Top all-time · #11952
Samuel Arbesman
Personal blog · arbesman.substack.comscienceculture
Samuel Arbesman writes Cabinet of Wonders, a personal blog at arbesman.substack.com about science and culture. Since 2020, 6 different Hacker News readers have linked it 81 times, most often “AI and the Opcodes of Story World”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-21, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (1) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Samuel Arbesman's Substack on science and ideas. The only linked post here is "A Visual Quine," which one commenter connects to retinal, a chemical in the eye produced during visual stimulation.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 1 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Be prepared for radical interdisciplinarity: science + technology + complexity + humanities + wonder.
Most-linked posts?
- AI and the Opcodes of Story World2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2023-03-20
- A visual quine: a chemical you make just by looking at it2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-09-13
- Software Finds Its Natural Size2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-10-21
- Determining the Properties of Your Computational Universe2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-07-05
- Musical Perception in Fiction2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-07-09
What Hacker News says?
Interestingly enough, looking at the powdered form of retinal is a visual quine. (it is a chemical in your eyes that is produced during visual stimulation) https://arbesman.substack.com/p/a-visual-quine
Comment linking /p/a-visual-quine
on “Scientists are using AI to dream up revolutionary new proteins”Submitted The spreadsheet is a simulation machine as a story · 88 points
HN discussionSubmitted A visual quine: a chemical you make just by looking at it as a story · 23 points
HN discussionSubmitted "The Phantom Tollbooth" Was Supposed to Be a Nonfiction Book About Cities as a story · 12 points
HN discussionSubmitted We Need a Maxis 2.0 as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Spreadsheet Is a Simulation Machine as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Linnaean Instinct and List-Making as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Edges Cases Where Computing and Physics Intersect as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Software Finds Its Natural Size as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Musical Perception in Fiction as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The iPhone and the Wonder of Computing as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Wonders of Maxis as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Nature of Shareware: Gift Economy Meets Profit Motive as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted What Would a Multiplayer Mandelbrot Look Like? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Visual Quine as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Nintendo's Exercise Bicycle and the Vagaries of Tech Innovation as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted I Want More Risk-Taking in Philanthropy as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Conspiratorial Mindset and AI's Latent Spaces as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Diegetic Music and Its Delights as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Creating a Typeface: Humanist Computer as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Order and Disorder in Stories and Reality as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Archaeology of Biology and Software as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted What Would a Multiplayer Mandelbrot Look Like? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Art of Computational Narrative as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted AI, the God of the Gaps, and Our Quintessential Humanity as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Kitchen Sink Conundrum and Simulation's Balancing Act as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Sewing Machine as Personal Computer? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Determining the Properties of Your Computational Universe as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted When Douglas Adams wrote about Hypercard as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Generation Ships and Monarch Butterflies as a story · 2 points
HN discussion