Participants discuss the feasibility of using AI to backtest scientific breakthroughs, with one suggesting a structured 'tech tree' approach while another cites data limitations as a barrier. The strongest disagreement centers on whether current models can generate novel hypotheses versus merely duplicating known findings.
2 readable replies · Supporting reply 1 · Supporting reply 2haykgrigo3
TimeCapsuleLLM
Python2025–2026
haykgrigo3 / TimeCapsuleLLM
TimeCapsuleLLM
A LLM trained only on data from certain time periods to reduce modern bias
10Distinct people
10Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
2KGitHub stars
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What it is
A LLM trained only on data from certain time periods to reduce modern bias
GitHub
Where it is used
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This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by month10 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2025-07-14 20:49:38 UTC to 2026-05-20 21:41:25 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 2025 | 2025-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Aug 2025 | 2025-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Sep 2025 | 2025-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Oct 2025 | 2025-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nov 2025 | 2025-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dec 2025 | 2025-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Jan 2026 | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Feb 2026 | 2026-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2026 | 2026-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Apr 2026 | 2026-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| May 2026 | 2026-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
What Hacker News says
10 sourcesBJbjt·May 20, 2026
"frontier level" is doing a lot of work there, but the idea would be to only feed it earlier sources.
There are people working on this.
e.g. https://github.com/haykgrigo3/TimeCapsuleLLM
In An OpenAI model has disproved a central conjecture in discrete geometryRelated:
https://github.com/haykgrigo3/TimeCapsuleLLM
> A language model trained from scratch exclusively on data from certain places and time periods to reduce modern bias and emulate the voice, vocabulary, and worldview of the era.
Discussed here:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46590280
In Talkie: a 13B vintage language model from 1930Looking at the training data I don't think it will know anything.[0]
Doubt On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences (1834) is going to have much about QM. While the cut-off is 1900, it seems much of the texts a much closer to 1800 than 1900.
[0] https://github.com/haykgrigo3/TimeCapsuleLLM/blob/main/Copy%...
In TimeCapsuleLLM: LLM trained only on data from 1800-1875TimeCapsuleLLM: LLM trained only on data from 1800-1875
737 points · Open discussionOpen Source Historical LLM trained exclusively on 19th century text
12 points · Open discussionA LLM trained only on data from certain time periods to reduce modern bias
13 points · Open discussionIt's been done.
https://github.com/haykgrigo3/TimeCapsuleLLM
In Anthropic agrees to pay $1.5B to settle lawsuit with book authorsTimeCapsule LLM: trained only on data from certain time periods
2 points · Open discussionSomeone tried this, I saw it one of the Reddit AI subs. They were training a local model on whatever they could find that was written before $cutoffDate.
Found the GitHub: https://github.com/haykgrigo3/TimeCapsuleLLM
In GPT-5An LLM trained only on data from certain time periods to reduce modern bias
4 points · Open discussion