primerlearning

Simulating a single brain cell

Hey everybody,

This video focuses on single artificial neurons, building up the idea of gradient descent and applying the single-neuron system to two kinds of applications: A distance predictor for a cannon, and a mango classifier based on length and mass.

I had originally planned to also cover more complex systems and to talk about AI more broadly, but I decided to cut scope. Even this smaller video is the longest video I’ve made on this channel, and I think it turned out to be...

Preview clip of the next video on neural networks

Hey everybody,

I wanted to share the current version of a scene from the next video. It's one of the first scenes and shows a sort of proto training loop for a single artificial neuron, which is being used to predict how far a projectile will go when shot from a cannon with a given energy. Once the rest of the scenes are sketched out like this, I'll do the voiceover, time the animations to it, and publish.

As a whole, the video will focus on how neural networks work. Along the way...

Follow-up stream for Simulating the Evolution of Aging

Hey folks, the stream is about to start.

After the stream, this link will lead to the recording on YouTube, so you can watch later.

Questions post for Feb 8 live stream for Simulating the Evolution of Aging

Hello!

We'll be doing a livestream to dive more deeply into the evolution of aging.

It's scheduled for next Saturday, February 8th, at 10 am Central (US). It will be an unlisted stream on YouTube, and I'll make another Patreon post with the link just before the stream. If you're not able to make it, the video will be available to watch afterward at the same link.

The agenda for that stream will be driven by your questions, so this post is meant to collect those question...

Simulating the Evolution of Aging

Hey folks, here's the video that will go live tomorrow. It's my longest video yet, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

As a reminder, the Patreon tiers are going to change tomorrow. More details on that in the previous post and in the video. Please feel free to send me a message if you have any questions.

Thanks for all your support, and I hope you enjoy!

Justin

Tier updates, preview of the next video, and yearly update

Hey folks,

Let’s jump right in.

Updated Patreon Tiers

Here’s the new set of tiers and rewards, which will go live when I publish the next video: Simulating the Evolution of Aging, which will come out in January. Basically, things are getting cheaper.

$3 – Name in the video credits, a discord role, and a merch discount. The main change here is putting video credits in the bottom tier. I’m extremely grateful to those of you willing to pay ...

Year-end Update

Hey all,

I hope everyone’s 2023 is wrapping up nicely. Here’s my update for you.

First off, I’ll no longer do monthly Patreon updates. When I did a survey on them, responses were positive but few. I still intend to update regularly, but from now on if you see a Patreon post from me, you’ll know there’s something noteworthy. For those of you who enjoy smaller and more frequent updates, I encourage you to join the discord or follow on twitch.

I have to admit I had hi...

Simulating the Evolution of Teamwork

Hey Insiders,

Here's the next video! It will release publicly on Saturday, assuming no major edits are needed.

The scope changed a lot as I was working on this one. When it began, I was planning to do a video on conditional strategies and introduce the concept of an Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS). But after working on it for a while, I felt it made more sense to cover mixed strategies first. But after working on THAT for a while, I decided it would be best to focus on pure...

February Insider update: Tools snapshot

Hey folks,

Matias and I have been hard at work on creating a tool that will let us assemble scenes in the Unity editor similar to how one would use a video editor.

This example shows a scene-in-progress that will appear in the next on the binomial distribution. Some of the animations are defined with keyframes in the Unity editor, and some are defined through code. One of the big time sinks with the old method of creating videos was the slooowwww iteration process where I had to ...

Primer updates and year in review

Hey all, jumping on the year review train a bit early.

Contents

• Updates to tier rewards in 2023
• Reflections on the year
• Update on tools work
• Videos in progress

Updates to tier rewards in 2023

The tiers will remain the same, but there are some updates to rewards:

• More updates for Insiders – I haven’t been systematic about giving updates to Insiders. And especially now that billing is monthly, you all deserve more....
  2022-11-25 19:40:16 +0000 UTC View Post

New Video, and updates

Hey folks,

The latest video just went live. It goes through the process of trying to calculate how many people might exist in the future, in a few different circumstances. I hope you like! This is also the fastest turnaround I've had on a video since the very early days. Less than two months.

The video is also related to an update. This summer, Primer received a grant from the Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund. They agreed to the grant because I was already interested in doi...

Coin flip cheaters video (frequentism)

Hey everyone,

The main coin flipping video is finished.

Thanks for your support!

Justin

Coin Flip Cheaters is live!

Hey folks,

Thanks for your help testing the game. It's now live with an intro on YouTube!

I'm excited to see how it goes.

Justin

Coin flipping game - Request for feedback

Hey everyone,

As I mentioned in the most recent post, I've been working on an interactive version of the sim for the next video. It's finally ready for some play testing! My hope is to introduce it with a short video next week (assuming some issues can be resolved), then use data from it to in the main video ~2 weeks after that.

I'd be grateful if you tried it out and let me know what you think. You can find it at primerlearning.org (the game is just on the homepage for now). I a...

2022: Per-month, no sponsors, and more

Hello all,

Time for a year-end update.

As the title hints, the most concrete change for all of you is that I’m switching Patreon charges to a per-month schedule. There’s more on the reasoning behind that below, but I wanted to call it out at the beginning to reduce the risk that someone might miss it.

No sponsored messages in 2022

In 2022, I'm planning to shift to a more Patreon-focused model. Over this next year, I'm not going to do any sponsored ...

Hamilton's rule

This is the one where I actually get Hamilton's rule right. Most of the time on this one was re-writing it a thousand times to try to make clear the subtlety that led to my initial confusion. It still feels a little complicated and long, but I hope the goal has been achieved for many viewers.

Thanks for your support, and special thanks to those of you who gave feedback on the early version.

I hope you enjoy, and onward to the next project!

Justin

Early access to Hamilton's rule video

Hey everybody,

This video has been a long time coming. Ever since calling Hamilton's rule a lie (over two years ago, now), I've been wrestling with how to communicate its subtleties that I didn't originally appreciate. It's still not perfect, but I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out.

This is not quite the final version. There are a few warts and some pieces to polish. Most notably in my mind, some of the parts with text or equations are a bit dry and could use some idle blo...

Green Beard Altruism

Hey all,

Here's the latest video.

It's the remake of the video I took down. I took out the erroneous part about hamilton's rule but it's also remade to be a better video in a number of other ways, from production value to the fact that I use many sim runs for the discussions rather than running a single sim and asking the audience to trust me that I picked a representative run. I find that latter part important because it's better modeling of a proper attitude of inquiry for tho...

Feedback on "Hamilton's rule is a lie is a lie"

Hey folks,

These feedback posts are normally reserved for the Adviser tier. But it wasn't a paid video, and the departure from the normal style makes me want extra feedback, so I'm opening this one up to everyone.

This was an unusual video in several ways.

1. It was an apology/correction video
2. It featured my face on camera
3. It did not feature a simulation

Here are my initial thoughts on these differences, but I'd love to know your reactions, too.

1. ...

"Hamilton's rule is a lie" is a lie... and plush blobs

Hey folks,

New video today. This one isn't a paid Patreon post, though, since it's not a normal video.  I made it to address a mistake in a previous video. It's also my first try at a talking-head video and isn't the highest production quality. Overall, it didn't feel right to charge you fine people for this one.

In "The Natural Selection of Altruism", I claimed that Hamilton's rule was a lie. I meant that to be a somewhat comically bold statement, but I've since realized tha...

Simulating alternate voting systems

Hey folks!

We have a new video. I know this one might be surprising, since I had been working on the Hamilton's rule video, but I started learning about voting systems and decided a video introducing alternate voting systems could be both interesting and important.

I hope you enjoy it! And if you're waiting for more bio, the Hamilton's rule vid shouldn't be too long in coming.

Thanks, as always, for your support.

Justin

Progress update, discord, and work streams

Hey everyone. A few announcements.  

First off, the next video is coming along in the next few weeks. It's a little too early to give an exact date, though. Sneak peek animations coming soon. (I've left much of the visual work for last.)

Second, as a way of trying to connect a bit more often (and to give myself a small bit of structure), I'm going to stream myself working on Wednesday mornings (US) for the next several weeks, potentially longer if it seems to be going well....

Feedback survey for the disease video

Hey folks,

Here's a feedback survey for the latest video. There are two quick questions and an optional text box if you'd like to write anything.

I'm excited to hear your thoughts!

Justin

Epidemic, Endemic, and Eradication Sims (Premiere)

Hey folks,

The next video is done and will premiere at 10 am US Central time tomorrow (May 17).

I was planning not to do a COVID-19 video, but we've been seeing a lot of coverage of specifics when many people don't have a great understanding of the basics. This video focuses on those basics and doesn't try to make predictions or advocate for particular solutions. I'm hoping this helps people put new developments in context.

I hope you're all making the best of this, and tha...

Simulating Foraging Decisions is live!

Hey folks,

Here's the final version, live on YouTube. Thanks for the feedback on the early version.

Tier rewards and surveys to come.

<3
Justin

Simulating Foraging Decisions

Hey folks,

Here it is! It's unlisted for now, and it goes live Saturday at 10 am Central.

Let me know if you have any feedback.

Justin

New video on Saturday and merch now

Hey folks,

Two quick announcements to give you more info around a YouTube post I'm about to make.

1. The next video is coming Saturday, March 14. I'll release it for early access on Monday or Tuesday.

2. The Primer merch store is now live. Patrons get 20% off with the code 65KZHJM7GQ5N at checkout.

Thanks as always for your support and patience.

Justin

A Preview For ThankYouPatrons Day

Hello dear friends,

It has been too long, but I finally have a preview of the next video.

The next several videos in the economics series will build a model economy from scratch, exploring general concepts along the way. This clip shows the basic building block of an economy: a single agent making decisions subject to its production possibilities and utility function.

I still don't know the publish date for the next video. There are a few things left to build, a bit of polis...

News and merch

Hey folks,

With the success of the last two videos, it now seems very likely that Primer has the potential to become sustainable, so I've been thinking a bit more about the long term. Here are a few updates.

I'm not taking outside work anymore

I just finished my last remaining freelance contract, so I'll be full-time on Primer for the foreseeable future. This will be a factor pushing to speed up the rate of video production. Yay!

Prime...