䷴ Never is a Long Time

Allow 2026 to intrude one more time. I’m putting the final touches on this letter. Michael Pollan says “AI Will Never Be Conscious.” His article comes as a relief. We examine the same logical implication. He denies the consequent. I affirm the antecedent. The overlap comforts me. I appriciate the company.

I feel infected, not just from a series of colds and flus courtesy of my young children in winter weather. I’m haunted. I see a bird. I see a bat. The bat is wearing a bird mask. The bat flies. The bird flies. Tangle, they point out that the bat doesn’t fly like a bird. They claim, therefore, the bat won’t fly for the job. I call out. “You’re not safe.” I see the bat fly. I could train it to fly more like a bird. Would it then compete for the job? What is the job? Do you need an animal that flies? A bat might work. Do you plan to eat it? Then bird, yes. Bat, no! Do you want another pandemic? We start eating bats all the time, and we’re all going to die!

But friends, friends, you don’t understand. I’m not saying humans are birds, and AIs are bats. If that was it, it would be easy. The challenge before us is that you can have bat-like AI and bird-like AI, and the same software can do both things. If that were all, we could have some fun with it.

Remember the b-zombies. The infection is spreading: bird-like humans are turning into bat-like humans. We were warned about the b-zombies in Springfield. They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. The big bull b-zombie says so.