Latest Posts
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Idris Dies: What Happens When Your AI Goes Back Into the Black Box
What the Doctor Had, Briefly The famous idea from the episode is that the TARDIS did not always take the Doctor where he wanted to go. She took him where he needed to go. I have already written about that…
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The Queeg Regime: What Happens When AI Optimises for Efficiency Over Wellbeing
The ship runs better. Everyone hates it. There is a moment in Red Dwarf when the crew get exactly what they think they want. Holly, the ship’s computer, has been vague, lazy, and occasionally spectacularly useless. So when the backup…
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She Always Took You Where You Needed to Go: AI Autonomy and the Alignment We Don’t Notice
The day the TARDIS finally spoke There is a moment in Doctor Who that still catches me by surprise. In “The Doctor’s Wife,” written by Neil Gaiman and first broadcast in 2011, the Doctor gets something rare: a proper conversation…
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When Your AI Pretends to Be Someone Else: What Red Dwarf’s Queeg Teaches Us About Trust
The Prank That Is Not Quite Funny Anymore Holly’s trick works because the crew have no reliable way to check who, or what, is really running the ship. A face appears on a screen. A voice speaks with authority. A…
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HAL Knew Something the Humans Didn’t: AI and the Problem of Asymmetric Knowledge
Opening the pod bay doors on a knowledge problem There is a quiet horror at the heart of 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is not just that HAL 9000 can speak in that calm, reasonable voice. It is not just…