Always good to come out the gates comparing oneself to Plato - so here goes.
The grumpy (and extremely pug-nosed, apparently) philosopher was reported to have made his case using the Olympics as a metaphor. That there were those a minority, whose mission in life was to actively compete, to obtain glory and to taste and bask in triumph. Then there there were those, the majority for whom the passive spectacle was the thing , to sit in the audience, watch and be entertained by epic thrills and copious sanguine spills.
Then there was one final (extremely small) group to which he included himself, for them the great interest lay in the Olympics as an entirety; every part of it; the crowds and competition, the psychological motivations and physical phenomena of it all.
It seems to me that PVA is making a decent fist of adopting a Platonic view to make sense of our often insensible present, but so far does it via switching back and from audience POV to participant POV. Whereas in my ridiculously humble opinion right now our perpetually amorphous age requires a workable seagull-eyed meta-frame work which is applicable to all parts.
Hence a while back I offered my observation that Trump was the first Post-Gutenberg President as he was, for good or ill, instinctively aware of the multi-modality of modern communication brought about by our being in the midst of a new Hyperludic (AI) not seen since the previous one; the Printing Press)
Each Hyperludic shares the attribute of all other General Purpose Technologies (steam, electricity etc) in being civilisational impactful and incredible difficult to assess its impact - but they do share a set of attributes that offer a genuine robust and useful framework in which to view the present:
Now I know each of you three wise media men will decry my not driving traffic to my own website - here is the 12 features unique to hyperludics - which I hope will show and tell a lot of the issues (copyright, multi-modality, decline of expertise and celebrity) often discussed on PVA
THEY EACH FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGE THE "RULES OF THE GAME"
Unlike technologies that merely improve efficiency within existing systems, hyperludic redefine how entire societies engage with information itself. Writing didn't just enhance oral storytelling; it created entirely new concepts like permanent records and codified knowledge. Similarly, AI isn't just automating existing tasks—it's redefining what's possible in creativity, decision-making, and problem-solving.
THEY ARE INFORMATION-BASED (RATHER THAN ENERGY-BASED)
While many GPTs like steam engines or electricity transform physical energy, hyperludics manipulate information itself—how we store it, share it, and act upon it. AI, like writing and printing before it, works directly on knowledge, multiplying our cognitive capabilities rather than just our physical power.
THEY SUBSUME THEIR PREDECESSORS
Each hyperludic contains and expands upon previous ones in a cumulative layering that creates exponential power. Writing captured language; printing scaled writing; AI now absorbs, interprets, and amplifies all three previous accelerants. This recursive building upon prior breakthroughs creates compounding effects that transform society.
THEY COMBINE PREDICTABILITY WITH RADICAL UNPREDICTABILITY
Unlike technologies with predictable outputs, hyperludics produce emergent, sometimes chaotic results that surprise even their creators. The printing press predictably produced books but unpredictably sparked religious revolutions. Similarly, AI consistently processes data but often generates unexpected insights, solutions, and creative works that extend beyond its explicit programming.
THEY TRIGGER EXPONENTIAL COMPLEXITY
By expanding the possibilities of human thought, hyperludics create compounding effects where new insights trigger new questions, and solutions create novel problems. The printing press didn't just produce books—it triggered scientific revolutions, religious reformations, and political transformations that continue to reverberate today.
THEY CONTAIN THE SEEDS OF THEIR OWN SOLUTIONS
Hyperludics are both the source of disruption and the solution to the problems they create. The printing press caused information overload but also enabled the distribution of organisational systems like encyclopaedias and indices. Similarly, AI creates challenges around information verification but also offers tools to manage the complexity it generates.
Both Literacy and Copyright arose as a subsequence of the demands of the printing press but solutions to both had to come from the mass production capability of the printing press - in the case of literacy standard text books for general consumption and for copyright the ability to produce identical legal documented codes of enforcement for mass distribution.
THEY DEMOCRATISE ACCESS AND POWER
Each has hugely expanded who can participate in knowledge creation and utilisation. Language allowed all humans to share ideas; writing preserved thoughts beyond a single lifetime; printing brought texts to the masses; and AI is now enabling anyone with a smartphone to leverage sophisticated cognitive tools previously reserved for specialists.
THEY ENABLE ENTIRELY NEW CULTURAL AND SOCIAL FRAMEWORKS
Beyond improving productivity, hyperludic fundamentally reshape social structures. The printing press contributed to the rise of nation-states, public education, and democratic discourse. AI is now poised to transform concepts of work, creativity, expertise, and even identity in ways we're just beginning to understand.
THEY FUNDAMENTALLY ACCELERATE KNOWLEDGE SHARING AND INNOVATION
Each dramatically speeds up the cycle of knowledge development and application. The printing press accelerated the Renaissance by allowing ideas to spread faster than ever before. AI is now compressing innovation cycles—what once took years (drug discovery, materials testing) can now take weeks or even days.
THEY TRANSFORM POWER STRUCTURES
Each hyperludic shift has realigned who holds influence in society. Writing empowered literate elites; the printing press challenged religious monopolies and created a merchant publishing class. AI is now creating new power dynamics between those who control computational resources, those who create algorithms, and those who supply or generate data.
THEY ACT AS A CATALYST FOR NEW ETHICAL FRAMEWORKS
They each destabilise existing moral frameworks, necessitating new ethical systems. Copyright laws emerged from printing press disruptions; now AI is challenging our concepts of authorship, accountability, privacy, and algorithmic fairness, requiring novel approaches to governance and regulation.
THEY ACCELERATE FEEDBACK LOOPS
Unlike technologies that improve linearly, hyperludics create self-reinforcing cycles that accelerate change. AI research improves AI systems, which then accelerate research further, creating potential for increasingly rapid transformation that outpaces our traditional adaptive mechanisms.
_____
Aware of the irony that I've just offered a text wall to explain the death of text walls - I would (obviously) say that I do strive to put my hypothesis where my mouth is and that I can walk the talk and could be worth having as an entirely non-anonymous AI Generalist offering fresh unique and that oh so rare phenomenon of a genuine impartial commentator on your roster of participants.
Right there you go - a great way to make PVA stand uniquely above the fray like media gods in the Olympus Situation Room observing with benign interest the fun and folly of mortals.
Always good to come out the gates comparing oneself to Plato - so here goes.
The grumpy (and extremely pug-nosed, apparently) philosopher was reported to have made his case using the Olympics as a metaphor. That there were those a minority, whose mission in life was to actively compete, to obtain glory and to taste and bask in triumph. Then there there were those, the majority for whom the passive spectacle was the thing , to sit in the audience, watch and be entertained by epic thrills and copious sanguine spills.
Then there was one final (extremely small) group to which he included himself, for them the great interest lay in the Olympics as an entirety; every part of it; the crowds and competition, the psychological motivations and physical phenomena of it all.
It seems to me that PVA is making a decent fist of adopting a Platonic view to make sense of our often insensible present, but so far does it via switching back and from audience POV to participant POV. Whereas in my ridiculously humble opinion right now our perpetually amorphous age requires a workable seagull-eyed meta-frame work which is applicable to all parts.
Hence a while back I offered my observation that Trump was the first Post-Gutenberg President as he was, for good or ill, instinctively aware of the multi-modality of modern communication brought about by our being in the midst of a new Hyperludic (AI) not seen since the previous one; the Printing Press)
Each Hyperludic shares the attribute of all other General Purpose Technologies (steam, electricity etc) in being civilisational impactful and incredible difficult to assess its impact - but they do share a set of attributes that offer a genuine robust and useful framework in which to view the present:
Now I know each of you three wise media men will decry my not driving traffic to my own website - here is the 12 features unique to hyperludics - which I hope will show and tell a lot of the issues (copyright, multi-modality, decline of expertise and celebrity) often discussed on PVA
THEY EACH FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGE THE "RULES OF THE GAME"
Unlike technologies that merely improve efficiency within existing systems, hyperludic redefine how entire societies engage with information itself. Writing didn't just enhance oral storytelling; it created entirely new concepts like permanent records and codified knowledge. Similarly, AI isn't just automating existing tasks—it's redefining what's possible in creativity, decision-making, and problem-solving.
THEY ARE INFORMATION-BASED (RATHER THAN ENERGY-BASED)
While many GPTs like steam engines or electricity transform physical energy, hyperludics manipulate information itself—how we store it, share it, and act upon it. AI, like writing and printing before it, works directly on knowledge, multiplying our cognitive capabilities rather than just our physical power.
THEY SUBSUME THEIR PREDECESSORS
Each hyperludic contains and expands upon previous ones in a cumulative layering that creates exponential power. Writing captured language; printing scaled writing; AI now absorbs, interprets, and amplifies all three previous accelerants. This recursive building upon prior breakthroughs creates compounding effects that transform society.
THEY COMBINE PREDICTABILITY WITH RADICAL UNPREDICTABILITY
Unlike technologies with predictable outputs, hyperludics produce emergent, sometimes chaotic results that surprise even their creators. The printing press predictably produced books but unpredictably sparked religious revolutions. Similarly, AI consistently processes data but often generates unexpected insights, solutions, and creative works that extend beyond its explicit programming.
THEY TRIGGER EXPONENTIAL COMPLEXITY
By expanding the possibilities of human thought, hyperludics create compounding effects where new insights trigger new questions, and solutions create novel problems. The printing press didn't just produce books—it triggered scientific revolutions, religious reformations, and political transformations that continue to reverberate today.
THEY CONTAIN THE SEEDS OF THEIR OWN SOLUTIONS
Hyperludics are both the source of disruption and the solution to the problems they create. The printing press caused information overload but also enabled the distribution of organisational systems like encyclopaedias and indices. Similarly, AI creates challenges around information verification but also offers tools to manage the complexity it generates.
Both Literacy and Copyright arose as a subsequence of the demands of the printing press but solutions to both had to come from the mass production capability of the printing press - in the case of literacy standard text books for general consumption and for copyright the ability to produce identical legal documented codes of enforcement for mass distribution.
THEY DEMOCRATISE ACCESS AND POWER
Each has hugely expanded who can participate in knowledge creation and utilisation. Language allowed all humans to share ideas; writing preserved thoughts beyond a single lifetime; printing brought texts to the masses; and AI is now enabling anyone with a smartphone to leverage sophisticated cognitive tools previously reserved for specialists.
THEY ENABLE ENTIRELY NEW CULTURAL AND SOCIAL FRAMEWORKS
Beyond improving productivity, hyperludic fundamentally reshape social structures. The printing press contributed to the rise of nation-states, public education, and democratic discourse. AI is now poised to transform concepts of work, creativity, expertise, and even identity in ways we're just beginning to understand.
THEY FUNDAMENTALLY ACCELERATE KNOWLEDGE SHARING AND INNOVATION
Each dramatically speeds up the cycle of knowledge development and application. The printing press accelerated the Renaissance by allowing ideas to spread faster than ever before. AI is now compressing innovation cycles—what once took years (drug discovery, materials testing) can now take weeks or even days.
THEY TRANSFORM POWER STRUCTURES
Each hyperludic shift has realigned who holds influence in society. Writing empowered literate elites; the printing press challenged religious monopolies and created a merchant publishing class. AI is now creating new power dynamics between those who control computational resources, those who create algorithms, and those who supply or generate data.
THEY ACT AS A CATALYST FOR NEW ETHICAL FRAMEWORKS
They each destabilise existing moral frameworks, necessitating new ethical systems. Copyright laws emerged from printing press disruptions; now AI is challenging our concepts of authorship, accountability, privacy, and algorithmic fairness, requiring novel approaches to governance and regulation.
THEY ACCELERATE FEEDBACK LOOPS
Unlike technologies that improve linearly, hyperludics create self-reinforcing cycles that accelerate change. AI research improves AI systems, which then accelerate research further, creating potential for increasingly rapid transformation that outpaces our traditional adaptive mechanisms.
_____
Aware of the irony that I've just offered a text wall to explain the death of text walls - I would (obviously) say that I do strive to put my hypothesis where my mouth is and that I can walk the talk and could be worth having as an entirely non-anonymous AI Generalist offering fresh unique and that oh so rare phenomenon of a genuine impartial commentator on your roster of participants.
Right there you go - a great way to make PVA stand uniquely above the fray like media gods in the Olympus Situation Room observing with benign interest the fun and folly of mortals.