Archive - FreakTakes

Managing Lockheed’s Skunk Works

And Many Stories About the Maleffects of Bureaucracy on R&D

Mar 7 •

January 2024

Lessons Answer.AI can learn from history’s greatest R&D labs

Today’s piece was put together with the help of several conversations with Answer.AI co-founder Jeremy Howard. It is not a “traditional” FreakTakes…

Jan 26 •

An Interview with Chuck Thorpe on CMU: Operating an autonomous vehicle research powerhouse

Listen now | The centerpiece of today’s post is an extensive interview with Chuck Thorpe. Thorpe, now President of Clarkson University, spent over two…

Jan 9

1:00:10

December 2023

“The Third University of Cambridge”: BBN and the Development of the ARPAnet

We’ve all heard that “DARPA invented the Internet.” But few have heard of BBN, the contractor that did the most work to bring the ARPAnet into…

Dec 14, 2023 •

November 2023

The Autonomous Land Vehicle, Pilot's Associate, and Battle Management

Three North Star Applications Projects from DARPA's Strategic Computing Portfolio

Nov 7, 2023 •

The 1980s DARPA 'Silicon Broker'

Nov 5, 2023 •

Strategic Computing's Machine Acquisition Program

This piece is an accompaniment to today’s MOSIS piece. So please read the MOSIS piece before starting this one. Pattern Language Tags: Promoting a…

Nov 5, 2023 •

ILLIAC IV and the Connection Machine

DARPA's varied approaches to developing early parallel computers

Nov 3, 2023 •

October 2023

Coming Soon...Diving into ARPA History

I’ve taken to calling the pieces I write for FreakTakes “administrative histories.” The reason I opted for that name instead of “progress studies…

Oct 11, 2023 •

August 2023

The Past and Present of Computer-Augmented Hypothesis Generation

Don Swanson’s career started on a path familiar to many who read this blog. A BA in Physics from CalTech in 1945. A Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from UC…

Aug 10, 2023 •

and

July 2023

An Alternative Approach to Deep Tech VC

Marrying early YC's goals with systems from the mid-20th C. deep tech pipeline

Jul 13, 2023 •

May 2023

How Recent Innovation in Jiu-jitsu Helps Us Think About OpenAI’s Future

Check out my guest post for the ChinaTalk Substack on recent innovation in the sport of jiu-jitsu and how it can help us think about OpenAI’s future. In…

May 26, 2023 •

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