DNA 🧬 (Danielle Andrzejewski)

Today, @merge Labs announced its launch as a new research lab pursuing long-horizon R&D in ultrasound-based neural technology, with $252 million in funding from OpenAI, Bain Capital, Gabe Newell, and others. essentialtechnology.blog/p/announcing-m…

Announcing the first results from our Program’s phenomenology research: advanced meditators’ report the extraordinary, and so far overlooked, potential of meditative development for mental health. Mindfulness is widely recognized for its mental health benefits, yet growing evidence suggests that skill-based proficiency, not simply time spent practicing, is what predicts the most profound psychological change. Still, very little research has examined what happens when meditation is developed through advanced meditation states, stages, and endpoints as potential gateways to the deepest, most healing forms of well-being. Our latest study provides the first-ever systematic analysis of advanced meditation in relation to mental health and well-being. This work is based on in-depth interviews of 28 advanced meditators who attest to radical, wide-spectrum, non-linear improvements in mental health. This qualitative research provides a foundation for increasingly rigorous multidisciplinary investigation. Across participants, reports indicated: — Large, stable increases in baseline well-being — Heightened positive attitudes including openness and acceptance — Enhanced clarity, attentional stability, and cognitive balance — Positive shifts in life orientation, prosocial values, and interpersonal functioning — Transformative improvements in mental health conditions Participants described advanced meditation as affecting them at a deep psychological level. A recurring theme was a profound reduction in suffering and an expanded capacity to meet difficulty. As one put it: “Not only did it save my life…I could get the worst news in the world right now, and I would be able to absolutely cope with it in the most wholesome way possible.” Some described enduring reductions in self-focused rumination as a result of their advanced practice: “Negative self talk, just seemed to drop…like 80% of it left and never returned.” Most striking were reports of major improvements—or full resolution—of conditions such as anxiety, panic disorder, ADHD, trauma-related symptoms, addiction, and anger-related disorders. One participant claimed that their ADHD ceased completely after 12 years of practice; another, reflecting on reported recovery from panic, trauma, and suicidality, said: “I’m happier than I’ve ever been.” Echoing the ethos of our Program, first author Sebastian Ehmann, alongside co-authors Vanessa Naughton and Terje Sparby @terjesparby, argues that these findings highlight the importance of studying meditative development for psychiatry and public health—especially amid the global mental health crisis. Understanding how systematic reductions in self-centeredness and rigid self-identity, along with insights into one’s life and experience, can lead to profound psychological freedom that may be essential for designing highly effective, scalable, and personalized interventions. We appreciate everyone in our growing community who reads and shares this work! Full preprint ⤵️

For most of my life, I assumed technology only moved in one direction: Faster, better, cheaper. Progress felt inevitable. But if you look at the industry that once embodied American ambition, that's not happening. Over the past 50 years, our ability to build large construction projects has not just stagnated, it has eroded. We built faster, better, and cheaper in the 1960s than we do today. What a shame. This is happening at the exact moment we need to build more than ever. More energy to win the AI race, more critical minerals to secure our supply chain, and more advanced manufacturing to reindustrialize. In the last decade, China built an order of magnitude more energy infrastructure than the US. This is not how we win. That is why we’re building Unlimited. We are an AI-native, vertically integrated construction company. We’ve raised a $12M seed round co-led by @a16z (@KTmBoyle) and CIV (Abhijoy Mitra) to redefine how humanity builds. We’re going to automate construction end to end and ensure a future of radical physical abundance. A world where cities rise at the push of a button. Today we are designing and building $100M+ data centers, power plants, and mining facilities. Our AI platform compresses engineering timelines from months to days and delivers optimized designs that simply are not achievable through manual effort. The thing I am most proud of is the team we are building. A small, hyper talented group of multidisciplinary builders who work with intensity, care about craft, and genuinely give a shit. If you want to tackle problems that reshape the physical world and define the new playbook for how civilization builds in the decades ahead, reach out. We are hiring across mechanical, electrical, civil/structural, simulation, and software. We started the company earlier this year, raised money, built out the core technology and team, and kicked off our first real projects. And we’ve done it all under the radar until today. Excited to continue building the team that will build the future of our physical world. It's time to build. @unltdindustries