2 JAN 2026

Day 2

Nature loves to hide.

Heraclitus · Fragments

A small, curved ivory carving showing two reindeer swimming in single file, their heads raised and legs tucked beneath them, following the natural arc of the mammoth tusk from which they were carved.

I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM

The Swimming Reindeer

Magdalenian · c. 11,000 BC · Mammoth ivory

Two reindeer swim nose-to-tail, carved from a mammoth tusk thirteen thousand years ago. The sculptor knew how reindeer move in water — which means they had watched them closely, and often.

Enter lesson 6 MIN

II · THE IDEA · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The Data Is the Model

Foundations · Data is the model · The Pile (800GB, 2020)

A system trained on biased examples will reproduce that bias with confidence, because it has no other source of truth. The regularities in the data become the regularities in the model.

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Rows of life-sized terracotta figures standing in excavated earth pits, each with distinct facial features, dressed in armoured tunics, their surfaces a uniform grey.

III · THE WORK · ART HISTORY

The Terracotta Army

Qin dynasty · 248 BC · Xi'an

Every warrior was built from standardised parts — legs, torsos, arms cast in sections — but no two faces are alike. And all of it was painted.

Enter lesson 7 MIN