---
title: September 2019 News
description: September 2019 Gwern.net newsletter with 2 behavioral genetics analyses and links on AI text generation, Registered Reports, political polarization, and history of technology; 4 movie reviews.
created: 2019-08-03
status: finished
confidence: log
css-extension: dropcaps-de-zs
backlink: False
...

This is the September 2019 edition of [the Gwern.net newsletter](https://gwern.substack.com/ "‘Gwern.net newsletter (Substack subscription page)’, Gwern 2013"); previous, [August 2019](/newsletter/2019/08 "‘August 2019 News’, Gwern 2019") ([archives](/doc/newsletter/index)).
This is a collation of links and summary of major changes, overlapping with my [Changelog](/changelog); brought to you by my donors on [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/gwern).

# Writings

- [Sperm selection as minor enhancement to embryo selection](/embryo-selection#sperm-phenotype-selection "Sperm can be selected on traits such as mobility, which are measures of quality. These may be correlated with genetics for adult traits, and one can select from billions of sperm. Estimating the gain, it is probably worthwhile but small.")
- [On Selective Emigration and Personality Trait Change in Scandinavia](/note/statistic#selective-emigration-and-personality-trait-change "‘Statistical Notes § Selective Emigration and Personality Trait Change’, Gwern 2014")
- **Gwern.net**: added Bitcoin support to [`Inflation.hs`](/static/build/Inflation.hs "‘InflationAdjuster’, Gwern 2019"); CSS optimizations to cut mobile load time by half; width-full image support

# Media
## Links

**Genetics**:

- [Everything Is Heritable]{.smallcaps}:

    - ["Genetic 'General Intelligence', Objectively Determined and Measured"](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/766600.full), de la Fuente et al 2019 (the [UKBB](!W) cognitive measures properly analyzed using [genetic correlations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_correlation), allowing better prediction of the genetic _g_ 'generalist genes' and also test-specific cognitive performances)
    - ["Social and non-social autism symptoms and trait domains are genetically dissociable"](https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-019-0558-4), Warrier et al 2019 (more evidence that embryo selection for intelligence would not also lead to greater social dysfunctionality/autism)
    - ["The Genetics of Human Skin and Hair Pigmentation"](/doc/genetics/heritable/2019-pavan.pdf), Pavan & Sturm 2019
    - ["Extreme inbreeding in a European ancestry sample from the contemporary UK population"](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-11724-6), Yengo et al 2019 (>10% ROH → −0.3--0.7SD on 7 traits like height/intelligence)
    - [UKBB announces WGS of all _n_ = 500,000 participants](https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/learn-more-about-uk-biobank/news/uk-biobank-leads-the-way-in-genetics-research-to-tackle-chronic-diseases-1 "UK Biobank leads the way in genetics research to tackle chronic diseases")
    - ["A Prospective Analysis of Genetic Variants Associated with Human Lifespan"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6723124/), Wright et al 2019
- [Engineering]{.smallcaps}:

    - ["Controlled modeling of human epiblast and amnion development using stem cells"](/doc/genetics/gametogenesis/2019-zheng-2.pdf), Zheng et al 2019 (creation of quasi-embryos from stem cells; towards IES; media: [TR](https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/09/11/133089/meet-the-artificial-embryos-being-called-uncanny-and-spectacular/ "Meet the artificial embryos being called 'uncanny' and 'spectacular': Researchers are getting close to manufacturing viable human embryos from stem cells. They say there needs to be a law against turning them into people"), [Nature](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02563-y "Human embryo implantation modelled in microfluidic channels: An innovative microfluidic device has enabled the modeling of the events that occur in human embryos when they implant in the wall of the uterus. It could be used to help understand early pregnancy loss."))
    - ["The Perfect Milk Machine: How Big Data Transformed the Dairy Industry"](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/05/the-perfect-milk-machine-how-big-data-transformed-the-dairy-industry/256423/ "Dairy scientists are the Gregor Mendels of the genomics age, developing new methods for understanding the link between genes and living things, all while quadrupling the average cow's milk production since your parents were born.") (for estimates of limits to selection/how valuable the perfect cow would be, see [Cole & VanRaden 2011](/doc/genetics/selection/artificial/index-selection/2011-cole.pdf "Use of haplotypes to estimate Mendelian sampling effects and selection limits"))
    - ["Genetics-based methods for agricultural insect pest management"](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5993313/), Alphey & Bonsall 2019

**AI**:

- ["AI-GAs: AI-generating algorithms, an alternate paradigm for producing general artificial intelligence"](https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.10985#uber), Clune 2019
- ["Fine-Tuning Language Models from Human Preferences"](https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.08593#openai){#ziegler-et-al-2019-paper}, Ziegler et al 2019 ([blog](https://openai.com/research/fine-tuning-gpt-2 "Fine-Tuning GPT-2 from Human Preferences: We've fine-tuned the 774M parameter GPT-2 language model using human feedback for various tasks, successfully matching the preferences of the external human labelers, though those preferences did not always match our own. Specifically, for summarization tasks the labelers preferred sentences copied wholesale from the input (we'd only asked them to ensure accuracy), so our models learned to copy. Summarization required 60k human labels; simpler tasks which continue text in various styles required only 5k. Our motivation is to move safety techniques closer to the general task of 'machines talking to humans', which we believe is key to extracting information about human values"); [source](https://github.com/openai/lm-human-preferences "‘lm-human-preferences’, Ziegler et al 2019"); training better text generation using human ratings of quality)
- [Matters Of Scale]{.smallcaps}:

    - ["Megatron-LM: Training Multi-Billion Parameter Language Models Using GPU Model Parallelism"](https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.08053#nvidia "'Megatron-LM: Training Multi-Billion Parameter Language Models Using Model Parallelism', Shoeybi et al 2019"), Shoeybi et al 2019 ([text samples](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1909.08053.pdf#page=13); [earlier blog](https://nv-adlr.github.io/MegatronLM "MegatronLM: Training Billion+ Parameter Language Models Using GPU Model Parallelism"))
    - ["Exascale Deep Learning for Scientific Inverse Problems"](https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.11150), Laanait et al 2019
    - ["Large-scale Pretraining for Neural Machine Translation with Tens of Billions of Sentence Pairs"](https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.11861), Meng et al 2019
    - ["Learning to Seek: Autonomous Source Seeking with Deep Reinforcement Learning Onboard a Nano Drone Microcontroller"](https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.11236), Duisterhof et al 2019 (reminds me of [Bonsai](/doc/ai/tabular/2017-kumar.pdf "'Bonsai: Resource-efficient Machine Learning in 2KB RAM for the Internet of Things', Kumar et al 2017"))

**Statistics/Meta-Science**:

- <span id="egp"></span><span id="ejp"></span> ["Registered reports: an early example and analysis"](https://peerj.com/articles/6232/), Wiseman et al 2019 (parapsychology was the first field to use [Registered Reports](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholarly_peer_review#Result-blind_peer_review) in 1976, which cut statistical-significance rates by 2⁄3^rds^: [Johnson 1975a](/doc/statistics/peer-review/1975-johnson.pdf "Models of Control and Control of Bias"), [Johnson 1975b](/doc/statistics/peer-review/1975-johnson-2.pdf "Editorial [EJP editorial on registered reports]"), [Johnson 1976](/doc/statistics/bias/publication/1976-johnson.pdf "On Publication Policy Regarding Non-Statistically-Significant Results")^[Johnson, interestingly, like Bouchard, was influenced by [Dunette 1966](/doc/statistics/bias/publication/1966-dunnette.pdf "Fads, Fashions, and Folderols in Psychology") (and also [Wolins 1962](/doc/statistics/bias/1962-wolins.pdf "Responsibility for raw data")).])
- ["Methods for Studying Coincidences"](/doc/statistics/bias/1989-diaconis.pdf), Diaconis & Mosteller 1989
- ["The Power of Two Random Choices: A Survey of Techniques and Results"](https://www.ic.unicamp.br/~celio/peer2peer/math/mitzenmacher-power-of-two.pdf), Mitzenmacher et al 2001
- ["Sparkline theory and practice"](https://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001OR&topic_id=1), [Edward Tufte](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Tufte) (examples & questions)

**Politics/religion**:

- ["Constitutional Hardball"](/doc/sociology/2004-tushnet.pdf), Tushnet 2004
- ["Anthropology’s Science Wars: Insights from a New Survey"](/doc/sociology/false-preference/2019-horowitz.pdf), Horowitz et al 2019 ([visualizations](https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/jurijfedorov#!/vizhome/AnthropologysScienceWars/Field))
- ["Leninthink: On the practice behind the theory of Marxism-Leninism"](https://newcriterion.com/article/leninthink/)
- ["Dear Young Eccentric"](https://www.overcomingbias.com/p/dear-young-eccentrichtml)

**Psychology/biology**:

- ["Effect of Lower Versus Higher Red Meat Intake on Cardiometabolic and Cancer Outcomes: A Systematic Review of Randomized Trials"](/doc/longevity/2019-zeraatkar.pdf), Zeraatkar et al 2019 ("diets lower in red meat may have little or no effect on all-cause mortality (HR 0.99 [95% CI, 0.95–1.03])"; on the [accusations of conflicts of interest](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2759201 "Backlash Over Meat Dietary Recommendations Raises Questions About Corporate Ties to Nutrition Scientists"))
- ["Reading Lies: Nonverbal Communication and Deception"](/doc/psychology/2019-vrij.pdf), Vrij et al 2019
- ["Is Cognitive Functioning Impaired in Methamphetamine Users? A Critical Review"](https://www.nature.com/articles/npp2011276), Hart et al 2012
- ["Dumb or smart asses? Donkey's (_Equus asinus_) cognitive capabilities share the heritability and variation patterns of human's (_Homo sapiens_) cognitive capabilities"](https://escholarship.org/content/qt68h9h675/qt68h9h675.pdf#page=2 "'Dumb or smart asses? Donkey’s (<em>Equus asinus</em>) cognitive capabilities share the heritability and variation patterns of human’s (<em>Homo sapiens</em>) cognitive capabilities', González et al 2019-page-2"), González et al 2019
- ["Nature’s Spoils: The underground food movement ferments revolution"](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/11/22/natures-spoils)

**Technology**:

- ["STEPS Toward Expressive Programming Systems: 'A Science Experiment'"](https://tinlizzie.org/VPRIPapers/tr2012001_steps.pdf#page=2), Ohshima et al 2012 (writing a GUI OS in 20k LoC; tricks include [ASCII art networking DSLs & generic optimization for text layout](https://www.moserware.com/2008/04/towards-moores-law-software-part-3-of-3.html "Towards Moore's Law Software: Part 3⁄3"))
- ["Secrets by the thousands"](/doc/technology/1946-walker.pdf), Walker 1946 (more on the post-WWII brain drain from Germany/Europe to the USA)
- ["Secrets of the Little Blue Box"](https://classic.esquire.com/article/1971/10/1/secrets-of-the-blue-box "'Secrets of the Little Blue Box: A story so incredible it may even make you feel sorry for the phone company', Rosenbaum 1971"), Rosenbaum 1971; ["Terminal Delinquents: Once, They Stole Hubcaps And Shot Out Street-Lights. Now They’re Stealing Your Social Security Number And Shooting Out Your Credit Rating. A Layman’s Guide To Computer High Jinks"](https://classic.esquire.com/article/1990/12/1/terminal-delinquents), Hitt & Tough 1990 (I feel this article must have been a reference for [_Hackers_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers_\(film\)))
- ["The Radioactive Boy Scout: When a teenager attempts to build a breeder reactor"](https://harpers.org/archive/1998/11/the-radioactive-boy-scout/?single=1), Silverstein 1998
- ["Fancy Euclid's _Elements_ in <span class="logotype-tex">T<sub>e</sub>X</span>"](https://habr.com/ru/articles/452520/ "'Fancy Euclid’s <em>Elements</em> in TeX', Slyusarev 2019"), Slyusarev Sergey (with generative dropcaps); ["Making of Byrne's Euclid"](https://www.c82.net/blog/?id=79), Nicholas Rougeux (how to create a [beautiful interactive HTML version](https://www.c82.net/euclid/) of [Byrne's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Byrne_\(mathematician\)) [unique color-diagram book](https://personal.math.ubc.ca/~cass/Euclid/byrne.html) interpretation of Euclid's _Elements_ ([Tufte discussion](/doc/design/typography/rubrication/1990-tufte-envisioninginformation-ch5-byrneseuclid.pdf "_Envisioning Information_, Tufte 1990: chapter 5, 'Color and Information', pg83--86")); you shouldn't do this sort of thing for everything, but maybe you should try to do it for *something*)
- ["SpeechJammer: A System Utilizing Artificial Speech Disturbance with Delayed Auditory Feedback"](https://arxiv.org/abs/1202.6106), Kurihara & Tsukada 2012
- ["Mark of Integrity"](https://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/33/allen.php), Jonathan Allen (on juiced cards, luminous readers, sunning the deck, and other card sharpers' tricks for [card marking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_marking))

**Economics**:

- ["Managing an iconic old luxury brand in a new luxury economy: Hermès handbags in the US market"](/doc/economics/2014-lewis.pdf), Lewis & Haas 2014 ([Summary](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1142799627600584704.html); see also ["Birkin Demand: A Sage & Stylish Investment"](https://digitalcommons.sia.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=stu_proj#pdf), Newsom 2016)

**Fiction**:

- [Bakker's _Second Apocalypse_ & Frank Herbert's _Dune_: time loops & finding freedom in an unfree universe](/review/bakker "'<em>The Second Apocalypse</em>: Freedom In An Unfree Universe', Gwern 2017") (compare [Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life"](/story-of-your-life "'‘Story Of Your Life’ Is Not A Time-Travel Story', Gwern 2012"))

**Misc**:

- ["Japan Sings Along With Beethoven"](https://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/29/arts/japan-sings-along-with-beethoven.html)

## Film/TV

**Live-action**:

- <div id="mandy">[_Mandy_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandy_\(2018_film\)) (2018; [review](/review/movie#mandy))</div>
- <div id="weiner">[_Weiner_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weiner_\(film\)) (2016; [review](/review/movie#weiner))</div>
- [_Falling Down_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falling_Down) (1993)

**Animated**:

- [_Redline_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redline_\(2009_film\)) (2009; [review](/review/anime#redline))
- _[Neon Genesis Evangelion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neon_Genesis_Evangelion_%28TV%29) Concurrency Project_ (2013; [review](/review/anime#concurrency))

## Music

[**Touhou**](https://www.reddit.com/r/TOUHOUMUSIC/search/?q=author%3Agwern&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=all):

- ["ann～庵～"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4aROrTmtnc) (茶太 feat. Chata; [_『spill over』_](https://enuplus.wixsite.com/enuplus) {C95}) [rock]
- ["cardiac sound"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNOqTzguLj4) (Kirin; [_Cleave Spark the Instrumental_](https://e-ns.net/discography/ens0063.html) {C95}) [trance]

**MLP**:

- ["Getting Stronger"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pp0kdfFzM0) (Michelle Creber, Black Gryph0n, Baasik; [_Getting Stronger_](https://creberbrown.bandcamp.com/album/Getting-Stronger "‘<em>Getting Stronger</em> [album]’, Creber et al 2016") {2016}) [rock]
- ["Landscapes"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5wI6QVCjUU) (Mane in Green {2016}) [electronic]
- ["Moonlight"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDD_ZAeFWOI) (Black Gryph0n & Baasik; [_IMmortal_](https://blackgryph0n.bandcamp.com/album/immortal) {2014}) [trance]
- ["Faster Than You Know"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JJg9114bgs) (Black Gryph0n & Baasik; _IMmortal_ {2014}) [pop]

**Doujin**:

- ["Natsukage -endless summer lights-"](https://eternal-lives.booth.pm/items/1096764) ([Falmaki](https://soundcloud.com/falmaki); _Natsukage -endless summer lights-_ {C94}) [post-rock]