Philosophy Mondays: Human-AI Collaboration
Today's Philosophy Monday is an important interlude. I want to reveal that I have not been writing the posts in this series entirely by myself. Instead I have been working with Claude, not just for the graphic illustrations, but also for the text. My method has been to write a rough draft and then ask Claude for improvement suggestions. I will expand this collaboration to other intelligences going forward, including open source models such as Llama and DeepSeek. I will also explore other moda...
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Web3/Crypto: Why Bother?
One thing that keeps surprising me is how quite a few people see absolutely nothing redeeming in web3 (née crypto). Maybe this is their genuine belief. Maybe it is a reaction to the extreme boosterism of some proponents who present web3 as bringing about a libertarian nirvana. From early on I have tried to provide a more rounded perspective, pointing to both the good and the bad that can come from it as in my talks at the Blockstack Summits. Today, however, I want to attempt to provide a coge...
Philosophy Mondays: Human-AI Collaboration
Today's Philosophy Monday is an important interlude. I want to reveal that I have not been writing the posts in this series entirely by myself. Instead I have been working with Claude, not just for the graphic illustrations, but also for the text. My method has been to write a rough draft and then ask Claude for improvement suggestions. I will expand this collaboration to other intelligences going forward, including open source models such as Llama and DeepSeek. I will also explore other moda...
Intent-based Collaboration Environments
AI Native IDEs for Code, Engineering, Science
Web3/Crypto: Why Bother?
One thing that keeps surprising me is how quite a few people see absolutely nothing redeeming in web3 (née crypto). Maybe this is their genuine belief. Maybe it is a reaction to the extreme boosterism of some proponents who present web3 as bringing about a libertarian nirvana. From early on I have tried to provide a more rounded perspective, pointing to both the good and the bad that can come from it as in my talks at the Blockstack Summits. Today, however, I want to attempt to provide a coge...
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I found out yesterday that due to a lack of funding the SETI Institute has pulled the plug on operating the Allen Antenna Array. Given the recent discovery of potentially habitable planets, the timing of this couldn’t be worse. Just as our view is coming around to there being a higher likelihood of intelligent life elsewhere, we stop looking for it.
Why look in the first place? I believe there are two compelling arguments. First, in the history of Earth whenever a civilization was surprised by another more technologically advanced one it didn’t end well for the former. So I would prefer for us as species not to be surprised by another more advanced one. Second, establishing the existence of intelligent life outside of earth would help several causes that I believe in, such as advancing science, bringing nations closer together, human space travel. For a more varied perspective, see this discussion [thanks vruz] which does point out at least one possible counter-argument: by searching we will announce ourselves more to the universe and potentially attract predators in the first place.
The two-year operating budget for the antenna array is apparently $5 million. If this were a Kickstarter project, I would give $5,000 today. I believe that this is a perfect example of humans underspending on long-tail species risk.
I found out yesterday that due to a lack of funding the SETI Institute has pulled the plug on operating the Allen Antenna Array. Given the recent discovery of potentially habitable planets, the timing of this couldn’t be worse. Just as our view is coming around to there being a higher likelihood of intelligent life elsewhere, we stop looking for it.
Why look in the first place? I believe there are two compelling arguments. First, in the history of Earth whenever a civilization was surprised by another more technologically advanced one it didn’t end well for the former. So I would prefer for us as species not to be surprised by another more advanced one. Second, establishing the existence of intelligent life outside of earth would help several causes that I believe in, such as advancing science, bringing nations closer together, human space travel. For a more varied perspective, see this discussion [thanks vruz] which does point out at least one possible counter-argument: by searching we will announce ourselves more to the universe and potentially attract predators in the first place.
The two-year operating budget for the antenna array is apparently $5 million. If this were a Kickstarter project, I would give $5,000 today. I believe that this is a perfect example of humans underspending on long-tail species risk.
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