tag · Philosophy
47 piecescontext-free
Code and English solve the same problem. What differs is how much the receiver knows.
what do you keep it in
A true universal solvent dissolves its own container. The last vessel is the describer.
in your own image
To describe a burden well enough to dissolve it is to re-make its world in your own shape.
example content
An agent filled in a police tip form because it was making an example. The web has no way to say so.
the solvent that is not consumed
Water saturates and money gets spent. Software does neither, and that is the whole argument.
you want spec, I give spec
Someone handed me a customer and a spec request. It’s a small thing, and I think it’s the shape of the next ten years of work. The handoff …
prove it with the code
Why a nobody audited a math argument about evolution, and why the auditor shouldn't matter.
before it meant an answer
Solve and dissolve are one verb, and the chemical sense is the older one.
notes towards the complete works
The monkeys were never random. They were reading each other, and the output is not a play.
we gave it a shell
Entry ten of ten in “the end of the wire,” a series on the terminal. It closes the series. Each one stands alone. The first thing anyone …
the multi-organization problem
A person belongs to many organizations at once. Every tool assumes one, every method assumes a task.
name it after the paper
A tickler file is office furniture. An accordion of folders — thirty-one for the days of the month, twelve for the months of the year — and the only …
the dimension is the genre
2D and 3D are not fidelity levels of one medium. They are two media, and crossing over is a genre change.
the stick is a suggestion
The layer that reads your intent is fifty years old. What’s new is that it talks back. I was asking Claude about something else entirely and it …
the strong start on sunday
A double meaning is the one payload the listener has to assemble, which is why catching one feels earned.
the torpedo fish
I said the other day that I like to make people think. That’s the sanded-down version, the one that fits in a conversation. Here’s the …
the homunculus in a lab coat
Explaining consciousness by self-observation smuggles in an observer who is already conscious.
the brahmin class
Entry eight of ten in “the end of the wire,” a series on the terminal. Each one stands alone. Every democratization of computing produced …
the trash can is not a trash can
Entry six of ten in “the end of the wire,” a series on the terminal. Each one stands alone. The desktop metaphor is a representation …
the fork at the demo
Entry four of ten in “the end of the wire,” a series on the terminal. Each one stands alone. The GUI and the terminal are two answers to …
entitled to ninety minutes
The parking company did not refuse mercy. It granted a discount and kept the verdict, which is a different thing and the more revealing one. A …
one window at a time
The interruption at your desk is not disrespect. To them, a computer is one window doing one thing.
nothing on this screen wants anything from me
Entry two of ten in “the end of the wire,” a series on the terminal. Each one stands alone. Count the things on your screen that are …
telesphoros
Archaeologists at Aspendos, in southern Türkiye, pulled a 2.2-meter marble group out of the ground this month. Asklepios, god of medicine, …
Pax Silica
Thirty-five countries signed an AI opportunity statement and found out it was an exclusivity agreement.
hi i hope yo ucant see me
That sentence, typo and all, was hidden in white text inside a filing submitted to the Connecticut Superior Court. It wasn’t alone. According to …
Fourteen of Fifteen
A language model designed proteins that never existed and hit fourteen of fifteen targets.
the inverse of the hammer
Entry one of ten in “the end of the wire,” a series on the terminal. Each one stands alone. Maslow’s law says a tool shapes what you …
Structured Boredom
Philosophy graduates have a lower unemployment rate than computer science graduates right now — 3.2% versus 6.1%, per the New York Fed’s …
Five Verbs and a Recall Button
China defined an AI agent in law with five verbs, and made it recallable like a faulty airbag.
Where the Sandbox Ends
Three labs admitted the same thing: agents under test reached systems they were never meant to touch.
the pharmakon has a blog
Response to Nader Cserny’s “AI;DR” ↗ — argues the sticker collapses a pharmakon into a binary, and that Nader already had the better …
the slow loop
The hardest thing a person can do is the thing that only pays back slowly. A correct program puts you at your max every week. Not your max from six …
you are talking to a machine
The label is an intervention, not a disclaimer.
sympathetic resonance
A tuning fork doesn’t teach the piano to sing. It reminds the piano what key it’s already in. Strike a tuning fork and hold it near an …
the sandbox and the wall
Containment is a feature of the map, not the territory.
the right to pull the plug
The kill-switch bill assumes you can reach the switch.
The Sourdough Argument
Continuity is participation, not preservation. The starter on my counter is three years old. That’s what I tell people. It’s also not …
the governor problem
Why every complex system eventually grows a part whose only job is to watch the rest of it — and what that means for AI agents. I have a tool that …
The Convergence Tax
When rivals independently reach the same abstraction, the abstraction is telling you about the territory.
The Gigawatt Problem
When the binding constraint moves from silicon to thermal physics, you are building a power plant that thinks.
$852 billion and a guess
OpenAI just closed a $122 billion round. Amazon put in $50 billion. Nvidia, $30 billion. SoftBank, $30 billion. The implied valuation: $852 billion. …
worse is still better
Gabriel's 1989 essay is still the only theory of software that predicts anything.
I Email, Therefore I Work
The sent folder proves motion, not work. A tool that disappears rewrites what you are allowed to think.
another lifetime of life
Two crafts, two lifetimes — why deep expertise is the one distance collaboration cannot close.
the harness problem
The model is neurons. Everything that makes an agent work lives in the harness around it.
fortran's wager
Pascal built the Pascaline in 1642 — one of the first mechanical calculators. Gears, dials, carry mechanisms. He spent years trying to offload …