Pat Savage
@patrickesavage.bsky.social
Director: @compmusiclab.bsky.social. Rutherford Discovery Fellow @U Auckland. Assoc. Prof. @Keio U. PI @manyvoices.bsky.social. Music, evolution, diversity. He/him. Tangata tiriti.
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Pat Savage
@patrickesavage.bsky.social
· Dec 14
Just submitted corrected proofs for my first book!
Publication (open access) is scheduled for late Feb 2026 (but the preprint is already available if you don't want to wait: osf.io/preprints/ps...)
Publication (open access) is scheduled for late Feb 2026 (but the preprint is already available if you don't want to wait: osf.io/preprints/ps...)
Reposted by Pat Savage
Top of the charts at my house today
January 17, 2026 at 2:43 PM
Top of the charts at my house today
Reposted by Pat Savage
Reposted by Pat Savage
"Ultimately, peer review didn’t transform Nature’s standing so much as protect it, converting exclusivity that might have seemed arbitrary into gatekeeping that appeared meritocratic."
Nice piece by Robert Reason on the prestige of Nature www.asimov.press/p/nature
Nice piece by Robert Reason on the prestige of Nature www.asimov.press/p/nature
How Nature Became a 'Prestige' Journal
Since launching in 1869, Nature has evolved from a periodical offering commentary on pigeons to the prestige journal in science. But how did Nature build its reputation, and can it last?
www.asimov.press
January 11, 2026 at 6:57 AM
"Ultimately, peer review didn’t transform Nature’s standing so much as protect it, converting exclusivity that might have seemed arbitrary into gatekeeping that appeared meritocratic."
Nice piece by Robert Reason on the prestige of Nature www.asimov.press/p/nature
Nice piece by Robert Reason on the prestige of Nature www.asimov.press/p/nature
Reposted by Pat Savage
It is as it ever was. elevanth.org/blog/2022/01...
January 10, 2026 at 9:47 AM
It is as it ever was. elevanth.org/blog/2022/01...
Did this for the first time in ages - felt great, highly recommend
January 10, 2026 at 9:21 AM
Did this for the first time in ages - felt great, highly recommend
NA->0 strikes again!
@rmcelreath.bsky.social
@rmcelreath.bsky.social
The paper is effectively simulating full data coverage without telling anyone. Over 57% of the pre-2021 country-years in its data contain average sentence durations of 0, when really the raw data sources contain no data on sentences in these country-years. 18/x
January 10, 2026 at 9:09 AM
NA->0 strikes again!
@rmcelreath.bsky.social
@rmcelreath.bsky.social
Reposted by Pat Savage
Proc B with @sampassmore.bsky.social! We used simulations to explore the innovation strategies of speed climbers 🧗♀️ Innovation is higher among slower athletes and lower when the population size is larger, and the overall balance of innovation and copying appears to be suboptimal 🔗 bit.ly/499QjZM
Simulation-based inference with deep learning suggests speed climbers combine innovation and copying to improve performance
Abstract. In the Olympic sport of speed climbing, athletes compete to reach the top of a 15 m wall as quickly as possible. Since the standardization of the
bit.ly
January 8, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Proc B with @sampassmore.bsky.social! We used simulations to explore the innovation strategies of speed climbers 🧗♀️ Innovation is higher among slower athletes and lower when the population size is larger, and the overall balance of innovation and copying appears to be suboptimal 🔗 bit.ly/499QjZM
Reposted by Pat Savage
The cultural evolution of Speed Climbing bit.ly/499QjZM
New article w @masonyoungblood.bsky.social
Innovations are more likely to occur in slower athletes & large populations. Simulations suggest innovation is underutilized!
New article w @masonyoungblood.bsky.social
Innovations are more likely to occur in slower athletes & large populations. Simulations suggest innovation is underutilized!
January 8, 2026 at 7:06 PM
The cultural evolution of Speed Climbing bit.ly/499QjZM
New article w @masonyoungblood.bsky.social
Innovations are more likely to occur in slower athletes & large populations. Simulations suggest innovation is underutilized!
New article w @masonyoungblood.bsky.social
Innovations are more likely to occur in slower athletes & large populations. Simulations suggest innovation is underutilized!
Reposted by Pat Savage
it is your DUTY as a parent to be basic and cringe. if your child says "6-7" and you do not say, loud enough for their friends to hear, "8-9?", causing profound silence and intense discomfort, you are neglecting your responsibilities. being cool is for kids. your days of being laughed WITH are over
January 4, 2026 at 10:42 PM
it is your DUTY as a parent to be basic and cringe. if your child says "6-7" and you do not say, loud enough for their friends to hear, "8-9?", causing profound silence and intense discomfort, you are neglecting your responsibilities. being cool is for kids. your days of being laughed WITH are over
Reposted by Pat Savage
I like that, underneath all of this grousing, the answer to "Why I'm Leaving Harvard" is that he agreed to a phased retirement four years ago, at retirement age, and now he's retired. It's like saying you're leaving the restaurant because you finished eating dinner.
The reason this Harvard history professor decided he was done with one of the best and most privileged jobs in the world was, in his own words, because he was forced to lecture in a mask during peak Covid.
I’m not making this up.
I’m not making this up.
December 31, 2025 at 2:04 AM
I like that, underneath all of this grousing, the answer to "Why I'm Leaving Harvard" is that he agreed to a phased retirement four years ago, at retirement age, and now he's retired. It's like saying you're leaving the restaurant because you finished eating dinner.
@damianblasi.bsky.social has done cool work on this phenomenon more generally:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
December 28, 2025 at 12:30 PM
@damianblasi.bsky.social has done cool work on this phenomenon more generally:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Pat Savage
shel silverstein was a prophet
December 27, 2025 at 4:08 PM
shel silverstein was a prophet
Reposted by Pat Savage
If I had a dollar for every British astrophysicist named Brian who put their career on hold to join a chart-topping pop group and then successfully pivoted back to astrophysics, I’d have two dollars, which isn’t much but it’s weird that it’s happened twice www.nytimes.com/2025/12/27/w...
Before This Physicist Studied the Stars, He Was One
www.nytimes.com
December 27, 2025 at 7:18 PM
If I had a dollar for every British astrophysicist named Brian who put their career on hold to join a chart-topping pop group and then successfully pivoted back to astrophysics, I’d have two dollars, which isn’t much but it’s weird that it’s happened twice www.nytimes.com/2025/12/27/w...
Reposted by Pat Savage
another robot highlight for 2025: man wearing humanoid mocap suit kicks himself in the balls
December 27, 2025 at 5:27 PM
another robot highlight for 2025: man wearing humanoid mocap suit kicks himself in the balls
It’s a Christmas miracle: new highest chess rating!
December 26, 2025 at 8:52 AM
It’s a Christmas miracle: new highest chess rating!
December 22, 2025 at 1:06 AM
Reposted by Pat Savage
My 14-yo-son has recreated the climax of Back to the Future in gingerbread and I thought you should know.
December 20, 2025 at 5:41 PM
My 14-yo-son has recreated the climax of Back to the Future in gingerbread and I thought you should know.
NA->0 strikes again
December 18, 2025 at 9:22 AM
NA->0 strikes again
Reposted by Pat Savage
@matildellen.bsky.social bravely decided to do a registered report with @pci-regreports.bsky.social as the first manuscript of her PhD -- 2+ years later, it's out! It's on how bilingualism affects statistical word learning, and the results were quite unexpected. Read more:
The influence of bilingualism on statistical word learning: a registered report
Abstract. While statistical word learning has been the focus of many studies on monolinguals, it has received little attention in bilinguals. The results o
royalsocietypublishing.org
December 17, 2025 at 9:09 PM
@matildellen.bsky.social bravely decided to do a registered report with @pci-regreports.bsky.social as the first manuscript of her PhD -- 2+ years later, it's out! It's on how bilingualism affects statistical word learning, and the results were quite unexpected. Read more:
Reposted by Pat Savage
“What’s unfolding now is more than dishonesty—it’s the unraveling of any shared understanding of what education is for.”
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself
Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.
www.currentaffairs.org
December 17, 2025 at 11:06 PM
“What’s unfolding now is more than dishonesty—it’s the unraveling of any shared understanding of what education is for.”
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
Reposted by Pat Savage
Really good (and damning) analysis of how LLMs are exposing deeper problems in citation metric-based scientific incentives
If you have to read anything about the prospect of “automating scientific discovery,” “agents for science,” or integrating LLMs into scientific pipelines, please let it be this essay by Kevin T. Baker: artificialbureaucracy.substack.com/p/context-wi...
December 16, 2025 at 4:36 AM
Really good (and damning) analysis of how LLMs are exposing deeper problems in citation metric-based scientific incentives
Reposted by Pat Savage
New paper: Three evolutionary radiations shaped the evolution of global religious diversity
Three evolutionary radiations shaped the evolution of global religious diversity | Evolutionary Human Sciences | Cambridge Core
Three evolutionary radiations shaped the evolution of global religious diversity - Volume 7
www.cambridge.org
December 15, 2025 at 10:10 PM
New paper: Three evolutionary radiations shaped the evolution of global religious diversity
Reposted by Pat Savage
Our new paper is out! Orangutan long calls are strongly isochronous, yet surprisingly they can also shift into double-meter patterns — a small but intriguing clue to the roots of musical rhythm.
doi.org/10.1016/j.is...
doi.org/10.1016/j.is...
December 1, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Our new paper is out! Orangutan long calls are strongly isochronous, yet surprisingly they can also shift into double-meter patterns — a small but intriguing clue to the roots of musical rhythm.
doi.org/10.1016/j.is...
doi.org/10.1016/j.is...