What Gives Us Reason to Trust a Model?
A continuation of my question about model complexity, leading me to think about the word “true”, empirical evidence, and how our reasons for trusting a claim may depend on the kind of claim being made.
Neural Gaps
Is a More Complex Explanation More True?
On model complexity, the appeal of explanations that sound sophisticated, and why having more variables does not automatically make an explanation more true.
Why Are We Obsessed with Asking “Is This AI?”
Warning: If, after reading this essay, your first thought is “This was definitely written by AI,” then this essay may be talking about you. When I scroll through content on the internet lately, the question I see most often in the comments is not “What might the artist have felt?”, but a much cooler question, at least from the commenter’s point of view, (perhaps): “Is this AI?” Funny, isn’t it? ...
When Destruction Becomes Growth
An essay on how ecological destruction can appear as growth when economic measurement systems count transactions, but fail to see the biological losses behind them.
The Economy Is Not the Enemy of Ecosystems. It Is Their Derivative
An essay on the illusion that the economy can be decoupled from the ecosystem, exploring how all human financial activities rest upon biological and ecological foundations.