A Z Mackay

We're not trapped by ignorance. We're trapped by coordination dynamics we can see but can't escape. The machinery optimizes for hope because hope coordinates collective action.
(article link in bio)

#AI #HypeCycle #TechPredictions #FutureTense #CollectiveDelusion

Cambridge Dictionary's word of the year is "parasocial." 72% of American teens have used AI companions. A third find them as satisfying as real friendships. I wrote about what that reveals. (link in bio)

When Knowing More Means Doing Less The Algorithm Awareness Paradox

We all see the manipulation now.
We correct less.
We rage less.
We just… scroll, exhausted.

The machine doesn’t want you ignorant.

It wants you exactly this aware.

ft.azmackay.com/p/when-knowi...

The Third Visitor What We Keep Seeing in Rocks That Won't Look Back

The rocks keep coming. Always just rocks. We keep looking, because accepting the silence means confronting what we're wired to deny.
Read the full essay: ft.azmackay.com/p/the-third-...

Social pain uses the same brain regions as physical pain. Cosmic loneliness isn't metaphor. It hurts. And we're designed for a world different from the one we inhabit: Paleolithic brains confronting potential cosmic emptiness.

The machinery isn't broken... it's operating exactly as designed. Pattern-seeking evolved to find patterns that exist. Agency detection evolved to find agency that exists. But the optimization for African savanna creates pathology at astronomical scales.

We've been performing this dance since 1977's Wow! Signal. Before that, Lowell's canals on Mars. The pattern predates telescopes. Something arrives from beyond our boundary. We need it to be a message.

October 2025. A Harvard professor calculated the odds at one in ten quadrillion. NASA's scientists said "it looks like a comet."
The gap between those two positions reveals more about human psychology than cometary composition.

You're Not Addicted, You're Subscribed What platforms actually sell when they sell connection.

Having worked on the other side of the screen at big social platforms, @azmackay.bsky.social exposes the engineering that keeps us tethered to our screens.

“You’re not weak for checking your phone. You’re responding rationally to a system ... ensuring you’d respond that way.”

The Tortoise Revolution How AI Labs Are Rebuilding Expertise Around One Core Feature: You Can't See How It Works

Every major AI lab pivoted to "reasoning models" that think for minutes before answering.
Why does this feel like we're rebuilding the oracle economy but calling it progress?

ft.azmackay.com/p/the-tortoi...

#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #TechCriticism #OpenAI #Anthropic #ReasoningModels #FutureTense

The Sorting Some People Will Think. Everyone Else Will Perform Thinking. The Sort Is Happening Now.

Thinking is becoming expensive. Performance is becoming free. The two-tier system is being built in real time through "personalized learning." You have 18 months before this becomes obvious to everyone.
ft.azmackay.com/p/the-sorting #futuretense

Sovereignty as a Service Nations don't get conquered anymore. They get deprecated.

Putin said whoever leads in AI will rule the world.
He didn't mention the subscription fees. Or that most nations would be reading the release notes instead of writing them.
ft.azmackay.com/p/geopolitic...

Next year your apps will answer for you. Your social graph will register as vibrant while you cook dinner. Your Presence Score will affect your career. This isn't sci-fi. It's already being built.

(link in bio)

#FutureTense #FutureTech #AI #DigitalLife

The Wrong Emergency We're debating AI consciousness while knowledge infrastructure gets built

AI isn't a mind. It's an airport for human culture. We're arguing about the sentience of the terminal while a few companies buy all the land.

ft.azmackay.com/p/the-wrong-...

#ArtificialIntelligence #LLM #FutureTense #Tech

why did this make me laugh

Plot twist: Your biggest AI security threat isn't hackers. It's your own employees trying to be helpful.
theaimonitor.substack.com/p/ai-governa...
#AI #TechSecurity #Innovation

Willy nilly. Silly Billy's.

Thanks Jenny!

Shadow AI on the Rise From Hidden Risk to Strategic Asset

Your employees are already using AI at work. Yes, even Brian from marketing.

Stop fighting shadow AI. Start channeling it.

open.substack.com/pub/theaimon...

#ai #enterpriseai #aigovernance #innovation #techlaunch | Adam Mackay Excited to share something we've been building at QA-Systems! Like many organizations, we struggled with AI adoption - scattered API keys, rising costs, and zero visibility into who was using wha...

Excited to share something we've been building at QA-Systems!
Like many organizations, we struggled with AI adoption - scattered API keys, rising costs, and zero visibility into who was using what. So we built AI Controller to solve our own problem.
www.linkedin.com/posts/adamma...

I hated typing on those rubber keys.

Thinking is optional. But recommended.

To much $$$ invested for it to 'die'. The only way is to push through the transition and hope there is life for humanity on the other side.

It's in the south of the UK 😃

Solar rays scatter through aerosols
a smoke plume rises
evidence etched in the atmosphere

Light filters through old trees,
bluebells whisper in the hush,
the forest forgets nothing.

This photograph captures Sir David Attenborough seated outdoors on the rugged terrain of Skomer Island. Behind him, the ocean and coastal cliffs form a scenic backdrop under a clear sky. Sir David, dressed in a khaki jacket and light trousers, looks towards the camera with a gentle expression, exuding a sense of warmth, calm, and wisdom. Around him, puffins can be seen flying and perched on the rocky ground, illuminated in rays of golden sunlight as the sun sets behind the cliffs.

Happy 99th birthday to the man who gave voice to the wild. 🎉

Sir David Attenborough, thank you for a lifetime dedicated to the natural world, and for sharing its story with wisdom, wonder, and grace.

You've inspired generations to fall in love with nature.

Sorry. Dixon's loss, I'm sure.

A nearby dark molecular cloud in the Local Bubble revealed via H2 fluorescence - Nature Astronomy Eos is a newly discovered molecular cloud sitting just 94 pc from the Sun. It was detected through the far-UV emission of its molecular hydrogen, having been missed in conventional molecular gas surve...

Astronomers just found a massive hydrogen cloud named Eos hiding 300 light-years away, "literally glowing in the dark" in ultraviolet light. A giant structure in our cosmic backyard, invisible until now. What else is lurking out there that we can't yet see? www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unveils new Rubin AI chips at GTC 2025 Nvidia founder Jensen Huang kicked off the company’s artificial intelligence developer conference, on Tuesday by telling a crowd of thousands that AI is going through “an inflection point.”

Physical AI is here: Nvidia’s new Vera Rubin chips bring agentic AI & robotics to life. Straight from Terminator’s Skynet playbook. Are we ready? apnews.com/article/457e...