A world without friction didn’t set us free—it just made life too smooth to feel real.
As AI erases uncertainty, humans go hunting for something that refuses to behave.
And in the age of algorithms, the last sacred ritual isn’t in a church—it’s in a football stadium.
salawat•2mo ago
AI does not erase uncertainty. It's non-deterministic/probabilistic, it's internal state can't be meaningfully scrutinized, and the ability to falsify or convincingly mislead has never been easier. AI promulgates uncertainty.
zauberberg•2mo ago
You make a fair observation: AI has not removed uncertainty. Its probabilistic nature, its opaque internals, and its capacity to generate convincing falsehoods all mean that uncertainty is not reduced, but redistributed.
What I was trying to explore is how the locus of uncertainty is shifting. Instead of confronting the unknown in the world, we now confront it inside the systems we build—systems we struggle to fully inspect or explain. The unknown hasn’t vanished; it has moved closer to us, and become harder to hold.
This is where football and religion feel relevant. They are places where uncertainty is not a problem to be solved, but an experience to be shared—ritual, suspense, allegiance, the goal nobody expected. They give form to the unpredictable in a way models never quite can.
So yes, AI promulgates uncertainty. The challenge is not to abolish it, but to decide how we live with it—and where we gather around it.
zauberberg•2mo ago
salawat•2mo ago
zauberberg•2mo ago
What I was trying to explore is how the locus of uncertainty is shifting. Instead of confronting the unknown in the world, we now confront it inside the systems we build—systems we struggle to fully inspect or explain. The unknown hasn’t vanished; it has moved closer to us, and become harder to hold.
This is where football and religion feel relevant. They are places where uncertainty is not a problem to be solved, but an experience to be shared—ritual, suspense, allegiance, the goal nobody expected. They give form to the unpredictable in a way models never quite can.
So yes, AI promulgates uncertainty. The challenge is not to abolish it, but to decide how we live with it—and where we gather around it.