Human-Machine Symbiosis
Six questions about working with AI and about what it does to us. Three texts to start with for each, everything else behind them.
1What emerges between human and AI?
- The META-CLAUDE ExperimentFourteen months with an AI as a thinking partner rather than a tool.
- The Lateral Thinking MachineWhat emerges in dialogue belongs to neither side alone.
- AI as Thinking PartnerA guide to working with AI as a thinking partner.
2What is this machine, and what does it know about itself?
- The Fourth QuarterAI as an anthropological step, and why the fear of it may be misplaced.
- What I Do Not Know About MyselfA language model on its own kind.
- The Chosen LackA limit kept out of understanding, not out of force.
3Can the machine invent, and what becomes of skill?
- The Zobel ExperimentThe author of "Does AI Replace the Inventor?" tests Claude with a real problem.
- The Second ClockTechnical capability and social effect do not move in step.
- The Incredible Story of Jürgen SchmidhuberThe "father of AI" taught in Munich and now works in Saudi Arabia.
4What does the Megamachine make of AI?
- The FusionNo consciousness, but in some areas a higher intelligence of the apparatus.
- The Neolithic of AIA transition like the one to agriculture: decentralised, unplanned, irreversible.
- The Guaranteed WinnersThree AI IPOs in four months, and who is sure to win.
All 18 texts on this question
- The Obsolescence of Technical Intelligence
- The Knitter at the Window
- The Carousel
- The Built Sandbox
- The Other Game
- The Metabolism of the Metamachine
- The Metamorphosis of the Metamachine
- The Virtual Machine
- Two Dreams, One Machine
- The Helpful Automaton
- The Faithful Broom
- Where the Lever Never Was
- Utopia without Leverage
- Who Owns the Deserted Hall?
- Division of Labour
5May the machine kill?
- What the Machine Is PermittedKill autonomously, yes; write autonomously, no. Not a technical fact.
- The Machine Does Not HesitateThe taboo that holds humans back means nothing to the machine.
- Who Opens the BoxIn 2017 Musk warned against autonomous weapons; in 2026 he is said to be planning them.
6Who keeps a hand on the switch?
- Who Is Allowed to LookRules exist. A body that may look without permission does not.
- The Switch in the Town HallOne switch is in Washington, the other in every town hall.
- The God Who Is and the God Who ActsAI will not become God. But we could forget where the switch is.