

E44: The offloaded brain, part 4: an interview with David Chapman
Dec 4, 2023
David Chapman, an AI researcher, discusses his work on the Pengi program. They explore ecological software design, indexical expressions, and the implementation of a game controller. They also discuss the behavior of bee wolves and the maintenance of the AI program Pangy.
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Look First, Hypothesize Later
- Phenomenology and ethnomethodology teach you to learn by watching actual behavior rather than guessing internal representations.
- Chapman and Agre used that empirical stance to build minimal computational models that replicate interaction patterns.
How Bowls Sort Themselves
- Chapman describes noticing an unconscious bowl-sorting routine while making breakfast.
- The routine sorts 'good' bowls to the top without anyone intentionally representing or planning it.
Planning Is Too Slow For Real Time
- The classical rationalist planning model (full internal representation + logical proof) is computationally intractable and biologically implausible.
- Fast action relies on simple, situation-triggered responses to affordances rather than slow logical planning.