Huw Swanborough
@huwroscience.bsky.social
Cognitive neuroscientist at ETH Zurich. Primary interests in affect processing/perception and auditory neuroscience.
Outside of science: Hiking, huts, snow, history, bluegrass, and folk.
-------
Everything's a signal, man.... Everything's a signal
Outside of science: Hiking, huts, snow, history, bluegrass, and folk.
-------
Everything's a signal, man.... Everything's a signal
Pinned
This is just to say
I have looked on
the works
that were in
the desert
and which
you were probably
thinking
would still stand
Forgive me
they were trunkless
so vast
and so old
I have looked on
the works
that were in
the desert
and which
you were probably
thinking
would still stand
Forgive me
they were trunkless
so vast
and so old
Once upon a desert sandy
As through winds the trav'ling man he
Spied the face of Ozymandy
Lying, simply lying there
Suddenly there was some writing
Pon the plinth that he was sighting
That the sand and time were blighting
Quoth the statue, "Now despair"
As through winds the trav'ling man he
Spied the face of Ozymandy
Lying, simply lying there
Suddenly there was some writing
Pon the plinth that he was sighting
That the sand and time were blighting
Quoth the statue, "Now despair"
I heard there stood two legs of stone,
Honoring his works unkown,
But you dont care for statues standing trunkless.
Well it goes like this stamped on lifeless things,
Final words of the King of Kings,
The mighty ruler Ozymandias.
Ozymandias...
Ozymandias..
Honoring his works unkown,
But you dont care for statues standing trunkless.
Well it goes like this stamped on lifeless things,
Final words of the King of Kings,
The mighty ruler Ozymandias.
Ozymandias...
Ozymandias..
youtu.be/6fj-OJ6RcNQ?...
Watch watch watch watch.
There's no person who won't benefit from this bar maybe the gent who made it.
Watch watch watch watch.
There's no person who won't benefit from this bar maybe the gent who made it.
The Brainrot Apocalypse (a DIY survival guide)
YouTube video by struthless
youtu.be
November 18, 2025 at 7:28 PM
youtu.be/6fj-OJ6RcNQ?...
Watch watch watch watch.
There's no person who won't benefit from this bar maybe the gent who made it.
Watch watch watch watch.
There's no person who won't benefit from this bar maybe the gent who made it.
Oh I miss San Diego.
The sunsets in autumn there are just unrivalled for drama and colour.
The sunsets in autumn there are just unrivalled for drama and colour.
November 18, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Oh I miss San Diego.
The sunsets in autumn there are just unrivalled for drama and colour.
The sunsets in autumn there are just unrivalled for drama and colour.
I'm 100% for not describing methods in detail and referring to the original paper for them, but don't just go "We did the same thing as Ref XX", at least name the approach and give a cursory overview of it's principles. I shouldn't have to read 3 other papers to understand your story.
November 18, 2025 at 10:21 AM
I'm 100% for not describing methods in detail and referring to the original paper for them, but don't just go "We did the same thing as Ref XX", at least name the approach and give a cursory overview of it's principles. I shouldn't have to read 3 other papers to understand your story.
Not long ago I had a... 'discussion'... Where I held the position that organising your thoughts is a process we shouldn't outsource we it's vital for all thinking. Can't outsource the foundations of what we do.
Finally got to the "I want to burn it all down" portion of the gen AI-era semester, where I realize they're all using some sort of LLM to "help" organize their thoughts and it's just spitting out raw sewage onto the screen.
November 18, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Not long ago I had a... 'discussion'... Where I held the position that organising your thoughts is a process we shouldn't outsource we it's vital for all thinking. Can't outsource the foundations of what we do.
Reposted by Huw Swanborough
Many studies of naturalistic comprehension report that surprisal (often LLM derived) explains more of the variance in data than other predictors. Why is this? And why can it be problematic for our conclusions?
A 🧵 of takeaways from our paper doi.org/10.1007/s421... with @andreaeyleen.bsky.social
A 🧵 of takeaways from our paper doi.org/10.1007/s421... with @andreaeyleen.bsky.social
What’s Surprising About Surprisal - Computational Brain & Behavior
In the computational and experimental psycholinguistic literature, the mechanisms behind syntactic structure building (e.g., combining words into phrases and sentences) are the subject of considerable...
doi.org
November 17, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Many studies of naturalistic comprehension report that surprisal (often LLM derived) explains more of the variance in data than other predictors. Why is this? And why can it be problematic for our conclusions?
A 🧵 of takeaways from our paper doi.org/10.1007/s421... with @andreaeyleen.bsky.social
A 🧵 of takeaways from our paper doi.org/10.1007/s421... with @andreaeyleen.bsky.social
What ideas are you having there ETH?
November 17, 2025 at 4:12 PM
What ideas are you having there ETH?
Not at all a spooky thing to find...
November 17, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Not at all a spooky thing to find...
I'm absolutely disgusted at the policies being floated by Labour in the UK. The confiscating of jewelry and heirlooms is purely symbolic, done so to dehumanise refugees. There is no practical benefit here, this will not make any financial difference. It just signals how devoid of values the UK is.
For a party that has always, and always will, stand up for refugee rights - join.greenparty.org.uk
November 17, 2025 at 12:24 PM
I'm absolutely disgusted at the policies being floated by Labour in the UK. The confiscating of jewelry and heirlooms is purely symbolic, done so to dehumanise refugees. There is no practical benefit here, this will not make any financial difference. It just signals how devoid of values the UK is.
In an ever increasing battle with the new Vietnamese kiosk near me, where I buy more and more things from them as thanks for the free food and they give me more free food as thanks for buying more and more things.
November 15, 2025 at 1:31 PM
In an ever increasing battle with the new Vietnamese kiosk near me, where I buy more and more things from them as thanks for the free food and they give me more free food as thanks for buying more and more things.
I'm a day late on this, but given the anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald yesterday, I am obligated to reshare one of the best pieces of documentary media ever made by one of the best YouTubers there is.
Informative, insightful, respectful.
youtu.be/u0Lg9HygEJc?...
Informative, insightful, respectful.
youtu.be/u0Lg9HygEJc?...
The Lake That Never Gives Up Her Dead
YouTube video by Caitlin Doughty
youtu.be
November 11, 2025 at 9:39 AM
I'm a day late on this, but given the anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald yesterday, I am obligated to reshare one of the best pieces of documentary media ever made by one of the best YouTubers there is.
Informative, insightful, respectful.
youtu.be/u0Lg9HygEJc?...
Informative, insightful, respectful.
youtu.be/u0Lg9HygEJc?...
100kg at a chocolate festival, consumed by 10,000 people?!
That's an awful showing! That's half a twix finger per person.
Who goes to a chocolate festival preparing to eat so little chocolate!?
That's an awful showing! That's half a twix finger per person.
Who goes to a chocolate festival preparing to eat so little chocolate!?
November 10, 2025 at 7:24 PM
100kg at a chocolate festival, consumed by 10,000 people?!
That's an awful showing! That's half a twix finger per person.
Who goes to a chocolate festival preparing to eat so little chocolate!?
That's an awful showing! That's half a twix finger per person.
Who goes to a chocolate festival preparing to eat so little chocolate!?
Bag without owner on the train.
I call out if it belongs to anyone.
Nothing.
Get a staff member, they get get more staff who then go seat to seat asking. Someone goes "of course it's mine, why can't I leave it there?"
I'm now very aware of how different growing up in 90s UK must have been.
I call out if it belongs to anyone.
Nothing.
Get a staff member, they get get more staff who then go seat to seat asking. Someone goes "of course it's mine, why can't I leave it there?"
I'm now very aware of how different growing up in 90s UK must have been.
November 9, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Bag without owner on the train.
I call out if it belongs to anyone.
Nothing.
Get a staff member, they get get more staff who then go seat to seat asking. Someone goes "of course it's mine, why can't I leave it there?"
I'm now very aware of how different growing up in 90s UK must have been.
I call out if it belongs to anyone.
Nothing.
Get a staff member, they get get more staff who then go seat to seat asking. Someone goes "of course it's mine, why can't I leave it there?"
I'm now very aware of how different growing up in 90s UK must have been.
Are we just duck-typing consciousness and cognition now?
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com
“A.I. is no less a form of intelligence than digital photography is a form of photography,” the philosopher Barbara Gail Montero writes in a guest essay. “And now A.I. is on its way to doing something even more remarkable: becoming conscious.”
“A.I. is no less a form of intelligence than digital photography is a form of photography,” the philosopher Barbara Gail Montero writes in a guest essay. “And now A.I. is on its way to doing something even more remarkable: becoming conscious.”
Opinion | A.I. Is Already Intelligent. This Is How It Becomes Conscious.
Skeptics overlook how our concepts change.
nyti.ms
November 9, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Are we just duck-typing consciousness and cognition now?
Surprised it's not happened more. Cars are rarely equipped with sonar
the only instance in recorded history of a traffic collision between a car and a u-boat!
November 9, 2025 at 8:34 AM
Surprised it's not happened more. Cars are rarely equipped with sonar
My main issue with Fleetwood Mac is that they put out so many big hits in a style they essentially started and caused to skyrocket in wider music culture, that listening to just Fleetwood feels like listening to a wedding band playing all the classics.
Aesthetic saturation.
Aesthetic saturation.
November 9, 2025 at 8:29 AM
My main issue with Fleetwood Mac is that they put out so many big hits in a style they essentially started and caused to skyrocket in wider music culture, that listening to just Fleetwood feels like listening to a wedding band playing all the classics.
Aesthetic saturation.
Aesthetic saturation.
Reposted by Huw Swanborough
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:39 PM
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Man, I work with such impressive people.
It's genuinely awesome.
It's genuinely awesome.
November 7, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Man, I work with such impressive people.
It's genuinely awesome.
It's genuinely awesome.
Out of office enabled...
Time for a week of (non-science) reading, writing, musicing, and maybe some city tripping.
Time for a week of (non-science) reading, writing, musicing, and maybe some city tripping.
a cartoon opossum is standing in the dirt with the words `` peace out '' written on it .
ALT: a cartoon opossum is standing in the dirt with the words `` peace out '' written on it .
media.tenor.com
November 7, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Out of office enabled...
Time for a week of (non-science) reading, writing, musicing, and maybe some city tripping.
Time for a week of (non-science) reading, writing, musicing, and maybe some city tripping.
Love, love, love this weather.
The drama. Oh the drama. I probably need a license for this much atmosphere
The drama. Oh the drama. I probably need a license for this much atmosphere
November 6, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Love, love, love this weather.
The drama. Oh the drama. I probably need a license for this much atmosphere
The drama. Oh the drama. I probably need a license for this much atmosphere
Glad to see someone exactly my age having exactly my thoughts lol.
sometimes, I feel quite successful for my age... other times, a guy three years younger than me gets elected (through hard work and not nepotism) mayor of the largest and richest city in the richest country in the world
November 5, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Glad to see someone exactly my age having exactly my thoughts lol.
That last post really doing well on Ciel Bleu
November 5, 2025 at 12:42 PM
That last post really doing well on Ciel Bleu
How apt.
Those multi-colour pens were bulky, uncomfortable to use, never had good quality ink, and didn't actually help you use a pen better but only give the image of flexibility.
Those multi-colour pens were bulky, uncomfortable to use, never had good quality ink, and didn't actually help you use a pen better but only give the image of flexibility.
November 5, 2025 at 10:29 AM
How apt.
Those multi-colour pens were bulky, uncomfortable to use, never had good quality ink, and didn't actually help you use a pen better but only give the image of flexibility.
Those multi-colour pens were bulky, uncomfortable to use, never had good quality ink, and didn't actually help you use a pen better but only give the image of flexibility.
Not a bad sunset....
November 4, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Not a bad sunset....
I'm very glad it's no longer en vogue to write with so many subordinate clauses.
November 4, 2025 at 10:07 AM
I'm very glad it's no longer en vogue to write with so many subordinate clauses.
The hill I will die on is that plotting the negative deflections on the positive axis because of 'tradition in eeg' makes no sense, and that negative deflections should go down.
We match colour to semantic categories of our experiment, we can match directions to directions.
We match colour to semantic categories of our experiment, we can match directions to directions.
November 3, 2025 at 10:18 AM
The hill I will die on is that plotting the negative deflections on the positive axis because of 'tradition in eeg' makes no sense, and that negative deflections should go down.
We match colour to semantic categories of our experiment, we can match directions to directions.
We match colour to semantic categories of our experiment, we can match directions to directions.