Reading The Music of the Primes, came across this, apropos our addiction to LLMS, re. using a computer for the proof of the Four Colour Problem: "In the absence of new ideas, the computer gave the impression of progress. But it was just an impression... chewing gum for the mind"

There seems to be a necessary minima to difficulty, an adoration of ease over time reducing our ability to grow from setback by reducing our risk taking range. Where we can avoid choice we will because we dislike cognitive difficulty, each update makes us simpler

www.theguardian.com/books/2024/n...

There is information hidden in absence, where nothing is something & where 0 helps us understand everything that isn't something. 0 is an eccentric outlier, a numeral like the rest but one which blows up math. There is a lot of power in the empty set, even crows & monkeys recognise it's numerosity.

Can self-actualisation be sub-contracted to a machine? I used to worry about automation bias. But DEVO analysed it already "Freedom of choice is what you got, freedom from choice is what you want". A choice needs alternatives, which requires imagination. But many will gladly opt for the magic 8 ball

40 years since we started putting 'cyber' in front of tech things, I was a farm boy when I read Neuromancer, thru the mid-80's reaction against the imagination to the gen-AI era, the book has followed me

"Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators"

The Bronze Age collapse is an interesting study, it collapsed on the threshold of measurement, it's hard to discern. Bronze Age economics are hard to model, this study finding a stabilisation of weight c 1500 BC is a useful element. As data financialises, historical market shifts are insightful