Thinking about Thinking

Latest episodes

• Episode 6: Artificial General Intelligence

  July 6, 2026 · 49 min

  We've mapped how intelligence has been used. Now: what do we actually want from AI? What is it about "AGI" that's captured the imagination? Through the course of this series we've uncovered uncomfortable truths. Now: the ELIZA effect, the…

• Episode 5: Intelligence as an Economic Construct

  June 29, 2026 · 44 min

  When productivity becomes the measure of a mind, who gets left behind? What is AGI? How has the definition evolved across researchers and corporations? This episode tracks OpenAI's fully economic definition — "all tasks of economic value"…

• Episode 4: Intelligence as a Political Construct

  June 15, 2026 · 58 min

  Intelligence has always been weaponized. What happens when AI enters that lineage? Intelligence as a history of exclusion — used to exclude women, justify slavery, and deny citizenship. AI is the first time we are facing an intelligence…

• Episode 3: Intelligence as a Social Construct

  June 1, 2026 · 54 min

  Who decides what counts as intelligent — and who gets rights because of it? The fraught history of defining human intelligence — and how we conflate intelligence with sentience. Edge cases: end-of-life care, infant cognition, fitness for…

• Episode 2: Rethinking Intelligence Through Animals, Swarms & Sentience

  May 18, 2026 · 52 min

  From chimps to ant colonies: what non-human intelligence tells us about AI. How have other fields studied intelligence in non-humans — from chimps to lobsters to ant colonies? And what does swarm intelligence tell us about AI's scaling…

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