Daniel Dvorkin @medigoth@qoto.org

Hello, all. I've been around for a few days but haven't yet made an #introduction post. So here we go.

I'm a #bioinformatics consultant with [The Bioinformatics CRO](https://www.bioinformaticscro.com/) working on a variety of small and large projects ranging from fundamental genomics to clinical decision support. Before that, for several years I was a postdoc and ORISE fellow specializing in high-altitude medicine and physiology at the University of Colorado Altitude Research Center. My academic background is a nearly even mix of #biostatistics, machine learning, and biology.

The ARC* has been sadly moribund for a few years, but thanks to collaborations with other groups, we're [starting to get more active again](https://harcsummit.org/). Hopefully I will have more to say about that in the future. Meanwhile, feel free to ask me anything about #altitude medicine---I think I still remember most of it.

Years before _that_, I was an Air Force #medic (after a brief stint as an Army infantryman) followed by a couple of years as a civilian EMT. My time in patient care informs my approach to science: the numbers I crunch represent human lives.

Otherwise, I'm an armchair #paleontologist hoping to be able to call myself an _amateur_ paleontologist again one of these days---by which I mean actually spending some time in the field and/or the prep lab---a too-occasional science fiction writer, and chronically sleep deprived. Also, my life is the internet: it's cats all the way down.

*Fellow #Primeval fans may recognize the jacket in the picture. My wonderful fiancée found it for me when I was hired at the ARC, for exactly the reason you think.

With #Trump and #Musk fighting over who gets to be #President, I guess you could say #Vance has been ... couched.

A fairly recent aerial shot of Denver and the Front Range. Yes, I'm old enough to say things like "I remember when half of this was farmland!" My mountains (I'm old enough to say that too) are increasingly crowded, and the city has drastically outgrown its infrastructure. I'm a bit *too* old to enjoy the constant surge of people the way I used to: I've been a city boy all my life, but lately I find myself craving quiet.

With all that said, I surely do love this place. My mountains, my city, my street, my block. Home.

I'm trying to concentrate on my #work, but I keep getting pulled away by #doomscrolling. There's even more doom to scroll these days than usual, it seems.

Much of what I'm scrolling is discussions in #science-focused spaces, started and (somewhat) moderated by people who want thoughtful and informed discussion. Often they stay that way for quite a while. But the loons always find them, and descend in hordes. Like locusts without the charisma.

#Antivax is the most common, but #creationism and #climate change denial always put in a good showing. More recent crankeries like the explosion of flat-Earthers: please don't try to tell me they're all "just trolling." Others too numerous to list.

There are the hardcore #ideologues who don't try to mask it, and the "just asking questions" crowd who are just as much true believers, minus the honesty. And another circle beyond that, people who genuinely don't know enough to know what questions to ask. Some of them might still be reachable—

—if you have the time and patience. Which I no longer do.

I did, you know, for much of my life. I'd give clear explanations, "as simple as possible but no simpler," and I've been told I was pretty good at it. Hell, I *enjoyed* doing it, and maybe still would. Answer questions. Smooth out sticking points. Engage with anyone, any time, anywhere.

I just can't anymore. And I hate that.

More and more of the people who look like they might want to learn, who can at least be given what they need to know to *start* asking the right questions, are really clever ideologues. Or they're just happy in their #ignorance. It's a trap either way.

Like I've said before: nearly everyone is ignorant about nearly everything. The sum of human #knowledge is too vast for anyone to learn more than a sliver of it in a lifetime. This is nobody's fault.

Science is fractally complicated. Each field is complicated, and each subfield is equally complicated, and each sub-sub-field ... you get the idea. No matter how much you know, you still have just as much to learn as you did at the start.

Maybe everything worth knowing is like this. Again, nobody is to blame.

But it is your fault, very much so, if you don't know anything about the subject at hand—and insist on spouting off anyway. If you react to those who know more with anger or mockery or baffled rage. If your deliberate, willful ignorance gets you and people around you killed.

So you know what? It's not my fault if I can no longer make myself care.

I'll keep on answering questions, and asking them too—and *listening* to both the questions and the answers. That's in my blood. I know there are many, many people in the world who do want to know more than they do now, and if you're still reading this, there's a fair chance you're one of them.

Everyone else can go to hell. That's where they're headed anyway, a hell they make for themselves, and the only remaining reason to try to get through is that they'll drag the rest of us with them. When that effort fails, as at the moment it manifestly is ...

Back to work. That may still be one place I can do *something*.

He's not wrong.

Fortunately we can look serenely back across the gulf of Deep Time and know that thanks to human intelligence, ingenuity, and awareness, we're safe from such disasters today.

Uh ... hello? Is this thing on?

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/paleobiology/article/marine-biological-responses-to-abrupt-climate-change-in-deep-time/AA2E06A402AF8344F44FDF3EEF44E3D0

Can you imagine this happening here?

I sure wish I could.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/14/asia/south-korea-yoon-second-impeachment-hnk-intl

Alt text:

The picture shows lean, shadowy, vageuly wolf-like animals running. The caption is "the things i would imagine running alongside the car when i was a kid". Other users comment:

"This is gorgeous and I need a pack of them so we could run through the woods together hunting."

"The Runalongs are rare in worlds without fast transportation. It seems they are brought into being when someone, bored by a journey, looks out to watch the countryside go by. They daydream of a creature that follows their path (guarding? Or hunting?) and suddenly, without fanfare, it appears.

"Runalongs have little in the way of ecology, but they are known to eat other dreams. Sometimes if the one who called them is particularly lonely or afraid they will get closer and even speak in humming voices without opening their mouths. But the second you stop moving, the creatures turn and vanish behind themselves, disappearing to wherever fantasies come from.

"A Runalong can also have other forms; a humanoid figure (without distinct features) is common, and these may also ride things that are supposed to be horses. If only we were better at imagining, then they might not look so terrifying."

"WAIT. OTHER PEOPLE DID THIS???????!!!"

"Mine were large cat-like creatures"

"I forget what mine were but I imagined this too! I like the name Runalongs."

"Please, I'm nearly 30 and I still have Runalongs join me on long, boring car journeys. They must be able to sense people who are in need of their presence, for company, for entertainment, or are just so used to them being there."

"When you put your hand palm down out the window and it jumps and sways in the speed, the pressure you feel, not quite solid but not quite air is the ghostly backs of the runalongs arching up for a pat."

I particularly love the idea of #supernatural #beings brought into existence by #modern #technology.

Last time I got #carded, the clerk looked at my #ID and said in shock, "You're older than my *dad*!"

"Clean living," I replied, and walked out with my goods.

Sum up 2024 in one bad #movie line. I'll start:

"Somehow, #Palpatine returned."

STŸRÄCÖSÄÜRÜS

Calling anyone except yourself "#triggered" is an insta-block. Just so we're clear.

Seen in the wild: "Well, whatever he used, kudos to him. Being able to clear #malfunctions in the heat of the moment is an important skill when working to lower #healthcare costs."

Seen in the wild: "He’s out of network for any sympathy from me".

So you're saying it's the perfect vehicle for #flatEarthers?

"But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt."

Just leaving that there in case, you know, it has any relevance in the coming months.

The article suggests there may be not just thousands, but *tens* of thousands, of unrecognized #protein-coding #genes in the human #genome. As a fan of the #ENCODE approach to a broad definition of "#gene," and a skeptic of "#junk #DNA," I'll take a great deal of satisfaction if this pans out.

https://www.science.org/content/article/dark-proteome-survey-reveals-thousands-new-human-genes