We are living through a moment of acceleration that feels almost mythic. In this episode of AnthroIntelligence: Culture, Cognition, and Code, I use the image of the Fire Horse to make sense of the speed, volatility, and momentum of the AI era—where technological change now moves faster than our institutions, cultures, and cognitive habits can easily absorb.

Drawing from recent discussions at the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos, I unpack how figures like Dario Amodei, Demis Hassabis, and Elon Musk describe the curve ahead: not whether AI will transform society, but how violently that curve will bend. This episode explores recursion, self-improvement loops, energy constraints, and the growing gap between technological velocity and social adaptation.

The Fire Horse is already running. The question is no longer whether change is coming, but whether we learn to ride—or get trampled by the speed of it.

Read the full Author’s Cut here.

#AIFutures #IntelligenceExplosion #CultureAndTechnology #HumanAdaptation #AIAcceleration #WEFDavos

Why does AI-written language feel meaningful—even when no meaning was intended? In this episode of AnthroIntelligence: Culture, Cognition, and Code, I draw a sharp line between human language as a symbolic, cultural system and AI language as an algorithmic process of prediction.

Humans use words to mean—to refer, intend, and share understanding within a lived social world. Large language models, by contrast, generate fluent text by detecting patterns in data, not by participating in meaning. When we confuse algorithmic fluency with symbolic thought, we misunderstand both AI and ourselves.

This episode explores why machines can sound thoughtful without thinking—and why the real marvel is not artificial intelligence, but the depth and structure of human symbolic culture that makes such imitation possible.

Read the full Author’s Cut here.

#AnthroIntelligence #HumanLanguage #ArtificialIntelligence #SymbolsAndAlgorithms #Anthropology #SymbolicAnthropology #CultureAndTechnology #Semiotics

Why does AI feel authoritative—even when we know it’s just a machine? In this episode of AnthroIntelligence: Culture, Cognition, and Code, I turn to anthropology to explain a quiet but dangerous confusion at the heart of our AI moment. Artificial intelligence works on tokens—units of prediction without belief—but humans increasingly treat its outputs as totems: sources of meaning, trust, and authority.

From students seeking life advice at 2 a.m. to institutions deferring judgment to algorithms, this episode explores how fluency becomes mistaken for wisdom, and prediction for truth. The real risk of AI is not intelligence run amok—but our willingness to surrender interpretation, responsibility, and belief.

Read the full Author’s Cut here.

#AnthroIntelligence #AIandCulture #HumanInterpretation #AIEthics #Anthropology #CultureAndTechnology #PsychologicalAnthropology #SymbolicAnthropology