se20e05: AI Models; The All Souls Exam; Melvynn Bragg as an Oxford Don; Grounding; Being Human; Worry About The Same Things

0.0 Context Setting

Tuesday, 19 August 2025 in Portland, Oregon, where it’s nice and sunny but not too hot, the dog and I had a pleasant morning walk that was early but not too early, and the covers I’m listening to are pleasing.

This one got away with me a bit.

Fifth in a row, I think? Got to be careful here and not set myself up for thinking missing a day or two is a horrific failure on my part. Let’s just keep going, okay?

Oh, remember Do Not Reply cards? That's all. Just remember them.

0.1 Hallway Track

No Hallway Tracks are currently scheduled.

1.0 Some Things That Caught My Attention

1.1 Should Anonymous Posting Online Be Forbidden?

I wrote back in s20e011 about how current LLMs/token predictors do a good job of predicting the most likely next token.

It was mainly about the hope that people who can perform better than average -- i.e. things that LLMs can’t do right now -- have less to fear from their work being replaced.

(Yeah, I said less. The point is not whether the work is any good, it’s whether the person or thing assessing the