Hugh

Off Brain, an essay on networked empathy, the exocortex, and our next step in human spirituality is available to read on garden3d.substack.com Words by @_hhff Video by @wuthuh

More TK / Hugh Francis “Where the flower grows” @_hhff makes the case for private AI in a hypnotic reading of his essay on More TK. Over the past several months, he’s been exploring a different kind of future with @bringyourusb . In this episode, he sketches out a philosophy for small, air-gapped machines we call local LLMs.

Over the past couple months, we’ve been exploring a different kind of future with @bringyourusb , sketching out a philosophy for small, airgapped machines we call local LLMs. Instead of cloud dependence, we’ve been testing what happens when intelligence runs on hardware you can hold, open, and trust. In his new essay, @_hhff outlines the early philosophy of these systems: intelligence that behaves more like an object than a service. 🏛️ Trustworthy because it does only what it says 🪞 Observable because you can read its logs, open its casing, and tweak its behavior 💎 Timeless because it runs on hardware you own, in formats that don’t vanish behind subscriptions. A device that works like scaffolding — helping you think more clearly, then stepping back as you internalize the skills yourself. Private by default, locally anchored, and interoperable by design. “Local LLMs aren’t retro or niche. They open a new design space: intelligence as a home appliance, a personal router of intent, a portable memory vault. Systems that measure success by their own obsolescence — not by capturing more of your attention, but by returning more of it to you.” Read the full article at the link in bio.

We’ve been here before. Plato worried writing would ruin memory. Now professors worry AI will ruin thinking. But maybe outsourcing cognition has always been part of being human. In his new essay, @_hhff moves from Hinge date debates about David Lynch and Hayao Miyazaki, through ancient philosophy and cognitive science, to the possibility of a planetary brain. It asks: is AI the end of human thought, or simply its next extension? “The internet we know today has been for the most part a passive harness; requiring individual humans “crank the handle”. As the bandwidth and interconnectivity of our discrete conscious minds are faster linked, the internet may start to resemble an active “exocortex”, functioning like a coherent super-organism, capable of wise, compassionate action on a massively global scale. Human minds, as nodes in the system, would be brought to face their own own acute suffering and harm, finally allowing us to feel it all as a personal wound, and overcome our fragmented, short-sighted self-interest. The more entangled our humanity becomes with its own digital reflection, the more a vision of social justice not enforced by law, but naturally arising from shared experience may come.” Read the full article at the link in bio.