mapping the crazy AI world

The stack only works if information flows correctly. The mind layer feeds the context layer through deliberate documentation, the context layer constrains the execution layer through careful prompting, and the output layer feeds back to the mind layer through review, which sometimes triggers updates to your understanding.

Now the shift from AI curated to AI created happens inside private AI chats. Instead of selecting from that common shelf of public posts, the AI system generates the narrative, the examples, the “context,” the emotional framing just for you. A belief can congeal around outputs that exist only in your chat history. There is no public post to label... See more

As artificial intelligence reconfigures every dimension of our societies—from labor markets to classrooms to newsrooms—we should remember the Luddites. Not as caricatures, but in the original sense: People who refuse to accept that the deployment of new technology should be dictated unilaterally by corporations or in cahoots with the government,... See more

I think what we're witnessing isn't just an extension of the attention economy but something new - the simulation economy. It's not just about keeping you glued to the screen anymore. It's about convincing you that any sort of real-world effort is unnecessary, that friction itself is obsolete3. The simulation doesn't just occupy your attention,... See more

There is an irresolvable tension between the practice of predicting human behavior and the belief in free will as part of our everyday life. A healthy degree of uncertainty about what is to come motivates us to want to do better, and it keeps possibilities open. The desire to leave no potential data point uncollected with the objective of mapping... See more

Henrich argues that humans have evolved “brains to allow us to most effectively learn the ideas, beliefs, values, motivations, and practices we’ll need to survive and thrive in whatever ecological or social environments we end up in.” The way this happens is through culture, which is a dramatic accelerant on our ability to solve problems and... See more

One very real future being pursued right now looks to turn LLMs into a universal operating system, and thus the friendly assistant — the weaver, the chatbot — would be the universal interface for all “smart” infrastructure, utilities, appliances, tools, household objects, automated machines, etc. Accordingly, one can easily imagine a version of the... See more

The reality of a technology that can perform “economically valuable tasks” occurs when either:

1. There is a new task to perform (like how computers helped us code).


2. It automates an existing type of labor (dishwashers made it so we didn’t have to wash dishes).


3. It makes an existing form of labor more productive (hammers helped us construct homes faster).

something that has been missed in the frenzy over the technological significance of LLMs: They are philosophically significant. What we now have are things that write without speaking, a proliferation of texts that do not have, nor are beholden to, the authoritative voice of an author, and statements whose truth cannot be anchored in and assured by... See more