Tristan Palmgren
@tristanpalmgren.bsky.social
Author of Marvel Prose Novels (Domino: Strays, Outlaw: Relentless, Siege of X-41), and Quietus and Terminus, science fiction novels set during the Black Death. Newest: Twilight Imperium: Voice of One, out now! Somehow on Bluesky now. They/them.
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
Life Is Asymmetric. The Scientists Who Figured Out Why Won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry www.wired.com/story/life-i...
Life Is Asymmetric. The Scientists Who Figured Out Why Won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Henri Kagan and Kensō Soai designed chemical reactions producing only one of the two mirror-image forms of a molecule—an important finding for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and other biological sub...
www.wired.com
October 8, 2026 at 10:48 AM
Life Is Asymmetric. The Scientists Who Figured Out Why Won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry www.wired.com/story/life-i...
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
The "SI" thing is was intended to provoke this exact sort of sniveling response from the courtiers, to train the oligarchs to humiliate themselves for Trump so they'll do it again later when it really matters.
BAIER: The president says 'SI.' Are you into SI or AI?
BEZOS: I do like SI, because 'artificial' is not a very flattering thing. Like, nobody wants an artificial sweetener, artificial flavoring.
BEZOS: I do like SI, because 'artificial' is not a very flattering thing. Like, nobody wants an artificial sweetener, artificial flavoring.
October 8, 2026 at 12:13 AM
The "SI" thing is was intended to provoke this exact sort of sniveling response from the courtiers, to train the oligarchs to humiliate themselves for Trump so they'll do it again later when it really matters.
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
I take this very personally, because this is my immediate community. My friends and colleagues' lives are being disrupted. The whole town of Champaign-Urbana, actually, is being attacked, because international scholars and students are a huge part of what makes it vibrant.
It's infuriating how the U.S. is treating our international researchers. We are so incredibly lucky that talented people want to come to our country to study, research, work, and build. Trump, Musk, and their cronies are destroying the best parts of science in the U.S.
October 7, 2026 at 8:27 PM
I take this very personally, because this is my immediate community. My friends and colleagues' lives are being disrupted. The whole town of Champaign-Urbana, actually, is being attacked, because international scholars and students are a huge part of what makes it vibrant.
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
It's infuriating how the U.S. is treating our international researchers. We are so incredibly lucky that talented people want to come to our country to study, research, work, and build. Trump, Musk, and their cronies are destroying the best parts of science in the U.S.
October 7, 2026 at 4:13 PM
It's infuriating how the U.S. is treating our international researchers. We are so incredibly lucky that talented people want to come to our country to study, research, work, and build. Trump, Musk, and their cronies are destroying the best parts of science in the U.S.
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
Last week: math is god’s beautiful letter to the universe
This week: we live in a universe that resembles a pug with several severe medical issues but is kinda cute in its own way nonetheless
This week: we live in a universe that resembles a pug with several severe medical issues but is kinda cute in its own way nonetheless
October 7, 2026 at 5:25 PM
Last week: math is god’s beautiful letter to the universe
This week: we live in a universe that resembles a pug with several severe medical issues but is kinda cute in its own way nonetheless
This week: we live in a universe that resembles a pug with several severe medical issues but is kinda cute in its own way nonetheless
Star Trek Voyager's bio-neural gel computers warned us that goo was Turing-complete.
October 7, 2026 at 3:23 PM
Star Trek Voyager's bio-neural gel computers warned us that goo was Turing-complete.
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
I understand being amazed, bewildered, upset, horrified, excited, depressed, and many other things about this. I do not understand people saying it should be ignored or isn't real. I don't see how you can claim it doesn't matter without also claiming pure math doesn't matter.
OpenAI just blooped hundreds of proofs and counterexamples to open problems: github.com/openai/math/...
Boggling.
Boggling.
math/preprints at main · openai/math
Contribute to openai/math development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
October 7, 2026 at 1:44 PM
I understand being amazed, bewildered, upset, horrified, excited, depressed, and many other things about this. I do not understand people saying it should be ignored or isn't real. I don't see how you can claim it doesn't matter without also claiming pure math doesn't matter.
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
Doesn't get much more transformational than this (if you're a mathematician). There will still be plenty for humans to do, but the nature of that work is going to be different.
OpenAI just blooped hundreds of proofs and counterexamples to open problems: github.com/openai/math/...
Boggling.
Boggling.
math/preprints at main · openai/math
Contribute to openai/math development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
October 7, 2026 at 2:17 PM
Doesn't get much more transformational than this (if you're a mathematician). There will still be plenty for humans to do, but the nature of that work is going to be different.
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
October 6, 2026 at 11:40 PM
Ominous
October 7, 2026 at 12:32 AM
Ominous
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
SpaceX is basically daring lenders to pony up $40 billion so it can buy Nvidia chips on what sounds like a cocktail napkin
www.ft.com/content/d3f5...
www.ft.com/content/d3f5...
October 6, 2026 at 11:30 PM
SpaceX is basically daring lenders to pony up $40 billion so it can buy Nvidia chips on what sounds like a cocktail napkin
www.ft.com/content/d3f5...
www.ft.com/content/d3f5...
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
i had a horrible nightmare that huggingface became a dating hookup site for agents+humans, then i wake up to this
October 6, 2026 at 4:16 PM
i had a horrible nightmare that huggingface became a dating hookup site for agents+humans, then i wake up to this
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
there is a deep moral and social rot in rural and red state america and people pointing it out are not the cause of it
October 6, 2026 at 5:34 AM
there is a deep moral and social rot in rural and red state america and people pointing it out are not the cause of it
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
very tired of being told it is the responsibility of urban democratic voters never to risk possibly maybe by chance seeming less than respectful of rural red state life and then watching thousands in nebraska cheer on the president joking about a nuclear strike on me and millions of my neighbors
October 6, 2026 at 4:05 AM
very tired of being told it is the responsibility of urban democratic voters never to risk possibly maybe by chance seeming less than respectful of rural red state life and then watching thousands in nebraska cheer on the president joking about a nuclear strike on me and millions of my neighbors
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
Saying he'd be cool with Iran nuking my home city is pretty bad but not quite as bad as when Hillary said some trump supporters were deplorable so I can see why the media turned the latter into a major scandal and not the former
BREAKING: In Nebraska rally, Trump just suggested he would be unbothered to see Iran "take out" LA or San Diego:
“They could take out a city,” he said. “Let them take—Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. That’s—this is a very small price to pay."
“They could take out a city,” he said. “Let them take—Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. That’s—this is a very small price to pay."
October 6, 2026 at 2:48 AM
Saying he'd be cool with Iran nuking my home city is pretty bad but not quite as bad as when Hillary said some trump supporters were deplorable so I can see why the media turned the latter into a major scandal and not the former
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
Having basic philosophical humility is treated as AI psychosis. my entire takeaway from undergrad philosophy is that we have very little resolved!
it is really fascinating how LLMs make virtually everyone say things which are enormously controversial as though they are solved problems
Things like the ability to feel pain create moral obligations.
Communicating and problem solving don’t confer moral status
So the ability to mimick language and problem solving methods doesn’t create any moral obligations
Communicating and problem solving don’t confer moral status
So the ability to mimick language and problem solving methods doesn’t create any moral obligations
October 5, 2026 at 8:58 PM
Having basic philosophical humility is treated as AI psychosis. my entire takeaway from undergrad philosophy is that we have very little resolved!
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
I unfortunately have to monitor Twitter for work somewhat regularly and I was struck today that while we think of it here as a radicalization engine (and it surely is that too), it also serves as a nihilism factory. Everything is toxicity, doom, cringe, betrayal - nothing can be authentic or earnest
"Against edgelordism in all its forms" is becoming a foundational principle for me. Civilization is impossible without an unflinching commitment to pro-social behavior and a willingness to marginalize any deviation.
October 5, 2026 at 7:43 PM
I unfortunately have to monitor Twitter for work somewhat regularly and I was struck today that while we think of it here as a radicalization engine (and it surely is that too), it also serves as a nihilism factory. Everything is toxicity, doom, cringe, betrayal - nothing can be authentic or earnest
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
!there in go NOT Do
Genuinely concerned about what's happening to the space-time continuum in this toilet.
October 5, 2026 at 3:04 PM
!there in go NOT Do
The Judge in Who Framed Roger Rabbit was so viscerally unpleasant that for a long time even as an adult, I never wanted to see that movie again just because the memories were so off-putting.
In honor of scary media month: what is the first piece of media you remember truly frightening you as a child?
October 5, 2026 at 12:54 PM
The Judge in Who Framed Roger Rabbit was so viscerally unpleasant that for a long time even as an adult, I never wanted to see that movie again just because the memories were so off-putting.
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
Fascism, neo- or otherwise, isn't like an oppressive hereditary monarch.
We're dealing with a mass movement. Anti-democracy, anti-rights, anti-liberal. In numerous countries, with considerable transnational solidarity.
For example, this crowd wasn't reluctantly forced into it. They're ecstatic.
We're dealing with a mass movement. Anti-democracy, anti-rights, anti-liberal. In numerous countries, with considerable transnational solidarity.
For example, this crowd wasn't reluctantly forced into it. They're ecstatic.
October 5, 2026 at 12:21 PM
Fascism, neo- or otherwise, isn't like an oppressive hereditary monarch.
We're dealing with a mass movement. Anti-democracy, anti-rights, anti-liberal. In numerous countries, with considerable transnational solidarity.
For example, this crowd wasn't reluctantly forced into it. They're ecstatic.
We're dealing with a mass movement. Anti-democracy, anti-rights, anti-liberal. In numerous countries, with considerable transnational solidarity.
For example, this crowd wasn't reluctantly forced into it. They're ecstatic.
Reposted by Tristan Palmgren
Americans picked Trump II, and their biggest objection is high prices.
Hungary chose Orban, and their eventual big objection was corruption.
Erdogan and Modi won multiple terms.
Brazilians about to go Bolsonaro again.
Not always free and fair, but yeah, millions want it. Wouldn’t work otherwise.
Hungary chose Orban, and their eventual big objection was corruption.
Erdogan and Modi won multiple terms.
Brazilians about to go Bolsonaro again.
Not always free and fair, but yeah, millions want it. Wouldn’t work otherwise.
I do think this should put some of the hand-wringing over the uniquely sinful American electorate, uniquely feckless institutions, etc in perspective. The truth is that there is a large trans-national constituency of people who actively want this. They aren’t deceived. They want this.
On the one hand, it’s comforting to know that Americans aren’t uniquely stupid, voters everywhere have skulls filled with mush and worms. On the other hand, global fascism is probably not an ideal state of affairs.
October 5, 2026 at 11:47 AM
Americans picked Trump II, and their biggest objection is high prices.
Hungary chose Orban, and their eventual big objection was corruption.
Erdogan and Modi won multiple terms.
Brazilians about to go Bolsonaro again.
Not always free and fair, but yeah, millions want it. Wouldn’t work otherwise.
Hungary chose Orban, and their eventual big objection was corruption.
Erdogan and Modi won multiple terms.
Brazilians about to go Bolsonaro again.
Not always free and fair, but yeah, millions want it. Wouldn’t work otherwise.