What are large language models, really? A genuinely different frame for what AI is, where it came from, and what it means to live alongside it.

This episode of Permanently Moved is an hour-long audio essay on artificial intelligence, agency, and the history of computing that made LLMs possible.

The essay moves from the invention of the mirror to double-entry bookkeeping, the printing press, the Manhattan Project, the transistor, and the particular civilisational strangeness of ChatGPT and its successors. It argues that the question everyone is asking about AI "is it intelligent?" is a trap, and it tries to ask a better one.

START SELECT RESET

Issue 15 of SSRZ, the print companion to this episode, is available to pre-order now until Monday 16th March. 36 pages, A5, containing the full transcript plus an introduction and afterword not in the audio.

Membership (£5/month) shipping included: https://thejaymo.net/support/

Pre-order the zine (£18 + shipping): https://thejaymo.etsy.com/uk/listing/4465040020/monsters-in-the-mirror-start-select

CHAPTERS

(00:00:02) Introduction (00:00:34) Monsters In The Mirror (00:01:00) Part 1. The Mirror of Modernity (00:05:33) Part 2. The State's Gaze (00:11:28) Part 3. Paper Truths (00:17:27) Part 4. Crystal Fire (00:26:13) Part 5. The Silicon Mirror (00:31:54) Part 6. World(view) in the West (00:35:28) Part 7. Haunted Habitats (00:40:45) Part 8. Thinking Machines (00:49:28) Part 9. Abracadabra (00:54:26) Part 10. Monsters in the Mirror (00:59:03) Afterward (01:00:05) Support the Show (01:00:48) Credits

Mentioned in this episode

Tyson Yunkaporta — Sand Talk James C. Scott — Seeing Like a State Marion Fourcade & Kieran Healy — The Ordinal Society Marek Poliks & Roberto Alonso Trillo — Exocapitalism Marshall McLuhan — The Gutenberg Galaxy Walter Ong — Orality and Literacy Jean Baudrillard — Simulacra and Simulation Nick Land — Fanged Noumena Monica Gagliano — Thus Spoke the Plant Benedict Anderson — Imagined Communities Bayo Akomolafe Gordon White — Rune Soup

Permanently Moved is a quarterly podcast written, recorded, and edited by Jay Springett.

---

SHOW NOTES

https://thejaymo.net/2026/03/02/302-monsters-in-the-mirror-permanently-moved/

FIND EVERYTHING ELSE

thejaymo.net: https://thejaymo.net/

Experience.Computer: https://experience.computer/ Worldrunning.guide: https://worldrunning.guide/ Subscriber Zine support the show! https://startselectreset.com/