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Contraptions

@contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev
8 followers 0 following 93 posts

Janky, wobbly models of everything from philosophy to technology and everything in-between. Automated feed of contraptions.venkateshrao.com, find more feeds at @blogsky.venki.dev

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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 19/09/2026
Humanism without (All) Humans
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Humanism without (All) Humans
Microsoft Humanism puts corporate muscle behind an overweening class of bad AI philosophies
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 17/09/2026
EA Safety
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EA Safety
EA promises to solve AI Safety. Now we have two problems.
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 13/09/2026
The Accelerationist Case for Frontier Pacing
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The Accelerationist Case for Frontier Pacing
Slow AI is smooth AI, smooth AI is fast AI
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 12/09/2026
Our Eukaryotic Moment
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Our Eukaryotic Moment
Counterprogramming premature ontological closure in conceptualizing AI
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 05/09/2026
The Curiously Playable Universe
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The Curiously Playable Universe
More of the universe appears to be more playable than we expected
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 31/08/2026
Walter Mitty Effects in AI Incident Analyses
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Walter Mitty Effects in AI Incident Analyses
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 01/08/2026
August Break
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August Break
Taking a break through August/early September. Billing will be paused.
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 28/07/2026
Cognitive Farmsteading
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Cognitive Farmsteading
The message of the AI medium is intellectual rural domesticity
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 24/07/2026
Join me in Jamverse
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Join me in Jamverse
My first foray into contributing to a science fictional extended universe
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 18/07/2026
Can the (Social) Oobleck Dance?
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Can the (Social) Oobleck Dance?
Temporal forcing of non-Newtonian precommodified ooze in the appropriate context tanks might lead to prescience
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 12/07/2026
The Taste Essay
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The Taste Essay
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 09/07/2026
A Tale of Two Theories (of Coordination)
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A Tale of Two Theories (of Coordination)
Leveraging and Deleveraging Toward Thick Sovereignty
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 05/07/2026
Dead Forest Theory
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Dead Forest Theory
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 01/07/2026
Monitoring the Situation: from 1950s-2020s
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Monitoring the Situation: from 1950s-2020s
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 26/06/2026
Strange Knowledgeability
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Strange Knowledgeability
Human knowing in perspectival encyclopedicity
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 22/06/2026
Search, Discovery, Pills, and Portals
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Search, Discovery, Pills, and Portals
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 20/06/2026
A Camera, Not an Engine II
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A Camera, Not an Engine II
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 14/06/2026
Touching Time
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Touching Time
Or, the new adventures of Spaceship Earth
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 06/06/2026
Mindmap June 6, 2026
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Mindmap June 6, 2026
Stuff I'm thinking about
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 30/05/2026
From Cannons to Chronometers to Factories
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From Cannons to Chronometers to Factories
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 30/05/2026
Time, Enlightenment and Romanticism Between Modernity and Divergence
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Time, Enlightenment and Romanticism Between Modernity and Divergence
World Machines learnings from recent book club readings
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 23/05/2026
Commodity Intelligence
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Commodity Intelligence
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 23/05/2026
Many Act 2 Games are Afoot
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Many Act 2 Games are Afoot
Protocol Institute, Long Now Labs, Strange Rules art show, vgr_zirp update, World Machines, TensTorrent
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 15/05/2026
Capital Must Seek Delight
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Capital Must Seek Delight
Too few people are experiencing the delights and serendipity of AI, causing capital misallocation
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 09/05/2026
Ribbonfarm Resurrected
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Ribbonfarm Resurrected
As a museum blog with an AI curator that is
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 02/05/2026
Getting Gooier
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Getting Gooier
How AI is transforming humans
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 25/04/2026
AI in World Machine Theory
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AI in World Machine Theory
The telos of AI is to create liveness at planetary scale
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 19/04/2026
Writing Liveness
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Writing Liveness
The message of the medium of generated text is liveness
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 10/04/2026
Intentions have a surprising amount of detail
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Intentions have a surprising amount of detail
Auteur managerialism, the myth of one-shotting, and the chindogufication of engineering
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 05/04/2026
On Cooling America Out
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On Cooling America Out
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 28/03/2026
The World Machines Project
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The World Machines Project
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 22/03/2026
Rediscovering Irony
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Rediscovering Irony
Counterprogramming cancerous sincerity and the cult of authenticity with AI assistance
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 28/02/2026
Archival Selves
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Archival Selves
What happens when you pay off all your intention debts?
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 22/02/2026
The Divergence Machine II
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The Divergence Machine II
Progress as a non-stationary argument
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 17/02/2026
Protocolized Writing Workshop
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Protocolized Writing Workshop
Your chance to race to the frontier of modern AI-forward writing and publishing
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 15/02/2026
vgr: The Twitter Years (2007-22)
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vgr: The Twitter Years (2007-22)
I made my twitter into a very nice online book
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 10/02/2026
New Ferality
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New Ferality
Seeking new ways of being wild in new nature
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 01/02/2026
Engineering Liveness
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Engineering Liveness
New Nature in the Gramsci Gap
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 25/01/2026
Robot Auras
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Robot Auras
Robotics-native affect beyond googly eyes and human emotions
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 16/01/2026
New Nature
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New Nature
Contours of can’t-be-evil futures
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 10/01/2026
Lost in Bugspace
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Lost in Bugspace
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 05/01/2026
The Divergence Machine
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The Divergence Machine
Introducing the 2026 Book Club theme
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 24/12/2025
The Modernity Machine III
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The Modernity Machine III
Completion, Saturation, and Phase Transition
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 24/12/2025
2025 Book Club Hangout (Transcript)
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2025 Book Club Hangout (Transcript)
Reflecting on a year of reading about the emergence of modernity, 1200-1600
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 20/12/2025
Revenge of the Dilettantes
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Revenge of the Dilettantes
Book club and AI adventures, age of bespokeness, study groups, new rules of engagement
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 15/12/2025
Bucket Art
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Bucket Art
In which I launch a career as a Serious Artist™
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 11/12/2025
Configurancy
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Configurancy
Doing Heideggerianism without the baggage of Care/Sorge
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 07/12/2025
What if bigger models, like bigger stars, fail faster?
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What if bigger models, like bigger stars, fail faster?
A different way to think about the “too big to fail” take about OpenAI
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 05/12/2025
The Yakverse Chronicles
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The Yakverse Chronicles
Volume 3 of my Art of Gig series is finally out -- free and online
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Contraptions @contraptions.blogsky.venki.dev · 04/12/2025
The Ethics of Meaning-Making
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The Ethics of Meaning-Making
The search for "meaning" is not synonymous with "good"
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