James King
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jamesking.io
James King
@jamesking.io
76 followers 130 following 94 posts
Digital product designer from London. Founder at https://science-practice.com and co-founder at https://fora.health. Contributor to the Ergodicity Economics research community. https://jamesking.io
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jamesking.io
James King @jamesking.io · Jul 1
This is a speculative video I made in 2010 about the difference between living and non-living things.

Inspired by today's news of the SpudCell from Adamala et al., I've upscaled the video to 4K and I'm reposting it to YouTube.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRoI...
Cellularity
YouTube video by James King
www.youtube.com
jamesking.io
New Audiolog episode: Science practices

Listen: https://audiolog.jamesking.io/2026-09-15/
Science practices
Clips from Bruno Latour, Michael Lewis, Brian Wynne and Robert Miles.
audiolog.jamesking.io
September 15, 2026 at 2:58 PM
jamesking.io
Stop motion animation?! www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtr5...
Wildwood – Official Trailer
YouTube video by LAIKA Studios
www.youtube.com
September 12, 2026 at 2:01 PM
Reposted by James King
macwright.com
observable's community is just stacked with talent
observablehq.com Observable @observablehq.com · 9d
Simulation of binary black holes.

Original concept by Jeremy Schnittman and Brian P. Powell svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13831

Relativistic GLSL ray-tracing notebook by @nxrix.bsky.social observablehq.com/@nxrix/binar...

Starfield & orbit controls by @laotzunami.bsky.social observablehq.com/d/cca8d2013f...
September 7, 2026 at 9:56 PM
jamesking.io
New Audiolog episode: Andrew Pickering's philosophy of science

Listen: https://audiolog.jamesking.io/2026-09-08/
Andrew Pickering's philosophy of science
David Cayley interviews the philosopher of science, Andrew Pickering.
audiolog.jamesking.io
September 8, 2026 at 11:26 AM
jamesking.io
This week's London Review of TikToks is particularly good. www.undermanager.com/the-london-r...
The London Review of TikToks - special complexity edition
I was recently very annoyed by an episode of Past, Present, Future about how short-form video is a Bad Idea. It was lazy and silly and I vowed to make a short form video rebutting it all. (I haven't ...
www.undermanager.com
September 8, 2026 at 8:06 AM
Reposted by James King
observablehq.com
For more than a year, we’ve been quietly building an all-new Observable. Today, that new Observable is live on observablehq.com. Read Mike @ocks.org’s announcement: observablehq.com/@observableh...
A screenshot of the new Observable interface, showing a notebook visualizing “Bollinger bands”. Several interface elements are labeled. Along the top: workspace menu, new notebook button, user menu. Along the right side: file attachments, dependencies, comments, settings, enable tinkering, show AI. In the interior: cell inserter, cell menu, cell toolbar.
September 1, 2026 at 9:02 PM
jamesking.io
New post: Where to put the emphasis

https://jamesking.io/2026/08/18/emphasis
Where to put the emphasis
Some links on the importance of emphasis.
jamesking.io
August 19, 2026 at 9:13 AM
jamesking.io
New Audiolog episode: The glitch in The Matrix

Listen: https://audiolog.jamesking.io/2026-08-17/
The glitch in The Matrix
Clips from Jeremy Grantham, Robert Miles and Patrick Boyle.
audiolog.jamesking.io
August 18, 2026 at 9:08 AM
Reposted by James King
opeters.bsky.social
Nick Hanauer on how the ergodicity problem in economics informs his thinking about inequality.

youtube.com/shorts/cOhbe...
Monopoly Economy: Why Markets Aren't Ergodic #shorts
YouTube video by Blackbook Protocol
youtube.com
August 11, 2026 at 3:32 PM
Reposted by James King
observablehq.com
We’ve been rebuilding the editor atop the foundation of Notebook Kit and portable files in an open format. You can’t necessarily tell yet, since there’s no button… but thanks to James for seeing it!

See also @nxrix.bsky.social’s remarkable depicted notebook: new.observablehq.com/@nxrix/binar...
jamesking.io James King @jamesking.io · Aug 3
I am sure that @observablehq.com will add this feature soon, but until then…

I made a tool that exports Observable Notebooks 2.0 documents from the new Observable site. Useful for editing locally in Observable Desktop.

tools.jamesking.io/observable-n...
August 4, 2026 at 11:01 AM
jamesking.io
New post: Simulating geometric Brownian motion

https://jamesking.io/2026/08/03/geometric-brownian-motion
Simulating geometric Brownian motion
Geometric Brownian motion is a frequently used modelling tool in finance and economics (especially [Ergodicity Economics](https://ergodicityeconomics.com/)), but it can be tricky to understand and implement.
jamesking.io
August 3, 2026 at 6:26 PM
jamesking.io
I am sure that @observablehq.com will add this feature soon, but until then…

I made a tool that exports Observable Notebooks 2.0 documents from the new Observable site. Useful for editing locally in Observable Desktop.

tools.jamesking.io/observable-n...
August 3, 2026 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by James King
opeters.bsky.social
I just checked, and you can get the book for EUR 5.17 at the moment:
www.kennys.ie/shop/fortune...
July 29, 2026 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by James King
tomgauld.bsky.social
My latest cartoon for @newscientist.com. Inspired by recent news about the SpudCell. NS subscribers can read about it here: www.newscientist.com/article/2532...
Title: The artificial cell's diary Panel 1: An oval green cell with a face opens its eyes. Caption: Woke up to the scientists discussing whether I was alive or just exhibiting some of the symptoms. Panel 2: The cell looks thoughtful Caption: A bit heavy for first thing in the morning. Panel 3: The cell eats some little dots in the liquid around it. Caption: Had a swim, then ate some of the molecule soup that I live in. My day is pretty much all soup-based. Panels 4: The cell looks uncomfortable Caption: Then I began to feel rather odd. Panel 5 and 6: the cell hseems to be splitting in two Caption: But, I saved the big news for last: Panel 7: The cell smiles. A new, smaller cell smiles back. Caption: I made a new friend!
July 29, 2026 at 10:33 AM
jamesking.io
Just finished reading the 20th anniversary edition of Fortune’s Formula by William Poundstone. It is such a good book. The new edition has an extra part, titled Ergodicity, which covers the work of Ole Peters and others.
The cover of William Poundstone’s book, Fortune’s Formula, 20th Anniversary edition.
July 29, 2026 at 10:41 AM
Reposted by James King
opeters.bsky.social
If you’re interested in — I was going to say ergodicity, then I thought ‘decisions theory’, and now I’m settling on — life?, have a look at the 20th anniversary edition of William Poundstone’s classic Fortune’s Formula.

It has a brand new part about the rise of ergodicity economics.
July 25, 2026 at 8:59 AM
Reposted by James King
opeters.bsky.social
Interesting exercise: use ergodicity economics to determine the conditions under which the answers are rational.
yougov.co.uk YouGov @yougov.co.uk · Jul 23
If you had a choice between instantly receiving £50,000 or a 50% chance to win £1m, which would you pick?

£50,000: 73%
50/50 chance of winning £1m: 21%

yougov.com/en-gb/daily-...
July 25, 2026 at 7:54 AM
jamesking.io
New Audiolog episode: St. Petersburg Paradoxing

Listen: https://audiolog.jamesking.io/2026-07-20/
St. Petersburg Paradoxing
Clips from Jeremy Grantham, Alexander Altmann, Gary Stevenson, Sam Bankman-Fried and Sam Neil.
audiolog.jamesking.io
July 20, 2026 at 12:52 PM
jamesking.io
New Audiolog episode: Compressed representations

Listen: https://audiolog.jamesking.io/2026-07-15/
Compressed representations
Clips from Grant Sanderson, Money Stuff and The Rest is Entertainment.
audiolog.jamesking.io
July 15, 2026 at 1:53 PM
Reposted by James King
observablehq.com
Here @fil.rezo.net reproduces @climatecasino.net’s chart, using warped gridlines to represent both the absolute temperature and the deviation from the historical mean for each day of the year. new.observablehq.com/@fil/godzill...
A line chart with an x-axis showing days of the year, from start of January to end of December; a left y-axis showing temperature, from 22 to 31 ºC; and a right axis showing deviation, from -3σ to 4σ. An orange line shows the mean, starting the year around 26.3 ºC and peaking in May around 27.8 ºC. Faint blue lines show a huge amount of historical data. A bold red line representing 2026 begins the year below the mean, just below 26 ºC, and continues to present day far above the mean, 29.4 ºC. Gray gridlines get “pinched” in the middle, representing narrower summer deviations, highlighting that the current temperature is almost 3.5σ above the mean.
July 13, 2026 at 10:52 PM
jamesking.io
Enjoyed Grant Sanderson's Config talk on "Designing Math". Its an overview of his approach to exposition and teaching.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLSL...
Designing Math ft. Grant Sanderson (3Blue1Brown) I Config 2026
YouTube video by Figma
www.youtube.com
July 2, 2026 at 1:07 PM
Reposted by James King
jamesking.io
This is a speculative video I made in 2010 about the difference between living and non-living things.

Inspired by today's news of the SpudCell from Adamala et al., I've upscaled the video to 4K and I'm reposting it to YouTube.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRoI...
Cellularity
YouTube video by James King
www.youtube.com
July 1, 2026 at 11:17 PM
jamesking.io
This is a speculative video I made in 2010 about the difference between living and non-living things.

Inspired by today's news of the SpudCell from Adamala et al., I've upscaled the video to 4K and I'm reposting it to YouTube.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRoI...
Cellularity
YouTube video by James King
www.youtube.com
July 1, 2026 at 11:17 PM
Reposted by James King
eaterofsun.bsky.social
The @economist.com version of today's #SpudCell story (gift link) www.economist.com/science-and-...
Scientists have built a cell from the ground up
What do you call an organism with no evolutionary ancestors? SpudCell, apparently
www.economist.com
July 1, 2026 at 6:30 PM
jamesking.io
@eikofried.bsky.social. Great website! I love this detail in particular. No idea how you did it, though!
jamesking.io James King @jamesking.io · Jun 30
No, the nav is not a png. Yes, the text is selectable. Yes, including the "o"s. eiko-fried.com
A screenshot of Eiko Fried's website, cropped in close to show the navigation. Each "o" in the text of this navigation (Eik"o", Ab"o"ut, Bl"o"g etc…) has been replaced with a circular dot, representing a node in a simplified network. These are connected with other nodes outside of the text with lines that represent edges in the network.
July 1, 2026 at 11:31 AM