Scaffolding on The Approximate Mind

Memory Scaffolding

Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What Happens When Your Post-It Notes Start Talking Back
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The Oldest Technology
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Before writing, we had each other. The elder who remembered which berries were poison. The grandmother who knew the song for grinding grain.

Personality Scaffolding

Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

When AI Learns to Be You, Who Decides Which You?
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Beyond Memory
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Part 17 explored memory scaffolding. AI that holds what you need to remember.

The New Work

Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Human Jobs in an AI Society
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The question everyone asks is wrong.

“What jobs will AI take?” assumes a fixed pie of work that AI and humans divide between them. It treats labor as a zero-sum competition where every AI capability is a human loss.

My Childhood AI Buddy

Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What happens to identity when everything that used to define us can be outsourced?

I've been thinking about children growing up right now—kids who will be teenagers when AI has fully arrived, adults when its implications have settled into ordinary life. What will they learn? What will they strive for? What will they remember about growing up?

The Quantized Psyche

Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What Happens When AIs Build Models of Minds
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You Are Already Being Modeled
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Every AI you interact with is building a model of you.

The Ethos Problem

Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

When Character Becomes Architecture
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Aristotle gave us the language we still use for persuasion: logos, pathos, ethos. Logic, emotion, credibility. Part 12 of this series examined how AI systems learn to persuade, optimizing influence while (hopefully) respecting autonomy. But I glossed over something that deserves its own examination.

When AI Remembers Itself

Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Statefulness and the Future of Character
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Everything I wrote in Part 22 assumed current AI architecture: stateless inference, no persistent self, each instance fresh. The system has no continuity. It doesn’t remember being reliable yesterday. It accumulates no history that could constitute character.

Scaffolding on The Approximate Mind

Memory Scaffolding

What Happens When Your Post-It Notes Start Talking Back #

The Oldest Technology #

Personality Scaffolding

When AI Learns to Be You, Who Decides Which You? #

Beyond Memory #

The New Work

Human Jobs in an AI Society #

My Childhood AI Buddy

The Quantized Psyche

What Happens When AIs Build Models of Minds #

You Are Already Being Modeled #

The Ethos Problem

When Character Becomes Architecture #

When AI Remembers Itself

Statefulness and the Future of Character #

What Happens When Your Post-It Notes Start Talking Back
#

The Oldest Technology
#

When AI Learns to Be You, Who Decides Which You?
#

Beyond Memory
#

Human Jobs in an AI Society
#

What Happens When AIs Build Models of Minds
#

You Are Already Being Modeled
#

When Character Becomes Architecture
#

Statefulness and the Future of Character
#