Sorry if my replies seem terse, it's just hard to tell whether you're looking for a discussion or a fight—and microblogging doesn't really allow for serious discussion.
Autopoiesis is Maturana's theory (googleable), refined by Varela and developed by Di Paolo, Froese, De Jaegher, and others.
The similarity: Shoes and LLMS are both inert with respect to material self-creation.
The background: If you actually want to dig into this subfield of cognitive science, start with either Evan Thompson's Mind in Life (2007) or Varela, Thompson & Rosch's The Embodied Mind (1992).
Here you go!
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
Also, maybe more important:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Well, look, I hear what you're saying. I know that AI can feel REALLY impressive, the mystery of the black box combined with fancy math creating a feeling of wonder. I get that.
It's also straightforwardly irrelevant to what I was talking about—a specific systems-theoretic model of agency.
Well, one way to think about it is that you're still prepped, you're just relying on prep from a few years ago. So it's a little hazier—but your attention is more on social cues and less on notes, maybe, and there's more airtime for questions.
Classroom attention is super interesting
GM: Charisma check.
Mamdani: [rolls natural 20]
GM: that’s a d6 how did you
Mamdani: [direct to camera] Did you know you can check out board games at your local public library? 😊
Have you seen his Macbeth combo monologues from back when he was young? He had it then, too, and the sort of arrogant delight of the youthful virtuoso is fun to watch.
New article up!
AI skeptics and AI enthusiasts—even those who consider themselves reasonable, grounded members of both camps—can easily deter engagement through overstatement or overzealous claims.
medium.com/@acornapocal...
#ai #writingadvice #contentwriting #persuasino #rhetoric
This is the kind of thing that BlueSky is for
I think the Oxford 4E Handbook is quite good!
academic.oup.com/edited-volum...
It's an anthology rather than a fully coherent discussion, but still great, especially for students.
I also think Sune, Rasmus and I did a decent job on enactivism/interactivity: constructivist.info/11/2/234.har...
An intimate indoor portrait of an elderly Indigenous Alaskan woman, Chief Marie Smith Jones, in her late 80s, seated and reclining slightly in a comfortable red upholstered armchair or recliner. She has short gray hair and wears large, round, gold-framed eyeglasses with thick lenses that reflect light. Her expression is thoughtful and somber, with a slight downward gaze and lips closed in quiet reflection or contemplation. She is dressed in a bright red long-sleeved top or shirt, evoking warmth and cultural pride. Directly behind her head, mounted high on the wood-paneled or warmly toned wall, hangs a striking traditional fur mask or ceremonial headdress resembling a bearded human-like face (possibly representing an ancestral or spiritual figure from Eyak or broader Alaskan Indigenous traditions). The mask has thick, shaggy brown fur framing a carved wooden face with prominent dark eyes, eyebrows, and a subtle smiling mouth, creating a powerful cultural backdrop that contrasts with her serene presence. The lighting is soft and natural, casting gentle shadows that highlight the textures of the fur mask, the red fabric of her clothing, and the rich tones of the room—possibly her Alaska home. The overall mood is one of quiet dignity, resilience, and profound cultural significance, capturing a moment that honors her role as the final guardian of the Eyak language and heritage before its passing with her in 2008.
DYK a language dies every ~14 days & more than half of the world's 7,000 languages could vanish by 2100.
The Eyak language went extinct #OTD in 2008 when Chief Marie Smith Jones of Alaska's Eyak tribe & the last fluent speaker of Eyak died at the age of 89. #indigenous #language #linguistics
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TWIN CITIES FOLKS WHO WANT TO HELP AND DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START: I put together a big list of resources. Do you want to deliver groceries? do people's laundry? work in community defense? I want to help you get connected!
naomikritzer.com/2026/01/19/h...
We've extended the deadline for #NERCCS2026 ! Don’t miss it!
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Astonishing. Beautiful.
Excellent
A black and white image showing King Theoden of Rohan from Peter Jackson's Lord of the rings trilogy. Next to him is a fishhook, and the bottom text reads, "what can men do against such reckless bait?"
Would absolutely love to hear (a) a couple of your favorite ideas that you discuss in the book and (b) what you make of Olson's World on Paper, which I've always taken to be maybe the best discussion of print technology in relation to language, and (c) whether there's a preorder.
This is why LLM-generated fake citations are a problem.
AI as it currently exists just can't be used for knowledge work. The infrastructure we have doesn't safeguard against the problems it creates.
Maybe consider school boards and school board associations? I don't know much about this, but I do know they maintain big mailing lists and active admin staff. There must be recommended reading and etc.
Also school library associations.
Like a lot of folks, I'm culturally Christian but not practicing. To me, that means embracing the message of love, acceptance, and universal human worthiness that we associate with Christ.
Wise words from our malört pontifex. Merry Christmas 🎄❤️
Attention Writers! Hot new tip. Next holiday season, ask for the gift of nunchuck
I misplaced my chainmail veil and cowl last year 😔 been really struggling to write ever since.
I understand that allocating grant money is complicated. Equity, access, prioritization, practical questions and fundamental research. I get that it's a hard, collective problem.
But holy cow, we are NOT crushing it.
Surely the alternatives aren't "rely on market-based alternatives to provide healthy choices" vs "wail into the void."
There's also "regulate this obviously harmful and unsafe technology." That isn't going to happen because our government does not serve the people, at present, but it is the answer.
Cool! Thank you. I've written down a bunch of keywords, phrases, and concepts to look up and read about. Off to read your stochastic parrots piece — and thanks again for posting! I hope BlueSky cybernetics continues to grow :)
Conclusion: Or I'm wrong due to lack of knowledge about LLM engineering. I'm very open to the idea that LLMs DO cohere over time in some emergent and important way, as you started to explain. Also FWIW Tom Froese thinks they might be cognitive agents, and he invented half these concepts, so...
E.g. yeah, LLMs are sensitive to the context of the conversation. But only for the duration of that one conversation, then the dependency disappears. The only enduring components are inert + don't self-organize (server racks, etc.). You can turn it off and on and have the same system. No so w/life.
connection and do not rely on one another for their existence. So where biological systems have observable emergent properties, LLMs do not (as far as I'm aware, and maybe excepting scaling laws?). That's why I don't think they're precarious.
Could LLMs work the same way? Maybe. The dependencies you point out are meaningful. But whether they cohere into agency depends on whether they have some kind of stable operational (f-r) grounding. For humans that's provided by metabolism; LLMs' constituent servers and code bases no inherent 1/2