The Intrinsic Perspective

Anthropic runs like Wile E. Coyote into the brick wall of consciousness research

When the AI companies first began talking about existential risk, it was common to hear some version of:

Jul 13 • Erik Hoel

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June 2026

Screentime correlates more with kids' brains than IQ; Matt Yglesias gets Dan Dennett wrong; Why literary fiction awards keep falling for AI…

Desiderata #40

Jun 23 • Erik Hoel

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Don't dethrone consciousness!

LLMs aren't conscious (and thinking they are is culturally dangerous)

Jun 5 • Erik Hoel

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May 2026

But Dumbo could already fly?

100% pure human copium about OpenAI solving Erdős problems

May 23 • Erik Hoel

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April 2026

We consciousness researchers have failed you

In Which I Become Shackleton

Apr 29 • Erik Hoel

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IVF epigenetic damage gets worse across generations; The next Project Hail Mary; AI's "odorless" math proofs; Waymo at 100% human oversight…

Desiderata #39

Apr 2 • Erik Hoel

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March 2026

Hubris

The Lore of the World: Part 4

Mar 19 • Erik Hoel

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RIP Dan Simmons. Why weren't you more famous?

The world hates a polymath

Mar 13 • Erik Hoel

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Bits In, Bits Out

Six years of AI and the world got stupider

Mar 5 • Erik Hoel

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February 2026

My New Org to Solve Consciousness (or Die Trying); A Rogue AI Community That Wasn't; David Foster Wallace Is Still Right; Cow Tools Are…

Desiderata #38: links and commentary

Feb 5 • Erik Hoel

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January 2026

It only snows like this for children

The Lore of the World: Part 3

Jan 26 • Erik Hoel

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Proving (literally) that ChatGPT isn't conscious

There is nothing it is like to be a Large Language Model

Jan 15 • Erik Hoel

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