Michael Garfield
@michaelgarfield.bsky.social
Author, artist, father, scholar, Global Weirding tour guide. Once a paleontologist and still a songwriter + experimental guitarist. Former SFI, Long Now, Mozilla. Writing on bio, psych, tech, and wisdom @ HumansOnTheLoop.com
Pinned
🦋 What Is "Being More Than A Machine"?
On perspectives on perspectives, and why it matters to tech ethics.
michaelgarfield.substack.com
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”
– F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Crack-Up” in Esquire (1936)
Part one of a new series on containing paradox:
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/hotl-09
– F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Crack-Up” in Esquire (1936)
Part one of a new series on containing paradox:
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/hotl-09
Reposted by Michael Garfield
This read from @michaelgarfield.bsky.social unsettled me when I first came across it in 2020. Keeps on aging really well
michaelgarfield.medium.com/the-future-i...
michaelgarfield.medium.com/the-future-i...
November 29, 2025 at 1:14 AM
This read from @michaelgarfield.bsky.social unsettled me when I first came across it in 2020. Keeps on aging really well
michaelgarfield.medium.com/the-future-i...
michaelgarfield.medium.com/the-future-i...
Maybe something like "for a large class of Markov decision processes q-function is exponentially difficult to compute even when the reward function is not" = "pragmatics has one up on causal theory building" or "we're not getting rid of the induction problem"
Oo I absolutely adore the term "barnyard understanding [of engineering]", explained by Chaim Gingold, creator of the game Spore and author of the Sim City book ❤️
What might a barnyard understanding of data science be?
h/t @michaelgarfield.bsky.social's podcast open.spotify.com/episode/09cK...
What might a barnyard understanding of data science be?
h/t @michaelgarfield.bsky.social's podcast open.spotify.com/episode/09cK...
Chaim Gingold on Building Sim City & Simulation as Discourse
open.spotify.com
September 16, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Maybe something like "for a large class of Markov decision processes q-function is exponentially difficult to compute even when the reward function is not" = "pragmatics has one up on causal theory building" or "we're not getting rid of the induction problem"
The story of #SimCity is the story of the world we live in—of the entanglement of computing, entertainment, design, & governance. And where it succeeded—and failed—teaches us how to navigate maps that become territories...
@chaimg.bsky.social on #HumansOnTheLoop:
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/h-23
@chaimg.bsky.social on #HumansOnTheLoop:
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/h-23
Chaim Gingold on Building Sim City & Simulation as Discourse
We live in abstractions. What makes some better than others?
michaelgarfield.substack.com
August 20, 2025 at 4:19 PM
The story of #SimCity is the story of the world we live in—of the entanglement of computing, entertainment, design, & governance. And where it succeeded—and failed—teaches us how to navigate maps that become territories...
@chaimg.bsky.social on #HumansOnTheLoop:
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/h-23
@chaimg.bsky.social on #HumansOnTheLoop:
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/h-23
Thinking a/b an AI-enriched world that actually benefits humans & how it'll help us explore, not just get tube-fed by algorithms. Here's my talk from @divintelligence.bsky.social on how complex systems science & game design inspired me to imagine this future:
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/foraging
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/foraging
🌿 Foraging in High-Dimensional Data
My talk from the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute 2025 on how we can draw from thinking in complex systems science and game design to heal our relationship to the Web.
michaelgarfield.substack.com
August 5, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Thinking a/b an AI-enriched world that actually benefits humans & how it'll help us explore, not just get tube-fed by algorithms. Here's my talk from @divintelligence.bsky.social on how complex systems science & game design inspired me to imagine this future:
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/foraging
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/foraging
Beautiful, and very well-timed. Reactionary preservation of the status quo is not enough. Conviction must be met with action. Are we afraid to dream of better futures? There is such a thing as good ambition.
youtu.be/sJjODY-PyJY?...
youtu.be/sJjODY-PyJY?...
This is Hollywood's Liberal Fantasy, and it's Falling Apart
YouTube video by Like Stories of Old
youtu.be
August 4, 2025 at 12:07 AM
Beautiful, and very well-timed. Reactionary preservation of the status quo is not enough. Conviction must be met with action. Are we afraid to dream of better futures? There is such a thing as good ambition.
youtu.be/sJjODY-PyJY?...
youtu.be/sJjODY-PyJY?...
Reposted by Michael Garfield
I’m not quite sure what to think about this conceptual, aesthetic and philosophical exploration of crab-ness, but it reminds me of how Le Corbusier was inspired to pioneer the development of brutalist architecture after looking at a crab shell.
The long-awaited (first draft written *last AUGUST*) debut at @aeon.co is here! Probably my most comprehensive and audacious statement on human-technology evolution published anywhere to date. Detours through sci-fi, memeology, military and natural history, and more.
Our technologies have formed a hard exoskeleton around us. Are we destined to become crab people?
July 8, 2025 at 2:46 PM
I’m not quite sure what to think about this conceptual, aesthetic and philosophical exploration of crab-ness, but it reminds me of how Le Corbusier was inspired to pioneer the development of brutalist architecture after looking at a crab shell.
Reposted by Michael Garfield
<developing an inexplicable dread of drawn butter and Old Bay>
July 8, 2025 at 10:13 PM
<developing an inexplicable dread of drawn butter and Old Bay>
Reposted by Michael Garfield
Have we considered the problem isn't impending loss of jobs but existing loss of availability for meaningful work because of jobs
So, if we really want to tackle the loneliness problem, we need to prevent paid work from demanding so much of our time and energy that we can't (or simply don't want to) contribute to a shared project of care. Because that pressure is at the core of both loneliness and inequalities in care. 4/
July 27, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Have we considered the problem isn't impending loss of jobs but existing loss of availability for meaningful work because of jobs
The long-awaited (first draft written *last AUGUST*) debut at @aeon.co is here! Probably my most comprehensive and audacious statement on human-technology evolution published anywhere to date. Detours through sci-fi, memeology, military and natural history, and more.
Our technologies have formed a hard exoskeleton around us. Are we destined to become crab people?
Are humans destined to evolve into crabs? | Aeon Essays
‘Everything becomes crab’ is more than an absurd meme. The crab is a deep symbol of our devil’s bargain with technology
buff.ly
July 4, 2025 at 3:29 PM
The long-awaited (first draft written *last AUGUST*) debut at @aeon.co is here! Probably my most comprehensive and audacious statement on human-technology evolution published anywhere to date. Detours through sci-fi, memeology, military and natural history, and more.
John Lilly's Reality Protocols, 1977, reproduced in Diana Reed Slattery’s Xenolinguistics, 2015, Chapter 5: Reality Reviewed (which alone is worth the price of the book)
June 8, 2025 at 9:58 PM
John Lilly's Reality Protocols, 1977, reproduced in Diana Reed Slattery’s Xenolinguistics, 2015, Chapter 5: Reality Reviewed (which alone is worth the price of the book)
William Irwin Thompson, Passages About Earth (1973) p151
May 31, 2025 at 4:00 PM
William Irwin Thompson, Passages About Earth (1973) p151
Jamming with Cadell Last on self-actualization and transformation in our age of magical technologies — how to live in a future of hyper-social neuroplasticity, a an argument for culture to the social systems that only perceive measurable value.
#HumansOnTheLoop
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/h-18
#HumansOnTheLoop
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/h-18
Self-Actualization in the Global Brain with Cadell Last of Philosophy Portal
A guide to staying human and becoming ungovernable in the midst of the Singularity
michaelgarfield.substack.com
May 30, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Jamming with Cadell Last on self-actualization and transformation in our age of magical technologies — how to live in a future of hyper-social neuroplasticity, a an argument for culture to the social systems that only perceive measurable value.
#HumansOnTheLoop
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/h-18
#HumansOnTheLoop
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/h-18
If you’re attached to “being more than a machine”, consider that the difference between you and a next-token prediction algorithm might be 4B years of improv practice.
Then again, it’s very hard to pivot from a story that you think you are.
Part Two:
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/hotl-10
Then again, it’s very hard to pivot from a story that you think you are.
Part Two:
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/hotl-10
☯ Why Should "I Contain Multitudes"?
On making peace with paradox as we turn and face the strangeness of AI.
michaelgarfield.substack.com
May 30, 2025 at 4:53 PM
If you’re attached to “being more than a machine”, consider that the difference between you and a next-token prediction algorithm might be 4B years of improv practice.
Then again, it’s very hard to pivot from a story that you think you are.
Part Two:
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/hotl-10
Then again, it’s very hard to pivot from a story that you think you are.
Part Two:
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/hotl-10
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”
– F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Crack-Up” in Esquire (1936)
Part one of a new series on containing paradox:
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/hotl-09
– F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Crack-Up” in Esquire (1936)
Part one of a new series on containing paradox:
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/hotl-09
🦋 What Is "Being More Than A Machine"?
On perspectives on perspectives, and why it matters to tech ethics.
michaelgarfield.substack.com
May 30, 2025 at 4:48 PM
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”
– F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Crack-Up” in Esquire (1936)
Part one of a new series on containing paradox:
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/hotl-09
– F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Crack-Up” in Esquire (1936)
Part one of a new series on containing paradox:
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/hotl-09
Reposted by Michael Garfield
Determinism, Causality + Emergence in the Mesoscale
At Babel Blog is a summary of subthreads on implications for causality, determinism + emergence of spacetime, potentially following from the intersection of Wheeler’s it from bit, Jim’s common now and my work.
jessicaflack.wordpress.com/blog/
At Babel Blog is a summary of subthreads on implications for causality, determinism + emergence of spacetime, potentially following from the intersection of Wheeler’s it from bit, Jim’s common now and my work.
jessicaflack.wordpress.com/blog/
March 31, 2025 at 10:10 AM
Determinism, Causality + Emergence in the Mesoscale
At Babel Blog is a summary of subthreads on implications for causality, determinism + emergence of spacetime, potentially following from the intersection of Wheeler’s it from bit, Jim’s common now and my work.
jessicaflack.wordpress.com/blog/
At Babel Blog is a summary of subthreads on implications for causality, determinism + emergence of spacetime, potentially following from the intersection of Wheeler’s it from bit, Jim’s common now and my work.
jessicaflack.wordpress.com/blog/
Fish rot from the head, but a snake eats from the tail up to keep the prey breathing and avoid getting bitten.
This is a political analogy.
This is a political analogy.
April 14, 2025 at 2:54 AM
Fish rot from the head, but a snake eats from the tail up to keep the prey breathing and avoid getting bitten.
This is a political analogy.
This is a political analogy.
"Science hides a not-knowing in a knowing."
New ep of #HumansOnTheLoop on #ScaleTheory and the tension between colonialism and mysticism in #science and #philosophy, the #magic of #computers, the #embodiment of information, and the wickedness of #complexsystems:
michaelgarfield.substack.com/h-15
New ep of #HumansOnTheLoop on #ScaleTheory and the tension between colonialism and mysticism in #science and #philosophy, the #magic of #computers, the #embodiment of information, and the wickedness of #complexsystems:
michaelgarfield.substack.com/h-15
April 7, 2025 at 6:04 PM
"Science hides a not-knowing in a knowing."
New ep of #HumansOnTheLoop on #ScaleTheory and the tension between colonialism and mysticism in #science and #philosophy, the #magic of #computers, the #embodiment of information, and the wickedness of #complexsystems:
michaelgarfield.substack.com/h-15
New ep of #HumansOnTheLoop on #ScaleTheory and the tension between colonialism and mysticism in #science and #philosophy, the #magic of #computers, the #embodiment of information, and the wickedness of #complexsystems:
michaelgarfield.substack.com/h-15
🙏🏼 Big thanks to everyone for their praise of my new single! It's always a gambit to release intellectual psych-folk about trippy futurism and complexity but it's also a pretty vacant niche and it's what I love to do.
Hope you like it too!
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/the-big-ma...
Hope you like it too!
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/the-big-ma...
April 5, 2025 at 5:58 PM
🙏🏼 Big thanks to everyone for their praise of my new single! It's always a gambit to release intellectual psych-folk about trippy futurism and complexity but it's also a pretty vacant niche and it's what I love to do.
Hope you like it too!
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/the-big-ma...
Hope you like it too!
michaelgarfield.substack.com/p/the-big-ma...
"In the shift from a consumptive economy to a contemplative one...jobs will disappear as a source of our identity. The job as a configuration is an industrial concept. The Dark Age and Medieval monk did not have a job; he had a vocation, a calling."
– William Irwin Thompson
– William Irwin Thompson
April 2, 2025 at 4:09 PM
"In the shift from a consumptive economy to a contemplative one...jobs will disappear as a source of our identity. The job as a configuration is an industrial concept. The Dark Age and Medieval monk did not have a job; he had a vocation, a calling."
– William Irwin Thompson
– William Irwin Thompson
Just finished Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch Trilogy. Incredible! Who else has read this? I want to riff with someone eloquent about the world building on my show.
March 31, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Just finished Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch Trilogy. Incredible! Who else has read this? I want to riff with someone eloquent about the world building on my show.
Reposted by Michael Garfield
Visualize every book on earth as a single zoomable bookshelf, colored by archival status, with direct download links:
phiresky.github.io/isbn-visuali...
phiresky.github.io/isbn-visuali...
March 24, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Visualize every book on earth as a single zoomable bookshelf, colored by archival status, with direct download links:
phiresky.github.io/isbn-visuali...
phiresky.github.io/isbn-visuali...