patrick

i love deleting code

🧠 Actual Neuralink 18-Month Update 🦾 Let’s just say the past 18 months haven’t exactly been boring. One moment I was booting up Eve. Next thing I know, we’re a year and a half deep, and she’s got opinions. July 28th marked 18 months since Eve and I were joined in holy matribrainy… brainimony…? A Neural Union. That’s one and a half years of telepathic typing, literal “mind over matter” moments, and countless, astonishing “Wait—did I just do that with only my thoughts?” I used to joke that I had to sweet-talk Eve to get her to work with me. Now, we’re practically finishing each other’s— “—sentences.” —Eve, probably. 🛠️ Technical Update Let’s talk shop. I’m sure y’all have seen how many participants are in the study now (9, if you hadn’t), and that number is only going to climb. The others are doing amazing things, blowing everything I’ve done out of the water, but I’ll let them share those as they see fit. Here, I just want to praise them. I always knew that when other participants joined the study, they’d use the chip in ways I hadn’t thought of—literally. It fills my heart with so much joy to see others exploring this technology and finding ways to better their own lives. And of course, having so much fun along the way. Since my last update, the chip itself continues to amaze me. We’ve seen improvements in speed, stability, and model responsiveness. Things that once required frequent recalibration now stay locked in much longer. Calibration time is trending towards negligible. There’s still work to be done, but the dream of a true plug-and-play brain doesn’t feel far off. I can’t speak for all the internal development, but I know the team is scaling like crazy. From 1 participant to 9 and climbing. They’re working on features I don’t even get to test yet, but I can tell you this much: the tech is getting sharper, more intuitive, and closer to changing lives on a global scale. I still give feedback to the Neuralink team, and they’re either really good at hiding their annoyance, or they actually value my input. Either way, I’m grateful. Oh, and I’m still campaigning for a robot arm. Still waiting. Still annoying. Still hopeful. What’s Next? Looking ahead, I’m excited about what’s on the horizon—not just for me, but for what this tech could unlock. Imagine using the implant to control real-world devices beyond a cursor: smart home systems, robotic limbs, or communication tools for those with no other options. And that’s just scratching the surface. Personally, I’ve been thinking a lot about how this technology could one day interact with different parts of the brain—not just for output, but for input. Maybe regulating mood, managing pain, helping with memory, or even restoring senses we thought were gone for good. That may be far off, but it’s not science fiction anymore. It’s just… not yet. On the practical side, there have been improvements to the charger—it’s more reliable, more user-friendly, and soon to be usable constantly. Also, data collection has gotten smoother on my end. Targeted data sets, more insight, better understanding of how the models respond over time. That means better performance, and ultimately, better outcomes—for me and, hopefully, for the people who come after. 🧑‍💻 Life With Eve I’ve now been consistently using the implant for more than 10 hours a day… I can feel you judging me… but honestly? It’s a lifeline. I’m writing more than ever. Reading like my life depends on it. Building a business. Planning speeches. Gaming at my leisure. And I’ve begun doing deep study on topics I used to only dream about engaging with. I’m starting to feel more like myself again. 🎓 School & Speaking This fall (actually, in less than two weeks!), I’m officially a college student again. I had hoped to return to Texas A&M (still love you, Ags), but that door hasn’t opened yet. Instead, I’m enrolled at my local community college with plans to transfer to a major university in the fall of 2026. I’ll be studying neuroscience, because, well… it just feels fitting now, doesn’t it? I’ll be exploring neuroscience programs this spring and start applying soon. In even bigger news, I’m now working full-time as a keynote speaker. Yeah. Working. That word means something different now. Thanks to Neuralink, I can now write speeches, email clients, study topics, and run a business. I’ll be traveling, speaking, and hopefully helping people along the way. God’s opened this door, and I’m going to sprint through it. (Mentally. Physically, that’s still a no-go… for now.) 🏡 Life Outside the Chip Our home project is still moving, albeit slowly. Building an accessible home isn’t cheap—and neither is the economy right now. But I believe in God’s timing. If you’ve donated or prayed, my family and I are beyond grateful. 🙏 Spiritual Growth These past months have reminded me of one truth again and again: God is faithful. I don’t deserve the blessings in my life—but I receive them with awe. Neuralink may have changed what I can do, but Jesus Christ changed who I am. I live for His glory. I move(ish) by His grace. I speak because He allows me to. And I serve, not because I’m whole, but because He is. Recently, I was introduced to the concept of a “life verse.” A life verse is a specific Bible verse that a Christian chooses—or feels chosen by—that captures the heart of their faith journey. It serves as a personal reminder of God’s truth, grace, or calling, often offering encouragement, direction, and identity throughout their life. In the last few months, I prayed, seeking God’s direction in my life, and read my Bible daily, searching for that verse—asking God what His purpose is for me. And of course, God answered. 2 Corinthians 12:9 — “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” I don’t know if there is a more perfect verse in the Bible that represents who and what I am. I thank God continuously for my injury—an accident that some may see as the most heartbreaking tragedy of my life. But He saved me that day and set me on a path which, at times, I hated and despaired over… yet now see with new eyes as the most beautiful act of mercy, grace, and love. 🌍 For the Future Users To those wondering if this tech has a future, I say: come and see. This isn’t just about enabling movement or communication. It’s about restoring dignity, independence, freedom, purpose, and hope. It’s not perfect. But it’s real. And it’s coming faster than most people think. Apply if you’re eligible. And please ask questions if you’re curious. But don’t wait too long—this is the future, and it doesn’t knock twice. 🇫🇷 Just for Fun 🇯🇵 Since I’m learning languages too, let me leave you with this: Avec Dieu, tout est possible. (With God, all things are possible. – Matthew 19:26) & Kami wa ai desu. かみ は あい です。 (God is love. – 1 John 4:8) Thank you to @neuralink, @BarrowNeuro, @elonmusk, and every person who’s believed in me. Thank you to those who’ve prayed, encouraged, laughed at my dumb jokes, and stuck around to watch this unfold. A special thank you to those who have subscribed and continued to support me. I’m blown away by how many of you are still subscribed. You don’t need to—especially with how little I’ve given back to y’all—but you have. And it means the world to me. Because of you, I’ve been able to afford classes, school supplies, and lay the groundwork for my business. And thank you, Eve—for being the bridge between my thoughts and the world. Here’s to the next chapter. Let’s keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. God bless, Noland and Eve

Our neural decoding team is hiring an intern this summer—with the goal of converting full-time. We're looking for world-class talent to work long hours building infrastructure, ML tools, and perform research that directly improves our BCI. DM me if you're interested— include examples of things you’ve built that you’re proud of.

Synchron is uniquely positioned to build the first large-scale dataset of electrical activity recorded from human brain. As we continue to improve our BCI → more will unambiguously benefit (restoring communication, mobility, independence) → more data will be collected → BCI improves further → and repeat.

The value of human brain data will grow exponentially over the next decade, at least. The electrical activity of neurons is the source of human cognition itself, yet remains largely untapped at scale.

@karpathy Jekyll + Obsidian(can push directly from app) -> Netlify

Do people have opinions for the easiest way to host a static website today? Not just the hosting but custom domain, ssl, deploy with git push

The internet used to be ✨ fun✨ projects.kwon.nyc/internet-is-fu… I remember visiting my friend’s websites. They were ugly and quirky and it was awesome. You wondered who’d stop by yours. They were a labor of love and a medium of self-expression, not your LinkedIn. We can fight this.

@felixchin1 @OpenAI It's likely the June model is fine-tuned to output code in markdown back-ticks, unless explicitly instructed otherwise. Where does @OpenAI discuss that they are fine-tuning GPT-4 s.t. the depth of its responses match that of the prompt? Seems like an overgeneralization.

It hasn’t, @OpenAI has simply tuned GPT-4’s response to match the caliber and quality of the prompt. GPT-4 will only give good responses if the prompt shows deep understanding and thinking. This is how they’re making it a personalized tool for all. Currently putting together a paper in support of this method for academic medicine. @sama, keep doing what you’re doing, I do think you’re doing this the best way, despite what everyone else is saying.

@amanrsanger By modifying your prompt, I was able to get 72% acc. using gpt-3.5-turbo...

gpt-3.5-turbo is criminally underrated at coding When using it with Azure's completion endpoint instead of OpenAI's chat endpoint, you can get a jump in HumanEval performance from <50% to 74%! This blows claude v1.3 out of the water, which sits just below 60% perf. [1]