#AcademicRunPlaylist - 9/17/25

Author

Ben Waber
September 17, 2025

A calm pond in the late afternoon on a slightly cloudy day. Forest lines the shore, with a weeping willow on the left nearly dipping into the water, and the tips of some trees are slightly stained light red, glowing in the warm sunlight. The water nearly perfectly reflects the sky above.

Well my day was pretty crazy, but while getting in a moment to breathe I listened to some talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was day 2 of the Institute for Science and Ethics (IWE)'s sustainable AI conference. I especially liked Julia Maria Mönig's talk on sustainability and the "we-turn" in AI ethics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H22ITktwj48

Next was an intriguing talk by Hsin-Yuan (Robert) Huang on generative quantum advantage at IAIFI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjzskClkboY

Last was "Restless Empire: China and the World Since 1750" by Odd Arne Westad. This book is a solid, informative history of an extremely important era of Chinese and world history. Unlike his more recent book, Westad here focuses on broad trends and analyzes the consequences of moves both within China and internationally. I particularly liked how he brought the Chinese diaspora into this history as well. While there aren't earth-shattering revelations here, it's still a great history. Highly recommend https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/odd-arne-westad/restless-empire/9780465056675/