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Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · 13h

‘…he predicted an almost infinite range of structures could be produced, ‘open structures’ with large channels and cavities would be developed, and the frameworks could be ‘functionalised’ with catalytic sites, so, for example, a substance could […] be chemically transformed on the way through.”

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Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · 13h

Perhaps there are useful liminal spaces between the work behind the physics + chemistry Nobel Prizes. 💥

pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/the...

On the chemistry prize and Richard Robson’s contribution.

The Nobel Prize winner who built a whole new field of chemistry

In the 90s, University of Melbourne Professor Richard Robson created a new class of coordination polymers - now he and two other scientists have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

pursuit.unimelb.edu.au

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Reposted by Jessica Flack

Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · 1d

Please note my email, website, x, Bluesky and substack accounts are still under third party control without permission.

Image: Still from The Lives of Others

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Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · 1d

Please note my email, website, x, Bluesky and substack accounts are still under third party control without permission.

Image: Still from The Lives of Others

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Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · 1d

Congratulations to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis for winning the 2025 @nobelprize.bsky.social
for their work on macroscopic quantum tunneling and quantisation in circuits.

Preliminary thoughts are up at my blog.

jessicacflack.wordpress.com

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Reposted by Jessica Flack

Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · May 4

Dream Dust
By Langston Hughes

Gather out of star-dust
Earth-dust,
Cloud-dust,
And splinters of hail,
One handful of dream-dust
Not for sale.

From The Collected Works of Langston Hughes (2002) via @PoetryFound.
Photo credit—TBD—please share if you know.

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Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · Jul 18

...negative liberties naturally and profoundly incentivizes behavior that contributes to the social good while protecting individual rights.

More at Babel Blog.

jessicaflack.wordpress.com/blog (scroll down).

Image: Composite made by JCF. See website for information.

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Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · Jul 18

The beauty and power of negative liberties lies in how freedom is defined—the 'allowed behavior' is the behavior that remains after all behavior that hurts or impinges on the rights of others is 'disallowed'.

With the lightest touch,

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Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · Jul 18

Perspective on rights that emphasize individual liberties are sometimes equated with selfishness or described as anti-social. It is precisely the opposite for the concept of negative liberties. Continued...

Image credit: Isaiah Berlin by Steve Pyke, National Portrait Gallery

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Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · Mar 31

Isaiah Berlin—proponent of negative liberties as a remakably effective + broadly useful yet relatively simple (compressed) guiding moral principle—on the perilousness of ideological certainty. From an essay @nybooks
by Henry Hardy.

nybooks.com/articles/200...

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Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · 11d

Happy Public Lands Day!

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Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · Aug 30

Tomás Sánchez is a Cuban painter. His works are often in my mind. This painting, I believe, is from his 1948 “Enchanting Forrests” series.

jessicaflack.wordpress.com/blog

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Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · Aug 25

Similarly, institutions engaging in corruption—including endorsing the poaching or trade of biological material—cannot buy back their science reputations with fancy awards. 🤨

Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · Aug 25

Intellectual opportunities or recognition that comes with personal choice or other tethers, or which is backed by institutions that discriminate based on political views, are not merit-based + are neither interesting, or worthy of time or attention.

Palette cleanser:

m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml14...

Rostropovich records the Prelude from Bach Cello Suite No.1 BWV 1007

YouTube video by Warner Classics

m.youtube.com

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Reposted by Jessica Flack

Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · Aug 19

For science related issues, I can be reached at the email on my website. In addition, I post often abt my work, and that of others, on Babel Blog.

The latest post is on Borges, Oulipo + the impoverishing power of being able to see everything everywhere all at once.

jessicaflack.wordpress.com

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Reposted by Jessica Flack

Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · Aug 19

After ~23 years at the Institute—as grad student, postdoc, + professor—I’ve elected not to pursue renewal of my faculty contract. My last day was August 1st.

There are fundamental science advances on the horizon. . .more @ Babel Blog.

jessicaflack.wordpress.com/blog

Image: Turrell Blue Day. JCF

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Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · Jul 12

Interested in emergence + computation in nature? Please visit the Bio, Research, Pubs, and Babel Blog pages of my website.

jessicaflack.wordpress.com

My foci tend to be on collective phenomena at the intersection of bio, cognitive neuroscience, consciousness, CS, information theory, + physics.

Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · Mar 28

Self-portrait in negative space—I don’t work in statistical mechanics, particle physics, cosmology, information theory, theoretical computer science, quantum mechanics, or really even in biology, ethology, evolutionary theory, or cognitive science. Rather, I work...more at jessicaflack.wordpress.com

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Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · Aug 19

For science related issues, I can be reached at the email on my website. In addition, I post often abt my work, and that of others, on Babel Blog.

The latest post is on Borges, Oulipo + the impoverishing power of being able to see everything everywhere all at once.

jessicaflack.wordpress.com

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Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · Aug 19

After ~23 years at the Institute—as grad student, postdoc, + professor—I’ve elected not to pursue renewal of my faculty contract. My last day was August 1st.

There are fundamental science advances on the horizon. . .more @ Babel Blog.

jessicaflack.wordpress.com/blog

Image: Turrell Blue Day. JCF

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Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · Aug 17

Two versions of Danny Boy for this Sunday afternoon.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=JHJ3...

m.youtube.com/watch?v=PweU...

Danny Boy - Sinéad O'Connor, 1993

YouTube video by CR's Video Vaults

m.youtube.com

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Reposted by Jessica Flack

Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · Apr 3

Two of Wright’s Haiku:

That frozen star there,
Or this one on the water,—
Which is more distant?

Keep straight down this block,
Then turn right where you will find
A peach tree blooming

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Reposted by Jessica Flack

Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · Nov 14

Wheeler, who cites Wiliam James, wanted to know how a vision of one world arises out of the information-gathering activities of many observer-participants. Essentially abt collective computation, it's remarkable to think this question could unite physics + biology + even AI. 1/n

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Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · Aug 12

On Babel Blog—Borges, Oulipo, and the impoverishing power of being able to see everything everywhere all at once.

This post isn’t abt Oulipo per se but abt value in boundaries + constraints, when self-imposed or cooperatively adopted, rather than imposed by others.

jessicaflack.wordpress.com/blog

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Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · Aug 7

Any potential project is at least a year off + there are no guarantees given continuous petty nonesense.

Delays serve to aggravate, undermine confidence in skills, + push start dates further into the future.

Had decision-making been intelligent, projects could be starting now. 🤨

rubegoldberg.org

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Jessica Flack @c4computation.bsky.social · Aug 2

After ~23 years at the Institute—as a grad student, postdoc, and professor—I’ve elected not to pursue renewal of my faculty contract. My last day was August 1st.

There are fundamental science advances on the near horizon. . .more at Babel Blog.

jessicaflack.wordpress.com/blog

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