Eli Sennesh
@elisennesh.bsky.social
Abolish the value function!
Pinned
Eli Sennesh
@elisennesh.bsky.social
· Aug 30
Eli Sennesh: Oscillations, but not Spike Rates, Encode Predictive Processing : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Talk by Eli Sennesh of Vanderbilt University. Given to the Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at UC Berkeley.Abstract: The appearance at the...
archive.org
Had a great time visiting Berkeley's Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience!
archive.org/details/Redw...
archive.org/details/Redw...
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
This is about LLMs and comparing activations to large-scale recording in brains
neuroAI comparisons of ANNs to brains do have a range of problems. Even more than I had realized. And I was worried before: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org
February 9, 2026 at 2:58 PM
This is about LLMs and comparing activations to large-scale recording in brains
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
Whenever I see "natural" in reference to human health, I reach for my gun.
Suffering from infectious disease is "natural." Being parasitized by fly larvae is "natural." Dying of malnutrition is "natural."
Every human life saved by science is a middle finger in the face of a cruel, heartless world.
Suffering from infectious disease is "natural." Being parasitized by fly larvae is "natural." Dying of malnutrition is "natural."
Every human life saved by science is a middle finger in the face of a cruel, heartless world.
The golden rice situation makes me *SO* sad.
It's estimated a THIRD of people worldwide are Vitamin A deficient, which can cause permanent damage to the eyes — in many cases full-on blindness.
We created a perfect solution to this problem, but oh no, it's "unnatural"
It's estimated a THIRD of people worldwide are Vitamin A deficient, which can cause permanent damage to the eyes — in many cases full-on blindness.
We created a perfect solution to this problem, but oh no, it's "unnatural"
Same anti-science people who'd rather see people starve, than endorse GMOs. Because, hurr durr, Capitalism bad, science bad, therefore, hurr durr, golden rice bad and an unnatural abomination!
February 9, 2026 at 9:26 PM
Whenever I see "natural" in reference to human health, I reach for my gun.
Suffering from infectious disease is "natural." Being parasitized by fly larvae is "natural." Dying of malnutrition is "natural."
Every human life saved by science is a middle finger in the face of a cruel, heartless world.
Suffering from infectious disease is "natural." Being parasitized by fly larvae is "natural." Dying of malnutrition is "natural."
Every human life saved by science is a middle finger in the face of a cruel, heartless world.
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
I struggle to grasp the appeal of "I believe in nothing, but specifically the kind of nothing that also forbids hedonism," but I admit is definitely a growing belief set.
"Hey, what if I adopted judgemental moralism from religion but without the promise of eternal life? Wouldn't that be fun?"
"Hey, what if I adopted judgemental moralism from religion but without the promise of eternal life? Wouldn't that be fun?"
February 9, 2026 at 7:17 PM
I struggle to grasp the appeal of "I believe in nothing, but specifically the kind of nothing that also forbids hedonism," but I admit is definitely a growing belief set.
"Hey, what if I adopted judgemental moralism from religion but without the promise of eternal life? Wouldn't that be fun?"
"Hey, what if I adopted judgemental moralism from religion but without the promise of eternal life? Wouldn't that be fun?"
Kids?
I think some of this is downstream from the pressure we put on kids to believe that any failure will fuck them for life
February 9, 2026 at 9:32 PM
Kids?
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
Political maturity is admitting this is all true
Yes. People love to paint Corbyn and Starmer as opposites but there are throughlines over their tenures atop the Labour Party: corrosive, faux macho bullying, horrible appointments made for loyalty rather than competence, a sneering indifference to racism & gaslighting of its victims
(If No.10 and its outriders had an ounce of self-awareness, they’d be asking themselves why the government’s flaws are uncomfortably similar to the Corbyn leadership’s flaws)
February 9, 2026 at 1:38 PM
Political maturity is admitting this is all true
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
Here’s the situation in the Twin Cities:
Random Bovino-style tear-gassing: Way down
Relentless persecution of immigrants: Unchanged
Thuggish violence against observers: Way up
Random Bovino-style tear-gassing: Way down
Relentless persecution of immigrants: Unchanged
Thuggish violence against observers: Way up
February 8, 2026 at 9:30 PM
Here’s the situation in the Twin Cities:
Random Bovino-style tear-gassing: Way down
Relentless persecution of immigrants: Unchanged
Thuggish violence against observers: Way up
Random Bovino-style tear-gassing: Way down
Relentless persecution of immigrants: Unchanged
Thuggish violence against observers: Way up
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
neuroAI comparisons of ANNs to brains do have a range of problems. Even more than I had realized. And I was worried before: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org
February 9, 2026 at 2:13 PM
neuroAI comparisons of ANNs to brains do have a range of problems. Even more than I had realized. And I was worried before: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
thorne: you can't feed 8+ billion people without high tech industrial agriculture
degrowthers: you don't have to feed 8+ billion people if there aren't 8+ billion people
degrowthers: you don't have to feed 8+ billion people if there aren't 8+ billion people
a man in a leather jacket is smiling in front of a building with a sign that says opening on it .
ALT: a man in a leather jacket is smiling in front of a building with a sign that says opening on it .
media.tenor.com
February 9, 2026 at 8:55 PM
thorne: you can't feed 8+ billion people without high tech industrial agriculture
degrowthers: you don't have to feed 8+ billion people if there aren't 8+ billion people
degrowthers: you don't have to feed 8+ billion people if there aren't 8+ billion people
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
After Colossal Failure, Golda Faced the Truth. Netanyahu Learned How to Bury It ☠️💢
www.haaretz.com/opinion/2026... 🧵
By Aluf Benn
www.haaretz.com/opinion/2026... 🧵
By Aluf Benn
February 9, 2026 at 8:37 PM
After Colossal Failure, Golda Faced the Truth. Netanyahu Learned How to Bury It ☠️💢
www.haaretz.com/opinion/2026... 🧵
By Aluf Benn
www.haaretz.com/opinion/2026... 🧵
By Aluf Benn
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
This is exactly right, a version of A Christmas Carol that paints Scrooge as entirely justified in feeling the way he does. In fact, the three ghosts visit Bob Cratchit to teach him his family only suffers because he's so dumb and doesn't make anything of himself. Stop begging and start grinding!
“And Tiny Tim, who DID die, and had it coming every minute of his life…”
February 9, 2026 at 8:26 PM
This is exactly right, a version of A Christmas Carol that paints Scrooge as entirely justified in feeling the way he does. In fact, the three ghosts visit Bob Cratchit to teach him his family only suffers because he's so dumb and doesn't make anything of himself. Stop begging and start grinding!
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
So much political discourse can just be demolished by "what would be the physical logistics of this"
February 9, 2026 at 8:41 PM
So much political discourse can just be demolished by "what would be the physical logistics of this"
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
I'm just a liberal squish, but I think America should not have concentration camps.
ICE has now spent over half a BILLION dollars just on purchasing warehouses around the country to convert into detention camps.
If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little real oversight. www.ajc.com/politics/202...
If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little real oversight. www.ajc.com/politics/202...
ICE to begin detaining immigrants inside Social Circle warehouse in April
Homeland Security plans to build warehouse detention facilities in other cities being met with opposition.
www.ajc.com
February 9, 2026 at 7:17 PM
I'm just a liberal squish, but I think America should not have concentration camps.
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
An underrated good the next Democratic administration could do with virtually zero actual political blowback from voters would be to come in with anti-trust laws like a wrecking ball and break up media and tech companies. It would fuck up The Other Side, too.
Brendan Carr is also very excited for more local broadcast TV consolidation at the hands of the right wing!
You know, to improve competition, something Carr (who has rubber stamped every desire media and telecom giants have ever had) genuinely cares about
You know, to improve competition, something Carr (who has rubber stamped every desire media and telecom giants have ever had) genuinely cares about
February 9, 2026 at 4:40 PM
An underrated good the next Democratic administration could do with virtually zero actual political blowback from voters would be to come in with anti-trust laws like a wrecking ball and break up media and tech companies. It would fuck up The Other Side, too.
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
Oh my gosh, the immediate about-face is just hilarious. I guess a tankie like him couldn't find it in himself to defend someone like Chomsky anymore.
February 9, 2026 at 4:36 AM
Oh my gosh, the immediate about-face is just hilarious. I guess a tankie like him couldn't find it in himself to defend someone like Chomsky anymore.
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
"the mission of SpaceX remains the same. I can be trusted with your money despite just revealing a massive part of my sales pitch is technologically unfeasible for the foreseeable future."
Musk is a blight on the economy and, honestly, even on SpaceX.
Musk is a blight on the economy and, honestly, even on SpaceX.
BREAKING: “in my 24th year of my quest to settle the planet Mars, I have just been informed of a basic fact of celestial mechanics.”
February 9, 2026 at 5:19 PM
"the mission of SpaceX remains the same. I can be trusted with your money despite just revealing a massive part of my sales pitch is technologically unfeasible for the foreseeable future."
Musk is a blight on the economy and, honestly, even on SpaceX.
Musk is a blight on the economy and, honestly, even on SpaceX.
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
Mrs. Claus's love child with Homestar Runner
February 9, 2026 at 7:51 PM
Mrs. Claus's love child with Homestar Runner
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
I get that they feel the need to shovel money into capex and now desperately need some offsetting revenue source but even as a pure business decision this seems wrong to me, for the same reason shoving ads into Microsoft Word is wrong. are you building a Serious Work Product or not?
OPENAI: STARTING TEST ROLLOUT OF ADS IN CHATGPT TODAY FOR A SUBSET OF FREE AND GO USERS IN THE U.S.
February 9, 2026 at 7:42 PM
I get that they feel the need to shovel money into capex and now desperately need some offsetting revenue source but even as a pure business decision this seems wrong to me, for the same reason shoving ads into Microsoft Word is wrong. are you building a Serious Work Product or not?
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
The blind spot at the core of the libertarian ethos is a refusal to acknowledge that when government cedes power *something* steps into the vacuum. And we have mountains of evidence that it is *always* an entity less accountable to the popular will than government.
this is a subject that's near and dear to my heart
1. no you didn't, you retconning fucks
2. your decades of anti-governance "free market" "government never functions" propaganda paved the way for the complete authoritarian decimation of labor, consumer, environmental protections
1. no you didn't, you retconning fucks
2. your decades of anti-governance "free market" "government never functions" propaganda paved the way for the complete authoritarian decimation of labor, consumer, environmental protections
February 9, 2026 at 6:17 PM
The blind spot at the core of the libertarian ethos is a refusal to acknowledge that when government cedes power *something* steps into the vacuum. And we have mountains of evidence that it is *always* an entity less accountable to the popular will than government.
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
it is genuinely a cognitohazard to even *consider* how many layers of chan-poisoned racial grievance these people have had to cloak themselves in to be able to convince themselves that happy marriages, close-knit extended families, and vibrant, cohesive neighborhoods are woke gay lib bullshit
I keep thinking how much conservatives have surrendered in cultural messaging. Bad Bunny's performance was undeniably pro-marriage, pro-family, and the idea of accomplishing big dreams through hard work. All things the conservative movement has claimed to care about in the past.
February 9, 2026 at 6:18 PM
it is genuinely a cognitohazard to even *consider* how many layers of chan-poisoned racial grievance these people have had to cloak themselves in to be able to convince themselves that happy marriages, close-knit extended families, and vibrant, cohesive neighborhoods are woke gay lib bullshit
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
It's also pretty spurious to claim vindication on Trump when your own argument is mostly that he's just more of the same and a difference only in degree and not in kind, which is not a perspective that's actually been vindicated. It's been proven utterly wrong.
February 9, 2026 at 6:09 PM
It's also pretty spurious to claim vindication on Trump when your own argument is mostly that he's just more of the same and a difference only in degree and not in kind, which is not a perspective that's actually been vindicated. It's been proven utterly wrong.
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
I don't really see a lot of reporting reminding everyone about this, but residents of Los Angeles should know that, as part of our broke-ass city budget negotiations, many LA city workers are being forced to take an unpaid holiday today, the first of five such days planned for this year
February 9, 2026 at 5:46 PM
I don't really see a lot of reporting reminding everyone about this, but residents of Los Angeles should know that, as part of our broke-ass city budget negotiations, many LA city workers are being forced to take an unpaid holiday today, the first of five such days planned for this year
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
"The Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that gambling was the second-highest service-sector industry for GDP growth between 2019 and 2024, behind only software publishing."
Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
Very annoyed at the people who decided to open the floodgates to online sports betting, it is absolutely a scourge. Great piece from Gabrielle Gurley on people spending hours a day on these predatory apps.
The Scourge of Online Sports Betting - The American Prospect
States and leagues must face up to the damage from app-based gambling for the next generation of bettors, most of them young men.
prospect.org
February 9, 2026 at 4:55 PM
"The Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that gambling was the second-highest service-sector industry for GDP growth between 2019 and 2024, behind only software publishing."
Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
Excited to share “Orofacial behaviors, not eye movements, govern neural activity in mouse visual cortex”
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Summary below...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Summary below...
February 5, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Excited to share “Orofacial behaviors, not eye movements, govern neural activity in mouse visual cortex”
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Summary below...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Summary below...
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
🚨 new work from the lab on how eye movements 👀 versus orofacial movements influence 🐭 visual cortex activity 🧠 #neuroscience #behavior #neuroAI
Excited to share “Orofacial behaviors, not eye movements, govern neural activity in mouse visual cortex”
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Summary below...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Summary below...
February 9, 2026 at 5:39 PM
🚨 new work from the lab on how eye movements 👀 versus orofacial movements influence 🐭 visual cortex activity 🧠 #neuroscience #behavior #neuroAI
Reposted by Eli Sennesh
our descent into puritan culture has reached full Mormonism
starting to feel like there's a direct relationship between the growing obsession with lifestyle hygeine (no drinking, no caffeine, no sex, obsessive working out and looksmaxxing) and the inability to meaningful moral stands on issues of actual import
Cafes across the U.S. are embracing the low- and no-caffeine lifestyle, with options that are a far cry from dusty tea bags and rewarmed decaf. nyti.ms/3XKlqoj
February 9, 2026 at 6:03 PM
our descent into puritan culture has reached full Mormonism