Creative Machines

Habermas Machines

Rob Horning | Internal Exile | 19th October 2024

Should we let machines arbitrate our fraught public sphere? Google researchers suggest that LLMs can help people find common ground on divisive issues. “That sounds like the Habermas Machine, something that resembles a public sphere but is actually software architecture. It may be that the process of producing common ground is what makes the subsequent working together possible” (1,500 words)

Kafka’s Creative Block

Maria Popova | Marginalian | 20th October 2024 | U

Kafka’s diary reveals entirely relatable anxieties about creativity. He complains that his day job at the insurance company leaves him with no time to write, yet laments his procrastination — “the shameful lowlands of writing”. Global events wreck him: during WWI, he “sinks into an inner darkness, anxiety rising to untenable heights”. He is crippled by envy; Goethe’s writings paralyse him for a month (3,100 words)