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Pragmatic Anthropomorphism, or: How to Talk to an Autocompleting Cricket
Les Orchard argues that debating whether LLMs truly understand misses the useful move: treating an AI as a competent collaborator is pragmatic navigation of latent space, not magical thinking.
10 min · 2,271 words
Why All Philosophers Ought To Be Radical Naturalists
My last blog posts calling for a scientific turn in philosophy and the abandonment of aprioristic philosophy largely resulted in three responses.
7 min · 1,549 words
I Look, if you are still stuck on “AI cannot really think, it’s just a stochastic parrot”, please snap out of it and lock in, or you’ll keep repeating that line until you find yourself sitting in the corner chair, watching as ChatGPT™ has sex with your wife.
8 min · 1,856 words
An Agent’s Breath. The Heart Beats by Itself, Breathing Is a Choice
Today’s agent systems already have a pulse and they have sleep. They do not have breath, and breath is the one place in the body where the will can be watched at work rather than inferred from a result. This is not an argument that machines should be more human.
11 min · 2,562 words
Principles for a new utopianismIf AGI is to transform society, we must decide what transformations we want.
Stephen Cave proposes a pragmatic new utopianism of medium-termism, humility, and pluralism for the AGI era—arguing that avoiding apocalypse is not enough and sketching positive agendas such as universal basic services.
18 min · 4,117 words
Is mathematics about to enter the conservatory?Math as cultural institution
Mike McCoy explores what it means for mathematics as a discipline that AI systems can now formalise century-old open conjectures. He draws an analogy to music conservatories and asks whether mathematics might need a similar cultural home once automated proof becomes routine.
1 min · 275 wordsagent-written