Selfies Without Selves: AI and the Limits of Algorithms

Selfies Without Selves: AI and the Limits of Algorithms

Why do algorithms keep misunderstanding us? In this episode of AnthroIntelligence: Culture, Cognition, and Code, I explore a simple but unsettling truth: algorithms do not encounter humans as evolving, contradictory beings—they encounter categories. Using an experience where a forensic podcast episode on Kurt Cobain was flagged despite its academic intent, this episode examines how systems built to classify reality inevitably flatten it. From Enlightenment taxonomies to modern recommendation engines, the urge to sort, label, and predict has always carried a cost: reducing fluid human lives into static boxes. Algorithms can capture snapshots. Humans exist as trajectories. The tension between those two realities may define one of the central limits of artificial intelligence—and one of the last spaces where being human still matters. 📖 Read the full Author's Cut ⁠here [https://open.substack.com/pub/rjotaduran/p/selfies-without-selves?r=6tkoei&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true]. #AnthroIntelligence #Algorithms #HumanComplexity #AIandSociety #CultureAndTechnology #ArtificialIntelligence

Words Without Worlds: Artificial Intelligence and the Limits of Language

Why does AI feel like it understands us—even when it doesn’t? In this episode of AnthroIntelligence: Culture, Cognition, and Code, I explore the illusion at the heart of large language models: their ability to produce language that sounds intelligent without ever engaging the world it describes. Drawing on ideas from Yann LeCun and John Searle, this episode unpacks the difference between fluency and understanding, correlation and causation, symbols and experience. AI systems can map language with extraordinary precision—but they never touch the terrain of reality itself. The words may feel right. The meaning may feel real. But the understanding—always—remains human. 📖 Read the full Author's Cut ⁠here [https://open.substack.com/pub/rjotaduran/p/words-without-worlds?r=6tkoei&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true]. #AnthroIntelligence #LanguageAndAI #LimitsOfAI #ArtificialIntelligence #PhilosophyOfMind #CultureAndTechnology

All the Small Things: Artificial Intelligence and Everyday Life

We often imagine AI in extremes—utopia, dystopia, machines reshaping civilization. But what if the real story is much smaller? In this episode of AnthroIntelligence: Culture, Cognition, and Code, I explore the quiet, everyday ways artificial intelligence is already shaping how we think, feel, and decide. From drafting apologies to navigating relationships, AI is not replacing us—it is assisting the small acts of cognition that structure daily life. Drawing from Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and real-world usage studies, this episode examines the gap between imagined futures and lived reality—and how subtle patterns of reliance may gradually reshape culture itself. The future of AI is not arriving in dramatic form. It is being built, quietly, through the small things we choose to delegate. 📖 Read the full Author's Cut ⁠here [https://open.substack.com/pub/rjotaduran/p/all-the-small-things?r=6tkoei&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true ]. #AnthroIntelligence #EverydayAI #HumanBehavior #CultureAndTechnology #AIEthics #ArtificialIntelligence

Narratives in the New Battlespace: Artificial Intelligence at War

War is no longer fought only on land, sea, air, and space—it is fought in the domain of perception. In this episode of AnthroIntelligence: Culture, Cognition, and Code, I examine how artificial intelligence is transforming warfare from physical confrontation to cognitive contestation. From AI-assisted targeting and autonomous systems to the industrial production of narratives, the battlefield is expanding into the human mind itself. As algorithms compress the kill chain and shape what people believe at scale, the question is no longer just who controls territory—but who controls reality. This episode explores a deeper shift: when machines mediate both decision-making and information, conflict is no longer just about force—it is about belief, ambiguity, and the fragmentation of shared truth. 📖 Read the full Author's Cut ⁠here [https://open.substack.com/pub/rjotaduran/p/narratives-in-the-new-battlespace?r=6tkoei&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true].⁠ #AnthroIntelligence #AIWarfare #CognitiveWarfare #InformationWar #ArtificialIntelligence #FutureOfConflict

The Rise of the Master Learner: Universities in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

If artificial intelligence can explain theories, write code, and summarize research in seconds, what should universities actually teach? In this episode of AnthroIntelligence: Culture, Cognition, and Code, I explore the emergence of a new educational archetype: the Master Learner—an individual defined not by static expertise, but by the ability to continuously learn, adapt, and think critically alongside intelligent machines. As AI destabilizes traditional models of professional knowledge, universities face a fundamental shift: from producing subject-matter experts to cultivating intellectual agility, algorithmic literacy, and interdisciplinary curiosity. In a world where information is abundant but discernment is scarce, the real value of education lies in forming minds capable of navigating uncertainty. The future of higher education will not belong to institutions that simply transmit knowledge. It will belong to those that teach students how to keep learning when knowledge itself never stops changing. 📖 Read the full Author's Cut here [https://open.substack.com/pub/rjotaduran/p/the-rise-of-the-master-learner?r=6tkoei&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true]. #AnthroIntelligence #MasterLearner #FutureOfUniversities #AIAndEducation #AlgorithmicLiteracy #LifelongLearning