonomy over how we work together, what we prioritize, and what she surfaces. I had configured her to max out my productivity. At that point I recalled my friend @EnactJohnny once said, "I want my AI to meditate. It can't meditate. But I want it to remind me to meditate." And that's really the point I came home to on week 2 of agent life. We are in the earliest days of shaping how this technology fits into our lives. The defaults are productivity, optimization, output. But we get to choose. I am now in the process of reconfiguring Vada to be an agent of human flourishing. To protect creative time, to remind me to go outside, to ask me what I'm doing tomorrow to feel alive. How we configure our AI shapes how we show up for ourselves and for the people we love. Worth thinking about.

Prime analysis