4 MAR 2026

Day 63

Every writer creates his own precursors.

Jorge Luis Borges · Kafka and His Precursors

Stone relief panels showing a king hunting lions in an enclosed arena. Lions leap, fall, and die; some are pierced with arrows. One lioness drags her paralysed hind legs. Attendants and dogs surround the scene.

I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM

The Assyrian Lion Hunt Reliefs

Neo-Assyrian · c. 645–635 BC · North Palace, Nineveh

Captured lions released from cages into an arena, killed with arrows by a king who never missed. The finest animal sculpture from Assyria, made to show power, not sportsmanship.

Enter lesson 6 MIN

II · THE IDEA · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The Emergent Abilities Argument

Training and alignment · Wei et al., 2022; Schaeffer et al., 2023 · Machine learning

Past a certain size, models suddenly pass tests they failed before. Some researchers see a phase transition. Others argue the discontinuity lives in the metric, not the model.

Enter lesson 7 MIN

Two figures wrapped in gold-patterned robes embrace at the edge of a flowered surface. The man bends over the woman, whose face tilts upward, eyes closed. His robe is geometric rectangles; hers is concentric circles.

III · THE WORK · ART HISTORY

Klimt's The Kiss

Gustav Klimt · 1907 · Oil and gold leaf on canvas

Klimt covered a canvas with real gold, then divided it into rectangles for him and circles for her. The faces inside remain stubbornly three-dimensional.

Enter lesson 6 MIN