By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 03/08/2026"Understanding" and "statistical extrapolation" *can* often lead to the same place, but when they *don't*, "understanding" provides a way forward, while "extrapolation" founders. 18/ 1798
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 03/08/2026Both work fine, but only one fails gracefully. The two tricks only *appear* the same, but they are fundamentally different. 19/ 2491
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 03/08/2026AI's investor story - and the science fiction tales of AI's eventual capabilities that underpin that investor story - makes heavy use of this conjurer's trick, in which two different outcomes are equated to one another because they resemble each other. 20/ 1666
Dr Alan Nixon @alangnixon.bsky.social · 04/08/2026I was explaining this kind of thing to my wife after Dawkins started thinking AI was conscious. Reducing everything to statistical trends is still reduction. I wasn't surprised Dawkins thought AI was conscious because reductionists tend to discount the complexity of experience. Missing embodiment. 010
