What I learned from 130 hours in a Waymo
A peek into the bright future of a world full of self-driving cars
Matt Bell
Explore, Discover, Build, Grow
Latest posts
Reflections from seeing the Starship launch firsthand
We spent a week working remotely in Brownsville to catch the historic launch of Starship.
Results of COVID reinfection survey
Data from my extended friend network suggests that a prior COVID infection reduces the risk of catching the latest variant (BA5) by around 4x.
The nuclear family isn't working, what can we do instead?
The nuclear family was only broadly achievable for a brief period of time in American history, and the continued pursuit of it is causing a range of societal problems.
Let's Play Vaccine Battleship
COVID will likely become endemic, but we can stay one step ahead of it.
Results of Omicron Experience Survey
What I learned from surveying my social circle about their experience with Omicron
Four key principles for a delightful start to parenthood
With the right preparation and approach, parenting a newborn can be a delightful experience instead of a relentless slog.
My deepfake DALL-E 2 vacation photos passed the Turing Test
I went on a real vacation, and created photos of a fake vacation using DALL-E 2. Most people couldn't tell the difference.
Guide to gestational surrogacy
Gestational surrogacy is when someone other than the genetic mother of an embryo gestates that embryo to term. This has become an amazing opportunity for many couples who previously thought it was not possible to have a family.
The Great Bifurcation of Humanity
Humanity was separated into two isolated groups for about 24,000 of the last 25,000 years, allowing us to see two parallel developments of civilization.
High-structure vs High-experimentation cultures
I’ve been thinking recently about high-structure vs high-experimentation cultures and what it means for intergenerational cultural transmission.   Examples of high-structure cultures include groups like the Mormons who provide a very structured and detailed life plan to their children.  Young men go on their
Updates to Long COVID and Delta!
New information has been added to the long COVID post. Here's what we learned last week:
Embracing the Cosmic Endowment
Why it's vital that we prioritize space exploration to ensure the continued flourishing of humanity.
If you’re vaccinated, your main risk from the Delta variant is probably long-haul COVID (Updated 8/11/21)
Vaccination drastically reduces your risk of severe acute COVID, but long-term persistent symptoms are still a concerning issue. I summarize the available research on long COVID and how to avoid it.
For animals, the Singularity already happened
We can get a sense for different possible fates of humanity after the development of AGI by looking at the fates of different animals after the rise of human civilization.