Weekly Dose of Optimism #163

Hi friends 👋 ,

Happy Friday and welcome back to our 163rd Weekly Dose of Optimism. Dan is once again traveling around our great country slinging creatine gummies, so Packy here to fill in and bring you the Dose.

Let’s start with a PSA: don’t use Meta’s new slop machine, Vibes. It’s the company’s attempt to build The Entertainment from Infinite Jest, something that in the book is so entertaining that people can’t stop watching it and die. Take it from the man himself: “Like, at a certain point we’re gonna have to build up some machinery, inside our guts, to help us deal with this. Because the technology is just gonna get better and better and better and better. And it’s gonna get easier and easier, and more and more convenient, and more and more pleasurable, to be alone with images on a screen, given to us by people who do not love us but want our money.”

But the good news is, there’s lots of good news this week to drown it out. We have a lot of Arc, some cryopreservation, American anodes, a potential cure for Huntington’s Disease, a dash of Michael Levin and Anil Seth, and a menu of new psychedelics. Plus, let’s all support Nate the Great in his fight against cancer. What a week for the optimists.

Let’s get to it.

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