Ben Fry
@benfry.com
Running https://fathom.info since 2010 / spent 22 years building https://processing.org and supporting its community / sometimes seen teaching at https://mit.edu
Reposted by Ben Fry
Reposted by Ben Fry
A recurrent theme in this excellent story about China’s progress is that people there regard Trump as essential to their success, including his ability to drive scientific talent from the US www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
September 13, 2026 at 12:32 AM
A recurrent theme in this excellent story about China’s progress is that people there regard Trump as essential to their success, including his ability to drive scientific talent from the US www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
We could call it “Open” AI or something like that
The right way to pace the frontier is to commit to a robust, open-source AI ecosystem, thereby diluting the power of these badly behaving frontier labs.
Oh boy, Dario has put up another insufferable post. darioamodei.com/post/we-must...
September 12, 2026 at 8:29 PM
We could call it “Open” AI or something like that
Reposted by Ben Fry
The right way to pace the frontier is to commit to a robust, open-source AI ecosystem, thereby diluting the power of these badly behaving frontier labs.
Oh boy, Dario has put up another insufferable post. darioamodei.com/post/we-must...
Dario Amodei — We Must Pace the Frontier
darioamodei.com
September 12, 2026 at 3:12 PM
The right way to pace the frontier is to commit to a robust, open-source AI ecosystem, thereby diluting the power of these badly behaving frontier labs.
News you can use:
“Noctuary is to night as diary is to day.”
www.wordnik.com/words/noctuary
(Or maybe it just seems more interesting after several hours of not being able to sleep)
“Noctuary is to night as diary is to day.”
www.wordnik.com/words/noctuary
(Or maybe it just seems more interesting after several hours of not being able to sleep)
It's newsletter day: this month's installment includes adder stones, Don Quixote's favorite book, and a link to all the links: buttondown.com/thingslearne...
September 12, 2026 at 10:57 AM
News you can use:
“Noctuary is to night as diary is to day.”
www.wordnik.com/words/noctuary
(Or maybe it just seems more interesting after several hours of not being able to sleep)
“Noctuary is to night as diary is to day.”
www.wordnik.com/words/noctuary
(Or maybe it just seems more interesting after several hours of not being able to sleep)
There's a 10% chance that Rowboat will kill us all before the end of the decade.
Until then, I hope you'll find it's drastically faster, more accurate, less expensive, and more fun than using an LLM to play with large datasets.
Our latest: buttondown.com/rowboat/arch...
Give it a try: rowboat.net
Until then, I hope you'll find it's drastically faster, more accurate, less expensive, and more fun than using an LLM to play with large datasets.
Our latest: buttondown.com/rowboat/arch...
Give it a try: rowboat.net
September 11, 2026 at 5:40 PM
There's a 10% chance that Rowboat will kill us all before the end of the decade.
Until then, I hope you'll find it's drastically faster, more accurate, less expensive, and more fun than using an LLM to play with large datasets.
Our latest: buttondown.com/rowboat/arch...
Give it a try: rowboat.net
Until then, I hope you'll find it's drastically faster, more accurate, less expensive, and more fun than using an LLM to play with large datasets.
Our latest: buttondown.com/rowboat/arch...
Give it a try: rowboat.net
As someone else said: “wake me up when an ‘agent escapes containment’ and starts paying off medical debt.”
Until then, it's all human error.
Until then, it's all human error.
I think we'd see a lot more urgency about regulating AI in Silicon Valley if the AI agents suddenly developed a sense of restorative justice, and instead of them threatening humanity with total extinction, they just wanted to redistribute wealth and reverse power hierarchies.
September 11, 2026 at 3:06 PM
As someone else said: “wake me up when an ‘agent escapes containment’ and starts paying off medical debt.”
Until then, it's all human error.
Until then, it's all human error.
Neat idea: instead of relying on attempts to perfect systems that will never be perfect, focus on warning when they're about to break down.
Used here for autonomous vehicles, but a broadly applicable approach to making complex systems more tractable.
news.mit.edu/2026/system-...
Used here for autonomous vehicles, but a broadly applicable approach to making complex systems more tractable.
news.mit.edu/2026/system-...
System helps humans predict when self-driving cars will make mistakes
The CW-Net technique explains the behavior of an autonomous vehicle, using concepts a human can easily understand. Researchers found these explanations helped drivers predict how a vehicle would behav...
news.mit.edu
September 10, 2026 at 10:41 AM
Neat idea: instead of relying on attempts to perfect systems that will never be perfect, focus on warning when they're about to break down.
Used here for autonomous vehicles, but a broadly applicable approach to making complex systems more tractable.
news.mit.edu/2026/system-...
Used here for autonomous vehicles, but a broadly applicable approach to making complex systems more tractable.
news.mit.edu/2026/system-...
The new Duo rumored to be announced by Apple today is looking sweeeet
September 9, 2026 at 4:43 PM
The new Duo rumored to be announced by Apple today is looking sweeeet
They're just trolling me for not donating last year, right?
Of all the institutions I would not have expected to lazily jump on this destructive LLM bandwagon…
Of all the institutions I would not have expected to lazily jump on this destructive LLM bandwagon…
September 5, 2026 at 11:05 PM
They're just trolling me for not donating last year, right?
Of all the institutions I would not have expected to lazily jump on this destructive LLM bandwagon…
Of all the institutions I would not have expected to lazily jump on this destructive LLM bandwagon…
Reposted by Ben Fry
From the folks behind rowboat.net:
"We want to make thoughtful products, where it’s clear that someone has spent time thinking about the hard parts of a task and has invested the time and effort into making that a smooth process."
"We want to make thoughtful products, where it’s clear that someone has spent time thinking about the hard parts of a task and has invested the time and effort into making that a smooth process."
i wrote this post about generative AI for the Fathom blog! the short answer is no, we have no interest in using it, but hopefully the post provides some interesting insight into why and how it interferes with our work.
www.fathom.info/notebook/260...
www.fathom.info/notebook/260...
A culture of work we believe in | Fathom Information Design
Katherine reflects on how we've been thinking and talking about generative AI in the studio.
www.fathom.info
January 13, 2026 at 6:33 PM
From the folks behind rowboat.net:
"We want to make thoughtful products, where it’s clear that someone has spent time thinking about the hard parts of a task and has invested the time and effort into making that a smooth process."
"We want to make thoughtful products, where it’s clear that someone has spent time thinking about the hard parts of a task and has invested the time and effort into making that a smooth process."
“After 2029 they increasingly turned their attention to much more difficult problems, like making an AI companion who could convincingly fake empathy and concern.”
www.math.brown.edu/reschwar/Sto...
www.math.brown.edu/reschwar/Sto...
www.math.brown.edu
September 4, 2026 at 2:42 PM
“After 2029 they increasingly turned their attention to much more difficult problems, like making an AI companion who could convincingly fake empathy and concern.”
www.math.brown.edu/reschwar/Sto...
www.math.brown.edu/reschwar/Sto...
We *just* finished migrating off of Harvest after its acquisition by Bending Spoons.
And now it's time to move off 1Password… www.theverge.com/tech/988536/...
And now it's time to move off 1Password… www.theverge.com/tech/988536/...
1Password wades into a right-wing mess after funding a Linux project
The controversy surrounds David Heinemeier Hansson, who has posted strident anti-vax and anti-immigrant views.
www.theverge.com
September 3, 2026 at 8:02 PM
We *just* finished migrating off of Harvest after its acquisition by Bending Spoons.
And now it's time to move off 1Password… www.theverge.com/tech/988536/...
And now it's time to move off 1Password… www.theverge.com/tech/988536/...
Reposted by Ben Fry
This summer, we welcomed Rekha as the latest member of our team!
Rekha is a developer and designer with a background in theoretical linguistics and interactive journalism.
Rekha is a developer and designer with a background in theoretical linguistics and interactive journalism.
September 2, 2026 at 8:59 PM
This summer, we welcomed Rekha as the latest member of our team!
Rekha is a developer and designer with a background in theoretical linguistics and interactive journalism.
Rekha is a developer and designer with a background in theoretical linguistics and interactive journalism.
Reposted by Ben Fry
I love to live in the neighborhood of Autechre Heights.
This is what living next door to a 30 megawatt data center sounds like.
September 2, 2026 at 8:14 PM
I love to live in the neighborhood of Autechre Heights.
Returning from vacation and happy to see that the squirrels were continuing to improve Rowboat while I was out.
“Inline representations” break up cells by category & color, making it easy to scan down a column and see what's similar & different. Now even easier w/ multi-column selection:
“Inline representations” break up cells by category & color, making it easy to scan down a column and see what's similar & different. Now even easier w/ multi-column selection:
Revisiting some old favorite datasets in Rowboat lately (*cough* Squirrels! *cough*), I've been appreciating some of our recent updates that make it much easier to work with and apply changes to multiple columns at the same time.
August 31, 2026 at 12:34 AM
Returning from vacation and happy to see that the squirrels were continuing to improve Rowboat while I was out.
“Inline representations” break up cells by category & color, making it easy to scan down a column and see what's similar & different. Now even easier w/ multi-column selection:
“Inline representations” break up cells by category & color, making it easy to scan down a column and see what's similar & different. Now even easier w/ multi-column selection:
Difficult to read this story of how the insane cuts to science funding affect the best people, and harm some of the best work being done: www.statnews.com/2026/04/07/b...
Archive link: archive.is/zsAF3
Archive link: archive.is/zsAF3
A star scientist showed that better genetics lessons could reduce racism. It was the death knell for his career
Brian Donovan had persuaded high school teachers and education researchers that prejudice might be ended by changing how genetics is taught.
www.statnews.com
August 21, 2026 at 12:50 PM
Difficult to read this story of how the insane cuts to science funding affect the best people, and harm some of the best work being done: www.statnews.com/2026/04/07/b...
Archive link: archive.is/zsAF3
Archive link: archive.is/zsAF3
Felt obligated to pick this up just as a thumbs up to the author for its title, but I'm half an hour in and we already have this banger from Paulina Borsook:
“As many political schools of thought do, these techno-libertarians make a philosophy out of a personality defect.”
“As many political schools of thought do, these techno-libertarians make a philosophy out of a personality defect.”
August 19, 2026 at 11:37 PM
Felt obligated to pick this up just as a thumbs up to the author for its title, but I'm half an hour in and we already have this banger from Paulina Borsook:
“As many political schools of thought do, these techno-libertarians make a philosophy out of a personality defect.”
“As many political schools of thought do, these techno-libertarians make a philosophy out of a personality defect.”
Thanks! and as it turns out, the piece I was preparing for the show was the original for the Nature cover:
August 19, 2026 at 1:54 PM
Thanks! and as it turns out, the piece I was preparing for the show was the original for the Nature cover:
Throwback from 2001… Had to revive an old project for an upcoming show, and in the process, ran across this old poster from around the same time.
August 19, 2026 at 11:51 AM
Throwback from 2001… Had to revive an old project for an upcoming show, and in the process, ran across this old poster from around the same time.
Banderas is every bit as interesting a character as one would hope, and somehow Helen is as good an interviewer as she is a writer.
Well worth reading:
Well worth reading:
I had a long, honestly pretty spectacular conversation with Antonio Banderas (!!!!) and i think you will really enjoy reading it www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
Antonio Banderas’s Acts of Faith
Antonio Banderas on meeting Stephen Sondheim, staging “Godspell” for the Pope, and the thrill, in the new Anthony Bourdain bio-pic, of playing someone “good.”
www.newyorker.com
August 17, 2026 at 11:53 AM
Banderas is every bit as interesting a character as one would hope, and somehow Helen is as good an interviewer as she is a writer.
Well worth reading:
Well worth reading:
Reposted by Ben Fry
An amazing solar display over the Swiss Alps, consisting of a 22° halo with sun dogs, a parhelic circle, along with a complex network of other rare phenomena, caused by sunlight interacting with ice crystals in the atmosphere.
📽: Yesthatsam | CC BY-SA 4.0
📽: Yesthatsam | CC BY-SA 4.0
August 14, 2026 at 10:18 AM
An amazing solar display over the Swiss Alps, consisting of a 22° halo with sun dogs, a parhelic circle, along with a complex network of other rare phenomena, caused by sunlight interacting with ice crystals in the atmosphere.
📽: Yesthatsam | CC BY-SA 4.0
📽: Yesthatsam | CC BY-SA 4.0
That we get $1.54 in economic activity from *giving away* $1 to people who are hungry might sound too good to be true (even if it makes sense from an economics standpoint), so I tracked down the study: www.ers.usda.gov/publications...
August 7, 2026 at 1:04 PM
That we get $1.54 in economic activity from *giving away* $1 to people who are hungry might sound too good to be true (even if it makes sense from an economics standpoint), so I tracked down the study: www.ers.usda.gov/publications...
Reposted by Ben Fry
SNAP has an outstanding ROI: every dollar we invest in SNAP generates $1.54 in economic activity. With SNAP cuts, people can’t continue to support these local grocers, so local businesses suffer. Everyone loses.
this is an actual problem
August 7, 2026 at 2:58 AM
SNAP has an outstanding ROI: every dollar we invest in SNAP generates $1.54 in economic activity. With SNAP cuts, people can’t continue to support these local grocers, so local businesses suffer. Everyone loses.
