Benjamin Parry

@nikitabier Can you add the ability to turn this off? It legitimately makes me not want to write anything here anymore.

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@jacob__titus Truly stunning work. Such an incredible gem that you're bringing light to.

Container Corporation of America made corrugated boxes in Chicago. These prints are in the Chicago Design Archive. And yes, similar in spirit to the Michelin Guide, this series was one of the company’s advertising projects for decades. In 1936, CCA hired Egbert Jacobson to create one of the first full corporate identity programs in the United States. That design culture carried into work like this.

Great Ideas of Western Man. One of a series.

Many people have asked when recordings of The Viaduct lectures will be available to watch online. We are happy to share that Season Two is now live. You can watch all of the lectures on YouTube now at the link below.

@jaxson @UofT @munkschool @AnthropicAI @GoogleDeepMind @law_ai_ @mozilla Kudos

I've been teaching a master's course on AI at @UofT 's @munkschool - and I'm excited to share it with you! One of the best parts has been the calibre of guest lecturers: folks from @AnthropicAI @GoogleDeepMind and @law_ai_. This week, Mark Surman — @mozilla President and one of the most important voices on open source AI — came by and gave us a fantastic walkthrough of how he's thinking about the evolution of the internet to frontier AI, and Canada's role as a middle power. When I told him about the course, his first reaction: "You should open source it." So we did. Full syllabus and a couple AI agents and resources we've built together — all on GitHub: github.com/jaxson/ai-poli… Covers everything from the AI supply chain to frontier model governance to hands-on prototyping. More materials and agents coming at the end of term. Feel free to use it, remix it, share it. And remember a future with plenty of open source AI is a good one!

The world according to the Container Corporation of America.

@danielgolliher @claudeai I adore these experiments.

Here's an animation of the states being admitted into the union (made with the help of @claudeai): Live on: data.maximumnewyork.com/state-admission

@_benjaminparry @jiamixue

Over the last year @jiamixue and I have been running a reading group in Toronto to understand the background beliefs that shape the world we live in. So far we have read close to 40 seminal papers including from: Alan Turing, C. Thi Nguyen, Hannah Aendt and Charles Taylor. Next quarter we are starting a project to look at the relationship between Religion and Work. We want to understand: What are our current ideas about work? Do these have anything to do with religion? If so, what is it? What is the relationship between our projects and faith? Can we treat our work religiously? Should we? To investigate this we are going to read Weber, Adam Smith (Sentiments not Wealth), Dōgen, Marx, Simone Weil, Frederick Douglass, @WillManidis and @nabeelqu There are a really limited number of spot but if this seems interesting DM me or comment below. I would be happy to chat more about it! You can also get more info and register interest at prg.thetorontosociety.com

ai cannot replace you if you become the interface between the divine and the material world

@trq212 This is gorgeous. Props.

we need a better word than vibe coding man, Claude can create the most beautiful things

No era is totally good and no era is totally bad. At every time it is an admixture. Much of it is contingent and particular. Very often the virtues of a past age are veiled to us by our present. How can we understand the beauties that were undoubtedly part of the medical profession in the European Middle Ages standing as we do in a place with white hospital gowns, children that almost always live to six years old, and FDA regulations. How too will the virtues of our moment be obscured in the times to come? I think often of the Lu Xun short story 'Medicine'.

@PatrickHeizer Maybe dumb question but if it's so easy why don't we do it as a last ditch attempt to save every person with a terminal cancer case? Seems like a no-brainer? If it's just a question of scaling up the approach I feel confident there would be a market for that.

Sorry to be the downer because this is an impressive story in some senses. But it is ~trivially easy to make a single mRNA vaccine. It's not hard. I cure mice of various cancers with various therapeutics all the time. I've made mice lose more weight in a month than tirzepatide does in a year. What is hard and expensive is proving its BOTH safe AND effective **in a randomized and controlled study in humans** while ALSO manufacturing it at clinical scale and grade. I am happy for this man and his dog. It is impressive. But y'all are overhyping it.

I will be teaching "Foundations of the University" with @Prigoose. Class is every Wednesday evening in April!

You'll miss the American, who deals sharply but cheats no one, who is tougher than the thugs and cleverer than the tricksters, who says "I can do it" when others shrug, and who respects learning but is suspicious of those claiming to be learned, when the last one dies.

@tobi 100% it's another lowering of standards x.com/_benjaminparry…

This is a terrible mistake to do this. Will make it a lot less likely to get the economy back on track. People who can think around corners know exactly how this will be applied. Just look at the UK.

Bill C-9 is the legal equivalent of the Eglinton Line taking 15 years to build. Legal state capacity can erode just like bureaucratic or industrial state capacity. This law does some very dumb things: 1) Changes the working definition of hatred for a hate crime from "emotion of an intense and extreme nature that is clearly associated with vilification and detestation." to “the emotion that involves detestation or vilification and that is stronger than disdain or dislike.” This is simply more vague and broad. The only thing you achieve is confusion and more marginal cases. 2) Currently no one can be convicted of promoting hatred if "in good faith, the person expressed or attempted to establish by an argument an opinion on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text.” This is a red line that makes it crystal clear a reasonable argument of a religious position is never worth prosecuting. Again by removing it all you do is muddy the waters to create more cases where people with good faith religious views that people don't like get taken to court. It's worth noting that the removal is because the Bloc is a group of tinpot Voltaires who made the Liberals change it so they would add their votes. 3) Right now, a provincial Attorney General has to approve hate speech charges before they’re laid. This law removes that step meaning it becomes easy for frivolous charges from private citizens to turn into actual prosecution. Introducing vague language and removing constraints is exactly what led to arresting people in the UK for praying silently. Proponents say this is necessary to deal with antisemitic violence. BS. That is a massive problem (see @CANADALAND and @JesseBrown reporting). But we have all the legal tools we need. Those situations clearly qualify as assault and intimidation. We just lack political and police will. This is bad law making.

@EvanLyseng ❤️‍🔥 thank you Evan. This is extremely encouraging.

Two years ago, I met this uncommonly alive British guy at a party. I think it was the most eclectic 5-minute chat I've ever had. The best conversations leave you fuller in energy and ideas -- and every conversation with @_benjaminparry since has offered both in spades. I recently moved back to Toronto, and last night I was able to attend a lecture that was part of a series Ben has been orchestrating. Some reflections: 1) I've been a fan of @Alex_Danco's writing for years, so it was a treat to get to meet him in person and hear him speak. I reckon he's the most curious person I've ever met. 2) There's something special about watching someone do something with exceptional care. You can feel how much intentionality Ben puts into these events -- he sweats every detail. If you have a chance to attend one of these lectures (or interact with anything Ben is doing), don't miss it.

A real image from a lecture at University of Toronto tonight. This is the funniest shit I’ve ever seen in my life.