Adam Timlett
@joestare.bsky.social
I study complexity, adaptation research in Nature, translate this into organisational theory & metrics for businesses and new thinking in biology. Founder and Director of Turing Meta. www.turingmeta.org
My new article Optimisation's Cryptographic Shadow is on Substack.
This is another potentially important duality of optimisation, which we may have overlooked, and which I think Nature may be exploiting to manage risk.
#optimization #math #risk #biology
open.substack.com/pub/joestare...
This is another potentially important duality of optimisation, which we may have overlooked, and which I think Nature may be exploiting to manage risk.
#optimization #math #risk #biology
open.substack.com/pub/joestare...
Optimisation’s Shadow is Cryptographic
Why we need to explore another duality of optimisation
open.substack.com
November 13, 2025 at 2:02 PM
My new article Optimisation's Cryptographic Shadow is on Substack.
This is another potentially important duality of optimisation, which we may have overlooked, and which I think Nature may be exploiting to manage risk.
#optimization #math #risk #biology
open.substack.com/pub/joestare...
This is another potentially important duality of optimisation, which we may have overlooked, and which I think Nature may be exploiting to manage risk.
#optimization #math #risk #biology
open.substack.com/pub/joestare...
My new substack article is about how we can learn from biology about the incompleteness of economics, especially with respect to coping gracefully with the resource limits to growth.
Some species may self-regulate resource use to avoid population crashes.
Link in comments
#economics #biology
Some species may self-regulate resource use to avoid population crashes.
Link in comments
#economics #biology
November 6, 2025 at 1:20 PM
My new substack article is about how we can learn from biology about the incompleteness of economics, especially with respect to coping gracefully with the resource limits to growth.
Some species may self-regulate resource use to avoid population crashes.
Link in comments
#economics #biology
Some species may self-regulate resource use to avoid population crashes.
Link in comments
#economics #biology
You've probably heard of the prisoner's dilemma.
But what if the simplest possible games of cooperation actually require a minimum of 3 players?
My article
www.turingmeta.org/post/what-if...
Comments welcome
#gametheory #risk #limitstogrowth
But what if the simplest possible games of cooperation actually require a minimum of 3 players?
My article
www.turingmeta.org/post/what-if...
Comments welcome
#gametheory #risk #limitstogrowth
What if the simplest games to capture cooperation problems always involve 3 players?
In standard teaching of game theory we model the simplest possible games of cooperation as games in which there are only two players. While we do talk about one player games, these types of games are ...
www.turingmeta.org
November 3, 2025 at 8:07 PM
You've probably heard of the prisoner's dilemma.
But what if the simplest possible games of cooperation actually require a minimum of 3 players?
My article
www.turingmeta.org/post/what-if...
Comments welcome
#gametheory #risk #limitstogrowth
But what if the simplest possible games of cooperation actually require a minimum of 3 players?
My article
www.turingmeta.org/post/what-if...
Comments welcome
#gametheory #risk #limitstogrowth
Here's my thought experiment on the difference between organism and machine.
www.turingmeta.org/post/a-hypot...
It posits the nature of the coupling of the entity to the world and the specific risk pattern generated is the key difference between a more machine like versus a more organismal entity.
www.turingmeta.org/post/a-hypot...
It posits the nature of the coupling of the entity to the world and the specific risk pattern generated is the key difference between a more machine like versus a more organismal entity.
A hypothesis on the difference between 'organism' and 'machine'
As a result of the research, described in my book "On the Origin of Risk", I am developing a new theory of organisms based on the distinctive way that they manage risk compared to typical human design...
www.turingmeta.org
October 30, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Here's my thought experiment on the difference between organism and machine.
www.turingmeta.org/post/a-hypot...
It posits the nature of the coupling of the entity to the world and the specific risk pattern generated is the key difference between a more machine like versus a more organismal entity.
www.turingmeta.org/post/a-hypot...
It posits the nature of the coupling of the entity to the world and the specific risk pattern generated is the key difference between a more machine like versus a more organismal entity.
Reposted by Adam Timlett
Insurance is a business sector that can't ignore the bottom-line effects of climate chaos, which will likely increase. This means they are also a potentially key voice in driving policy change.
We've been talking with leaders in the field ... keep an eye out for more on this!
We've been talking with leaders in the field ... keep an eye out for more on this!
Climate change is undermining insurance markets, especially for the households that need coverage most.
Climate change is becoming an insurance crisis
Climate change is undermining insurance markets, especially for the households that need coverage most.
tcnv.link
October 30, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Insurance is a business sector that can't ignore the bottom-line effects of climate chaos, which will likely increase. This means they are also a potentially key voice in driving policy change.
We've been talking with leaders in the field ... keep an eye out for more on this!
We've been talking with leaders in the field ... keep an eye out for more on this!
Reposted by Adam Timlett
Reposted by Adam Timlett
We must adapt to protect our future.
We’re calling for a National Climate Resilience Plan to invest in:
📚 public education
🏗️ stronger infrastructure
🏘️ local funding
Sign the petition today: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...
#ClimateResilience #Adaptation #ClimateMajorityProject
We’re calling for a National Climate Resilience Plan to invest in:
📚 public education
🏗️ stronger infrastructure
🏘️ local funding
Sign the petition today: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...
#ClimateResilience #Adaptation #ClimateMajorityProject
September 30, 2025 at 5:38 PM
We must adapt to protect our future.
We’re calling for a National Climate Resilience Plan to invest in:
📚 public education
🏗️ stronger infrastructure
🏘️ local funding
Sign the petition today: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...
#ClimateResilience #Adaptation #ClimateMajorityProject
We’re calling for a National Climate Resilience Plan to invest in:
📚 public education
🏗️ stronger infrastructure
🏘️ local funding
Sign the petition today: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...
#ClimateResilience #Adaptation #ClimateMajorityProject
Reposted by Adam Timlett
Nature shows us how to adapt to threats.
This explores how the Climate Majority Project — and climate movements more widely can be more organismal in strategy and method.
A deeper dive into movement theory by Adam Timlett, Rupert Read & Joe Eastoe
→ climatemajorityproject.com/learning-from-nature/
This explores how the Climate Majority Project — and climate movements more widely can be more organismal in strategy and method.
A deeper dive into movement theory by Adam Timlett, Rupert Read & Joe Eastoe
→ climatemajorityproject.com/learning-from-nature/
Learning from Nature - Climate Majority Project
Learning from nature: How organisations like the Climate Majority Project are (and can be more) organismal in their strategic approach and methods By Adam Timlett, Rupert Read & Joe Eastoe Cover note ...
climatemajorityproject.com
September 19, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Nature shows us how to adapt to threats.
This explores how the Climate Majority Project — and climate movements more widely can be more organismal in strategy and method.
A deeper dive into movement theory by Adam Timlett, Rupert Read & Joe Eastoe
→ climatemajorityproject.com/learning-from-nature/
This explores how the Climate Majority Project — and climate movements more widely can be more organismal in strategy and method.
A deeper dive into movement theory by Adam Timlett, Rupert Read & Joe Eastoe
→ climatemajorityproject.com/learning-from-nature/
It was a pleasure to work with @rupertread.bsky.social and Joe Eastoe on this piece for the @climatemajority.bsky.social on how it already does, and also can do more, to be inspired by Nature and the science of cutting-edge biology, in how it organises.
climatemajorityproject.com/learning-fro...
climatemajorityproject.com/learning-fro...
Learning from Nature - Climate Majority Project
Learning from nature: How organisations like the Climate Majority Project are (and can be more) organismal in their strategic approach and methods By Adam Timlett, Rupert Read & Joe Eastoe Cover note This article is more ‘academic’ than most writing we do about or under the banner of the CM(P). The intended readership of
climatemajorityproject.com
September 18, 2025 at 8:07 AM
It was a pleasure to work with @rupertread.bsky.social and Joe Eastoe on this piece for the @climatemajority.bsky.social on how it already does, and also can do more, to be inspired by Nature and the science of cutting-edge biology, in how it organises.
climatemajorityproject.com/learning-fro...
climatemajorityproject.com/learning-fro...
Reposted by Adam Timlett
The ability of #cancer and immune cells to change their phenotype contributes to tumor progression and therapy resistance. @heidefordlab.bsky.social explores the mutual plasticity of cells in the tumor microenvironment and why this matters for the development of therapies 🧪 plos.io/4774Y7a
Masters of adaptation: How cancer and immune cell plasticity mediates tumor progression
The ability of cancer cells and immune cells cell to dynamically change their phenotype contributes to tumor progression and therapy resistance. This Essay explores the mutual plasticity of various ce...
plos.io
August 5, 2025 at 12:47 PM
The ability of #cancer and immune cells to change their phenotype contributes to tumor progression and therapy resistance. @heidefordlab.bsky.social explores the mutual plasticity of cells in the tumor microenvironment and why this matters for the development of therapies 🧪 plos.io/4774Y7a
The v. enjoyable 'Failure' by Stuart Firestein argues for plurality as a path to scientific discovery. Any formal comparisons of advantages of Plurality, Monism & Modularity as models? Aware of search, meta-search, QD, argument Bayes is meta model, a few other basic axioms in the literature. #math?
June 5, 2025 at 7:01 PM
The v. enjoyable 'Failure' by Stuart Firestein argues for plurality as a path to scientific discovery. Any formal comparisons of advantages of Plurality, Monism & Modularity as models? Aware of search, meta-search, QD, argument Bayes is meta model, a few other basic axioms in the literature. #math?
Reposted by Adam Timlett
I'll be in London - at Bookmarks bookshop - speaking about Ricardo's Dream on 6th June at 6.30pm.
Free tickets at the link. Please join me
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/authorsboo...
Free tickets at the link. Please join me
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/authorsboo...
authors@bookmarks Nat Dyer Ricardo's Dream
The fascinating story of David Ricardo, Adam Smith's only real rival as the 'founder of economics'
www.eventbrite.co.uk
May 9, 2025 at 11:50 AM
I'll be in London - at Bookmarks bookshop - speaking about Ricardo's Dream on 6th June at 6.30pm.
Free tickets at the link. Please join me
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/authorsboo...
Free tickets at the link. Please join me
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/authorsboo...
@philipcball.bsky.social hi, good to meet you at the science fair in Caterham the other day. Here's a link to a talk on how the meta modular organisation we see in biology addresses the problem of managing risk in a highly uncertain environment.
youtu.be/eCyAWZya5_g
youtu.be/eCyAWZya5_g
On the Origin of Risk: Decision Making Under Deep Uncertainty
YouTube video by Adam Timlett
youtu.be
May 5, 2025 at 1:36 PM
@philipcball.bsky.social hi, good to meet you at the science fair in Caterham the other day. Here's a link to a talk on how the meta modular organisation we see in biology addresses the problem of managing risk in a highly uncertain environment.
youtu.be/eCyAWZya5_g
youtu.be/eCyAWZya5_g
My talk to the Decision-Making Under Deep Uncertainty Group to show how deep uncertainty is managed radically differently by biological organisms than how we humans tend to try to manage such risk.
#risk #biology #uncertainty #complexity #decision-making
youtu.be/eCyAWZya5_g
#risk #biology #uncertainty #complexity #decision-making
youtu.be/eCyAWZya5_g
On the Origin of Risk: Decision Making Under Deep Uncertainty
YouTube video by Adam Timlett
youtu.be
May 3, 2025 at 10:38 PM
My talk to the Decision-Making Under Deep Uncertainty Group to show how deep uncertainty is managed radically differently by biological organisms than how we humans tend to try to manage such risk.
#risk #biology #uncertainty #complexity #decision-making
youtu.be/eCyAWZya5_g
#risk #biology #uncertainty #complexity #decision-making
youtu.be/eCyAWZya5_g
The Law of Regression to the Not so Mean:
Dealing with my paranoid streak in response to certain seemingly unlikely coincidences requires a thorough understanding of this law.
Dealing with my paranoid streak in response to certain seemingly unlikely coincidences requires a thorough understanding of this law.
April 1, 2025 at 5:34 PM
The Law of Regression to the Not so Mean:
Dealing with my paranoid streak in response to certain seemingly unlikely coincidences requires a thorough understanding of this law.
Dealing with my paranoid streak in response to certain seemingly unlikely coincidences requires a thorough understanding of this law.
Reposted by Adam Timlett
Why can't gradients be the solution to learning and more?
To have gradients you need a cost function
To have cost function you need to know *all* variables that matter & functional form & have function stable across time
This doesn't work for adaptive&autonomous biological systems
=> no gradients
To have gradients you need a cost function
To have cost function you need to know *all* variables that matter & functional form & have function stable across time
This doesn't work for adaptive&autonomous biological systems
=> no gradients
Normative models of plasticity - there are reasons why we learn and those reasons allow us to predict how we should learn. Part of a "logic of subfields" posts. open.substack.com/pub/kording/...
Normative models of plasticity
or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the gradient
open.substack.com
March 21, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Why can't gradients be the solution to learning and more?
To have gradients you need a cost function
To have cost function you need to know *all* variables that matter & functional form & have function stable across time
This doesn't work for adaptive&autonomous biological systems
=> no gradients
To have gradients you need a cost function
To have cost function you need to know *all* variables that matter & functional form & have function stable across time
This doesn't work for adaptive&autonomous biological systems
=> no gradients
Reposted by Adam Timlett
Looking forward to this discussion on RICARDO'S DREAM tomorrow at @cdsbath.bsky.social
I'll be speaking at this free, in-person event at University of Bath on Tuesday 25th February. Come along if you live nearby!
@uniofbath.bsky.social #RicardosDream
@uniofbath.bsky.social #RicardosDream
February 24, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Looking forward to this discussion on RICARDO'S DREAM tomorrow at @cdsbath.bsky.social
I'm excited to say "On the Origin of Risk" is now available. It's about learning how risk is managed in Nature so differently to how we currently do it as organisations and in society. It also offers a new perspective on risk for biologists.
#risk #Biology #economics #complexity amzn.eu/d/7ENAFn2
#risk #Biology #economics #complexity amzn.eu/d/7ENAFn2
February 19, 2025 at 5:05 PM
I'm excited to say "On the Origin of Risk" is now available. It's about learning how risk is managed in Nature so differently to how we currently do it as organisations and in society. It also offers a new perspective on risk for biologists.
#risk #Biology #economics #complexity amzn.eu/d/7ENAFn2
#risk #Biology #economics #complexity amzn.eu/d/7ENAFn2