Finished reading: Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil by Oliver Darkshire ๐
A fun but thought provoking romp with an assortment of odd folk, wizards, fungus goblins, talking donkeys and basil plants, and plenty of murder. And all kinds of transitions.
Finished reading: The World After Gaza by Pankaj Mishra ๐
A challenging but ultimately somewhat nihilistic take on the atrocity of Gaza. Some important points but fails to see a way forward.
Finished reading: Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza by Peter Beinart ๐
An inspiring and surprisingly hopefully assessment of what it is to be Jewish in the aftermath of Gaza (and indeed decades of the denial of Palestinian rights). Suggests that there is still - that there is always - opportunity for collective liberation of both Israelis and Palestinians. That, in fact, this is the only future where liberty is possible.
Finished reading: Change by รdouard Louis ๐
Extraordinary. A brutally honest memoir of the desperate need to change to escape, to be renewed. Hit me like a sledgehammer.
Finished reading: A Radical Act of Free Magic by H. G. Parry ๐
Excellent conclusion to the duology; loved the intertwining of historical events and fantasy elements.
Finished reading: With Love From France by Vlad Zorin ๐
Great photography and social commentary.
Finished reading: The End of Eddy by รdouard Louis ๐
Harrowing story of รdouard Louisโ childhood in dank, grey and poor northern France.
Finished reading: Native Nations by Kathleen DuVal ๐
Brilliant new history of native North America that reveals the resilience, vibrancy, and ongoing self-determination of indigenous North Americans in the face of colonialism.
Finished reading: A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H. G. Parry ๐
Excellent alternative fantasy history of the French and Haitian Revolutions. Magic, vampires, slavery, liberty and radicalism make for a tense and dark story, that moves along at a cracking pace. Read it in a couple of days.
"The Illusion of Thinking" - LLMs face "complete accuracy collapse" beyond certain complexities....
Apple’s Machine Learning Research group has published another damning piece of analysis of the capabilities of Large Reasoning Models (LRMs) and Large Language Models (LLMs). This important piece of work further exposes the limitations of LRMs and LLMs - both types of model experience “complete collapse” when dealigning with high-complexity tasks.
The paper is available here: https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/illusion-of-thinking
The key takeaway from this is that Generative and/or General AI are far far away from being safe and useful. More limited Machine Learning algorithms designed to analyse specific types of data are clearly useful. But we should be very wary of extrapolating from this to more “general” AI models.
AI, the Brogliarchs, and the Surveillance State
Excellent Daily Show discussion with Carole Cadwalladr about the dangers for AI, the Brogliarchs and the ‘techno-authoritarian surveillance state’….
You can read more of her work here:
Edmund White
Vale Edmund White (1940-2025), prolific, highly talented and sex-positive gay author. His โA Boyโs Own Storyโ was seminal for many of us in the 1980s. His most recent memoir โThe Loves of My Lifeโ, published only this year, is a perfect capstone for a man who loved men, and wrote about them so well.
