Razib Khan's Unsupervised Learning

Peter Nimitz discusses the crisis of the 23rd century, a massive climatic shift that transformed Eurasia and Africa. Topics include the impact of the Yamnaya expansion on Neolithic civilizations, the genetic lineage of Armenians and the Caucasus region, the decline of ancient civilizations, the influence of Iran on Baluchistan, and a forthcoming project on the Bronze Age collapse in Siberia, India, East Africa, and Europe.

Penn State astrophysicist, Steinn Sigurðsson, discusses the history and impact of preprint servers, the threat and promise of AI-generated papers, the role of editors and open access in scientific publishing, the power law observed in preprint servers, the search for extraterrestrial life, and the concept of the Dyson sphere. The hosts also introduce the IVF embryo genetic testing company, Orchid Health.

Dr. Gregory Clark, a past guest on this podcast, discusses his shocking finding that a simple genetic model explains social status distribution in England. He explains how wealth is passed down equally from mother and father, and that social mobility has remained unchanged for 400 years. Clark also reveals high rates of inheritance of social status in other societies.

We’re about a generation into the “age of genomics,” or as it’s sometimes termed the “post-genomic era.” Today Razib talks to John Logsdon, a professor of biology at the University of Iowa, about what genomics has wrought in relation to our understanding of evolution, and what evolution has taught us about the structure and nature of the genome. In 2014, Logdson and Sarah J Hanson contributed a chapter entitled “Genome Evolution” to the Princeton Guide to Evolution. Razib uses this mid-2010s review to scaffold his discussion with Logdson about where we are in 2023. But first, he asks what the exact difference between genetics and genomics is. It is sometimes said that quantity has a quality all its own, and Razib and Logdson discuss the different analytic challenges of analyzing the evolutionary trajectory of a single gene, a task up the alley of classical genetics, and describing the evolution of the whole genome of an organism like a human, with thousands of genes. They then move on to various issues relating to the architecture and evolution of the genome that are of deep interest and curiosity to researchers but rarely surfaced to the public. Why do bacterial genomes have so much less “junk” than those of complex organisms, like humans? Why is the relationship between organism complexity and genome size still so uncertain? How has evolution impacted the “molecular machinery” of the genome (like promoters)? And what is the difference between those scientists who use genomics to understand evolution and those who attempt to understand the evolutionary forces that shape the nature of the genome? By inspecting where we are on many specific issues relating to evolution and genomics, Razib and Logdson begin a sketch of how the emergence of genomics has changed evolutionary biology, as the entire genetic maps of vast numbers of species are now at our fingertips. The discussion finally concludes with future possibilities in the next few decades, as the post-genomic era moves from a revolution to a background condition, a  banality. Note: Logsdon mentioned HHMI molecular genetic videos. Here is an excellent example:

Christopher Rufo, author of 'America's Cultural Revolution', discusses the historical figures of the mid-to-late 20th century that set the stage for the rise of woke culture and critical race theory. They delve into the significance of left-wing intellectual movements, the cultural revolution of the 1960s-70s, and the impact of personal brand politics.

Sarah Haider, Shadi Hamid, and Murtaza Hussain discuss the effects of the Israel-Palestine conflict on geopolitics and American culture, including eliminationist rhetoric, the divide between the West and the Global South, and potential changes in American foreign policy. They also address the impact of the conflict on American culture, cancel culture concerns, offensive rhetoric, the perception of the conflict in the US, and the compatibility of being a Zionist and a feminist or humanitarian. Additionally, they delve into personal experiences, Twitter personas, age gap discourse, the fracture of the American cultural left, and the importance of humanity amidst escalating tensions.

Richard Hanania, author of The Origins of Woke, discusses the impact of the 1964 Civil Rights Law on American culture and the rise of identity politics. The podcast explores topics such as the expansion of civil rights law, the definition of wokeness, controversies surrounding affirmative action and diversity, and the consequences of not rolling back wokeness and identity politics.

Sundar Iyer and Sudha Jagannathan discuss the intersection of religion, caste, and American law. They explore caste discrimination in the United States, the lawsuit against Cisco Systems, challenges of caste in the US, controversial laws in California, and the importance of truth, justice, and empathy.

In this episode, Razib Khan explores the historical, cultural, and genetic aspects of the Indian caste system. He discusses the concepts of Varna and Jati, the impact of caste in the Indian subcontinent, its relevance to equity considerations, and its expression among Muslims and Christians. The podcast also touches on comparisons with feudal Japan, the consequences of removed Germanic warriors, and the presence of caste systems in different parts of the world. The genetic variation within the caste system, diversity within the Hindu system, and the potential future decline of the Indian caste system and vegetarianism are also discussed.

David Anthony, an expert in archaeology and anthropology, discusses the domestication of horses, the spread of the wheel, and the language of Yamnaya steppe herders. They also explore the rise of Indo-Europeans, controversies over Proto-Indo-European words, limitations of linguistics and archaeology, the Uruk civilization, and the expansion of Yamnaya and Indo-European cultures. The podcast also touches on the genetic ancestry of dogs in Europe and possible contacts between Chinese and Indo-European populations.