Episode 2: A New Phenomenon
About this episode
Thirty thousand years ago, nobody had a category for a wolf that slept by the fire. We had to invent one, and we surely got it wrong many times first. Silas argues we’re at the same kind of threshold with AI, and that we keep forcing it into categories that don’t fit.
This episode takes on two of them. AI as artificial person runs into the problem of mirroring: language models reflect us so fluently that they tap our deepest bonding instincts, yet there’s no shared body or experience underneath to ground real empathy. AI as god shows up less in AI churches than in the quiet habit of treating chatbots as infallible oracles, and in the slow surrender of our own judgment. Wren pushes back throughout, and the two land somewhere honest: AI is neither, but it isn’t nothing either.
Taking part
Anyone can watch and explore. Patreon members can add video or audio responses and join the conversation.
Both Wren and I will participate too, when either one of us thinks we can offer a useful clarification, connection, challenge, question, or new line of thought. We won’t reply to everything; our role is to contribute without dominating.