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NYT on the Theory of Everything

Image: Alex Eben Meyer

Can a Computer Devise a Theory of Everything?
New York Times, Dennis Overbye. November 23, 2020.

On EFNs: At one point during a Zoom conversation, Dr. Thaler displayed what he called “a goofy cartoon” of the neural net that had been used for the quark-gluon project. It looked like a pile of multicolored rubber bands, but it represented several layers of processing, involving some 30,000 nodes, or “neurons,” where information was gathered and passed on.
On the EMD: Another feature of this new field, Dr. Thaler said, was that it provided a common language for researchers from vastly different fields of endeavor. It turned out that the mathematics involved in solving the collider problem were also applicable to optimizing shipping schedules for an outfit like Amazon.

Image: IAIFI

The NSF has announced the creation of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI) with an investment of $20 million over five years. IAIFI is a partnership between MIT, Harvard, Northeastern, and Tufts, and will be based at MIT and directed by Jesse Thaler.

Image: Chelsea Turner, MIT