Donald Knuth
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Saunders Mac Lane
Introduction Saunders Mac Lane (Wikipedia) Saunders Mac Lane (n-Lab) History ~ Biography Saunders Mac Lane (St. Andrews) Category Theory Philosophy
AI as the Ghost of Christmas Future
AI Safety in the Metanarrative The Industrial Age (19th Century) largely ushered in an optimism regarding technological progress, but with that optimism also came the critics. Take the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne, for example. Better yet, take the work of Mary Shelley. Note that her Frankenstein is nearby on the timeline to the work of Charles Babbage and to the work of Ada Byron Lovelace . And though Frankenstein is, in part, about reanimation, it is also about the creation of intelligent being. So, we see that, historically, a narrative surrounding computing comes into being along another narrative, Frankenstein's monster, and we see these two narratives coupled now in much of the narrative around AI Safety. But my point here is not that we need to decouple the stories regarding the monstrous ("War Games", "Sneakers", "Goldeneye", ...) so much as we need to re-assess the goals that are embedded in the narrative. With what we know now, are the st...
On Debunking the Physicality of Brain Function and On Using the Brain as a Metaphor
Brain and Mind The Empty Brain The Empty Brain, Not The Empty Brain? Computational Theory of Mind Computational The6ory of Mind, Not Understanding the Biological Mind Cerebral Mystique Brains Brain Research at MIT Nancy Kanwisher Videos Nancy Kanwisher Lecture Notes Cognitive Maps Cognitive Maps Death of the Cognitive Map Functional Maps Debunking the Functional Map of the Brain AI Terms for Cognition as Nearby to Brain, as Metaphor Only Intelligence Model AI Model AI Model Turing Test Turing Test Why the Turing Test Matters Problems with the Turning Test Another Model for AI Brain AI Brain Modeling Metaphorically Speaking As Brain Brain As On the Physicality of Thinking A Thought
Physicalism
Term Physicalism Physicalism Physicalism Physicalism Aspects of Theory of Mind On Consciousness Contra Against A Philosophy of the Physical On Hermann Weyl Hermann Weyl Continuum Knowledge as a Problem Physical ~ Mathematical Mathematics and Natural Science
Concepts in Geometry
Geometry Geometry (Wikipedia) Geometry (n-Lab) Every Concept in Geometry Algebraic Geometry Subanalytic Geometry Subanalytic Geometry
Music ~ Spiral
Experimental Music Experimental Music (Wikipedia) Experimental Music Genres (Wikipedia) Drone Music (Wikipedia) Noise Music (Wikipedia) A History of Noise Music (Book Forum) Psychedelic Music (Wikipedia) Spirals in Math and Music Spiral (Wikipedia) Spirals in Music (Reddit) Nearby Artists Lightning Bolt Aural Atmospheres (Austin Davis, Rabbit Hole 7, Wolf Party) Tyrants Blood Spiral Sea Spiral Dynamics Spiral
AI Safety
Definition AI Safety (Wikipedia) AI Safety (IBM) AI Safety (NIST) AI Safety (Stanford) Windows on Theory: AI Safety Direction NIS SANS Social Change Lab Summit World Policy? Policy U.S. Policy Worry For and Against Failure Failure AI Governance AI Governance and Computing Power (arxiv) United States, State Governance (Dean W. Ball) AIXI Behavior Monitoring
Computing and the Linguistic Turn
Enigma (Wikipedia) Symbolic analysis and statistical analysis were both approaches codebreakers took in breaking Enigma. The development of AI has also incorporated both approaches. One historical question for AI is why the dominance of Symbolic AI from 1950 to 1990? Note the development of AI out of the Dartmouth Workshop and especially the contributions of one of its attendees, Ray Solomonoff , to the statistical approach, an approach taken up by Marcus Hutter , a DeepMind employee. Overview History of Computing (Medium, Mazhar Hassan ) Historical Development of Computing Devices (CSULB) Analytic Philosophy ~ The Linguistic Turn (Oxford, Timothy Williamson) AI History (Weighty Thoughts) Symbolic AI (Deep Code AI, Frank Fisher) Symbolic AI History (Wikipeida) Symbolic AI and Statistical AI (ANU, Yoshihiro Maruyama) Linguistics Linguistics (Wikipedia) Philosophy of Linguistics (Stanford) Linguistic Turn Linguistic Turn (Wikipedia) Linguistic Turn (Routledge) ...
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal Gore Vidal New York Times Obituary On Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln (a novel) On Lincoln On Kennedy Contra Buckley Buckley Contra Buckley Contra Mailer Mailer Contra Mailer Contra Cohn Family Tree Corrected Obituary Political Relationships Family Democratic Party
Sheaves
Sheaves Sheaves, A Mini-Course (Georgia Tech, CBMS Summer School, 2025) Sheaf Theory through Examples Leray The Arrangement Ghrist Discourse Sheaves Vakil The Concept of Bridge
Economics
History On the History of American Capitalism (Doomslayer) Theory of Value Transvaluation of Values (Wikipedia) Nietzsche as Neoliberal (Dissent Magazine) Decision Theory (Robin Theory) Markets and Politics Politics ~ Markets (Peter Boghossian) Analysis Global Economy (Foreign Affairs)
Neuroscience
Progress Report (July 2025) Progress Report (2024) Terms and Conditions Astrocyte Brain Cells Brain States Fractal Brain Human Cognition Largest Map of the Human Brain Thus Far (Nature.com) Neurocentrism Simons Foundation Projects Global Brain Plasticity and the Aging Brain Ecological Neuroscience YouTube
Reading Lists
Advice and Other Instruction Read Like an Artist Lists Joseph Schneider on History (2025) biblioklept AI Ascribed to Charlie Munger What Dan Read Best Chinese Short Fiction (2025) (China Talk)
Free Energy Principle
Free Energy Principle Karl J. Friston Definition Definition Introduction Simply Guide to Brain Unified Brain Relationship Probability Limitation Wrong Active Inference Institute
Energy Transition
On Energy Transition Energy Transition (Robert Bryce) Energy Transition (Stanford) On Economics Energy Transition Energy Transition Energy Transition Energy Transition Energy Efficiency (Stanford) Sustainability Stanford Scalability Seminar (Stanford, May 2025) AI Sustainability Bits and Watts Grid
Futurism
Futurism as Technology Futurism (Website) Futurism (MIT) Future Technology Futurists Futurists (Wikipedia) Adam Dorr (University of Michigan) Adam Dorr (The Guardian) Max Tegmark (Wikipedia) MIT Futurists (MIT) Alvin Toffler (Wikipedia) Futurism as Art History Futurism (Art) (Wikipedia) Futurism (Tate) Futurism (MoMA) Past to Present to Future: On In-Comparison Philosophy Analogy, Use and Abuse