Jesseba Fernando
@jesseba.bsky.social
PhD Student @nunetsi.bsky.social
Put me in the middle of nowhere with coffee and I'm happy
jesseba.github.io
Put me in the middle of nowhere with coffee and I'm happy
jesseba.github.io
Reposted by Jesseba Fernando
"'They’re spending more money than I would even tax them,' [Mamdani] said in an interview with MSNBC last week."
This is the message. Make it clear that these billionaires aren't just worried about losing money. They're worried about losing the ability to exchange their money for power.
This is the message. Make it clear that these billionaires aren't just worried about losing money. They're worried about losing the ability to exchange their money for power.
November 5, 2025 at 7:41 PM
"'They’re spending more money than I would even tax them,' [Mamdani] said in an interview with MSNBC last week."
This is the message. Make it clear that these billionaires aren't just worried about losing money. They're worried about losing the ability to exchange their money for power.
This is the message. Make it clear that these billionaires aren't just worried about losing money. They're worried about losing the ability to exchange their money for power.
Reposted by Jesseba Fernando
Already counting down till next year ⏳
Great time at @css-conference.bsky.social in Siena 🇮🇹!
Spoke on #schizophrenia risk genes in dynamic co-expression networks across brain development.
Thanks to @nicopedre.bsky.social, @marilyngatica.bsky.social and @jesseba.bsky.social for the #CoBrain satellite on complex systems in neuroscience👏
Spoke on #schizophrenia risk genes in dynamic co-expression networks across brain development.
Thanks to @nicopedre.bsky.social, @marilyngatica.bsky.social and @jesseba.bsky.social for the #CoBrain satellite on complex systems in neuroscience👏
September 9, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Already counting down till next year ⏳
Packed room at our satellite!!
September 3, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Packed room at our satellite!!
Reposted by Jesseba Fernando
On wednesday, @jesseba.bsky.social @marilyngatica.bsky.social with @nicopedre.bsky.social organize Cobrains kgatica.github.io/CCS2025-CoBr....
Satellite Complexity in the Brain: CoBrain (CCS*2025)
Overview, list of speakers, and schedule
kgatica.github.io
September 1, 2025 at 11:20 AM
On wednesday, @jesseba.bsky.social @marilyngatica.bsky.social with @nicopedre.bsky.social organize Cobrains kgatica.github.io/CCS2025-CoBr....
Reposted by Jesseba Fernando
and then we double down with @jesseba.bsky.social talking about adaptive networks in a learn-relearning generalization task in rodents vs artificial networks (Biological networks #2, 2/9, with @scarpino.bsky.social).
September 1, 2025 at 11:20 AM
and then we double down with @jesseba.bsky.social talking about adaptive networks in a learn-relearning generalization task in rodents vs artificial networks (Biological networks #2, 2/9, with @scarpino.bsky.social).
Reposted by Jesseba Fernando
“The idea that taking walks, reading things unrelated to your research, and hanging out with strangers in a campus pub should be considered part of the serious process of thinking, but might well meet with skepticism in practice.”
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
The forgotten half of scientific thinking | PNAS
The forgotten half of scientific thinking
www.pnas.org
June 26, 2025 at 1:23 PM
“The idea that taking walks, reading things unrelated to your research, and hanging out with strangers in a campus pub should be considered part of the serious process of thinking, but might well meet with skepticism in practice.”
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Jesseba Fernando
- did not measure people's creativity performance by any reputable creativity task or measure, just measured the ESSAY content (after giving people different instructions)
- did not measure people's overall MEMORY ABILITY
- false on "brain activity," DIFFERENT activity is not "weaker"
- did not measure people's overall MEMORY ABILITY
- false on "brain activity," DIFFERENT activity is not "weaker"
An MIT study of 54 participants found ChatGPT users had lower brain activity, weaker memory, and less creativity than Google or unaided writers.
ChatGPT users brain activity declined over time, relied on copy-paste, and couldn’t recall what they wrote.
The brain is a muscle, use it or lose it.
ChatGPT users brain activity declined over time, relied on copy-paste, and couldn’t recall what they wrote.
The brain is a muscle, use it or lose it.
ChatGPT's Impact On Our Brains According to an MIT Study
The study, from MIT Lab scholars, measured the brain activity of subjects writing SAT essays with and without ChatGPT.
time.com
June 22, 2025 at 9:27 PM
- did not measure people's creativity performance by any reputable creativity task or measure, just measured the ESSAY content (after giving people different instructions)
- did not measure people's overall MEMORY ABILITY
- false on "brain activity," DIFFERENT activity is not "weaker"
- did not measure people's overall MEMORY ABILITY
- false on "brain activity," DIFFERENT activity is not "weaker"
Reposted by Jesseba Fernando
it’s even more demoralizing when the history you’re repeating is history you were around for the first time
June 22, 2025 at 1:44 AM
it’s even more demoralizing when the history you’re repeating is history you were around for the first time
Reposted by Jesseba Fernando
This must have been what it felt like at the end of the first triumvirate. This is so cool, I love living through history.
June 5, 2025 at 5:20 PM
This must have been what it felt like at the end of the first triumvirate. This is so cool, I love living through history.
Super, super excited to be here at the sixth annual conference on the Mathematics of Neuroscience and AI!
May 28, 2025 at 7:55 AM
Super, super excited to be here at the sixth annual conference on the Mathematics of Neuroscience and AI!
Reposted by Jesseba Fernando
Hot takes/kind reminders
a) “the bitter lesson”’s promise of scale did not deliver wrt AI reasoning & higher cog functions—O3 hallucinates 2x more than O1
b) prediction is not understanding, hallucinating is worse
c) gen AI could help neuroAI but following latest AI trends is not a paradigm shift
a) “the bitter lesson”’s promise of scale did not deliver wrt AI reasoning & higher cog functions—O3 hallucinates 2x more than O1
b) prediction is not understanding, hallucinating is worse
c) gen AI could help neuroAI but following latest AI trends is not a paradigm shift
How can we make progress in developing a general model of neural computation rather than a series of disjointed models tied to specific experimental circumstances, ask Eva Dyer and @tyrellturing.bsky.social in the latest entry in our NeuroAI series.
www.thetransmitter.org/neuroai/acce...
www.thetransmitter.org/neuroai/acce...
Accepting “bitter lesson” and embracing brain’s complexity
To gain insight into complex neural data, we must move toward a data-driven regime, employing large models trained on vast amounts of data. Experts weigh in.
www.thetransmitter.org
May 8, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Hot takes/kind reminders
a) “the bitter lesson”’s promise of scale did not deliver wrt AI reasoning & higher cog functions—O3 hallucinates 2x more than O1
b) prediction is not understanding, hallucinating is worse
c) gen AI could help neuroAI but following latest AI trends is not a paradigm shift
a) “the bitter lesson”’s promise of scale did not deliver wrt AI reasoning & higher cog functions—O3 hallucinates 2x more than O1
b) prediction is not understanding, hallucinating is worse
c) gen AI could help neuroAI but following latest AI trends is not a paradigm shift
This was so much fun!!!
SFI Adaptive Network workshop Day 3 featured cool presentations by junior researchers
May 9, 2025 at 12:39 AM
This was so much fun!!!
Reposted by Jesseba Fernando
I’m so excited to share our preprint on how brainstem neurons sense and integrate multiple body signals during food consumption. We imaged 1000s of neurons across the lateral parabrachial nucleus (LPBN) in behaving mice. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Brainstem sensing of multiple body signals during food consumption
Studies of body-to-brain communication often examine one stimulus or organ at a time, yet the brain must integrate many body signals during behavior. For example, food consumption generates diverse or...
www.biorxiv.org
April 29, 2025 at 7:48 PM
I’m so excited to share our preprint on how brainstem neurons sense and integrate multiple body signals during food consumption. We imaged 1000s of neurons across the lateral parabrachial nucleus (LPBN) in behaving mice. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
April 21, 2025 at 1:25 AM
I guess it’s homegrown crim of me to publicize my thoughts on Columbia rolling over so easily
Holy shit. Video posted by President Bukele’s team on X shows the moments before his press conference with Trump in which Trump tells him: “We want to do homegrown criminals next. You gotta build about five more places.”
(h/t @titonka.bsky.social @michelekelemen.bsky.social)
(h/t @titonka.bsky.social @michelekelemen.bsky.social)
April 15, 2025 at 12:26 AM
I guess it’s homegrown crim of me to publicize my thoughts on Columbia rolling over so easily
Reposted by Jesseba Fernando
Coinciding with it's "No" letter Harvard has refashioned its university homepage into essentially an advertisement for the social benefits of university research. This is the current front page.
April 14, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Coinciding with it's "No" letter Harvard has refashioned its university homepage into essentially an advertisement for the social benefits of university research. This is the current front page.
Reposted by Jesseba Fernando
We are rallying at noon at Cambridge Common for the leadership of the Harvard Corporation to stand up and stand with us as we defend higher education and democracy in the United States from an unprecedented attack.
April 12, 2025 at 1:34 PM
We are rallying at noon at Cambridge Common for the leadership of the Harvard Corporation to stand up and stand with us as we defend higher education and democracy in the United States from an unprecedented attack.
Reposted by Jesseba Fernando
Over 800 faculty have urged Harvard's leadership to "legally contest ... unlawful demands that threaten academic freedom and university self-governance." The Cambridge City Council has called on it to "stand up in defense of the values that are fundamental to both the University and our democracy."
Cambridge City Council Calls on Harvard, President Garber to Resist Trump’s Threats | News | The Harvard Crimson
The Cambridge City Council voted unanimously on Monday to call on the Harvard Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — to refuse the Trump administration’s demands as $9 billion in gove...
www.thecrimson.com
April 12, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Over 800 faculty have urged Harvard's leadership to "legally contest ... unlawful demands that threaten academic freedom and university self-governance." The Cambridge City Council has called on it to "stand up in defense of the values that are fundamental to both the University and our democracy."
Reposted by Jesseba Fernando
For the data nerds out there, here's a chart of the largest coordinated protests in U.S. history from my 2018 book HOW TO READ A PROTEST
Today's "Hands Off" protests, in 1000+ locations around the country, rank as one of the very largest decentralized days of protests EVER.
Today's "Hands Off" protests, in 1000+ locations around the country, rank as one of the very largest decentralized days of protests EVER.
April 5, 2025 at 8:58 PM
For the data nerds out there, here's a chart of the largest coordinated protests in U.S. history from my 2018 book HOW TO READ A PROTEST
Today's "Hands Off" protests, in 1000+ locations around the country, rank as one of the very largest decentralized days of protests EVER.
Today's "Hands Off" protests, in 1000+ locations around the country, rank as one of the very largest decentralized days of protests EVER.
Reposted by Jesseba Fernando
If you’re upset about the chaos and corruption Trump is inflicting on your country—whether your focus is the nihilistic dismantling of government, the economy, our foreign relations, or his threats to the rule of law—please join the nationwide marches on April 5. Learn more here 👉
handsoff2025.com
handsoff2025.com
Hands Off!
Donald Trump and Elon Musk think this country belongs to them. They're taking everything they can get their hands on and daring the world to stop them. On Saturday, April 5th, we're taking to the stre...
handsoff2025.com
March 29, 2025 at 3:12 PM
If you’re upset about the chaos and corruption Trump is inflicting on your country—whether your focus is the nihilistic dismantling of government, the economy, our foreign relations, or his threats to the rule of law—please join the nationwide marches on April 5. Learn more here 👉
handsoff2025.com
handsoff2025.com
Reposted by Jesseba Fernando
If you are a faculty member at a US university, please consider signing this excellent petition asking our presidents, chancellors, etc to work together to defend our institutions from the direct attacks by Trump administration: sites.google.com/view/we-must...
Home
March 20, 2025
Dear Presidents, Chancellors, and Boards of Trustees of the 60 Universities that received a March 10th warning letter from the U.S. Department of Education:
You are on the frontlines ...
sites.google.com
March 30, 2025 at 4:15 PM
If you are a faculty member at a US university, please consider signing this excellent petition asking our presidents, chancellors, etc to work together to defend our institutions from the direct attacks by Trump administration: sites.google.com/view/we-must...
Reposted by Jesseba Fernando
I think some in the Senate have convinced themselves that the backlash to folding will be limited to “the left” and therefore ignorable.
Those people are deeply and profoundly misreading the moment and the stakes.
Virtually every swing district House Dem walked the plank to vote NO for a reason.
Those people are deeply and profoundly misreading the moment and the stakes.
Virtually every swing district House Dem walked the plank to vote NO for a reason.
March 14, 2025 at 2:46 AM
I think some in the Senate have convinced themselves that the backlash to folding will be limited to “the left” and therefore ignorable.
Those people are deeply and profoundly misreading the moment and the stakes.
Virtually every swing district House Dem walked the plank to vote NO for a reason.
Those people are deeply and profoundly misreading the moment and the stakes.
Virtually every swing district House Dem walked the plank to vote NO for a reason.
1/ How do AI models actually work? 🤷♂️ AI models are complex, nonlinear systems, and their inner workings remain largely mysterious. Enter Mechanistic Interpretability. But MechInterp has struggled to explain a lot of the observed phenomena…
February 21, 2025 at 3:05 PM
1/ How do AI models actually work? 🤷♂️ AI models are complex, nonlinear systems, and their inner workings remain largely mysterious. Enter Mechanistic Interpretability. But MechInterp has struggled to explain a lot of the observed phenomena…