Hacker News: mnode

New comment by mnode in "Why has there been so little progress on Alzheimer's disease?"

mnode — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 06:34:29 +0000

Many in the research community realised the model was wrong a long time ago. This is a great read about the reasons why: 'How not to study a disease: the story of Alzheimer’s.' by Karl Herrup.

New comment by mnode in "CDC officials’ resignation emails"

mnode — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 06:26:31 +0000

Base rates going up isn't fully understood but a large part is likely just changes to diagnosis. There's a recent summary of research evidence here: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02636-1

New comment by mnode in "A mathematical model that predicts human biological age"

mnode — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 13:25:33 +0000

A small number of readily measured physiological traits may be used clinically to evaluate therapeutics designed to slow aging and extend healthy life. Playing computer games associates with slower ageing.

A mathematical model that predicts human biological age

mnode — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 13:25:33 +0000

Article URL: https://elifesciences.org/articles/92092

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44257530

Points: 1

# Comments: 1

New comment by mnode in "Ask HN: How do you consume HN?"

mnode — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 11:11:53 +0000

I use Elfeed within Emacs to browse feeds from https://hnrss.github.io/. I have it fine tuned to be reasonably selective.

New comment by mnode in "Ask HN: Which RSS reader do you use?"

mnode — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 10:30:49 +0000

Elfeed

https://github.com/skeeto/elfeed

Why 'open' AI systems are closed, and why this matters

mnode — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 20:47:37 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08141-1

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42259600

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

New comment by mnode in "Ask HN: What old video games did you love that haven't left a large footprint?"

mnode — Sun, 06 Oct 2024 16:15:42 +0000

Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe (1991, Amiga version). Awesome, future sports sim.

Large language models can serve as a shared linguistic space for communication

mnode — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 15:08:51 +0000

Article URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2024.06.025

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41139434

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by mnode in "Launch HN: Undermind (YC S24) – AI agent for discovering scientific papers"

mnode — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 06:18:35 +0000

Thanks for clarifying. I didn't appreciate that it only searches abstracts. That might explain some of the missing references. Anyway, great work, will look forward to using it more.

New comment by mnode in "Launch HN: Undermind (YC S24) – AI agent for discovering scientific papers"

mnode — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 05:42:16 +0000

I tried this with a question for an area I know well. It's pretty impressive but missed some key references.

I'd love to see limitations like this quantified and clearly flagged. Otherwise there's a danger that people may the assume results are definitive, and this could have the opposite outcome to that intended (much time spent working on something only to disocver it's been done already).

New comment by mnode in "Ask HN: Most accurate scientific book on human sleep?"

mnode — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 06:57:07 +0000

Yes, that is overly cyncial. The last 10 years or so has seen big leaps in our understanding of the fundamentals of sleep mechanisms. I think there's a long way to go, but we know enough that genuinely science-based advice can help a lot of people.

Economics scenarios for the transition to AGI [pdf]

mnode — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 17:24:49 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w32255/w32255.pdf

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39993341

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

AI used well can restore middle class jobs [pdf]

mnode — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 19:57:25 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w32140/w32140.pdf

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39898459

Points: 75

# Comments: 139

The Bill Gates Problem

mnode — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 18:29:16 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00394-0

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39348455

Points: 8

# Comments: 5

New comment by mnode in "Ask HN: Best resources on abstracting and dealing with complexity"

mnode — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 22:52:56 +0000

This is great! Thanks for sharing.

New comment by mnode in "Star neuroscientist may have manipulated data to support a major stroke trial"

mnode — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 14:25:37 +0000

In this case perverse incentives. Check out 'How not to study a disease: the story of Alzheimer’s' (by Karl Herrup) for a perspective on why this is not at all surprising.

That being said, I think it would be unfair to tarnish all of science with this brush though. There are many fields that don't suffer these problems nearly as much.

Large language models lack deep insights or a theory of mind

mnode — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 15:31:26 +0000

Article URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.16093

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38474696

Points: 277

# Comments: 261

New comment by mnode in "Ask HN: What book(s) are you reading? Or have recently read?"

mnode — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 16:58:29 +0000

I agree, brilliant book.

New comment by mnode in "Ask HN: What book(s) are you reading? Or have recently read?"

mnode — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 15:49:15 +0000

Finally finished "Gödel, Escher, Bach" by by Douglas Hofstadter. Hugely original and entertaining, and although it's pretty old now, some ideas still very relevant to current AI debates.

Also "Ringworld" by Larry Niven. Entertaining.

And "Ficciones" by Jorge Luis Borges. Mostly a bit disappointing but some high points.

Monthly thread would be fun.