KAROLA KIRSANOW

About Me

Hello. I'm Karola.

I'm a scientist by training. I've researched the deep past using stable isotope mass spectrometry, and the slightly-less-deep past using ancient DNA . I am interested in how humans have been shaped by our evolutionary environments, and how we adapt to our environments using technology, including cultural technology.

After studying gene regulatory networks and gene-phenotype networks, I became interested in how different network shapes represent and constrain the types of interactions they support. I spent several years working with researchers and engineers building decentralized and distributed network technologies.

Interests

Working in an R&D environment led me to think more about the factors affecting the rate of scientific progress, and the interaction between advances in science and engineering. I'm interested in the ways that thoughtful toolbuilding can accelerate scientific research.

Watching technologies move from the adjacent possible into reality made me curious about how we incentivize their creation. How do we pay for all of this cool stuff? I worked with a team developing new ways to map and incentivize technological progress and other public goods.

Projects

Knowledge is one of my favorite public goods. I'm very interested in building new infrastructures for knowledge synthesis. Discourse Graphs are awesome for this! I'm building The Atlas of Synthesized Knowledge, a community for reasoning with graphs, to share my enthusiasm.

Lately I've been thinking about how digital infrastructures can be used to support creative work, especially narrative building. I'm writing revising a novel exploring what it would be like if our technology evolved with us.

I write about my interests on my blog.