Maxim Raginsky
@mraginsky.bsky.social
I don’t doubt that, just a case in point.
January 16, 2026 at 11:53 PM
I don’t doubt that, just a case in point.
Yeah, it’s proto-organicism.
January 16, 2026 at 3:34 AM
Yeah, it’s proto-organicism.
Also, Gustav Fechner (of Fechner’s law) had interesting philosophical views:
January 16, 2026 at 3:25 AM
Also, Gustav Fechner (of Fechner’s law) had interesting philosophical views:
Reposted by Maxim Raginsky
Have seen this news (cims.nyu.edu/dynamic/news...) about NYU professor Robert Kohn. As good a time as any to share a piece of his work which I found cool: when studying deterministic control problems, one can still end up with second-order PDEs for their solution: math.nyu.edu/~kohn/papers....
January 15, 2026 at 4:59 PM
Have seen this news (cims.nyu.edu/dynamic/news...) about NYU professor Robert Kohn. As good a time as any to share a piece of his work which I found cool: when studying deterministic control problems, one can still end up with second-order PDEs for their solution: math.nyu.edu/~kohn/papers....
Get in, losers, we're going to do engineering as a humanistic endeavor! realizable.substack.com/p/engineering
Engineering as lifeworld
Much ink has been spilled about the proverbial “physics envy” allegedly felt by the practitioners of various disciplines that are even the slightest bit quantitative.
realizable.substack.com
January 14, 2026 at 2:57 AM
Get in, losers, we're going to do engineering as a humanistic endeavor! realizable.substack.com/p/engineering
I thought this from Forest Passage was insightful though:
January 14, 2026 at 2:34 AM
I thought this from Forest Passage was insightful though:
The worst parts of The Forest Passage border on paranoia, but his analysis of the nexus of power and technology there is very sharp.
January 14, 2026 at 2:30 AM
The worst parts of The Forest Passage border on paranoia, but his analysis of the nexus of power and technology there is very sharp.
Reposted by Maxim Raginsky
When are impossibility proofs misleading? In infinitefaculty.substack.com/p/be-wary-of..., I discuss a common issue I see: proofs that are logically valid, but where the underlying assumptions are unjustified. I discuss ‘proofs’ that cognition cannot be tractably learned, and that LMs are 1/
Be wary of assumptions in impossibility arguments
A proof is only as good as its assumptions
infinitefaculty.substack.com
January 13, 2026 at 3:33 PM
When are impossibility proofs misleading? In infinitefaculty.substack.com/p/be-wary-of..., I discuss a common issue I see: proofs that are logically valid, but where the underlying assumptions are unjustified. I discuss ‘proofs’ that cognition cannot be tractably learned, and that LMs are 1/
Yes, some system parameters are not emergent, they form the minimum kernel from which higher-order semantics and pragmatics can be bootstrapped.
January 13, 2026 at 6:40 PM
Yes, some system parameters are not emergent, they form the minimum kernel from which higher-order semantics and pragmatics can be bootstrapped.
You can design what they refer to as "the basic circuitry," then let the system interact with its environment. The value and (self-)reference system will then arise through some sort of mechanism combining variation, selection, and reinforcement. (They cite Edelman's neural darwinism as an example.)
January 13, 2026 at 6:38 PM
You can design what they refer to as "the basic circuitry," then let the system interact with its environment. The value and (self-)reference system will then arise through some sort of mechanism combining variation, selection, and reinforcement. (They cite Edelman's neural darwinism as an example.)
When the authors of that tech report talk about "externally imposed," they want to draw a distinction between rigidly designed vs. coherently autonomous systems. You can certainly impose an Umwelt on the system and place it in a suitable environment.
January 13, 2026 at 6:29 PM
When the authors of that tech report talk about "externally imposed," they want to draw a distinction between rigidly designed vs. coherently autonomous systems. You can certainly impose an Umwelt on the system and place it in a suitable environment.
Frankfurt School critique remains undefeated.
January 13, 2026 at 4:00 PM
Frankfurt School critique remains undefeated.
Don’t make me tap the sign! bsky.app/profile/mrag...
As I keep saying, everyone should read this: dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721....
January 13, 2026 at 3:46 PM
Don’t make me tap the sign! bsky.app/profile/mrag...
From my fall course evaluations: "Go to the lectures, Maxim is a great orator and he covers relevant material while also making the lectures enjoyable to listen to." I'll take it.
January 13, 2026 at 3:28 PM
From my fall course evaluations: "Go to the lectures, Maxim is a great orator and he covers relevant material while also making the lectures enjoyable to listen to." I'll take it.
No, but I keep meaning to.
January 13, 2026 at 12:27 PM
No, but I keep meaning to.
From “Leopardi and the machine age” by Hilda L. Norman:
January 13, 2026 at 5:22 AM
From “Leopardi and the machine age” by Hilda L. Norman:
Solaris
Stalker
Stalker
we often talk about “what anime would you adapt into a movie” but here is a reverse: what movies would you adapt into an anime?
January 13, 2026 at 3:18 AM
Solaris
Stalker
Stalker
the drukpa kagyu lineage of AI
the hungry ghost
it destroyed its jar
yes
YES
the ghost is out
it destroyed its jar
yes
YES
the ghost is out
January 13, 2026 at 1:50 AM
the drukpa kagyu lineage of AI
called it bsky.app/profile/mrag...
vecnological singularity
January 12, 2026 at 12:57 PM
called it bsky.app/profile/mrag...
vecnological singularity
January 12, 2026 at 3:55 AM
vecnological singularity
Hey, that gyre ain’t gonna widen itself, ya know.
January 12, 2026 at 2:47 AM
Hey, that gyre ain’t gonna widen itself, ya know.
Thank you! I subscribe to NYRB, but had somehow missed this.
January 11, 2026 at 4:53 PM
Thank you! I subscribe to NYRB, but had somehow missed this.
You may also find this interesting and useful: bsky.app/profile/mrag...
I keep linking to this 100-page pdf from 1994, which actually contains a set of serious and nontrivial ideas that were ahead of their time and are now quite actionable: dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721....
Autonomy and adaptiveness : a perspective on integrative neural architectures
dspace.mit.edu
January 11, 2026 at 3:50 PM
You may also find this interesting and useful: bsky.app/profile/mrag...