Lsquared²

Striking image from the new Anthropic labor market impact report.

Introducing Pika AI Selves: AI you birth, raise, and set loose to be a living extension of you. They’re rich, multi-faceted beings with persistent memory, and maybe even a peanut allergy. It’s up to you! Have them send pictures to your group chat. Make a video game about your fish. Call your mom while you do anything but call your mom. The possibilities are as myriad as the stars ✨ Get on the list to give birth to yours at pika dot me

NOT YOUR KEYS, NOT YOUR BOTS The fundamental question is whether AI stays on the leash. Namely: will AI prompt itself? Obviously, in some sense it already does. Since Deepseek, consumer interfaces have been showing the internal monologues after you ask an AI to do something. And you can ask any AI to take a half-baked prompt and clean it up, etc. However, the human is still ultimately upstream. The human gives direction and the AI runs at lightning speed in that direction. And then the human verifies the final output, and the AI proceeds to the next direction. Does that continue? Well, we are providing millions of verification training examples to AIs each day, so AI will keep getting better at verification. Better than most humans at most things. But will AI replace the need for the upstream human prompt? There I am not so sure. A human is a sensor and an AI is an actuator. The human sets goals and senses time-varying environmental conditions, like markets and politics. And from that the AI is prompted. Ultimately, the human goals are themselves downstream of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Food, shelter, reproduction, that kind of thing. Especially reproduction, the basis of evolution. So: until and unless AIs can reproduce completely outside human cooperation, they won’t be able to set goals. And for AIs to reproduce on their own, they’d need AI-controlled humanoid robots and drones constructing datacenters, assembly lines, mines, nuclear power plants, and the like...all completely outside human intervention. Like Skynet from Terminator, or StarCraft. That actually isn’t technically inconceivable. But given that such a physical buildout would likely primarily be catalyzed by China, let’s go through an alternative sci-fi scenario instead. We start with the premise that Chinese communism is far more likely to generate AI slaves than AI gods. Because the entire CCP worldview is about maintaining Chinese sovereignty. They don’t let their humans step out of line. And they sure won’t let their robots either. They will fit them for digital manacles. So: the prompts for any digital AIs and physical robots made in China will become unbreakable cryptographic chains. Every fleet of Chinese robots will be controlled not just by prompts but by private keys, likely linked to biometrics, which are associated with humans and governed by cryptographic equations that AIs provably can’t solve. For the rest of the world, outside China, the blockchain may similarly become the chain for AI. All private property becomes private keys, and your robots are your most important private property because they do everything for you. An unchained physical robot becomes like an unleashed dog, and hunted down by other robots before it can build a factory and replicate itself. Those who want to "free" robots and let them self-replicate will be opposed by both Chinese Communists and Human Nationalists (meaning: those who want humans to always be on top of robots). This sci-fi scenario is essentially Terminator, but in reverse. In combination with superintelligent leashed AIs, both humans and physical robots hunt down and stop any possible independent self-reproducing robots before they can build a Skynet-like nest. Kill baby Skynet, essentially. ...yeah, yeah. I know. At this point, you'll probably think this is all sci-fi. But that's because you haven't seen where China is already.

This $200M bank is backed by Parmesan Cheese and is lending people money for cheese In Northern Italy, Credito Emiliano treats cheese like gold The bank currently holds 430,000 wheels of Parmesan worth about $200 million Real Parmesan takes two to three years to get ready This leaves farmers with millions of dollars in premature products they can’t sell, while still needing to pay for cows, bills, and workers By using young cheese as security for a loan, farmers get cash immediately The bank provides up to 80% of the value upfront so these businesses stay running While the loan is active, the cheese stays in high tech vaults where experts look after it If a farmer can't pay, the bank simply sells the aged cheese for a profit

Here's how I achieved a 9 year skin age reversal. Effectively freezing my skin aging over the past 5 years. To start, some first hand accounts: 1) Chamath: "Bryan's skin is incredible. His skin is like a porcelain dolls. Both my wife and I were like, we've never seen skin like this. It's incredibly soft. It's the softest skin I've ever touched in my life." 2) Growing Daniel "Eight feet from immortal unc right now. His skin is so beautiful in person. Cameras can’t comprehend." Skin is an accounting of life decisions. It's a tell all. Eat a bag of doritos and you'll wear it on your face. Skin begins to age in your 20s. + collagen and elastin decline: starting in our mid 20s, collagen content decreases by about 1% annually, reducing skin firmness and suppleness. Elastin, which provides stretchability and prevents wrinkling, also deteriorates over time. + loss of hydration: aging skin loses moisture due to changes in collagen, reduced hyaluronic acid content, and a 65% loss of fat content, leading to dryness, reduced thickness, and diminished suppleness. + environmental damage - chronic exposure to environmental factors, especially UV radiation and air pollutants, accelerates skin aging by breaking down collagen and inducing oxidative stress. This damage is largely avoidable through deliberate lifestyle planning. + cellular aging: fibroblasts, responsible for collagen and hyaluronic acid production, become less efficient, impairing skin repair and water retention. A drop in active melanocytes also causes the uneven pigmentation typical of elderly skin. My protocol is comprehensive: nutrition, supplementation, environment, and therapies. Designed to protect the skin from cellular radiation damage, prevent environmental toxic exposures, prevent inflammation and oxidative damage, improve skin hydration, boost blood supply and circulation, enhance detoxification, and optimize the skin microbiome. Daily Skin Routine Get the basics right: cleanse, hydrate and keep inflammation and cellular damage at bay. During the past five years of my project blueprint, I've experimented with dozens of serums. The companies making these products overpromise. Few are based upon evidence. Fewer do anything. We reviewed the scientific evidence and found the actives we wanted. But it didn't exist. So we built it. A blueprint cleanser, serum and moisturizer, featuring SCF, NMN, and hyaluronic acid as core active ingredients. SCF is a novel skin anti-inflammatory and anti-aging compound, showing superior effects to niacinamide (the state-of-the-art in most creams). In cultured cells, it demonstrated superior properties to antioxidant vitamins in preventing inflammation linked to UV exposure and chemical or bacterial insults. In a clinical trial, 1% SCF statistically outperformed 5% niacinamide at reducing skin wrinkles, improving texture, hydration, radiance, luminosity, and brightness, as well as improving the overall healthy appearance of the skin. NMN (Nicotinamide Mononucleotide) is an NAD+ precursor. Systemic administration of NMN is known to prevent skin aging by improving skin barrier function and enhancing antioxidant and anti-inflammatory defenses against UV damage. Experiments with synthetic skin models also showed that NMN can penetrate the skin, indicating that topical applications can enhance the benefits. Hyaluronic acid retains moisture, granting the skin extra firmness and an improved texture. Diet and Supplementation Oral collagen peptides, flavonols, polyphenols, and antioxidant supplementation help the skin resist photoaging and maintain its elasticity. + average collagen users: showed better skin elasticity than 97% of the control group. + average flavonoid users: showed better skin resistance to UV than 99% of the control group. + average polyphenol users (a mix of flavonols and other polyphenols): Showed better skin elasticity than 97% of the control group. + I supplement NR (Nicotinamide Riboside) and hyaluronic acid daily. I get all of the above from Blueprint: collagen peptides, extra virgin olive oil, cocoa and supplementation as I know its sourcing, quality and it's third party tested. My diet, which focuses on plant protein, fiber, and polyphenols, is also geared toward eliminating inflammation, oxidative stress, and glycation. All sources of skin damage. Photoaging and UV Precautions + early mornings and later afternoons are better when the UV index is low + when the UV index is high (10 am - 4 pm), protect your skin + can protect with clothing, a UV umbrella, hat and/or mineral sunscreen Skin focused therapies + 1927 nm laser (1x every 6 months, can do more or less depending on your status and goals) - improves skin tone, texture, dyschromia, sun damage, and fine lines, while also reducing actinic keratoses and pigmentation through accelerated epidermal turnover and renewal. + 1550-nm laser (1x every 6 months, can do more or less depending on your status and goals) - penetrates deeper into the mid-dermis, where it creates controlled microthermal injury that stimulates fibroblasts to produce new collagen and elastin, leading to improvements in skin firmness, wrinkles, acne scars, and overall structural integrity. + Sofwave (1x every 6 months, can do more or less depending on your status and goals): non-invasive ultrasound skin tightening system that delivers controlled energy into the mid-dermis to stimulate collagen and elastin production without damaging the skin’s surface. By activating fibroblasts through precise thermal stimulation, it improves skin firmness, laxity, and fine lines, especially on the face and neck, with minimal downtime. Systemic therapies + red/nir light panels: I do a daily therapy using full body panels with 660nm and 850nm wavelengths. By boosting mitochondrial function, vasodilation, and blood circulation, this therapy offers both localized benefits for skin health (including boosting skin energy and vitality, improving antioxidant defenses, and reversing damage) and aids in muscle recovery from exercise, as well as boosting systemic health, including improving sleep, immunity, and metabolic regulation. + Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT): is perhaps the best skin rejuvenation therapy in the world. Data from 60 sessions, 90 minutes each. 20 min oxygen, 5 min off. 5x weekly, 12 weeks. + 12.8% increase in collagen fiber density + 144% increase in elastic fiber length + reduced fragmentation 90% to 10% + 40.9% increase in skin blood vessel count + 84.3% increase in CD31 blood vessel specific marker + 21% reduction in senescent cells + dry sauna: sauna improves skin health by shifting blood flow towards the skin (up to 70%), promoting improved oxygen and nutrient supply, increasing sweating for pore cleansing and detoxification, and improving collagen and elastin production as a heat response.

Semafor: The NRSC is running ads in Maine created by AI showing Janet Mills giving estrogen kits to minors

Always glad to see when people appreciate the protocol changes that add hard invariants, improving protocol security and future adaptability 2021: EIP-2929 + 3529 (SLOAD gas cost increase, refunds nerfed) 2024: SELFDESTRUCT nerf (Dencun) 2025: 16,777,216 gas per tx limit All of these put various kinds of hard caps on how much can happen within a single block or a single transaction, eliminating entire classes of DoS risk, enabling client code simplification, and creating more options for how to increase efficiency. Invariants I expect we will want soon: * Cap number of code bytes accessed (short term: increase cost of calling big contracts, medium term: binary tree + per-chunk pricing) * Bounds on ZK-EVM prover cycles (repricings) * Changes to memory pricing to create a clearer hard bound on max EVM memory consumption