I write about AI and Geopolitics
I think dissatisfaction is a double-edged sword. It may be our greatest engine of progress, but it can also keep us from appreciating the present. That tension makes it important to examine our aspirations carefully. We can’t just ask whether we can build a bridge; we have to ask where it will take us. We … Read more
Why containment cannot be the permanent plan for AGI The question we need to be asking isn’t “how do we build a cage strong enough to hold a superintelligence forever?” Any cage we can design, something smarter can break. Containment is a short-term strategy, useful for testing, useless as a permanent plan. The real question … Read more
From Exploitation to Eradication In the last essay, we looked at three big ideas for tomorrow: the good future of Pax Silica, the scary speed of AI wars, and the quiet problem of the ‘durable person.’ Now, we need to focus on the darkest part of these ideas. We must face the harsh truth of … Read more
When Paradigms Shift, Power Follows To really get what’s happening now, we need to look past the marketing from Silicon Valley. We also need to ignore the scary sci-fi stories. We’re not just seeing a new software tool come out. We’re living through something much bigger. It’s a General Purpose Technology. These are rare. They … Read more
A Decentralized Immune Response This series isn’t a prophecy, and it’s not a counsel of despair. It’s a diagnosis. And a diagnosis has one purpose: to make a thing treatable. What follows maps out how a specific kind of containment works. It’s about the slow, engineered transfer of human agency to automated systems owned by … Read more