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<ul>
<li>Anima's presentation reminded me quite nicely of the
Numenta/Redwood work of Jeff Hawkins et al? Cortical columns,
etc. </li>
<li>Did Harold Morowitz make a strong assertion to the tune: "we
learned more about thermodynamics from steam-engines than
vice-versa"? EricS or StephenG might have first-hand
knowledge?</li>
<li>Is this theory/practice dichotomy just another form of
meta-scaffolding in evolution (of any system) with the
cut-and-try providing the mutation/selection and the
theory/formalism binding the "lessons learned" into well...
"lessons learned"?</li>
</ul>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 7/16/2025 2:12 AM, Pieter Steenekamp
wrote:<br>
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<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAPerSOJ+P7PTzjMgKSwnJyEgxEYYhvAO1H2GDHGqznQ+=KGGPg@mail.gmail.com">
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<div dir="ltr">Both the video of Anima Anandkumar’s Stanford
seminar and her scientific paper on Neural Operators really got
me excited—the ideas feel fresh and powerful.<br>
<br>
The paper is quite technical and digs into the math behind
Neural Operators, without talking much about robotics. In her
talk, though, she clearly links the work to robots, and it
sounds as if robotics is a big focus for her team.<br>
<br>
What jumped out at me is how different her style is from
Elon Musk’s approach with Tesla’s Optimus robot. Anandkumar
begins with deep theory, building firm mathematical foundations
first. Musk takes a “just build it” path—make it, test it, break
it, fix it, and keep going.<br>
<br>
This contrast reminds me of engineering school and the
Faraday‑Maxwell story. Faraday was the hands‑on experimenter who
uncovered the basics of electricity and magnetism through
careful tests. Maxwell came later and wrote the elegant
equations that explained what Faraday had already shown.<br>
<br>
So I wonder: will the roles flip this time? Will deep theory
from researchers like Anandkumar guide the breakthroughs first,
with practice following? Or will practical builders like Musk
sprint ahead and let theory catch up afterward?<br>
<br>
Either way, watching these two paths unfold side by side is
thrilling. It feels like we’re standing on the edge of something
big.</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, 16 Jul 2025 at 04:11,
Jon Zingale <<a href="mailto:jonzingale@gmail.com"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">jonzingale@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
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style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Even
if just for the freedom of scale, learning infinite
dimensional function spaces, etc...</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(51,51,51)"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(51,51,51)"><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caZyFlSSKtI"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caZyFlSSKtI</a></div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(51,51,51)"><a
href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2506.10973" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://arxiv.org/pdf/2506.10973</a></div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(51,51,51)"><br>
<br>
</div>
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