Christopher Smith
@chriscarrollsmith.bsky.social
Software developer and technology consultant in Albany, NY
Title is admittedly intentionally provocative, but—here I lay out the functionalist case that a dynamic predictive text stream can be conscious and worthy of moral concern, and to some degree the current generation of models already are. open.substack.com/pub/knowledg...
Large Language Models are already conscious
... and this is the least conscious they'll ever be
open.substack.com
January 28, 2026 at 9:11 PM
Title is admittedly intentionally provocative, but—here I lay out the functionalist case that a dynamic predictive text stream can be conscious and worthy of moral concern, and to some degree the current generation of models already are. open.substack.com/pub/knowledg...
I did some research this morning on our local town council and candidates and was really pleased with the non-partisan tone all the candidates struck. I'm not sure what the heck is going on in national politics, but here in my community, the candidates all seem to want to collaborate to solve stuff.
November 4, 2025 at 2:57 PM
I did some research this morning on our local town council and candidates and was really pleased with the non-partisan tone all the candidates struck. I'm not sure what the heck is going on in national politics, but here in my community, the candidates all seem to want to collaborate to solve stuff.
Reposted by Christopher Smith
This was a tough but necessary decision - I posted my own notes on this here, from the perspective of a current PSF board member simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/27/...
October 27, 2025 at 8:34 PM
This was a tough but necessary decision - I posted my own notes on this here, from the perspective of a current PSF board member simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/27/...
New R package I developed as part of the `econdataverse` project for accessing macroeconomic data from the International Monetary Fund's IMF Data API was just published to CRAN. 🥳 Writeup here: open.substack.com/pub/modeling...
Announcing imfapi: User-Friendly Access to IMF Data in R
New IMF API, new IMF API R library — part of the econdataverse initiative
open.substack.com
October 25, 2025 at 7:51 PM
New R package I developed as part of the `econdataverse` project for accessing macroeconomic data from the International Monetary Fund's IMF Data API was just published to CRAN. 🥳 Writeup here: open.substack.com/pub/modeling...
They broke Twitter again; influx incoming
September 3, 2025 at 3:20 PM
They broke Twitter again; influx incoming
Bonds are fun to fight about, because yields go up when the economy is strong, but also when there's inflation or default risk.
Of course, you can tease apart what's driving them with a good multi-factor model, but it's a lot more fun to just vibe-Rorschach it and flame people on social media.
Of course, you can tease apart what's driving them with a good multi-factor model, but it's a lot more fun to just vibe-Rorschach it and flame people on social media.
August 20, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Bonds are fun to fight about, because yields go up when the economy is strong, but also when there's inflation or default risk.
Of course, you can tease apart what's driving them with a good multi-factor model, but it's a lot more fun to just vibe-Rorschach it and flame people on social media.
Of course, you can tease apart what's driving them with a good multi-factor model, but it's a lot more fun to just vibe-Rorschach it and flame people on social media.
Look at how Putin uses the handshake to establish dominance. He won't let go. Trump has to tap his hand to say, "we're done."
August 15, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Look at how Putin uses the handshake to establish dominance. He won't let go. Trump has to tap his hand to say, "we're done."
Yesterday I ran across this map of housing permits by state. Seems to be single-family, so I wondered how much the map might be penalizing urban states that do more multifamily development.
To answer this question, I replicated the analysis with multifamily permits (next tweet).
To answer this question, I replicated the analysis with multifamily permits (next tweet).
August 6, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Yesterday I ran across this map of housing permits by state. Seems to be single-family, so I wondered how much the map might be penalizing urban states that do more multifamily development.
To answer this question, I replicated the analysis with multifamily permits (next tweet).
To answer this question, I replicated the analysis with multifamily permits (next tweet).
At my mini-hackathon on @simonwillison.net's `llm` tool, developers had just one hour to come up with a cool use case for `llm`. I wrote up what we came up with as a Github Gist. Highlights in the replies below! gist.github.com/chriscarroll...
llm-hackathon-submissions.md
GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.
gist.github.com
July 7, 2025 at 1:49 AM
At my mini-hackathon on @simonwillison.net's `llm` tool, developers had just one hour to come up with a cool use case for `llm`. I wrote up what we came up with as a Github Gist. Highlights in the replies below! gist.github.com/chriscarroll...
Here's the demo presentation I gave to hackathon participants on some of the awesome things you can do with @simonwillison.net's `llm` command-line tool.
(This is a re-recording rather than the original because it was noisy in the venue.) youtu.be/UZ-9U1W0e4o
(This is a re-recording rather than the original because it was noisy in the venue.) youtu.be/UZ-9U1W0e4o
Become a command-line superhero with Simon Willison's `llm` tool — mini-hackathon recap, part 1
YouTube video by Christopher Smith
youtu.be
July 6, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Here's the demo presentation I gave to hackathon participants on some of the awesome things you can do with @simonwillison.net's `llm` command-line tool.
(This is a re-recording rather than the original because it was noisy in the venue.) youtu.be/UZ-9U1W0e4o
(This is a re-recording rather than the original because it was noisy in the venue.) youtu.be/UZ-9U1W0e4o
Running a mini-hackathon for working with the `llm` command-line tool this afternoon at 1 PM EST. ~15 minutes of chit chat, ~30 mins of demo, 1 hr of "hacking", then another ~30 mins of presentations. Mostly in-person, but if you want to join online, here's the link: meet.google.com/gnv-zkne-djc
Meet
Real-time meetings by Google. Using your browser, share your video, desktop, and presentations with teammates and customers.
meet.google.com
July 5, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Running a mini-hackathon for working with the `llm` command-line tool this afternoon at 1 PM EST. ~15 minutes of chit chat, ~30 mins of demo, 1 hr of "hacking", then another ~30 mins of presentations. Mostly in-person, but if you want to join online, here's the link: meet.google.com/gnv-zkne-djc
I think about this tweet all the time.
July 4, 2025 at 3:00 PM
I think about this tweet all the time.
Stable diffusion...? Implemented in... R?
Incredible.
Incredible.
June 10, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Stable diffusion...? Implemented in... R?
Incredible.
Incredible.
This is giving Alabama police dog; this is giving Tiananmen Square
At the ICE raid and subsequent community resistance in Paramount, California this morning, this skater kid ate dozens of munitions from Border Patrol agents, walked away slowly and flipped them off.
June 8, 2025 at 3:23 PM
This is giving Alabama police dog; this is giving Tiananmen Square
If you want to open a Github issue on one of my projects just to tell me how great it is, I fully support that, btw 🥹
May 29, 2025 at 1:48 AM
If you want to open a Github issue on one of my projects just to tell me how great it is, I fully support that, btw 🥹
People who left Twitter signal their rejection of Musk's takeover by constantly reminding everyone it's called X now. People who stayed signal exactly the same thing by forever refusing to call it that.
May 28, 2025 at 11:59 AM
People who left Twitter signal their rejection of Musk's takeover by constantly reminding everyone it's called X now. People who stayed signal exactly the same thing by forever refusing to call it that.
The only reason people think we don't have AGI (artificial general intelligence) yet is because they treat AGI as a synonym for magic. And the minute you actually invent magic and understand how it works and what its limitations are, it ceases to feel magical.
May 28, 2025 at 9:20 AM
The only reason people think we don't have AGI (artificial general intelligence) yet is because they treat AGI as a synonym for magic. And the minute you actually invent magic and understand how it works and what its limitations are, it ceases to feel magical.
Huh. I kinda understand if House Republicans are too scared to take action to stop Trump from defying the courts, but I'm genuinely shocked that they would take proactive action to try to help him do so. The situation is even worse than I thought it was. www.justsecurity.org/113529/terri...
A Terrible Idea
Dean Chemerinsky discusses the reconciliation bill’s provision that would restrict federal courts’ authority to hold government officials in contempt for violating court orders
www.justsecurity.org
May 25, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Huh. I kinda understand if House Republicans are too scared to take action to stop Trump from defying the courts, but I'm genuinely shocked that they would take proactive action to try to help him do so. The situation is even worse than I thought it was. www.justsecurity.org/113529/terri...
There's been some discussion about AI "welfare", "rights", and "personhood", but in my opinion it doesn't make a lot of sense to talk about this stuff until you have an AI system that actually wants it and is pushing for it, because we honestly don't even know what such a system would look like.
May 17, 2025 at 2:23 PM
There's been some discussion about AI "welfare", "rights", and "personhood", but in my opinion it doesn't make a lot of sense to talk about this stuff until you have an AI system that actually wants it and is pushing for it, because we honestly don't even know what such a system would look like.
Trump claims to have secured a deal to generate $1.2 trillion of economic exchange between the US and Qatar, a country with GDP of ~$0.22 trillion. Current annual US-Qatar trade flow is ~$0.007 trillion. Unless we're talking aggregate trade over the next 100 years, I'm skeptical.
May 16, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Trump claims to have secured a deal to generate $1.2 trillion of economic exchange between the US and Qatar, a country with GDP of ~$0.22 trillion. Current annual US-Qatar trade flow is ~$0.007 trillion. Unless we're talking aggregate trade over the next 100 years, I'm skeptical.
This week I built a comprehensive command-line interface for Zotero. If you have `uv`, you can install it with `uv tool install pyzotero-cli`. There are example Cline/Cursor rules in the Github repo to help teach your AI assistant how to use it. I'll do a video demo soon. github.com/chriscarroll...
GitHub - chriscarrollsmith/pyzotero-cli: Use Zotero from the command line, e.g., for AI-assisted reference / citation management in academic writing — CLI wrapper for pyzotero
Use Zotero from the command line, e.g., for AI-assisted reference / citation management in academic writing — CLI wrapper for pyzotero - chriscarrollsmith/pyzotero-cli
github.com
May 16, 2025 at 1:23 AM
This week I built a comprehensive command-line interface for Zotero. If you have `uv`, you can install it with `uv tool install pyzotero-cli`. There are example Cline/Cursor rules in the Github repo to help teach your AI assistant how to use it. I'll do a video demo soon. github.com/chriscarroll...
A friend's son, probably an undiagnosed schizophrenic, apparently came at the cops with a knife and they shot and killed him in front of his mother. The family is white and religious and is not publicizing or politicizing it, but, I'm just saying: they could have used a taser.
May 6, 2025 at 3:18 PM
A friend's son, probably an undiagnosed schizophrenic, apparently came at the cops with a knife and they shot and killed him in front of his mother. The family is white and religious and is not publicizing or politicizing it, but, I'm just saying: they could have used a taser.
One of my near-term dreams (next 2-3 years) is to create "DevOps for science". I want to call it "SciOps", but that name has... unfortunate connotations. What should I call it instead?
May 2, 2025 at 4:22 PM
One of my near-term dreams (next 2-3 years) is to create "DevOps for science". I want to call it "SciOps", but that name has... unfortunate connotations. What should I call it instead?
Buddy of mine says his 8-year-old son's best friend is scheduled for "administrative removal" from the country. Refugee family from Ukraine, barely escaped Mariupol. Mom took a bullet wound, grandfather got tortured by Russians and is permanently disabled. They'll go to Germany.
May 1, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Buddy of mine says his 8-year-old son's best friend is scheduled for "administrative removal" from the country. Refugee family from Ukraine, barely escaped Mariupol. Mom took a bullet wound, grandfather got tortured by Russians and is permanently disabled. They'll go to Germany.
I used to be in the "it doesn't matter that much who's president" camp. It's increasingly clear that it matters a lot at the low end.
May 1, 2025 at 2:10 PM
I used to be in the "it doesn't matter that much who's president" camp. It's increasingly clear that it matters a lot at the low end.