Zvi Mowshowitz @TheZvi · 1h
Registering my prediction on this, too: If AI starts replicating Einstein's mental leaps, there will be, by the same people, new and different cope.
[Quoted tweet]
gfodor.id @gfodor · 6h
The last and final cope of humanity was always going to be about AI failing to replicate Einstein's mental leaps, which are generally seen as the greatest 'magical' achievement of the human mind in history. The fact we're already up again...
[Embedded image of a paper/abstract page:]
Google DeepMind Jan 27th, 2026
LLMs can't jump
Tom Zahavy, Google DeepMind
How do we fundamentally discover new things? In a letter to Maurice Solovine, Albert Einstein conceptualized discovery as a cyclical process involving an intuitive 'jump' from sensory experience to axioms, followed by logical deduction. While Generative AI has mastered Induction (statistical pattern matching) and is rapidly conquering Deduction (formal proof), we argue it lacks the mechanism for Abduction—the generation of novel explanatory hypotheses. Using Einstein's formulation of General Relativity as a computational case study, we demonstrate that the prevailing theory of "creativity as data compression" (induction) fails to account for discoveries where observational data is scarce. This position paper argues that while a modern Large Language Model could plausibly execute the deductive phase of proving theorems from established premises, it is structurally incapable of the abductive 'Jump' required to formulate those premises. We identify the translation of simulation into formal axioms as the critical bottleneck in artificial scientific invention, and propose that physically consistent, multimodal world models offer the necessary sensory grounding to bridge this divide.
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
Zvi Mowshowitz quote-tweets gfodor's post about a Google DeepMind position paper ('LLMs can't jump' by Tom Zahavy, dated Jan 27th 2026) arguing LLMs lack the abductive capacity for Einstein-style conceptual leaps despite mastering induction and deduction. Zvi predicts new forms of 'cope' if AI eventually replicates such leaps.
Kenneth Stanley (@kenneth0stanl...), reposted by Machine Learning Street Talk
— reposted by Machine Learning Street Talk
[repost icon] Machine Learning Street Talk reposted
Kenneth Stanl... @kenneth0stanl... · 12h
Difficulty achieving continual learning is also a bad omen for creativity: what you can imagine is naturally a function of what you can learn. Both are mediated by the adjacent possible to the same internal representations! Contorted algorithms (or the absence of clean options) for what should be simple and straightforward continual learning are therefore a hint that the large models they serve are creatively barren.
That explains why something that is close to "knowing everything" and often competitive with the abilities of experts can still produce fewer breakthroughs than you would expect from a human with similarly astounding knowledge and expertise.
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
Kenneth Stanley (known for open-endedness/novelty-search research) argues that difficulty with continual learning in LLMs signals limited creativity, since imagination and learning share the same substrate of internal representations. Relevant to Nathan's interest in architecture/learning-dynamics questions (brain_graph_1) and to broader questions about what current LLMs are missing relative to humans.
rohit @krishnanrohit · 11h
I started removing earbuds when going out for walks and that helps tremendously
> QUOTED: Dylan O'Sul... @Dylan... · 11h
> You aren't feeding inspiration by swallowing endless podcasts and videos, you're choking it, silence is the oxygen of creativity, ideas can't breathe without it
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
Tweet about silence and unmediated attention as a precondition for creative thought — general life/productivity reading, no direct AI-safety content.
part of play involves having a keen eye for noticing when reality was apparently more malleable or animated than expected - and then going ballistic/superdiffusion mode with exploring the phase space of how malleable it is in that direction until hitting all rigidities again (but those rigidities are false, there's more malleability forever somewhere)
noticing lightning and not forgetting it but tinkering with it until there are lights and rockets and transhumanism and the like
2:57 PM · Aug 4, 2025 · 167 Views
1 reply, 6 likes
watermark @anthrupad · 6m
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anomalous...
[Link card: en.m.wikipedia.org — "Anomalous diffusion - Wikipedia", thumbnail showing a graph of superdiffusion/normal diffusion/subdiffusion curves over time]
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
A philosophical/poetic musing from an X user (@anthrupad) using a physics metaphor (superdiffusion/anomalous diffusion) to describe a mode of creative exploration — noticing where reality seems malleable and pushing exploration in that direction, likened to how invention (lightning → electric lights → rockets → transhumanism) proceeds. Abstract/speculative content, tangential to Nathan's interest in exploratory/creative cognition framings.
Linus @thesephist
More people should create things to proliferate an aesthetic into our future, not just to solve problems. This is the quality that every artist and engineer I respect shares most universally. Without this, you are doomed to churning out slop.
6:53 PM · Jul 16, 2025 · 9,382 Views
💬 17 🔁 22 ❤ 181 🔖 52 ↗
Linus @thesephist · 10h
What values do you create to spread? What image do you dream about? What is the feeling of a tomorrow you want to give form to?
Have a position. Stand for something. Don't just create value.
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
A pair of tweets from Linus (thesephist) on creating with aesthetic/values intent rather than just problem-solving — "have a position, stand for something." General creative-philosophy content Nathan was reading; loosely resonant with the "no slop" writing discipline in the Nathan & Claude project but not directly about AI safety.
7yo created a new game
- The front lines move like King in chess
- Large circles in the back like bishop, diagonally
- The spiral round thing is the King to get checkmated, though it moves like Queen in chess
Surprisingly fun!
[Photo: a hand-drawn checkerboard on paper with mismatched game pieces (coins, buttons, checkers) of various colors set up as a custom chess-like game]
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
A charming tweet about a child inventing a homemade chess variant using household objects as pieces. Light, non-AI content — general interest tweet Nathan came across.
