Thinking On Paper

A chapter-by-chapter review of Empire of AI by Karen Hao. Part 1 covers chapters 1 to 4 of Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI.The Thinking on Paper Book Club reads every sentence. No AI summaries.In this episode:- How Sam Altman rose through Y Combinator, with Paul Graham and Peter Thiel in his corner- Why OpenAI launched as a nonprofit to counter Google, and how Elon Musk walked away- The $1 billion Microsoft deal that changed OpenAI’s direction- The weekend the board fired Altman, and the staff who brought him back- Who gets to build AI, who it leaves out, and why companies describe it as if it were humanIs Empire of AI the most important book of the decade? Tell us in the comments.Follow the full Empire of AI book club series at www.thinkingonpaper.xyzOr watch Part 2 here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFy2C21kk7M&t=4s

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Chapters

(00:00) Introduction to Empire of AI

(01:54) The Empire Strikes Back

(05:13) Karen Hao, The Journalist

(07:38) Do You Trust Open AI?

(10:18) Why OpenAI Made ChatGPT

(11:47) Scaling OpenAI

(12:33) Google, Deep Mind and Ai For humanity

(15:12) Greg Brockman

(17:02) Sam Altman's Personal Brand 24:46 Timnit Gebru

(25:25) How does AI benefit humanity?

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Watch the book club on our dedicated YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/OfQu65-6GuA  

Andrew Hill, co-founder of Recall, believes the future of work won’t be built on pages or apps, but on swarms of AI agents.

Essentially pieces of code that remember, reason, and make decisions on your behalf (and spend Bitcoin), agents will form the new interface layer: where identity, memory, and trust replace passwords, browsers, and brands.

In this conversation, we trace how agentic systems evolve from tools into collaborators, how they will coordinate between each other, negotiate access to our data, and rewire what “using the internet” even means. Hill argues that the next great challenge isn’t making AI smarter, but making it responsible, ensuring the web’s new memory layer remains transparent and human-aligned.

It’s a quiet revolution: the shift from search to delegation, from browsing to briefing, from information to action.

The agentic web is coming. This will help you get ready for what awaits. 

Please enjoy the show.

And share with your most curious friend.

Watch the show on the Thinking On Paper dedicated YouTube channel.

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TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) Disruptors & Curious Minds

(01:25) What Is An AI Agent?

(07:15) Emotional AI: Risks & Reality

(12:49) Language, Evolution & AI

(16:59) The Death Of Critical Thinking?

(20:05) How To Trust AI Agents

(24:27) Recall: Explained

(39:49) What Should Humans Be?

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LINKS & RESOURCES 

Learn more about Recall AI Agent training here.

Follow Recall on X

Follow Andrew Hill on X

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Irreducible, a book that refuses to end where science usually stops. Federico Faggin proposes that consciousness is not a by product of matter but its foundation. 

The universe, he suggests, is a network of seities (quantum entities made of consciousness, agency, and identity) each trying to know itself through experience. What looks like evolution or emergence may instead be intention unfolding in physical form.

Their conversation turns to the fault lines between mathematics and meaning. If information only counts bits and signals, what carries understanding? They trace the limits of Shannon’s information theory, question whether AI can ever move beyond pattern recognition, and define what Faggin calls “non-algorithmic comprehension.” Machines calculate. Humans comprehend. That difference might be the last frontier.

As they close the book, Mark and Jeremy confront Faggin’s final provocation: that the distortion in human life comes from the need to feel superior—to nature, to others, to the One. Progress, he writes, must serve consciousness or it becomes perversion. The message is disarming in its simplicity. The universe is not a mechanism. It is a mind trying to remember itself.

And yes, ultimately, it's a love story. 

Please enjoy the show.

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Timestamps

(00:00) Exploring Irreducible: A Journey Through Federico Fagin's Ideas

(04:30) The Nature of Consciousness and the Role of Seities

(09:32) Meaning, and the Human Experience

(13:53) The Vibe Sphere: Music, Symbols, and Communication

(18:48) Distortions in Self-Knowing

(23:42) The Heart, Mind, and Gut: Centers of Knowing

(27:29) What is the meaning of life? 

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Other ways to connect with us:

• ⁠Listen to every podcast⁠

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• Email: [email protected]

In Chapter 12 of Irreducible, Mark and Jeremy confront one of the book’s hardest ideas: that consciousness can’t be explained by equations or code.

They trace how probability, prediction, and mathematics fall short of describing a universe that is always becoming. Meaning comes before symbols, and knowing comes before measurement. If the physical world is only an average of quantum states, then comprehension itself is a creative act.

The discussion moves from the illusion of probability to the difference between simulation and emulation, asking what it really means to know. This is not a rejection of science, it’s a reminder that consciousness might be the missing variable.

The closer we get to defining reality, the less certain we are that it can ever be defined.

Please enjoy the show.

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Chapters

(00:00) Why consciousness vs physics matters

(02:15) “Becoming”: a universe that’s still unfolding

(03:03) What “live information” really means

(05:51) Probability isn't real

(07:43) Creativity & AI: making vs. remixing

(09:24) Meaning vs. syntax: why symbols alone aren’t enough

(17:13) Are you an Observer or actor? Your role in quantum reality

(21:55) Reverse engineering anxiety and happiness

(27:09) Flow state: the texture of the present

(31:05) Simulated minds vs. emulated minds

(32:12) Consider our minds blown.

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Thank you. And we love you.

Customer service is a tricky one. It's ripe for an AI takeover, but 20 million people worldwide work in the industry, so what are the trade-offs?

95% of the industry is salaries. There is a lot of collateral damage there. Millions of jobs will vanish and not everyone can be re-trained.

And yet, as anyone who has experienced customer service in 2025 can testify: it's pretty lousy. Frustrating. Annoying. Expensive. And how often do your queries, questions and complaints actually get answered?

In this episode of Thinking on Paper, Brian Kenny, MOMNTUM’s co-founder, explains why today’s support systems are broken, and how building from first principles with AI can actually make customer service feel human again.

And the results are staggering: MOMNTUM’s AI customer service agent Laila solves 86% of cases without handoff to a humans. Early signals also flash a potential 4,000% ROI. The future of more human and successful customer service is less humans and more AI. But at what cost?

You'll Learn:

• Why slapping bots on old workflows makes service worse
• How Laila spans phone, SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram DMs, and Messenger
• Where AI can be trusted now and where it shouldn’t be
• What metrics really matter (hint: it’s not CSAT)
• The new rules of trust, disclosure, and human escalation

Please enjoy the show.

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CHAPTERS

(00:00) Why customer service is broken

(03:30) What a modern support platform should look like

(06:35) Using AI to make service feel personal

(09:29) The data + privacy question

(11:26) The only success metrics that really matter

(15:09) Can machines create an emotional connection?

(18:16) The real limits of today’s systems (and what Laila can’t do yet)

(22:39) Where customer experience is headed next

(34:22) What should humans be?

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Other ways to connect with us:

• ⁠Listen to every podcast⁠

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Learn more on Momntum and Laila

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Thank you. We love you. Stay peaceful.

Mark and Jeremy speak with Martin Soltau, co-founder of Space Solar, about the race to build space-based solar power in orbit, a system that could beam clean electricity to Earth twenty-four hours a day.

While fossil fuel giants use artificial intelligence to find new oil and gas, engineers are building satellites that could replace them. With projected costs as low as $30 per megawatt hour, space-based solar could change the economics of power and the politics that shape it.

This episode examines the engineering, economics, and policy shifts that could make orbit-generated clean energy inevitable.

The question isn’t whether we can capture the sun’s power. It’s whether we’ll use it in time.

Please Enjoy the show. And share with a curious friend.

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Learn More: https://www.spacesolar.co.uk/

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Timestamps 

(00:00) Disruptors And Curious Minds 

(01:34) Space Based Solar Satellites 

(05:10) The Ground Infrastructure 

(07:37) SBSP V Nuclear, Coal & Gas 

(12:05) Launch Costs 

(13:55) Data Centers In Space 

(15:36) Scaling Space Based Solar Power 

(18:08) Manufacturing In Space 

(20:25) The Eisenhower Of SBSP 

(23:10) The Politics Of Space Based Solar Power 

(28:35) Energy Is Everything 

(31:05) The Government Perspective 

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Other ways to connect with us:

• ⁠Listen to every podcast⁠

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In Machines of Loving Grace, Dario Amodei imagines a future where artificial intelligence works exactly as intended: curing disease, ending poverty, and giving humanity everything it ever wanted.

Mark and Jeremy break down that vision: a “country of geniuses in a data center,” where AI drives biology, neuroscience, economics, and governance to their limits. They examine the optimism, the blind spots, and the moral cost of progress that moves faster than culture.

Because even if AI gets it right, the question remains, can we?

Please enjoy the show. And share with a curious friend.

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Read the essay: https://www.darioamodei.com/essay/machines-of-loving-grace#fn:1

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🎙️PODCAST: www.thinkingonpaper.xyz

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Chapters

(00:00) Machines Of Loving Grace

(02:46) Dario Amodei's Definition Of Powerful AI

(05:11) Speed Of The Outside World

(07:24) Complexity

(11:27) List Of Diseases AI Will Cure

(13:46) Neuroscience And Mind

(15:45) AI For Everyone?

(21:33) Peace And Government

(25:03) Work And Meaning

(31:56) What's Meaningful?

(34:27) Taking Stock

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Connect the dots of AI, quantum and emerging technology and watch these videos next:

Federico Faggin says a seity is consciousness, identity, free will, and creativity fused into one indivisible whole. If quantum information is the fabric of reality, then seities are its living threads.

Faggin writes: “A seity is a reality that goes beyond all categories and all definitions.” That is the point. You cannot break it into parts. You cannot simulate it with code. A seity generates meaning from within.

Seities do not merely observe the world, they create it. Each choice collapses possibility into form. Accepting or rejecting an axiom is not an intellectual exercise; it’s an act of creation. The universe is not static. It is a conversation among seities.

To make this tangible, Faggin imagines a vibration sphere: a square full of people and animals, each producing vibrations. The vibrations are symbols. The lived experience behind them is qualia. Together they form a collective field of meaning. Every seity is both transmitting and tuning, free will deciding which signals matter and which fade into noise. 

Then they build the universe. At least in this model of reality. 

Please enjoy the show.

And share it with a curious, conscious friend.

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🎙️PODCAST: www.thinkingonpaper.xyz📷 INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/thinkingonpaperpodcast/

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Chapters

(00:00) Federico Faggin, Irreducible Chapter 10

(02:10) Computers And Consciousness

(03:31) Seities All The Way Down

(10:25) Carl Jung Collective Consciousness

(12:02) Quantum Freud

(15:21) Robots, AI And Seities

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Watch the book club on YouTube where you can get a chapter by chapter breakdown of Irreducible by Federico Faggin: https://www.youtube.com/@thinkingonpaper/videos

In Chapter 9 of Irreducible, the physicist who built the first microprocessor proposes that consciousness is not an accident of biology but the foundation of reality itself. The universe, he writes, is not a machine, it is a living field of awareness trying to know itself.

This is where he introduces the “One,” the source of all seities and conscious units. These are not metaphors. They are the living structures through which reality evolves. Each act of perception, curiosity, or creativity is the universe learning a little more about itself.

Faggin’s theory fuses physics and spirituality into a single framework:

-Hilbert space becomes the inner terrain of consciousness.

-Curiosity becomes the mechanism of evolution.

-Death becomes reorganization, not ending.

But if the universe is consciousness, what does that make us?

And could a machine ever join that conversation?

This is Chapter 9: When Consciousness Came First.

Please enjoy the show.

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🎙️ Podcast: thinkingonpaper.xyz

📷 Instagram: @thinkingonpaperpodcast

📕 Book: Irreducible by Federico Faggin: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/195480862

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Chapters

(00:00) Chapter 9 of Irreducible, Federico Faggin

(02:36) The Absurdity Of Classical Laws

(04:26) Hilbert Space For Dummies

(07:00) What Are Seities?

(08:54) Science, Religion And Spirituality

(11:46) Seities, Consciousness And Aliens

(13:04) Conscious Units And How The Universe Understands

(15:30) Are Seities Souls?

(16:11) Seities And How You Have Life After Death

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Key Takeaways

• Consciousness is not emergent. It’s fundamental

• Seities are conscious units inside a knowing universe

• Hilbert space may be the structure of inner reality

• Spirituality isn't narrative. It's architecture

• Growth is life. Stasis is death

In this week's show, Jeremy and Mark sit down with Ram Srinivasan, author of The Conscious Machine, to think on paper about consciousness, Advaita Vedanta, panpsychism and why Eastern philosophy changes how we design every AI system. It might be the most important podcast on AI you listen to today.

• Rethinking work in an exponential age Linear mindsets can’t keep pace with automation. We explore how to direct AI toward human flourishing, not just efficiency.
• Trust as the new currency From autonomous agents to AI-native organizations, credibility, values and wisdom are the foundations of any lasting advantage.

Please enjoy the show. And share it with a curious friend.

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Links & Resources

Ram Srinivasan: https://www.ram-srinivasan.com/

The Conscious Machine: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D4R9NJ53

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramsrinivasanmit/

Follow Thinking on Paper

Podcast: www.thinkingonpaper.xyz

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Timestamps

(00:00) Exploring the Future of Work and AI

(00:53) The Intersection of Consciousness and Technology (03:44) Advaita Vedanta: Understanding Consciousness

(06:40) Materialism vs. Non-Dualism in AI

(14:25) The Shift from Knowledge to Wisdom

(16:29) Post-Labor Economics and AI’s Role

(19:01) Building Trust in AI Agents

(21:46) The Currency of Trust in Business

(26:35) The AI-Native Workplace: A New Era

(30:37) Navigating Trust and Critical Thinking in AI

(33:16) Human-Centric Technology: The Future of Work

(35:33) What Should Humans Be?

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Watch Next

Kevin Kelly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awZ5LRX8o6o&ab_channel=ThinkingOnPaper