30 JAN 2026

Day 30

We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.

Alan Turing · Computing Machinery and Intelligence

A painted wall fragment showing a man in a white kilt standing in a small boat, arm raised holding a throwing stick, surrounded by dense papyrus plants and birds in flight. A ginger cat clings to the stems, catching multiple birds. A woman and child sit in the boat.

I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM

The Tomb-Chapel Paintings of Nebamun

New Kingdom Egypt · c. 1350 BC (Eighteenth Dynasty) · Paint on plastered mud-brick

A cat with gold-leaf eyes catches three birds at once, mid-leap in a papyrus thicket. The wall promised Nebamun a perfect day, repeating forever.

Enter lesson 7 MIN

II · THE IDEA · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The Causal Mask

Transformers · Attention Is All You Need, 2017 · look-ahead mask, future mask

During training, every token in a sequence can see every other token — unless you explicitly forbid it. One triangle of negative infinity is the difference between learning to predict and learning to copy.

Enter lesson 6 MIN

A serene figure with dark skin and jewelled ornaments holds a lotus flower, head tilted forward, eyes lowered. The body is modelled with shadow, and dark contour lines define the edges of the form against a background of other figures and foliage.

III · THE WORK · ART HISTORY

The Murals of the Ajanta Caves

Aurangabad district, Maharashtra, India · 2nd century BCE–5th century CE · Rock-cut monastery and worship halls

Buddhist monks painted narrative scenes on prepared cave walls using foreshortening and chiaroscuro in the fifth century. One bodhisattva's downcast eyes have carried scholarly attention for two hundred years.

Enter lesson 7 MIN