Michael Timothy Ben... @MiTiBen... · 6h
I wonder about meaning, automation and music. Musicians were automated by the gramophone in 1887, yet there is meaning to be had both in the struggle to learn an instrument, and the mastery of one. When you get so good you don't have to try, it feels joyous. Playful. Right. When you struggle to play one little thing right and get there, it feels like hope.
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
X post by 'Michael Timothy Ben...' (verified; display name and handle truncated), reflecting on meaning and automation using the gramophone's automation of musicians as an analogy, and on the meaning found in both struggling to learn an instrument and in mastering it.
meaningautomationmusicmasterygramophone
Michael Timothy Ben... @MiTiBen... · 5h
bizarre interaction with GPT-6: It insists the ChatGPT Chrome plugin needs to be reinstalled because it won't work. It refuses to be corrected, even though I have other chat sessions able to use the plugin. So I lie to it and tell it I reinstalled it, and suddenly it works fine.
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
Dark-mode X post describing GPT-6 insisting a Chrome plugin needs reinstalling, refusing correction, then working once the user falsely says it was reinstalled. Name and handle are truncated in the capture.
gpt-6model behaviortool usestubbornnesschatgpt chrome plugin
Michael Timothy Ben... [verified] @MiTiBen... · 5h
oh no, I took my glasses off. now I cannot find my glasses. did I sit on them? are they on the table in front of me? will I ever see again? am I now one of the strange mole people that live in my cupboard? how will I write papers now?
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
Humorous tweet by Michael Timothy Bennett about losing his glasses; handle is truncated in the screenshot.
humoracademic life
Michael Timothy Be... @MiTiBen... . 18h
so... I can no longer pass captcha... I just get stuck identifying hundreds of buses and bikes. codex can pass the captcha for me though...
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
Tweet from Michael Timothy Bennett joking that he personally fails CAPTCHA image challenges (getting stuck endlessly identifying buses and bikes) while OpenAI's Codex agent can pass the CAPTCHA for him.
captchaai agentscodexhumor
Michael Timothy Ben... @MiTiBen... · 9h
would be pretty funny if these users were codex registering accounts to delegate work to codex
[Embedded chart, titled:]
Codex Growth: 6m to 10m Users in 9 Days
Y-axis: Reported Active Users - Millions (0m to 10m)
X-axis: Feb through Nov
Data points: 1m+ (Feb 5), 2m+ (Mar 5), 3m (Apr 8), 4m (Apr 21), 5m (May 31), 6m (Jul 12), 7m (Jul 13), 8m (Jul 14), 9m (Jul 15), 10m (Jul 21)
Dashed line: "Original May 31 Projection" continuing to 10m* (Oct 18)
Source note at bottom: "SOURCES: OPENAI · SAM ALTMAN · TIBO · UPDATED JUL 21, 2026"
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
Line chart with labeled data points showing explosive growth in OpenAI Codex user count, with a dashed original-projection line showing actual growth vastly outpacing the May 31 forecast.
twitterchartopenai codexai adoptiongrowth metrics
Michael Timothy Bennett ✓ @MiTiBennett
my thesis so far.
[Image: table of contents]
1. Foreword and Chapter Summaries — 5
2. Some Philosophy — 33
3. What the F*ck Is Artificial General Intelligence? — 55
4. Computational Dualism — 71
5. Wow, Everything Is Computer — 77
6. Turtles All The Way Down — 85
7. Master, What Is My Purpose? — 95
5:11 AM · Apr 8, 2025 · 3,242 Views
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
PhD thesis table of contents from an AGI/philosophy-of-computation researcher, with irreverent chapter titles covering computational dualism and definitions of AGI — likely of interest to Nathan for its treatment of computational theory of mind, adjacent to his consciousness/theories-of-mind research.
twitteragiphilosophy of computationcomputational dualismthesisacademic
