This is a daily exploration of the algorithms, architectures, and philosophies that might take us beyond human cognition.
Why This Series?
Every great technological leap pairs two engines:
Algorithmic ingenuity – the concrete tricks that make machines think faster, deeper, and more flexibly.
Cultural imagination – the stories and critiques that tell us why we are building such machines, and what could possibly go wrong (or magnificently right).
This blog-series weaves both strands. Each day we will unpack a specific reasoning concept, trace its implementation in modern AI systems, and close with a reading morsel, fictional or factual, that sharpens perspective. Think of it as a curriculum for would-be builders of the next epoch-shaping intelligence.
Algorithmic Compass: Concepts We’ll Unpack
Foundations of Formal Thought
Logic & Logical Consequence, Axiomatic Completeness, Algorithm Design, Induction & Resolution, SAT Solvers & Constraint Logic, Logic Programming, Rule Application
Representation & Knowledge
Symbolic Systems, Semantic Indexing, Compositional Semantics, Knowledge Acquisition, Heuristic Knowledge, Metaknowledge, Answer Extraction, Working Assumptions, Common Sense Reasoning
Learning & Adaptation
Neural Networks, Reinforcement Learning, Evolutionary Computation, Learning by Analogy, Probabilistic Algorithms & Classification, Hierarchical Models, Hierarchical Temporal Memory (HTM), Cognitive Architectures (e.g., Neocortex)
Search, Inference & Control
Decision Trees, Abstract Search, Heuristic Search, Backtracking, Branching Factor, Problem Solving, Conflict Resolution, Intelligent Control, Control Theory
Mind, Ethics & Beyond
Emotional Dynamics, Machine Ethics, Machine Consciousness, Higher Intelligence, Perceptual Skills, Speech Recognition, Perception, Chronological Extraction, Rhetorical Relations
Large Language Models
Architecture, GPU, Hardware, Diffusion Models, Quatizations, Kernels, GPU Datacenters, Reasoning, Prompting
Non-Fiction
Life 3.0, Max Tegmark : Scenario playbook for societies shaped by self-improving AI.
Superintelligence, Nick Bostrom : Strategic risks once machines outpace human cognition.
Homo Deus, Yuval Noah Harari : Data, biotech and the post-human future of our species.
The Second Machine Age, E. Brynjolfsson & A. McAfee : Economic upheaval amid digital automation.
Our Final Invention, James Barrat : Journalistic warning on uncontrollable AGI.
The Master Algorithm, Pedro Domingos : Hunt for a unifying learning algorithm across domains.
The Information, James Gleick : Cultural history of information from drums to bits.
Gödel, Escher, Bach, Douglas Hofstadter : Self-reference, strange loops and consciousness.
The Innovators, Walter Isaacson : Team stories behind the digital revolution.
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Shoshana Zuboff : How data extraction became the default business model.
Where Is My Flying Car?, J. Storrs Hall : Diagnosing the slowdown in technological progress.
The Gene, Siddhartha Mukherjee : Heredity, CRISPR and the ethics of editing life.
How to Create a Mind, Ray Kurzweil : Pattern-recognition theory of the neocortex as AGI blueprint.
Reinventing Discovery, Michael Nielsen : Open science and crowdsourced breakthroughs.
The Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt : Moral psychology explaining our tribal disagreements.
Popular Culture / Science-Fiction
Exhalation, Ted Chiang : Metaphysical tales on entropy, agency and time.
Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang : Includes “Understand,” a novella on cognitive amplification.
Blindsight, Peter Watts : First-contact thriller questioning the nature of consciousness.
Neuromancer, William Gibson : Cyberpunk classic introducing cyberspace and rogue AI.
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson : Metaverse romp with memetic viruses and sword-wielding couriers.
Anathem, Neal Stephenson : Monastic mathematicians confront a quantum multiverse.
Accelerando, Charles Stross : Vignettes racing up the exponential curve to post-singularity life.
The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu : Hard-physics alien encounter framed by cultural-revolution trauma.
Dune, Frank Herbert : Ecology, prophecy and power on a desert planet.
Foundation, Isaac Asimov : Psychohistory predicts and tries to shorten a galactic dark age.
The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin : Twin-world experiment in anarchism versus capitalism.
The Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson : Nanotech primer disguised as a neo-Victorian fairy tale.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams : Cosmic absurdity reminding us not to take metrics too seriously.