iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Replies

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 22/08/2026

The difference is that when your spouse says something entirely unexpected and unprecedented to you (say, "I want a divorce"), the fact that you have a theory about *why* your spouse said all the things they said up to that moment can help you understand why they've said this new thing. 43/

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 22/08/2026

But a machine learning model that relies on theory-free statistical modeling to predict your spouse's next words will be entirely at sea. Theory-free inference works well, but it fails badly. 44/

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 22/08/2026

The problem is that the AI sector has raised literally *trillions* of dollars by assuring investors that the era of hand-made, causal world models that let computers act on the world is hopelessly inefficient and outdated. 45/

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Eugene Hetzel @eugenehetzel.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

In other words, humanity's true gift among the animals is the capacity to lie, which is to say to think and create abstractly. Without abstraction, whole-cloth innovation is impossible. One must reach beyond sense and order.

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