21 FEB 2026

Day 52

We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves.

John Berger · Ways of Seeing

A bronze helmet, classified as Celtic; the available record provides no reliable visual description beyond its material and object type.

I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM

The Waterloo Helmet

Bronze · Celtic helmet · River Thames

A bronze Celtic helmet from the River Thames survives in the British Museum collection, with a short factual record that leaves much of its former life unsettled.

Enter lesson 4 MIN

II · THE IDEA · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

System Prompts and Instruction Hierarchy

Inference · Reinforcement learning from human feedback · Wallace et al., instruction hierarchy (2024)

A system prompt is not a special data structure. It is ordinary tokens placed first, and the model learned during training to treat position as privilege.

Enter lesson 6 MIN

A massive stone monument rising in nine levels from a square base to a circular summit, each terrace lined with carved reliefs and stone stupas, set against a landscape of distant volcanic peaks.

III · THE WORK · ART HISTORY

The Reliefs of Borobudur

Sailendra Dynasty, Central Java · 9th century · Andesite stone

More than a kilometre of carved narrative wraps around nine rising platforms. A pilgrim reads the story by walking clockwise, climbing upward, until the images stop and only latticed stone and sky remain.

Enter lesson 7 MIN