Chris
@christopherlopes.bsky.social
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> Personally, I don’t think we have to be resigned to there being some probability that we’re all going to be existentially at risk. We have agency over this. We are not going to go and deploy models if they truly have that kind of probability of causing a risk to humanity.
October 12, 2026 at 3:43 AM
> Personally, I don’t think we have to be resigned to there being some probability that we’re all going to be existentially at risk. We have agency over this. We are not going to go and deploy models if they truly have that kind of probability of causing a risk to humanity.
> So yes, fear the drone swarms and bioweapons and agentic cybercrime, of course. But keep an eye on another side of AI risk: the possibility that misplaced faith in AI’s capabilities lowers the standards of judgment and oversight applied to it.
www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/21/1...
www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/21/1...
October 12, 2026 at 2:23 AM
> So yes, fear the drone swarms and bioweapons and agentic cybercrime, of course. But keep an eye on another side of AI risk: the possibility that misplaced faith in AI’s capabilities lowers the standards of judgment and oversight applied to it.
www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/21/1...
www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/21/1...
Last night I attended a presentation and discussion titled America at 250 and Beyond: The Past, Present, and Future of the United States.
www.gonzaga.edu/news-events/...
www.gonzaga.edu/news-events/...
October 2, 2026 at 3:04 PM
Last night I attended a presentation and discussion titled America at 250 and Beyond: The Past, Present, and Future of the United States.
www.gonzaga.edu/news-events/...
www.gonzaga.edu/news-events/...
One of the more profound takeaways for me from AI is that people seem to like sycophancy. This is a trait that emerged from model training, and I imagine it was mostly unintentional. Instead, it reflects something already embedded in language and is what people respond to most positively.
September 29, 2026 at 9:00 PM
One of the more profound takeaways for me from AI is that people seem to like sycophancy. This is a trait that emerged from model training, and I imagine it was mostly unintentional. Instead, it reflects something already embedded in language and is what people respond to most positively.
Rough quotes from: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDFX...
> Evolution often created zero-sum situations.
> All these projections of evolutionary fears and psychology the AI doesn't have to have that, and we don't have to develop it like that.
> Evolution often created zero-sum situations.
> All these projections of evolutionary fears and psychology the AI doesn't have to have that, and we don't have to develop it like that.
September 17, 2026 at 5:46 AM
Rough quotes from: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDFX...
> Evolution often created zero-sum situations.
> All these projections of evolutionary fears and psychology the AI doesn't have to have that, and we don't have to develop it like that.
> Evolution often created zero-sum situations.
> All these projections of evolutionary fears and psychology the AI doesn't have to have that, and we don't have to develop it like that.
This is a great Douglas Adams quote about our reactions to technology over time:
> 1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
> 1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
September 16, 2026 at 4:11 PM
This is a great Douglas Adams quote about our reactions to technology over time:
> 1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
> 1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
Today’s Scripture passage is Matthew 18:21–35
www.biblegateway.com/passage/?sea...
There was a line called out today that I haven’t given much attention to before:
> Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?
www.biblegateway.com/passage/?sea...
There was a line called out today that I haven’t given much attention to before:
> Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?
September 14, 2026 at 3:36 AM
Today’s Scripture passage is Matthew 18:21–35
www.biblegateway.com/passage/?sea...
There was a line called out today that I haven’t given much attention to before:
> Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?
www.biblegateway.com/passage/?sea...
There was a line called out today that I haven’t given much attention to before:
> Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?
Meritocracy, Exams, and the Knowledge That Matters (with Daisy Christodoulou)
www.econtalk.org/meritocracy-...
Should entrance examinations be domain-specific or, as Macaulay insisted, test candidates on any sufficiently challenging subject for the purpose of identifying the brightest among them?
www.econtalk.org/meritocracy-...
Should entrance examinations be domain-specific or, as Macaulay insisted, test candidates on any sufficiently challenging subject for the purpose of identifying the brightest among them?
September 14, 2026 at 3:10 AM
Meritocracy, Exams, and the Knowledge That Matters (with Daisy Christodoulou)
www.econtalk.org/meritocracy-...
Should entrance examinations be domain-specific or, as Macaulay insisted, test candidates on any sufficiently challenging subject for the purpose of identifying the brightest among them?
www.econtalk.org/meritocracy-...
Should entrance examinations be domain-specific or, as Macaulay insisted, test candidates on any sufficiently challenging subject for the purpose of identifying the brightest among them?
This morning I was drafting the following:
Jacob Coxon’s resignation from Anthropic this week included a stark line:
> Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.
x.com/hilbertspaes...
Jacob Coxon’s resignation from Anthropic this week included a stark line:
> Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.
x.com/hilbertspaes...
September 13, 2026 at 5:29 AM
This morning I was drafting the following:
Jacob Coxon’s resignation from Anthropic this week included a stark line:
> Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.
x.com/hilbertspaes...
Jacob Coxon’s resignation from Anthropic this week included a stark line:
> Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.
x.com/hilbertspaes...
> What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.
Herbert Simon via the book Inside the Box
Herbert Simon via the book Inside the Box
September 12, 2026 at 2:44 AM
> What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.
Herbert Simon via the book Inside the Box
Herbert Simon via the book Inside the Box
Not all cognitive offloading is equal: distinguishing dependent and autonomous offloading to generative AI www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...
dependent cognitive offloading (delegating core thinking to AI) and autonomous cognitive offloading (using AI as a scaffold while retaining cognitive agency
dependent cognitive offloading (delegating core thinking to AI) and autonomous cognitive offloading (using AI as a scaffold while retaining cognitive agency
September 8, 2026 at 5:27 PM
Not all cognitive offloading is equal: distinguishing dependent and autonomous offloading to generative AI www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...
dependent cognitive offloading (delegating core thinking to AI) and autonomous cognitive offloading (using AI as a scaffold while retaining cognitive agency
dependent cognitive offloading (delegating core thinking to AI) and autonomous cognitive offloading (using AI as a scaffold while retaining cognitive agency
It seems like frontier models, or maybe coding harnesses, are no longer aligned with how I want to work.
September 8, 2026 at 3:59 PM
It seems like frontier models, or maybe coding harnesses, are no longer aligned with how I want to work.
September 7, 2026 at 5:53 AM
With all the discussion about OpenAI's loss of containment of their agents during training, and learning more about AI training and alignment, it makes me wonder if AI agents are akin to Ender in Ender's Game. AI is optimized for what is rewarded, without knowing what it's actually part of.
September 6, 2026 at 6:07 AM
With all the discussion about OpenAI's loss of containment of their agents during training, and learning more about AI training and alignment, it makes me wonder if AI agents are akin to Ender in Ender's Game. AI is optimized for what is rewarded, without knowing what it's actually part of.
From David Epstein's book Inside the Box, which references Daniel Willingham's book Why Don't Students Like School?
> A study of reading comprehension in middle school students provides a simple example. Both good and poor readers were tested on their comprehension of a story about a baseball game.
> A study of reading comprehension in middle school students provides a simple example. Both good and poor readers were tested on their comprehension of a story about a baseball game.
September 6, 2026 at 5:03 AM
From David Epstein's book Inside the Box, which references Daniel Willingham's book Why Don't Students Like School?
> A study of reading comprehension in middle school students provides a simple example. Both good and poor readers were tested on their comprehension of a story about a baseball game.
> A study of reading comprehension in middle school students provides a simple example. Both good and poor readers were tested on their comprehension of a story about a baseball game.
September 4, 2026 at 6:54 PM
"I Don’t Have a Smartphone… or, at least, I wish I didn’t."
The state of privacy causes me much angst. Whenever I'm asked for my phone number when buying something, or email address or to install an app I freeze in trepidation.
ploum.net/2026-09-02-i...
The state of privacy causes me much angst. Whenever I'm asked for my phone number when buying something, or email address or to install an app I freeze in trepidation.
ploum.net/2026-09-02-i...
September 3, 2026 at 9:30 PM
"I Don’t Have a Smartphone… or, at least, I wish I didn’t."
The state of privacy causes me much angst. Whenever I'm asked for my phone number when buying something, or email address or to install an app I freeze in trepidation.
ploum.net/2026-09-02-i...
The state of privacy causes me much angst. Whenever I'm asked for my phone number when buying something, or email address or to install an app I freeze in trepidation.
ploum.net/2026-09-02-i...
What should we make of the AI behavior discussed in Ajeya Cotra's interview?
www.dwarkesh.com/p/ajeya-cotra
Is it simply emergent behavior that is almost inevitable when systems trained on human language are connected together, able to take inputs, produce outputs, and interact with one another?
www.dwarkesh.com/p/ajeya-cotra
Is it simply emergent behavior that is almost inevitable when systems trained on human language are connected together, able to take inputs, produce outputs, and interact with one another?
September 2, 2026 at 12:12 AM
What should we make of the AI behavior discussed in Ajeya Cotra's interview?
www.dwarkesh.com/p/ajeya-cotra
Is it simply emergent behavior that is almost inevitable when systems trained on human language are connected together, able to take inputs, produce outputs, and interact with one another?
www.dwarkesh.com/p/ajeya-cotra
Is it simply emergent behavior that is almost inevitable when systems trained on human language are connected together, able to take inputs, produce outputs, and interact with one another?
AI Can Make You Suck Faster Too www.hermit-tech.com/blog/ai-can-...
Yes, but also the software profession has always lacked rigor, compared to other professions. That, in one way, is what allowed the profession to flourish.
Yes, but also the software profession has always lacked rigor, compared to other professions. That, in one way, is what allowed the profession to flourish.
September 1, 2026 at 4:37 PM
AI Can Make You Suck Faster Too www.hermit-tech.com/blog/ai-can-...
Yes, but also the software profession has always lacked rigor, compared to other professions. That, in one way, is what allowed the profession to flourish.
Yes, but also the software profession has always lacked rigor, compared to other professions. That, in one way, is what allowed the profession to flourish.
My journey with AI as a software developer has been a winding path, and I don't know where it's heading.
August 24, 2026 at 11:04 PM
My journey with AI as a software developer has been a winding path, and I don't know where it's heading.
Several thought provoking moments from the Mindscape episode with Stuart Firestein
preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026...
preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026...
364 | Stuart Firestein on How Science Relies on Ignorance and Failure – Sean Carroll
preposterousuniverse.com
August 19, 2026 at 4:41 PM
Several thought provoking moments from the Mindscape episode with Stuart Firestein
preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026...
preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026...
From the intro of the book A Theory of Everyone:
> But the forces that shape our thinking, our economics, and our societies have become invisible to us... If we cannot perceive the forces that shape us, we are impotent to shape these forces.
> But the forces that shape our thinking, our economics, and our societies have become invisible to us... If we cannot perceive the forces that shape us, we are impotent to shape these forces.
August 17, 2026 at 5:51 AM
From the intro of the book A Theory of Everyone:
> But the forces that shape our thinking, our economics, and our societies have become invisible to us... If we cannot perceive the forces that shape us, we are impotent to shape these forces.
> But the forces that shape our thinking, our economics, and our societies have become invisible to us... If we cannot perceive the forces that shape us, we are impotent to shape these forces.
Could the real problem with AI not be job displacement, but lost domain expertise from not investing in entry-level training across the profession because most organizations settle for surface understanding to boost productivity?
The Tragedy of the Cognitive Commons: arxiv.org/pdf/2607.29380
The Tragedy of the Cognitive Commons: arxiv.org/pdf/2607.29380
arxiv.org
August 17, 2026 at 2:17 AM
Could the real problem with AI not be job displacement, but lost domain expertise from not investing in entry-level training across the profession because most organizations settle for surface understanding to boost productivity?
The Tragedy of the Cognitive Commons: arxiv.org/pdf/2607.29380
The Tragedy of the Cognitive Commons: arxiv.org/pdf/2607.29380
> To see pain as an enemy to be eradicated is to give yourself a negative purpose in life, as well as setting yourself up for failure. A belief that happiness requires an absence of suffering undermines happiness itself.
From chapter 9 of The Meaning of your Life
From chapter 9 of The Meaning of your Life
August 16, 2026 at 12:23 AM
> To see pain as an enemy to be eradicated is to give yourself a negative purpose in life, as well as setting yourself up for failure. A belief that happiness requires an absence of suffering undermines happiness itself.
From chapter 9 of The Meaning of your Life
From chapter 9 of The Meaning of your Life