18 APR 2026

Day 108

The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know.

Blaise Pascal · Pensées

A life-size seated ceramic figure of a Buddhist disciple in glazed pottery, robes falling in heavy folds, elongated ear-lobes, resting on an openwork base modelled like eroded rock.

I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM

Seated Luohan from Yixian

Liao dynasty · Glazed pottery · 1913,1221.1

Life-size glazed pottery figures of Buddhist disciples emerged from caves in Hebei early last century. This seated luohan is one of them, now in the British Museum.

Enter lesson 6 MIN

II · THE IDEA · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Mechanistic Probes for Circuit Discovery

interpretability · Circuit discovery by intervention · Causal abstraction (arXiv 2301.04709)

A network computes along many paths at once. Mechanistic probes intervene on chosen components to test which subgraphs actually carry a behaviour, moving from correlation toward causal claim.

Enter lesson 7 MIN

A bare prison room. A muscular older man sits upright on a bed, one hand raised in argument, the other reaching for a small cup held out by a turning figure. Around him companions gesture, lean in, or cover their faces. Open chains lie on the stone floor.

III · THE WORK · ART HISTORY

The Death of Socrates

Jacques-Louis David · 1787 · Oil on canvas

In 1787 Jacques-Louis David staged Socrates’ last hour as a lesson in composure: oil on canvas, neoclassical clarity, and a cup of hemlock held at the centre of the room.

Enter lesson 6 MIN