Zach Weinersmith

https://mastodon.social/@ZachWeinersmith

The SMBC guy.
New book: A City on Mars (Nov 2)

Co-author of Soonish
Illustrator of Open Borders
Scop of Bea Wolf.

Public Key

npub1rkpy6tcdz7us8v8syu47h8wlfl8j5wg20tlgj3759qdrgqw06hgq0wdy04

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zachweinersmith_at_mastodon.social@momostr.pink

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nprofile1qqspmqjd9ux30wgrkrczw2ltnh05lne28y984l5fgl2zsx35q88at5qprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmnth7whpg

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relay.momostr.pink

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npub1rkpy6tcdz7us8v8syu47h8wlfl8j5wg20tlgj3759qdrgqw06hgq0wdy04

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Last Notes

2026-04-11 12:32:41 UTC

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Like is "there's this thing called i and it's 'imaginary' but we can use it like any other number" more or less intuitive than "you're sitting here doing algebra and suddenly a number explodes into 4 numbers"

2026-04-11 12:30:25 UTC

Kinda funny, I was thinking about the idea of explaining imaginary numbers to high school students by saying "actually, there's no magic. You can do the whole thing using only reals." But then basically you have to be like "x^2+1=0" doesn't appear to have a solution until POOF, a rotation matrix appears. Which is maybe more confusing?

2026-04-09 15:26:48 UTC

So this happened
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/spheres-part-1
#smbc #comics #math
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/375/446/607/658/672/original/ce3fe1325e3237c2.png

2026-04-08 17:03:43 UTC

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2026-04-08 15:30:20 UTC

Mary
Bonus panel here: http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/mary #smbc #comics
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/369/795/738/210/629/original/3518b787a03d0d99.png

2026-04-07 22:19:00 UTC

Hey cybersecurity geeks-- so it seems like anthropic now has really good exploit detection ability. Do you think this makes offense or defense harder? Like, seems like everyone might have to go through a battery of automated checks before deploying stuff into the world.

2026-04-05 14:48:52 UTC

Kinda funny: I was reading Zeno's lesser-known "stadium paradox." Read it in a book, maybe 3 times and it just wouldn't click. Finally, I go to Stanford's encyclopedia of philosophy and it appears the consensus is that Zeno was just being an idiot on that one. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/paradox-zeno/#Stad

2026-04-05 13:03:02 UTC

Something I have trouble explaining about space travel. Like, if you've read my book, you know I think human space faring is probably not economically valuable. It's not a good use of science dollars compared to other areas. I'm even skeptical of the case for inspiration (it doesn't seem to causally related to more aerospace degrees).
But it's also just really cool. Why don't I feel this way about Antarctica or Seabed exploration?

2026-04-05 11:08:46 UTC

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Hannah Arendt is another, though I'm less a fan of her writing style. Dickens is another, and Gaskell maybe my favorite. But there's a real skill in trying to see what's out your window (or on your phone) as part of the sublime movement of history.

2026-04-05 11:07:39 UTC

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I think there's an extent to which activism and artistry are opposed, in that the former is trying to achieve some end now and the latter is trying to make things that are permanent and not about the present.
But there are rare exceptions, such as Orwell, or Arthur Koestler or especially Hunter S Thompson. I find Thompson particularly compelling as someone who can take an article on a thing that happened last week and somehow let the whole universe peek around its edges.

2026-04-05 11:01:39 UTC

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I don't see this is a bad thing the editors did. I can see why they wanted to do it, and probably would've done the same. But I suppose it's a casualty of such an era that the Great Conversation, about free will, language, mathematics, etc. gets hard to hear over all the shouting.

2026-04-05 11:00:42 UTC

So, there used to be an NYT column called The Stone, which did essays about philosophy. They ended in 2020, but had 3 compilation books.
One of the interesting things reading these books is how, post-Trump, I would say the essays become much less interesting, because you can (I think?) feel the editors and writers suddenly wanting to grapple with current events. The focus necessarily gets narrow and reactive.

2026-04-03 17:12:17 UTC

Bonus panel here: http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/bad-4 #smbc #comics
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/341/884/154/681/004/original/020395a8b4078b4d.png

2026-04-03 14:26:17 UTC

Have I mentioned here that I have a new book coming out in June? You can see a pretty substantial excerpt here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374393496/sawyerleeandthequesttojuststayhome/
I guarantee at least three laughs, even if you are not in the target audience of young people.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/341/235/147/430/176/original/628fdf310d0f4c48.png

2026-04-02 15:44:06 UTC

Hey geeks! We're ordering extra blank mugs for the upcoming Mother's Day, but if you want one of our statistical parent mugs, please get your order in. https://smbc-store.myshopify.com/products/good-parent-mug
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/335/879/085/891/485/original/44283287dba55b17.png

2026-04-01 12:07:53 UTC

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Also I have a lot of admiration for Tao's working in trying to find a middle ground for AI in math, tempering expectations all over the place, and doing careful work. I get the sense he's really excited about this stuff, but just fundamentally dedicated to getting it right, even if it's frustrating (as the many solutions that turned out to MAYBE be due to prior work indicate)

2026-04-01 11:58:32 UTC

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Funniest things are when it turns out one of the Erdos problems has a solution... by Erdos! I talked to one of the people who worked on solving earlier problems with AI, and they said that was one of the more embarrassing parts :D

2026-04-01 11:15:58 UTC

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For those interested, Terry Tao keeps a database of attempts to use AI to solve open Erdos problems. https://github.com/teorth/erdosproblems/wiki/AI-contributions-to-Erd%C5%91s-problems
It hasn't been updated in response to this yet, as far as I can see.
(hasten to add, because people often say this when I post this sort of thing -- no, you can't brute force solutions to open math problems like these. You can of course try lots of stuff, but not "check every possibility" because it'd require more than all the matter and time in the universe to do)

2026-04-01 11:14:14 UTC

Two more Erdos problems automatically solved https://arxiv.org/pdf/2603.29961
Often when this happens it's later discovered that there was already a proof in the lit somewhere, though in several cases the proofs were shown to be novel. I find math the most interesting use for modern AI, because it's the one area of human endeavor where the computer can automatically perform verification.

2026-03-31 16:54:34 UTC

One of the weirdest things to me about the tech scene for AI is you regularly hear variants on "Super-human intelligence is coming next year and will permanently alter life as we know it. Prepare your business and finances accordingly." Setting aside what you think about the first half, how does the second half make any sense? Like... what would you do differently, other than move to the woods?

2026-03-31 11:52:55 UTC

Since Mastodon is for nerds, I'm here to share a nerd thing. I'm interested in rose breeding, and one thing you have to account for there is ploidy, which can determine whether species can cross. There's a type of rose called dogroses (Rosa canina), often used in cooking, which has its own, unique and bizarre, pentaploid meiosis.
28 mom chromosomes, 7 dad chomosomes. The dad part is shuffled like normal. The mom part is only partially shuffled.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09171-z
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/323/636/397/044/639/original/012aba8f0d8644e6.png

2026-03-30 20:06:54 UTC

Oh the humanities...
Full comic here: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/humanities-2
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/319/923/994/937/651/original/9ffd611f82515599.png

2026-03-29 11:32:47 UTC

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And with this sort of thing I always wonder whether it's that they're (a) gaming the system, or (b) discovered something humans actually wanted all along, in some sense, but which artists would've never produced.
I mean maybe we really just want Oasis to play 83 slight variations on Wonderwall, but they wouldn't.

2026-03-29 11:31:44 UTC

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Or there was another popular one called Breaking Rust, I believe, who was a sort of modern hardcore country singer. Nearly every song began with him humming, in the same cadence, followed by the same bluesy percussion. And all were some variation on the theme of being a tough guy who doesn't care about other people's opinions. Like, dozens of these songs.

2026-03-29 11:30:27 UTC

Now and then there's a headline about an AI musician going huge on some platform. For me the most fascinating thing is that when this happens, and I look up their album or singles, their songs are almost identical. Not like when you say "all of ACDC's songs are the same." Like, they're just tons of tiny variations. Check e.g. the singles by the AI named Eddie Dalton.

2026-03-28 22:21:05 UTC

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I am REALLY excited about intergeneric crosses, but they are hard to lay your hands on! I finally am getting a Shipova (a fairly gettable cross between the pear genus (pyrus) and whitebeam (a less-known member of the same family that contains pears, apples, hawthorns, etc.)

2026-03-28 22:17:38 UTC

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The family is so bored of me talking about obscure tree cultivars that they scatter at the sight of my shadow, but if YOU'D like to talk about it, here I am.

2026-03-28 22:15:25 UTC

If anyone wants to know what I'm up to, I am working on a sequel to my upcoming kids' book in June, while writing Bea Wolf, while illustrating an econ comic book, while doing SMBC, and I'm trying to plant a 200ish tree fruit orchard.

2026-03-28 22:06:29 UTC

OK, this convinced me I should be here more: https://bsky.app/profile/dubikan.bsky.social/post/3mi5ncilczk23
How's it going?

2024-12-06 17:14:27 UTC

Anyone else get unreasonably annoyed that literally everyone's point of reference for everything is WWII? Every authoritarian movement is 1930s fascism, bad leaders are Hitler, the use of "concentration camps" for places where nobody is being killed, etc.
I find it especially irksome when I agree with the person making the argument!
What was the standard reference before WWII?

2024-11-11 18:39:33 UTC

So, it seems like at a policy level the US basically accepted somewhat higher inflation than other developed countries in exchange for a thriving economy. Successful according to most economists, but it may have cost the administration a second term. Do you agree, and how do you think it'll affect future decisions?

2024-11-06 17:59:10 UTC

https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/437/307/605/881/953/original/9a1edc54786064f7.png

2024-10-29 17:38:43 UTC

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Speaking as an expert, the major current problem with sex on Mars is the lack of humans.

2024-10-29 17:37:20 UTC

Man, British tabloids know how to write a headline
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14010675/embarrassing-setbacks-sex-MARS-Elon-Musk.html

2024-10-26 19:03:33 UTC

Do you think it's formally ad hominem to say someone has an ideological posture that is broadly considered negative.
For instance, suppose someone wrote a long essay arguing for redistribution of wealth and you said they were a Stalinist. Separate from whether it's douchey or good form, is it formally ad hominem?

2024-10-25 12:00:00 UTC

One of the really weird things reading Wodehouse's early public schoolboy setting fiction from the early 1900s is how older boys savagely beating younger boys as a punishment is totally normal. Like, good characters do it and bad characters do it. The only distinction is whether the action is considered sporting by the narrator.

2024-10-23 22:53:37 UTC

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What's fascinating is it's not like he spent some time in a creative writing class getting his feet wet. Like it took about 10 published novels before he got good, or even just decent! But, I guess there was just a lot more literary consumption back then?

2024-10-23 22:52:56 UTC

Offhand thoughts.
I've been going through PG Wodehouse's now seldom-read early juvenile novels. They're mostly terrible, but by about the fifth of, I believe, seven... he's not bad! Not funny, but you care about the characters, they're more differentiated, and the action is well-described. It occurred to me that if he were alive today he might be doing some kids' series in whatever genre would sell best.

2024-10-19 15:18:44 UTC

Working on some of my famous realistic dialog
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/334/755/161/528/041/original/86207e300a1fafd9.png

2024-10-15 14:49:50 UTC

Hey PG Wodehouse fans. Weird question. When you say you're a fan of his work, what are you referring to in particular?
Ideally, mention a specific book, story, poem, or play. If not that, mention a character.
October 15, 2024 at 10:48 AM
Ev

2024-10-14 14:48:21 UTC

I just had a controversial opinion and absolutely stuffed it down. Feeling great about it.

2024-10-10 15:26:32 UTC

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Interesting! Thank you!

2024-10-10 15:21:34 UTC

So, our autistic 7 year old (mostly non-verbal) rarely plays with any particular thing for a long time, but the teachers at school put him in a VR set and he watched water for 45+ minutes.
We're thinking of getting one for his birthday. He hardly wants anything, so it'd be nice to do something special. Any recommendations? Thinking a meta quest 2?

2024-10-08 17:58:07 UTC

Could be wrong, but feels like in the last few years I've gotten a better response off jokes mocking social media. Maybe I've just gotten less bad at making the jokes, but I do feel there's been more groundswell around *some* form of pushback against the whole Internet, and much of human experience, being controlled by two and a half corporations that classify Yeats poetry and farting dogs under the same banner as "Engagement."

2024-09-23 16:47:01 UTC

Anyone wanna link me to a thoughtful podcast or debate or whatever on Israel/Palestine.
(Snarky rejoinders less appreciated than sharing the thing requested)

2024-09-16 12:38:10 UTC

Hey math dorks, of all the NP problems, which one is the most surprising to you for not being in P?

2024-09-15 16:52:37 UTC

Full comic here: http://smbc-comics.com/comic/brown
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/142/604/778/561/015/original/c6ac74f7f9d53efe.png

2024-08-26 12:42:22 UTC

So, I was talking to a tech friend recently about how AI is everywhere but in the productivity stats, at least so far. He pointed out that he didn't buy that entirely, because the Internet was changing life everywhere before it showed up in macro stats.
Thinking over it more I guess my feeling is that lots of stuff doesn't get counted in productivity, BUT productivity is the ultimate measure of life improving, in the sense of autonomy.

2024-08-14 15:06:46 UTC

Victor Frankl is maybe the ultimate example of "this is great but it's not science, stop calling it science." All the great psychoanalysts should've just written novels.

2024-08-05 13:48:47 UTC

Today the stock market has crashed... down to the level it was at 2 months ago.

2024-08-03 16:28:16 UTC

Have you noticed that the entire premise of Pinocchio is impossible because it'd allow you to solve the Halting Problem?

2024-08-02 18:37:23 UTC

At some point someone's going to coin "Kamalanomics." Can we pre-empt this with Economic Kamalicy? It's more expensive because you can divide it into both fiscal and monetary Kamalicy, not to mention trade and foreign Kamalicy.