Maxwell Tabarrok

2 months ago | ifp.org | Maxwell Tabarrok

The data problem facing peptide research is solvable with targeted investments in data infrastructure. We can make a million-peptide database There are no significant scientific barriers to generating a 1,000x or 10,000x larger peptide dataset. Several high-throughput testing methods have been successfully demonstrated, with some screening as many as 800,000 peptide sequences and nearly doubling the number of unique antimicrobial peptides reported in publicly available databases.

Jan 12, 2025 | lesswrong.com | Maxwell Tabarrok

The discovery and use of machinery may be … injurious to the labouring class, as some of their number will be thrown out of employment, and population will become redundant. - David RicardoFears about human labor getting replaced by machines go back hundreds if not thousands of years. These fears continue today in response to the rapid progress of AI in several previously secure human domains.

Jan 9, 2025 | maximum-progress.com | Maxwell Tabarrok

The discovery and use of machinery may be … injurious to the labouring class, as some of their number will be thrown out of employment, and population will become redundant. - David RicardoFears about human labor getting replaced by machines go back hundreds if not thousands of years. These fears continue today in response to the rapid progress of AI in several previously secure human domains.

Dec 13, 2024 | macroscience.org | Maxwell Tabarrok

Back in July, Macroscience announced an open RFP for short papers on “negative macroscience”, diagnosing places where the infrastructure for science has broken down, and how we might do better. We’re publishing the first of these — from on peptides and antibiotic resistance — today. Enjoy!For all of human history until the past 100 years, infectious diseases have been our deadliest foe. Even during the roaring 1920s, nearly one in a hundred Americans would die of an infectious disease every year.

Dec 11, 2024 | maximum-progress.com | Maxwell Tabarrok

In a now famous 2020 paper Nicholas Bloom, Charles Jones, John Van Reenen, and Michael Webb document a puzzling trend: since 1940, research inputs have increased by 23-fold but productivity growth, which economists usually suppose is the output of research, has stayed constant or declined. They propose a simple explanation for this trend: research gets harder the more you know. Ideas get harder to find.