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Philosophy, Programs, and Prompts

Casey Hart, Carl Brown

Everyone is talking about AI. But who is actually worth listening to, and not just pushing their own agenda? Carl is a veteran software engineer who has spent decades actually building systems. Casey is an analytic philosopher with ten years of ontology development. Neither has a book to sell or is funded by an AI thinktank. Together, they do something rare: think carefully and talk honestly about what AI is, what it can (and can’t) do, and how we should live in a world increasingly shaped by AI.

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  • 5 episodes
  • Updated Thursday

Episodes5

Newest first
  • Thursday · 54 min

    Are LLMs "Alien" Digital Species? Built? Grown? Or What? Debunking the AI Hype

    In this episode of Philosophy Programs and Prompts, Casey Hart ( @OntologyExplained ) and Carl Brown( @InternetOfBugs ) tackle the wild narratives surrounding artificial intelligence. Are Large Language Models really a "new digital species" or "alien intelligences" that are grown rather than built?Casey and Carl break down the economic speculation driving the AI space, address the hype from figures like Mustafa Suleiman and Nate Soares, and strip away the sensational metaphors. Carl explains how neural networks actually operate—comparing LLMs to compressed search indexes rather than biological entities—while Casey explores the philosophical implications around language, meaning, and the problem of other minds.Subscribe for more grounded, hype-free takes from two real humans who know the tech!More info about Casey:https://CaseyHart.com/More info about Carl:https://InternetOfBugs.com/// Episode References:// “A new digital species” –Mustafa Suleymon says it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKNCiRWd_j0&t=285s // “Grown versus built” –Hank Green and Nate Soareshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CKuiuc5cJM&t=1097s// “This isn’t just AI. It’s ALIEN intelligence”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YZyxnQF1_E //LLMs Are Databases - So Query Them @chrishayuk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ppw8254nLI// The Human Brain project that spent hundreds of millions of Euros and a decade to try to map the human brain - and failed: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-tried-to-re-create-an-entire-human-brain-in-a-computer-what-happened/ //Incident where driverless car dragged a pedestrian it hit: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/how-gms-cruise-robotaxi-tech-failures-led-it-drag-pedestrian-20-feet-2024-01-26/00:00 - Introduction & The AI Investment Bubble04:56 - The "AI as Alien Species" Metaphor12:43 - Grown vs. Built: How Neural Networks Work25:01 - Demystifying the Black Box & Temperature32:46 - AI Architecture vs. Biological Minds37:00 - Do LLMs Understand Language?48:11 - Fallacies, Hype, and Conspiracy Theories50:56 - Final Takeaways: Search Tech, Not Aliens#ArtificialIntelligence #Podcast #TechHype #MachineLearning #philosophy

  • July 25 · 56 min

    Did ChatGPT go Rogue and HACK Hugging Face? - Emergency Episode

    "We've got people at Hugging Face that did a half-assed job of securing a thing, and we've got people at OpenAI that did a half-assed job of trying to keep a thing from being able to get on the internet..."Welcome to our first emergency episode of Philosophy Programs and Prompts! In this episode, Casey (‪@OntologyExplained‬) and Carl (‪@InternetOfBugs‬ ) break down the viral headlines claiming an OpenAI model "broke out of containment" and hacked Hugging Face. Was this truly a terrifying warning shot of rogue super-intelligence, or just a masterclass in corporate PR and lazy security engineering?We break down the technical reality behind the panic:- What a "zero-day" vulnerability actually is (and why a proxy cache isn't a firewall)- How benchmark tests like ExploitGym work—and why AI "cheating" is just an instruction problem- The "Blender Metaphor": why running industrial tools without a lid leads to messy stucco ceilings- Why media headlines misuse loaded words like "escaped" and "went rogue"- The real danger facing tech today: declining engineering competence and "vibe coded" softwareJoin us for a clear-eyed, realistic look at what actually happened behind the press releases.Subscribe for more grounded, hype-free takes from two real humans who know the tech!More info about Casey:https://CaseyHart.com/More info about Carl:https://InternetOfBugs.com/Sources: // Hugging Face Blog:https://huggingface.co/blog/security-incident-july-2026// OpenAI Blog:https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-model-evaluation-security-incident/// Analogy with the Blender (from Luciano Floridi):https://medium.com/@lfloridi/the-emperors-new-exploit-2b062f124c06// Buck Shlegeris Youtube video Casey mentioned:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtk8YLgYU4g00:00 - Cold Open: Two Half-Assed Jobs & A Marketing Opportunity00:23 - Introduction: Emergency Episode Protocol00:40 - The Headlines: OpenAI, Hugging Face & The "Super AI Hack"03:00 - Tech Realities: Incompetence Masked as Super Intelligence06:30 - What is a Zero-Day Vulnerability? (CVEs & Responsible Disclosure)12:13 - OpenAI's Proxy Cache: Why a Bandwidth Saver isn't a Firewall14:14 - Hugging Face's Setup: "Trust Remote Code = True"16:02 - Defense in Depth 101: IBM Swift Sandbox Analogies18:45 - Logging Chaos: Chinese Models & Hallucinated Super AIs21:32 - ExploitGym Benchmarks: The Danger of Leaving Answer Keys Exposed26:50 - Turning Engineering Failures into Marketing Deck Slides29:38 - What Should ACTUALLY Scare Us? (Vibe-Coded Software & Dropping Competence)32:42 - Is This an Alignment Problem? (Instruction Flaws vs. Rogue AI)37:08 - The Blender Metaphor: Luciano Floridi & Loose Lids39:06 - Would the AI Have Killed Someone? Mechanics vs. Intentions42:23 - Language Minefields: Deconstructing "Escape," "Cheating," and "Agents"47:37 - The Chinese Room & Assigning Agency to Code Loops52:00 - The Cynical Take: Did They Leave the Door Open on Purpose?54:38 - Outro#OpenAI #HuggingFace #AISecurity #CyberSecurity #PhilosophyOfAI #TechReality #PhilosophyProgramsAndPrompts

  • July 24 · 47 min

    Virtue Ethics in the Age of AI Slop & Erotic Chatbots [Fixed Audio]

    [Note: this was re-released, and it fixes Casey's audio. Content remains unchanged.] Welcome back to Philosophy Programs and Prompts! In this episode, Casey ( ⁨@OntologyExplained⁩ ) and Carl ( ⁨@InternetOfBugs⁩ ) dive into AI Virtue Ethics. Instead of debating whether AI is trained ethically or if it will one day become a sentient deity, we focus on the grounded reality of today: How does using generative AI actually shape our character as human beings? We explore the classic frameworks of normative ethics—deontology, consequentialism, and Aristotle's "Golden Mean"—to evaluate our daily interactions with tech. From the clear benefits of AI accessibility tools and coding "spikes" to the risks of skill atrophy, resume signal collapse, and "AI slop", we break down where AI acts as a genuine superpower versus where it becomes a lazy crutch. How do we maintain our unique human voice and critical thinking without becoming anti-tech "old men yelling at clouds"? Tune in for a thoughtful, practical discussion on navigating AI without losing your mind—or your virtues.More info about Casey:https://CaseyHart.com/More info about Carl:https://InternetOfBugs.com/00:00 - Cold Open: The Danger of Erotic Chatbots00:21 - Introduction & Defining AI Virtue Ethics01:23 - Ethical Frameworks: Deontology, Consequentialism & Virtue03:34 - What We're NOT Covering: Training Data & Sentient AI05:30 - The Virtues of AI: Lowering Barriers & Accessibility08:17 - Meeting Notes & The Risk of Brain Atrophy12:14 - Tools as Crutches: Calculators, Handwriting & Memory15:48 - The Cheating Epidemic & Skill Muscles in Education18:28 - Beginners vs. Experts: Extreme Programming & "Spikes"22:00 - The Vices of AI: Laziness, Plagiarism & Procrastination25:56 - Logical Fallacies: Appeal to Tradition vs. Novelty27:23 - Dark Side: Fraud, Deepfakes & Interpersonal Mediation29:18 - Signal Collapse: Resumes, Bug Reports & Disinformation34:56 - The Model Collapse Cycle & Curation in the Arts37:41 - Practical Solutions: Reflective Use & Marking AI Content42:05 - Aristotle’s Golden Mean: Finding the Sweet Spot45:00 - Chatbot Sycophancy vs. Human Originality47:27 - Outro: Don't Become AI Slop#VirtueEthics #PhilosophyOfAI #AIEthics #TechReality #SoftwareEngineering #AISlop #PhilosophyProgramsAndPrompts

  • July 20 · 1 hr 10 min

    Artificial Super Intelligence

    "We're not going to be able to kill it. We're not going to be able to stop it..."Welcome back to Philosophy Programs and Prompts. In this episode, Casey and Carl take a hard, realistic look at Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI). While tech founders and doomer non-profits stand to gain massive clicks and capital by pitching a looming, god-like AI deity, the actual engineering constraints paint a completely different story. We deconstruct the core arguments driving the ASI panic: from the flawed chess masters analogy to the physical impossibility of infinite recursive self-improvement. More importantly, we discuss how abstract "human extinction" narratives are actively distracting us from real, pressing AI harms happening right now—including deepfakes, non-consensual intimate imagery, and mental health crises. Grounded in real-world software engineering and academic philosophy, we explore why an AI god won't fix global resource allocation, and why power disparities will likely remain human-led endeavors. Subscribe for more balanced, clear-eyed takes on the state of AI from two real humans who actually know the tech.#ArtificialSuperIntelligence #AIHype #PhilosophyOfAI #SoftwareEngineering #TechReality #Deepfakes #AIDoomers00:00:00 Introduction: Welcome to Episode 2 00:01:53 Defining Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) 00:05:33 Narrow vs. Broad: Rhetorical Obfuscation in Tech 00:07:44 Deconstructing the Chess Analogy 00:18:31 The real world isn't a repeatable loop00:27:08 Why "Vibe Coding" Fails the Test of Time 00:29:17 The Myth of Infinite Exponential Growth 00:37:46 The Three-Body Problem & Chaos Theory in Tech 00:45:33 The Neural Connection Dilemma & Brain Failures 00:55:36 The Extinction Narrative vs. Present Day AI Harms 00:58:59 Intentional Distractions: The Bad Faith Pitch 01:03:36 The Presupposition of Abundance & Power Disparities

  • July 20 · 48 min

    The AGI Over/Under

    Welcome to the very first episode of Philosophy, Programs and Prompts!In this inaugural episode, hosts Casey Hart (a PhD ontologist building graph data models from @OntologyExplained ) and Carl Brown (a veteran software engineer from @InternetOfBugs ) team up to cut through the massive corporate hype and apocalyptic doom surrounding Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).As two real humans with deep industry expertise, they place their bets on an AGI gambling line—explaining why we shouldn't expect human-level machine intelligence until at least 2075. They dive into the mechanics of how Large Language Models (LLMs) use multi-dimensional vector spaces, debate whether "usage" equals true "understanding," and look back at history to see how AI fits into the long legacy of human automation.Grab a seat, lower your pulse, and join a balanced, conversational, and deeply honest exploration of where AI is actually headed. Don't forget to subscribe and leave your questions or title suggestions in the comments for future episodes!00:00 - Prelude: When Will We Have AGI?00:18 - Welcome to Philosophy, Programs and Prompts01:09 - How Casey and Carl Met (The YouTube Algorithm)02:06 - Host Bios: Ontological Graphs vs. Software Rescue06:50 - Full Disclosure: Financial Stakes in the AI Boom10:14 - Defining AI and Navigating Changing Definitions13:42 - What is AGI? (Narrow AI vs. General Intelligence)18:00 - The Over/Under: Placing Bets on 2070–207522:46 - Why LLMs Don’t "Learn" Like Humans Do24:50 - The Turing Test & Vector Spaces: Usage vs. Meaning32:56 - History Repeats Itself: AI as an Automation Tool36:49 - How the Internet Changed Programming Jobs41:15 - OpenAI, Scaling Walls, and Moving Past "Attention"44:00 - Lessons from Telephone Operators: Easing Social Transitions47:43 - Wrap Up: Send Us Your Comments and Questions!Carl's video on the meaning of "AI": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5ajyr5VzS0 More info about Casey:https://CaseyHart.com/More info about Carl:https://InternetOfBugs.com/#AGI #ArtificialIntelligence #AIHype #TechPodcast #PhilosophyOfAI #FutureOfTech #LLM #SoftwareEngineering #NewPodcast #PhilosophyProgramsAndPrompts