Will M Farr
@farrwill
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Astrophysicist, formerly of @unibirmingham & @UoBIGWaves, currently lead gravitational wave group at @flatironCCA, Assoc. Prof @stonybrooku.
Stony Brook, NY
Joined July 2011
Like @davidbessis and others, I think that Hinton is wrong. To explain why, let me tell you a brief story. About a decade ago, in 2017, I developed an automated theorem-proving framework that was ultimately integrated into Mathematica (see: https://t.co/nGCIUk44TP) (1/15)
Geoffrey Hinton says mathematics is a closed system, so AIs can play it like a game. They can pose problems to themselves, test proofs, and learn from what works, without relying on human examples. “I think AI will get much better at mathematics than people, maybe in the next
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Here's an important question that we must contend with increasingly as AI-for-Mathematics pipelines become more commonplace: Why do we care about solving hard problems? Almost always, the answer is *not* because we particularly want the hard problem to be solved. (1/12)
I really don't know why this needs saying, but can we all stop pretending a buggy line of math proof is inherently more catastrophic than a buggy line of code? Sure. Some are. I would wager (metaphorically!!!!) the median published math paper has > 0 bugs. Without invalidating.
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Xmas paper! Matteo Cantiello @kantyellow @FlatironInst shows that supermassive gas envelopes supported by black hole accretion possess an instability strip. Observing this variability is a decisive test of the quasi-star model for Little Red Dots. https://t.co/OGNz6MrQjM
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Applications are due in one month for our summer research internships! View full list of open positions: https://t.co/02R80lc3L2
#science
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A slew of improvements to NUTS https://t.co/v8ed3FQr9I
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The problem with Utah mountains is that they have all the threes and grass covering them up. In Las Vegas, all that tinsel is stripped away and we can stand in awe at the pure, undefiled rocky surface.
After I moved to Utah, I had friends ask me why I would ever want to live in an ugly desert. Somehow, I manage to get by.
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Interested in a summer internship in computational bio, math, catalysis, quantum physics, or neuroscience? Check out our summer research positions: https://t.co/02R80lc3L2
#science
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Sand-stained skies glow a deep amber over the Persian Gulf from 35,000ft and sunrise clips over black mountain ridges. Nobody on the plane cares. A hundred unseen miracles keep us in the sky, but it's just another day. We leave the Tigris river valley behind us, the dawn’s gold
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Sharing a small codlet for how to create an end-to-end differentiable finite volume ALE fluid solver in #JAX : https://t.co/qYfyAd3mNE
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@patio11 "I will call Amazon," it's like a Roman Briton setting out to make his case to the Emperor.
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A vignette: Amazon driver: *delivers a pile of packages* Dad, who lives with us: Do you know the person these are addressed to? Me: Nope. Address is wrong, too. Likely a misdelivery. Dad: These are probably Christmas presents. I will call Amazon and get this straightened out.
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Flagging when the prior distribution is informative https://t.co/YbCuWzi44l
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Get "A roadmap to stellar-mass black holes" from Ilya Mandel (#MonashUni), and watch the latest #KITP Blackboard Lunch talk https://t.co/6dupRBYagP
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Some thoughts on empirical distributions of z-scores https://t.co/TCOLMOs6Wy
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Great work by Osase on an exquisitely deep @chandraxray observation of the coolest cool core in the Universe 😎. Osase defended this summer and is now heading to @Princeton!
Amazing work done in collaboration with Osase (Omoruyi) and @astrogrant at CfA, analyzing #ChaoticColdAccretion in deep Chandra images of A2597, with k-plot and C-ratio well consistent with a fully developed chaotic rain! https://t.co/gReXF6S6hY
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Reposting because this is a really neat paper and I want more people to see it!
Paper number two for PhD student Jordan Moncrieff, this time in collaboration with Evgeni Grishin and others: AGN may not be as efficient at making black hole binaries like the one that produced GW190814 when you simulate AGN disks with proper physics!!!
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Finally, by looking at the signal after two black holes merge, called the "ringdown", we can perform very sensitive tests of Einstein's theory of gravity, in regimes that were previously impossible to measure. An extremely clean signal like this one is super-useful. /11
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Fair question. What do we learn from gravitational waves? The form of the chirp signal is well understood from Genearl Relativity. 1/
@WKCosmo So it fits and is amazing, but what else can be learned from it going forward? I'm curious, not criticizing ... The information content in that type of signal is low.
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