Aether Mug
Marco Giancotti
Hello! I write on Aether Mug, a weekly blog about a great number of things, like science, philosophy, design, psychology, and Japan—or rather, not about *any* of them in particular, but about the things that connect them all.
July 2026
August 2026
Top Words
- darwin
- thinking
- framings
- japanese
- framing
- language
- aphantasia
- life
- world
- people
All posts (106)
I made a thing: the Foldable Tractatus, a free and open-source web app designed to make reading Wittgenstein's famous first book only hard (as opposed to really hard without it). I'm quite proud of this! First, you can check it out now. Then read below why I decided to make this multi-level meta-experiment that no...
A long time ago, in what now feels like a galaxy far, far away, large language models were next-word predictors. You gave them an unfinished chunk of text, and they continued from where it left off with plausible-sounding sequences of words. When OpenAI announced in 2019 their ground-breaking GPT-2 model, they...
Words have always had a way with me. They find me if and when it suits their fancy. If they do find me, they usually find me between thirty minutes and thirty days after they would have been just perfect to tell someone... (This post contains interactive elements. Check it out on the web page.)
There was, a long time ago, a small kingdom, and in that small kingdom was a prince who deemed himself just. This Prince reveled, above all else, in subjecting his people to the most peculiar trials. In his Princely youth, he enjoyed making his servants go about their chores while hopping around on one leg, or while...
TL;DR: I've updated the Plankton Valhalla Bestiary. Did you know that Aether Mug has an older sister website? It's called Plankton Valhalla and I publish my essays there (go check it out!). I started it back in 2022 as a repository of explanations building up to a book I wanted to write, an ambitious book to...
People are using large language models more often and on more complex tasks than ever. Social media and marketers hammer us with the (real or dreamed-up) benefits of this uptake from all sides, but there are also voices pointing out the risks: we're told that our security is compromised, that intellectual property...
Following the success of the first installment (thanks for all the succulent comments!), here is another tough thinking question for you. Before that, a couple of updates. Last week I had a lot of fun being interviewed by Jay Springett of Experience.Computer. Jay runs a truly unique podcast, focused specifically on...
In this post I'm trying something different. Instead of writing about my ideas, I'm asking you a question—a tough, Aether-Mug-style question!—for you to discuss with other readers in the comments section below. Several people have told me that they don't know of any other places on the internet to read and talk...
This post is part of my List of Introspective Descriptions. I'm always accepting "curious introspection" links and submissions from everyone, regardless of the kind of inner experience covered. Also: This blog now has comments! You can add yours at the end of the page. To think better, you need to understand how...
1 If you descend onto the Marunouchi Line platform in Ikebukuro Station on any weekday morning, you will witness an unusual train-boarding ritual. Like in any other Japanese station, people wait in line at the two sides of where each train's door will open. This is called seiretsu jousha (整列乗車, orderly boarding),...
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