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Researchers built an experiment where people interacted with an AI trained only on pre-1930 text to see if talking to a "historical mind" would shift their views about the past. It worked—people who chatted with the old-data model reported less of a bias that the past was more moral than today, compared to those using a current AI.
- The experiment reduced the "illusion of moral decline"—a documented bias where people assume past societies were more ethical than they actually were—by having participants interact with a historically-bounded language model instead of a contemporary one.
- Historically-bounded LLMs create an experimentally accessible way to approximate talking to someone from the past without modern knowledge contaminating their perspective, solving a real methodological problem in behavioral research.
- This framework treats AI systems as research instruments that can deliberately manipulate interaction conditions (in this case, temporal knowledge) to study and influence how people perceive, reason, and reflect.
Most questions about AI aren't actually technical questions—they're about philosophy, economics, psychology, and how society will transform. Technical AI experts are often unqualified to answer them, just as steam engine engineers weren't the ones who understood the Industrial Revolution's broader impacts.
- The AI revolution, like the Industrial Revolution, will transform institutions, culture, economics, and human psychology all at once, making it impossible to understand through narrow technical expertise alone
- Even questions directly about AI—like whether super-intelligent systems will be conscious, or whether "intelligence" is a single measurable property—depend on philosophy and theory of mind, not just how neural networks work
- The core assumption of modern expertise (that reality decomposes into independent domains) breaks down when one technology threatens to reshape everything simultaneously, requiring polymaths and philosophers rather than siloed specialists
Cate Hall's new book, "You Can Just Do Things," offers practical advice on overcoming mental barriers that limit personal freedom and potential. Hall shares her late-in-life journey to understanding agency, aiming to help others discover the same.
- Cate Hall's book "You Can Just Do Things" releases July 21 via Harper Edge, focused on breaking self-imposed mental barriers to personal agency.
- Hall's advice stems from her own late-in-life discovery of personal agency, not abstract theory.
- Tim Urban (Wait But Why) has endorsed the book.
Comparison can lead to negative emotions and dissatisfaction, especially in the age of social media. By reframing how we view our experiences and shifting focus to others' challenges or our own past hardships, we can cultivate gratitude and a more positive mindset. The author shares personal strategies for overcoming the detrimental effects of comparison.
- Social media amplifies comparison by showcasing curated highlights, making others' lives seem better than your own reality
- Comparing your struggles to people who have it worse, or to your own past hardships, can restore gratitude for your current situation
- Shifting focus from "why don't I have that" to "I've overcome harder things before" reframes challenges as manageable rather than overwhelming