I read this paper and it seemed like a lot of swing-for-the-fences evo conjecture and speculation, rather than much in terms of settled science.

I& #39;m grateful to Carl Bergstrom for sharing (with a lot more detail) his reservations. https://twitter.com/CT_Bergstrom/status/1319424455626485765">https://twitter.com/CT_Bergst...

At the the end of the day, I love a good "fuck it, let& #39;s make some predictions" session as much as anyone else.

I& #39;m reeeeeeaaaaalllly nervous about this type of session showing up as a PNAS paper, where people will take it too seriously.

I hope I& #39;m wrong here, but I predict that this paper will blow up in all the wrong ways, then we& #39;ll see the authors walk it back and clarify that they& #39;re speculating WELL beyond settled evidence.

Which is fine to do, but maybe not in PNAS, during the damn pandemic.

My tl;dr for this paper is captured by what Carl says partway through the excellent thread: https://twitter.com/CT_Bergstrom/status/1319448230409555968?s=20">https://twitter.com/CT_Bergst...