My Italian mom used to say “inshallah” all the time. She was an atheist who married a non-practicing muslim and just preferred it as an alternative to “let’s hope so.”
#StupidSuez@diplomatofnight.com · 5d agoWow, you got us! Arabs say Inshallah!
Ary Shalizi
@unsequenced.bsky.social
Biologist, book nerd, parent, hype skeptic in no particular order. Phenotypic screening for cell and chemical biology. Also, random book reviews at link. unsequenced.life
#StupidSuez@diplomatofnight.com · 5d ago
2026 book thread, pt. 17 An actually interesting, well written book about aging, and how different it looks across phyla: Steven Austad's "Methuselah's Zoo." 🧪 #booksky
Achieving organism
Steven Austad’s delightful Methuselah’s Zoo is worth reading even if you don’t care about aging or longevity. It’s an engrossing work of natural history, detailing the very …
unsequenced.life
Ary Shalizi@unsequenced.bsky.social · 4w ago2026 book thread, pt. 16 The summer of aging books continues. Next up: Eric Topol’s ”Super Agers,” which is very well sourced. 🧪 #booksky unsequenced.life/2026/07/10/s...
2026 book thread, pt. 16 The summer of aging books continues. Next up: Eric Topol’s ”Super Agers,” which is very well sourced. 🧪 #booksky unsequenced.life/2026/07/10/s...
You can’t spell “aging” without “AI,” amirite?
Super Agers, by Eric Topol (2025, Simon and Schuster, 464p.) In 1 sentence: Worth it for the footnotes. Super Agers left me ambivalent. It’s quite different from the first three books I read for Cr…
unsequenced.life
Ary Shalizi@unsequenced.bsky.social · last mo.2026 book thread, pt. 15 A bit longtermist/EA coded, but a well-written survey of aging biology nonetheless. Ageless (2020), by Andrew Steele. #booksky
Before kids, the neighborhood running store was the center of my social life, because they sponsored saturday trail runs and thursday fun runs with a happy hour after…
Jay Willis@jaywillis.net · 4w agoYou guys are never gonna believe this, but going to a brick-and-mortar running store and getting sized by employees who know what they're doing and can recommend brands and models for you is a WAY better strategy than Googling "Nike running shoes" and buying whatever's on sale
Matilda the Musical, but Ms. Honey's parents are eschatologists...
I just told my older daughter that a word was “cromulent,” and she understood the meaning from context immediately. But she has no idea of the word‘s origin, and I’m not sure if I should tell her…
2026 book thread, pt. 15 A bit longtermist/EA coded, but a well-written survey of aging biology nonetheless. Ageless (2020), by Andrew Steele. #booksky
Possible, plausible, practical, preferable?
Ageless, by Andrew Steele, stumbles a bit out of the gate, but is ultimately a charming exploration of the biology of aging and possible routes to intervention. Worth a read.
unsequenced.life
Ary Shalizi@unsequenced.bsky.social · last mo.2026 book thread, pt. Some books about aging are really, really bad! For example, “The Science and Technology of Growing Young,” which is too on the nose for satire. Read @adambecker.bsky.social instead! 💙📚
2026 book thread, pt. Some books about aging are really, really bad! For example, “The Science and Technology of Growing Young,” which is too on the nose for satire. Read @adambecker.bsky.social instead! 💙📚
Resistance is futile
There’s optimism about where science can take us, and then there’s Sergey Young’s The Science and Technology of Growing Young: An Insider’s Guide to the Breakthroughs that W…
unsequenced.life
Ary Shalizi@unsequenced.bsky.social · 2mo ago2026 book thread, pt 13. A fascinating collection of key papers in biology I found on my mom's bookshelf, "Modern Biology: It's Conceptual Foundations." By Elof Carlson, published in 1967. 💙📚 #histstm
I know I'm a nerd, but I'm not THAT kind of nerd! What's up with the ads I'm getting served these days?
2026 book thread, pt 13. A fascinating collection of key papers in biology I found on my mom's bookshelf, "Modern Biology: It's Conceptual Foundations." By Elof Carlson, published in 1967. 💙📚 #histstm
Those were the good old days…
Modern Biology: Its Conceptual Foundations, a 1967 compendium of thirty landmark papers from the 17th-20th century, shows how the central ideas of biology have been remarkably stable for more than …
unsequenced.life
Ary Shalizi@unsequenced.bsky.social · 2mo ago2026 book thread, pt 12. Since I nominally work on aging biology, thought I'd spend the summer doing a deep dive on books about aging and lifespan extension. First up: Why We Die, by Venki Ramakrishnan. Actually, quite good, probably because he is not a True Believer. 💙📚
2026 book thread, pt 12. Since I nominally work on aging biology, thought I'd spend the summer doing a deep dive on books about aging and lifespan extension. First up: Why We Die, by Venki Ramakrishnan. Actually, quite good, probably because he is not a True Believer. 💙📚
Why we live
The first book of Critical Aging Summer is probably the best, Why We Die, by Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan. An accessible introduction to the biology of aging, with a thoughtful discussion of t…
unsequenced.life
Ary Shalizi@unsequenced.bsky.social · 3mo agoWhoops! I wish it was 2010, but that was actually pt. 10. of my 2026 book thread. Anyway, here is pt. 11. Book club with one of my daughters, The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien. 💙📚
It will take decades to recover from this. Whenever I hear @edzitron.com talk about AI capex, I convert it into "how many NIH annual budgets is that?" If the $800bn+ estimated spend in 2026 is accurate, that's a quarter century of NIH research. All the grants. All the scientists. 1/n
Derek Lowe@dereklowe.bsky.social · 2mo agoAn unapologetically angry post about what’s being done to US science:
Whoops! I wish it was 2010, but that was actually pt. 10. of my 2026 book thread. Anyway, here is pt. 11. Book club with one of my daughters, The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien. 💙📚
The Fellowship of the MacGuffin
Reading Tolkien to my daughter, or The Best Book Club Goes Back to Middle Earth.
unsequenced.life
Ary Shalizi@unsequenced.bsky.social · 3mo ago2010 book thread, pt. 10. Even a bad book can take you interesting places. I really disliked this one about synthetic biology. But it is an interesting starting point for a deep dive on the ideology of synthetic biology, and a certain kind pop science book. Higher Animals, by Michael Specter 💙📚
Also, why people should stop quoting that one line from Jurassic Park about "not stopping to think if they should..." Since well before recombinant DNA, there have been attempts to justify messing with biology in quite substantial ways.
Ary Shalizi@unsequenced.bsky.social · 3mo ago2010 book thread, pt. 10. Even a bad book can take you interesting places. I really disliked this one about synthetic biology. But it is an interesting starting point for a deep dive on the ideology of synthetic biology, and a certain kind pop science book. Higher Animals, by Michael Specter 💙📚
2010 book thread, pt. 10. Even a bad book can take you interesting places. I really disliked this one about synthetic biology. But it is an interesting starting point for a deep dive on the ideology of synthetic biology, and a certain kind pop science book. Higher Animals, by Michael Specter 💙📚
Hopemaxxing, Hypemaxxing, Fearmaxxing
Did you know that synthetic biology is going to save the world?Or possibly destroy it?Maybe both!Or neither, you know, whatever. It depends. But it’s going to change everything, and you bette…
unsequenced.life
Ary Shalizi@unsequenced.bsky.social · 3mo ago2026 book thread, pt. 9. A charming book about cephalopod cognition, which proved a nice palate cleanser after Blindsight. Other Minds, by Peter Godfrey-Smith. 💙📚
knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-a... Now up at @knightcolumbia.org - Cosma Shalizi and myself on "AI as Social Technology." It says that AI models are really a technology of social mediation that allow humans to connect with thoughts of other humans. Short-ish thread with major points follows.
AI as Social Technology
knightcolumbia.org
2026 book thread, pt. 9. A charming book about cephalopod cognition, which proved a nice palate cleanser after Blindsight. Other Minds, by Peter Godfrey-Smith. 💙📚
Eight arms and nine minds
Okay, the obvious tease here would be to quote from “Octopus’s Garden.” I won’t do that. But here’s a fun book about cephalopod behavior.Other Minds, by Peter Godfrey-…
unsequenced.life
Ary Shalizi@unsequenced.bsky.social · 3mo ago2026 book thread, pt. 8. The appeal of so-called "hard sci-fi" still eludes me. Blindsight, by Peter Watts. 💙📚
My fat thumbs accidentally typed "Cthappell Roan," and now I can't stop gibbering about the eldritch horrors of the Pink Shoggoth Club...
2026 book thread, pt. 8. The appeal of so-called "hard sci-fi" still eludes me. Blindsight, by Peter Watts. 💙📚
Stochastic parrots in spaaace!
Hard sci-fi full of big ideas and unpleasant people. Pew! Pew!
unsequenced.life
Ary Shalizi@unsequenced.bsky.social · 3mo ago2026 book thread, pt. 7. The very recognizable world of 100 years ago in New York. Manhattan Transfer, by John Dos Passos. 💙📚
2026 book thread, pt. 7. The very recognizable world of 100 years ago in New York. Manhattan Transfer, by John Dos Passos. 💙📚
Same as it ever was
Have you seen New York? Well, the book is better. John Dos Passos introduces us to the people and problems of New York City in the present day, a century ago.
unsequenced.life
Ary Shalizi@unsequenced.bsky.social · 4mo ago2026 book thread, pt. 6. Better living through biology... 💙📚
2026 book thread, pt. 6. Better living through biology... 💙📚
At once marginal and central
In The Age of Living Machines, Susan Hockfield provides an optimistic introduction to the many ways biology could upend multiple industries. The science is explained clearly, and the use cases are …
unsequenced.life
Ary Shalizi@unsequenced.bsky.social · 5mo ago2026 book thread, pt. 5. Two versions of the same story, told 150 years apart... 💙📚
So, not a book, but I would say the Jason Bourne movies reinvented the spy genre. Just look at how the 007 franchise pivoted in response!
Kingfisher & Wombat@tkingfisher.com · 4mo agoApropos of a largely unrelated discussion…you know how there’s always someone saying they’re gonna reinvent a genre? Can anybody think of an example of a genre *actually* being reinvented? I’ve got Tolkien, Star Wars, and, if I’m being super generous, Lovecraft.
Unfortunately, the Overton Window of this little free library shifted dramatically after I said "Oh dang, a complete Penguin Classics set of Kapital?!?!" 💙📚
So I'm reading LoTR to my 8yo, and I needed to do different voices so she could keep the characters straight. But I only know two British accents (Michael Caine as upper class confidant, or Michael Caine as lower class scoundrel), so I had to come up with some other ones. As a result, she will now
2026 book thread, pt. 5. Two versions of the same story, told 150 years apart... 💙📚
Theme and Variations
The journey of Huck and James, as imagined by Samuel and Percival.
unsequenced.life
Ary Shalizi@unsequenced.bsky.social · 5mo ago2026 book thread, pt. 4. Aldous Huxley's last novel was definitely less fun than reading The Hobbit to my 8yo. 💙📚
2026 book thread, pt. 4. Aldous Huxley's last novel was definitely less fun than reading The Hobbit to my 8yo. 💙📚
Fantasy Island
Aldous Huxley’s final novel offers readers the utopian alternative to Brave New World they never asked for: His brother Julian’s Transhumanism.
unsequenced.life
Ary Shalizi@unsequenced.bsky.social · 6mo ago2026 book thread, pt. 3. Reading The Hobbit with my daughters. 💙📚
Reposting because the heart is not an appropriate response.
Stoner Philly Fan@stonerphillyfan.bsky.social · 5mo agoFor most people, stable employment is disappearing and being replaced by precarious, low-paid work. Stability is a thing of the past now. Over 2 billion workers worldwide have no job security or benefits.