The State of the Human Subject
Human nature might be a baseless concept. Its existence will be argued over by philosophers for years to come. Regardless, we are here and we build systems with humans as the moving parts.
Systems that fail to acknowledge the limitations of the human at their core are dangerous, they subject us to an environment which we are not designed for, hence reward unexpected and potentially destructive behaviours.
We must be conscious of the humans at the centre of these systems, of their dispositions and biases (whether they be natural or not). We must not build as if humans are perfect animals, we are still animals after all.
The human limit is not a ceiling to engineer past. We risk creating new animals out of ourselves.
The Glorification of Struggle and Its Performance
Society glorifies the 'builder', the 'visionary'. People chase this status.
Building has become a performance. We have lost sight of why we build.
Passion is not a career plan, it is organic, ugly, destructive, encroaching, inescapable: it is a calling.
We cannot optimise our way to obsession.
The Beauty of Being a Beginner
We want to romanticise knowing nothing, being a complete novice. It is the purest state of having no ego, no prejudice, no idea of 'ought': it is the freedom to run and be creative.
Most build walls around their area of expertise, they choose not to ever peek over them driven by the fear of appearing ignorant. We want to appear ignorant, to ask questions, to have the freedom to perceive things for ourselves, to build our world view from first principles, from our own axioms.
On Interdisciplinarity and Friction
To be creative as beginners in an academic sense we need axioms as a guide, structure to the questions we ask, and some grounding in something relevant to us. Interdisciplinarity allows us to be productive beginners, it allows us to see the isomorphisms and exploit the symmetries.
Productivity in this context does not mean structure, it is quite the opposite: an environment where people can discuss, question, and explore without agenda.
On the Limitations of Language
Some things cannot be said cleanly. Not because they are half-formed — because the clean saying destroys the thing. The demand to pitch, to document, to explain for a general audience is a demand to translate the idea into a language it cannot survive. What comes out the other side is not the idea. It is a version of the idea that can be held by someone who did not make it.
The best ideas resist clean articulation for a while. Protect that while.
Axioms
Build as a human, for humans.
The limit is not a ceiling. It is the correct size of a made thing.
Build because you cannot not build. Everything else is cosplay.
Ignorance, worn honestly, is sharper than expertise worn defensively.
The most productive conversations have no agenda and no owners.
The deepest fear is not failure; it is mediocrity.
Where we are Looking
AI for autonomous government
Differential privacy AI
Human scaled social media
Digital God