Return-Path: Delivered-To: alvarochf@traceseis.com Received: from cs510.bluehost.com by cs510.bluehost.com with LMTP id kFbrN5gRq2njnA4AWiBQxw (envelope-from ) for ; Fri, 06 Mar 2026 10:40:40 -0700 Return-path: Envelope-to: alvarochf@traceseis.com Delivery-date: Fri, 06 Mar 2026 10:40:40 -0700 Received: from v546.v5375b7fa.use4.send.mailgun.net ([159.112.244.46]:35580) by cs510.bluehost.com with esmtps (TLS1.2) tls TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 (Exim 4.98.2) (envelope-from ) id 1vyZAG-00000000e5x-2lYo for alvarochf@traceseis.com; Fri, 06 Mar 2026 10:40:40 -0700 DKIM-Signature: a=rsa-sha256; v=1; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=mg2.substack.com; q=dns/txt; s=mailo; t=1772818823; x=1772826023; h=List-Unsubscribe-Post: List-Unsubscribe: List-Post: List-Id: List-Archive: List-Owner: Reply-To: In-Reply-To: References: Sender: Sender: Date: Message-Id: To: To: From: From: Subject: Subject: Content-Type: Mime-Version; bh=nA7cbOm4wOhmBVPA5VbR/xJVhZOjT/5xnGIfh5D74ek=; b=pMJ0eNdHRy6AduqZb4X8hIMEb+6SN2npKYzFwoqG0jYheTz5JalLlOQ8yd1Ydli2Ppr6nL17mf7lZFJARS4l7lg/sg60MPH65q2hvZUAI82UV7HYmFuc+utp3zBnZPX3hB3PldQgSBzt+/okg+wf/VvN2ytiBSTMN4k4gKbRBBU= X-Mailgun-Sid: WyI3MDdlYyIsImFsdmFyb2NoZkB0cmFjZXNlaXMuY29tIiwiNGQxODU4Il0= Received: by 067dc03984f392d931df67f34110b50575aaab4d2d9215e4b2d4eff7b7348514 with HTTP id 69ab1187907a0eb894f732d8; Fri, 06 Mar 2026 17:40:22 GMT X-Mailgun-Sending-Ip: 159.112.244.46 X-Mailgun-Batch-Id: 69ab1187d5f75c35b236f95e Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="55f86b939e4dc513b56a52e54726065e4eda5171886973b27b094e3bc9c5" Subject: What will you build for? From: Cosmos Institute To: alvarochf@traceseis.com X-Mailgun-Tag: post X-Mailgun-Track-Clicks: false Message-Id: <20260306174014.3.5d03650e3f897cd6@mg2.substack.com> Date: Fri, 6 Mar 2026 17:40:14 +0000 Feedback-Id: post-190009893:cat-post:pub-2225794:substack Sender: Cosmos Institute References: In-Reply-To: Reply-To: Cosmos Institute List-Owner: List-Url: List-Archive: List-Id: List-Post: List-Unsubscribe: List-Unsubscribe-Post: List-Unsubscribe=One-Click X-Mailgun-Variables: {"category": "post", "email_generated_at": "1772818822756", "is_freemail": "true", "post_audience": "everyone", "post_id": "190009893", "post_type": "newsletter", "pub_community_enabled": "true", "publication_id": "2225794", "subdomain": "cosmosinstitute", "user_id": "347258985"} --55f86b939e4dc513b56a52e54726065e4eda5171886973b27b094e3bc9c5 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable View this post on the web at https://blog.cosmos-institute.org/p/what-will-= you-build-for Archers are more likely to hit a clear target. Aristotle reminds us [ https= ://substack.com/redirect/cc80e7a0-4ec4-49f0-9c4e-6fa1e5168a09?j=3DeyJ1IjoiN= XFxeXF4In0.h9dEDbGj64cTNudluPwbMYWklSu8UKGoFv6eWS-HyoA ] that the same is t= rue of our life=E2=80=99s work: we will only be able to build with meaning = and purpose if we know what we are building for. This question was on our minds as we gathered 120 thinkers and builders fro= m frontier AI labs, top universities, and cutting-edge institutions for the= first Cosmos Symposium. Among them were the creator of Fortnite, category = theorists, the principal of Alpha School [ https://substack.com/redirect/d3= 535ccc-beaa-4526-a2cf-0c059530af44?j=3DeyJ1IjoiNXFxeXF4In0.h9dEDbGj64cTNudl= uPwbMYWklSu8UKGoFv6eWS-HyoA ], researchers from OpenAI and DeepMind, and fi= rst-time founders building for human autonomy But as Brendan said in his opening remarks, no one in the room, or indeed t= he world, is yet a philosopher-builder [ https://substack.com/redirect/d367= a8aa-5436-4bb4-bf6b-8f7d08189673?j=3DeyJ1IjoiNXFxeXF4In0.h9dEDbGj64cTNudluP= wbMYWklSu8UKGoFv6eWS-HyoA ].=20 Over the past two and a half millennia, there have only been a handful of t= rue philosophers who pursued fundamental questions with courage and relentl= essness. The number of people who have then applied this energy to institut= ion-building that enhances freedom and inquiry for the individual is even s= maller; the best example is Benjamin Franklin. Nevertheless, there was no shortage of ambition. During the event, attendee= s shared what they were building on a whiteboard. The responses varied sign= ificantly, ranging across human goods like strengthened community, augmente= d intelligence, and a more enriched life of the mind. Underneath this diffe= rence in emphasis was a shared belief that we are building towards a greate= r goal. Everyone in the room saw more capable technology as a means, not an= end. Before the event, everyone nominated a book that shaped their view of the w= orld. Many chose the classics =E2=80=93 Plato=E2=80=99s Republic, Smith=E2= =80=99s Wealth of Nations =E2=80=93 but we also had science fiction, writin= gs from theologian John Henry Newman, and a history of American nuclear pow= er. To our surprise, one of the most nominated books by attendees was Martin He= idegger=E2=80=99s famously challenging Being and Time. In Being and Time, H= eidegger rejected Ren=C3=A9 Descartes=E2=80=99s traditional account of cons= ciousness, which depicts a detached mind peering out at an external world. = Instead, Heidegger insisted that we are already caught up in the world, act= ing on it before we ever step back to think about it. At a time when it can= feel like the development of technology is following a fixed path [ https:= //substack.com/redirect/cab62a71-8de4-4c84-956c-166a93b43f12?j=3DeyJ1IjoiNX= FxeXF4In0.h9dEDbGj64cTNudluPwbMYWklSu8UKGoFv6eWS-HyoA ] and the best we can= do is act as users or spectators, he may have something to teach us. As only 120 of us could be in the room, we=E2=80=99re sharing a few of our = main takeaways from the event. 1. The importance of =E2=80=98becoming=E2=80=99 Shortly before Adam Smith died, he ordered that 16 volumes of his manuscrip= ts be burned. He was so anxious that only his best thinking survive that he= destroyed the record of his own becoming: the drafts, notes, abandoned arg= uments we might have learned from We tried to do the reverse of this at the Symposium by bringing people toge= ther at different stages of their journey. This included: Highly accomplished builders, who are pursuing mission-driven projects and = can act as inspiration, such as Joe Liemandt, the principal of Alpha School= [ https://substack.com/redirect/d8c68191-a2e9-41c1-9585-4f54a4859c78?j=3De= yJ1IjoiNXFxeXF4In0.h9dEDbGj64cTNudluPwbMYWklSu8UKGoFv6eWS-HyoA ] or Paul Me= egan, the creator of Fortnite and founder of a new stealth venture; Former researchers and engineers at leading tech companies and frontier lab= s, now building for human goods, like Alex Komoroske , a 15-year Google and= Stripe veteran and Ivan Vendrov , a former Anthropic researcher and ex-hea= d of collective intelligence at Midjourney; First-time founders who are building for human autonomy [ https://substack.= com/redirect/e3228914-227c-4d5d-8fd6-9c1af499753e?j=3DeyJ1IjoiNXFxeXF4In0.h= 9dEDbGj64cTNudluPwbMYWklSu8UKGoFv6eWS-HyoA ], such as Workshop Labs co-foun= der Luke Drago ;=20 World-class intellectuals who are helping to lay the crucial foundations fo= r future builders and thinkers, such as Philipp Koralus [ https://substack.= com/redirect/8f7f460c-e6cf-4af6-9605-7746efb84957?j=3DeyJ1IjoiNXFxeXF4In0.h= 9dEDbGj64cTNudluPwbMYWklSu8UKGoFv6eWS-HyoA ] at the Oxford HAI Lab, Rebecca= Lowe at the Mercatus Center, UT Austin=E2=80=99s Harvey Lederman, [ https= ://substack.com/redirect/6682a24c-b838-4e9d-ad6b-868315b4e9fe?j=3DeyJ1IjoiN= XFxeXF4In0.h9dEDbGj64cTNudluPwbMYWklSu8UKGoFv6eWS-HyoA ] Catherine Project = [ https://substack.com/redirect/3ad9680e-e90d-42b2-8bf9-880afb78999b?j=3Dey= J1IjoiNXFxeXF4In0.h9dEDbGj64cTNudluPwbMYWklSu8UKGoFv6eWS-HyoA ] founder Zen= a Hitz [ https://substack.com/redirect/c8c1a417-c8a4-4504-8fc3-9901fceee15c= ?j=3DeyJ1IjoiNXFxeXF4In0.h9dEDbGj64cTNudluPwbMYWklSu8UKGoFv6eWS-HyoA ], or = Seth Lazar , founder of the Machine Intelligence and Normative Theory Lab [= https://substack.com/redirect/54d49a5c-3ad9-4e02-870c-b8e01139217e?j=3DeyJ= 1IjoiNXFxeXF4In0.h9dEDbGj64cTNudluPwbMYWklSu8UKGoFv6eWS-HyoA ]. All of these groups had something to learn from each other, whether it was = hard-won knowledge about what it actually takes to ship something, fresh in= sights from the frontier of AI research, or clarity about what=E2=80=99s wo= rth building and why. 2. Building the philosophy to code pipeline Philosophy can feel remote from the realities of shipping a product. It can= be easy to default to obvious ideas, like introducing greater personalizat= ion through a system prompt. Attendees explored options that show why steer= ability is essential but insufficient. These included tools that surface the assumptions a model makes about us, a= nd ways of aligning models with our second order preferences: not just what= we want, but what we want to want [ https://substack.com/redirect/958c1f19= -a178-48d0-8935-8a0dae6ea0cf?j=3DeyJ1IjoiNXFxeXF4In0.h9dEDbGj64cTNudluPwbMY= WklSu8UKGoFv6eWS-HyoA ]. Some of these projects are still in their early stages, so we can=E2=80=99t= share too much detail at the moment, but we were grateful to be joined by = members of the Cosmos community who are entering institution-building mode.= These included Samuele Marro [ https://substack.com/redirect/de4e83c5-cd4f= -4bd8-add7-c1b27328fed5?j=3DeyJ1IjoiNXFxeXF4In0.h9dEDbGj64cTNudluPwbMYWklSu= 8UKGoFv6eWS-HyoA ] of the Institute of Decentralized AI [ https://substack.= com/redirect/b50155d2-428a-45d1-941f-6ff0b335bd8b?j=3DeyJ1IjoiNXFxeXF4In0.h= 9dEDbGj64cTNudluPwbMYWklSu8UKGoFv6eWS-HyoA ], Elian McCarron [ https://subs= tack.com/@elianmccarron ] of Kanonic [ https://substack.com/redirect/f6ef5a= 11-7da9-4160-808c-056d349cbf8f?j=3DeyJ1IjoiNXFxeXF4In0.h9dEDbGj64cTNudluPwb= MYWklSu8UKGoFv6eWS-HyoA ], and Jasmine Li [ https://substack.com/redirect/1= fffc579-fa7d-4658-9d9f-a0020a10abb6?j=3DeyJ1IjoiNXFxeXF4In0.h9dEDbGj64cTNud= luPwbMYWklSu8UKGoFv6eWS-HyoA ], who is starting an organization focused on = measuring and forecasting human agency as AI capabilities advance. 3. Epistemic humility=20 As one of our speakers observed, autonomy requires humility. The philosophe= r-builder will need to constantly ask whether they are doing the right thin= g and course-correct when the answer is no. Elsie Jang from the Mercatus Center recently wrote an essay [ https://subs= tack.com/redirect/5d424f49-e156-440f-b9cc-6a60344ed78b?j=3DeyJ1IjoiNXFxeXF4= In0.h9dEDbGj64cTNudluPwbMYWklSu8UKGoFv6eWS-HyoA ] on how the same evidence = in frontier AI debates can justify sharply conflicting hypotheses. Despite = all of this talent in one room, none of us left Austin feeling certain. The discussions raised vital questions that lack a definite answers: How can we build for second order preferences without defaulting to paterna= lism? How can we prioritize human autonomy, while using capital markets to reach = hundreds of millions of people? What are the limits of decentralization? What high-level coordination or co= ndition-setting is needed to create useful, coherent action in the real wor= ld? Some debates, especially around frontier AI, can feel tribal, which is why = it=E2=80=99s important for communities to build strong norms. At the sympos= ium, we saw people treat conversations as conversations. Each interaction f= elt like an opportunity for two people to learn, and we received no reports= of distillation attacks [ https://substack.com/redirect/24fece73-651a-437d= -bb42-8ce0ec59db63?j=3DeyJ1IjoiNXFxeXF4In0.h9dEDbGj64cTNudluPwbMYWklSu8UKGo= Fv6eWS-HyoA ]. 4. Structure and spontaneity=20 Nietzsche thought Greek cultural greatness stemmed from the fusion of the A= pollonian and the Dionysian. Apollo, the god of light, represented clarity,= structure, and rational boundary-making. Meanwhile, Dionysus, the god of w= ine-making, represented the dissolution of those boundaries. In our own modest way, we attempted to replicate this formula. Alongside ou= r structured programming, attendees had time to mingle over drinks, dinner,= and across the sprawling, beautiful grounds of the venue. The best convers= ations were often the spontaneous ones, still running late on Sunday mornin= g, long after the formal programming ended. This was the first Cosmos Symposium, but it won=E2=80=99t be the last. The = Cosmos community is just over a year old and we=E2=80=99re grateful to ever= yone who has contributed to what we=E2=80=99re building. If you=E2=80=99re interested in attending a future Cosmos event, register y= our interest on our seminars and events form [ https://substack.com/redirec= t/433db2d7-b371-46a2-b1ed-672b7917d000?j=3DeyJ1IjoiNXFxeXF4In0.h9dEDbGj64cT= NudluPwbMYWklSu8UKGoFv6eWS-HyoA ]. Cosmos Institute [ https://substack.com/redirect/e06f80ac-5f5a-4987-a25d-e5= 82f403350d?j=3DeyJ1IjoiNXFxeXF4In0.h9dEDbGj64cTNudluPwbMYWklSu8UKGoFv6eWS-H= yoA ] is the Academy for Philosopher-Builders, technologists building AI fo= r human flourishing. We run fellowships, fund prototypes, and host seminars= with institutions like Oxford, Aspen Institute, and Liberty Fund. If you=E2=80=99re someone who thinks deeply, builds deliberately, and cares= about the future AI is shaping=E2=80=94join the Cosmos network [ https://s= ubstack.com/redirect/e06f80ac-5f5a-4987-a25d-e582f403350d?j=3DeyJ1IjoiNXFxe= XF4In0.h9dEDbGj64cTNudluPwbMYWklSu8UKGoFv6eWS-HyoA ]. Unsubscribe https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9ibG9nLmNvc21= vcy1pbnN0aXR1dGUub3JnL2FjdGlvbi9kaXNhYmxlX2VtYWlsP3Rva2VuPWV5SjFjMlZ5WDJsa0= lqb3pORGN5TlRnNU9EVXNJbkJ2YzNSZmFXUWlPakU1TURBd09UZzVNeXdpYVdGMElqb3hOemN5T= 0RFNE9ESXlMQ0psZUhBaU9qRTRNRFF6TlRRNE1qSXNJbWx6Y3lJNkluQjFZaTB5TWpJMU56azBJ= aXdpYzNWaUlqb2laR2x6WVdKc1pWOWxiV0ZwYkNKOS5YNWlqOVRwUGNXYVNrcGJaYjBIVDZnRVB= RYkl0WC1OZnd5RHdNRlFUQW9jIiwicCI6MTkwMDA5ODkzLCJzIjoyMjI1Nzk0LCJmIjp0cnVlLC= J1IjozNDcyNTg5ODUsImlhdCI6MTc3MjgxODgyMiwiZXhwIjoyMDg4Mzk0ODIyLCJpc3MiOiJwd= WItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ.Yc2HVa3BFX-OwiENqsHTYmihxmabwoALAA6n0= w2dZco? --55f86b939e4dc513b56a52e54726065e4eda5171886973b27b094e3bc9c5 Content-Type: text/html; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable What will you build for?= 3D""
Notes from the first Cosmos Symposium
͏     = 73;͏     ­͏     ­͏   &#= 8199; ­͏     ­͏     ­͏ =     ­͏     ­͏     = 3;͏     ­͏     ­͏   = 199; ­͏     ­͏     ­͏ &= nbsp;   ­͏     ­͏     ­= ;͏     ­͏     ­͏   Q= 99; ­͏     ­͏     ­͏ &n= bsp;   ­͏     ­͏     ­= ͏     ­͏     ­͏   ̳= 9; ­͏     ­͏     ­͏ &nb= sp;   ­͏     ­͏     ­&= #847;     ­͏     ­͏    = ; ­͏     ­͏     ­͏ &nbs= p;   ­͏     ­͏     ­&#= 847;     ­͏     ­͏    = ­͏     ­͏     ­͏  = ;   ­͏     ­͏     ­= 47;     ­͏     ­͏     = ­͏     ­͏     ­͏  =   ­͏     ­͏     ­T= 7;     ­͏     ­͏     &= #173;͏     ­͏     ­͏   =   ­͏     ­͏     ­͏= ;     ­͏     ­͏     &#= 173;͏     ­͏     ­͏   &= #8199; ­͏     ­͏     ­͏=     ­͏     ­͏     = 73;͏     ­͏     ­͏   &#= 8199; ­͏     ­͏     ­͏ =     ­͏     ­͏     = 3;͏     ­͏     ­͏   = 199; ­͏     ­͏     ­͏ &= nbsp;   ­͏     ­͏     ­= ;͏     ­͏     ­͏   Q= 99; ­͏     ­͏     ­͏ &n= bsp;   ­͏     ­͏     ­= ͏     ­͏     ­͏   ̳= 9; ­͏     ­͏     ­͏ &nb= sp;   ­͏     ­͏     ­&= #847;     ­͏     ­͏    = ; ­͏     ­͏     ­͏ &nbs= p;   ­͏     ­͏     ­&#= 847;     ­͏     ­͏    = ­͏     ­͏     ­͏  = ;   ­͏     ­͏     ­= 47;     ­͏     ­͏     = ­͏     ­͏     ­͏  =   ­͏     ­͏     ­T= 7;     ­͏     ­͏     &= #173;͏     ­͏     ­͏   =   ­͏     ­͏     ­͏= ;     ­͏     ­͏     &#= 173;͏     ­͏     ­͏   &= #8199; ­͏     ­͏     ­͏=     ­͏     ­͏     = 73;͏     ­͏     ­͏   &#= 8199; ­͏     ­͏     ­͏ =     ­͏     ­͏     = 3;͏     ­͏     ­͏   = 199; ­͏     ­͏     ­͏ &= nbsp;   ­͏     ­͏     ­= ;͏     ­͏     ­͏   Q= 99; ­͏     ­͏     ­͏ &n= bsp;   ­͏     ­͏     ­= ͏     ­͏     ­͏   ̳= 9; ­͏     ­͏     ­͏ &nb= sp;   ­͏     ­͏     ­&= #847;     ­͏     ­͏    = ; ­͏     ­͏     ­͏ &nbs= p;   ­͏     ­͏     ­&#= 847;     ­͏     ­͏    = ­͏     ­͏     ­͏  = ;   ­͏     ­͏     ­= 47;     ­
Forwarded t= his email? Subscribe here for more=

What will you bui= ld for?

Notes from the first Cosmos Symposium

Cosmos Institute
 
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Archers are more= likely to hit a clear target. Aristotle reminds us that the same is= true of our life’s work: we will only be able to build with meaning = and purpose if we know what we are building for.

This question was on our minds as we gathered 120 thinkers and builders = from frontier AI labs, top universities, and cutting-edge institutions for = the first Cosmos Symposium. Among them were the creator of Fortnite, catego= ry theorists, the principal of Alpha School, researchers from OpenAI= and DeepMind, and first-time founders building for human autonomy

But as Brendan said in his opening remarks, no one in = the room, or indeed the world, is yet a philosopher-builder. =

3D"EE0A5224.jpg"
Brendan McCord (Cosmo= s Institute founder) opening the Symposium

Over the past two and a half millennia, there have only been a hand= ful of true philosophers who pursued fundamental questions with courage and= relentlessness. The number of people who have then applied this energy to = institution-building that enhances freedom and inquiry for the individual i= s even smaller; the best example is Benjamin Franklin.

Neve= rtheless, there was no shortage of ambition. During the event, attendees sh= ared what they were building on a whiteboard. The responses varied signific= antly, ranging across human goods like strengthened community, augmented in= telligence, and a more enriched life of the mind. Underneath this differenc= e in emphasis was a shared belief that we are building towards a greater go= al. Everyone in the room saw more capable technology as a means, not an end= =2E

3D""

Before the event, everyone nominated a book that shaped their = view of the world. Many chose the classics – Plato’s Republic, Smith’s Wealth of Nations – but we also had science fiction, writings from theologian John Hen= ry Newman, and a history of American nuclear power.

3D""

= To our surprise, one of the most nominated books by attendees was Mar= tin Heidegger’s famously challenging Being and Time. In Being and Time, Heidegger rejected René= Descartes’s traditional account of consciousness, which depicts a de= tached mind peering out at an external world. Instead, Heidegger insisted t= hat we are already caught up in the world, acting on it before we ever step= back to think about it. At a time when it can feel like the development of= technology is following a fixed path and the best we can do is act = as users or spectators, he may have something to teach us.

As only 120 of us could be in the room, we’re sharing a few of= our main takeaways from the event.

1. The importance of = ‘becoming’

Shortly before Adam Smith died, he = ordered that 16 volumes of his manuscripts be burned. He was so anxious tha= t only his best thinking survive that he destroyed the record of his own be= coming: the drafts, notes, abandoned arguments we might have learned from

We tried to do the reverse of this at the Symposium by bring= ing people together at different stages of their journey. This included:

  • Highly accomplished builders, who are pursuing missio= n-driven projects and can act as inspiration, such as Joe Liemandt, the pri= ncipal of Alpha School or Paul Meegan, the creator of Fortnite and f= ounder of a new stealth venture;

  • Former researchers and engineers at leading te= ch companies and frontier labs, now building for human goods, like <= span class=3D"mention-pnpTE1 mentionStatic-liMklk" data-component-name=3D"M= entionStatic" style=3D"white-space: nowrap;cursor: pointer;color: #25384c;b= order-radius: 4px;transition: color .25scubic-bezier(.19,1,.22,1),backgroun= d-color .25scubic-bezier(.19,1,.22,1),box-shadow .25scubic-bezier(.19,1,.22= ,1),border .25scubic-bezier(.19,1,.22,1),border-radius .25scubic-bezier(.19= ,1,.22,1),opacity .25scubic-bezier(.19,1,.22,1),filter .25scubic-bezier(.19= ,1,.22,1),stroke .25scubic-bezier(.19,1,.22,1),transform .25scubic-bezier(.= 19,1,.22,1),scale .25scubic-bezier(.19,1,.22,1),outline .25scubic-bezier(.1= 9,1,.22,1);margin: 0 -.125em;padding: 0 .125em .0625em;text-decoration: non= e;">Alex Komoroske, a 15-year Google and = Stripe veteran and Ivan Vendrov= , a former Anthropic researcher and ex-head of collective intelligence at M= idjourney;

  • First-time founders who are building for human autonomy, such= as Workshop Labs co-founder Luke Drago= ;

  • <= span>World-class intellectuals who are helping to lay the crucial foundatio= ns for future builders and thinkers, such as Philipp Koralus at the = Oxford HAI Lab, Rebecca Lowe a= t the Mercatus Center, UT Austin’s Harvey Lederman, Catherine Pro= ject founder Zena Hitz, or Seth = Lazar, founder of the Machine Intelligence and Normative Theo= ry Lab.

All of these groups had = something to learn from each other, whether it was hard-won knowledge about= what it actually takes to ship something, fresh insights from the frontier= of AI research, or clarity about what’s worth building and why.

<= div class=3D"captioned-image-container-static" style=3D"font-size: 16px;lin= e-height: 26px;margin: 32px auto;">
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The opening panel, featuring Joe Liemandt (Alpha School), Daniell= e Perzyk (Amazon AGI), Alex Komoroske (Common Tools), Houda Nait el Barj (O= penAI) in discussion with Harry Law.
<= td class=3D"content" align=3D"left" width=3D"1456" style=3D"text-align: cen= ter;">3D""
P= aul Meegan (creator of Fortnite) in conversation with Johnathan Bi.

2. Building the philosophy to code pipel= ine

Philosophy can feel remote from the realities of shipp= ing a product. It can be easy to default to obvious ideas, like introducing= greater personalization through a system prompt. Attendees explored option= s that show why steerability is essential but insufficient.

These included tools that surface the assumptions a model makes abou= t us, and ways of aligning models with our second order preferences: not ju= st what we want, but what we want to want.

Some of these projects are still in their early stages, so we can’= ;t share too much detail at the moment, but we were grateful to be joined b= y members of the Cosmos community who are entering institution-building mod= e. These included Samuele Marro of the Institute of Decentralized AI, Elian McCarron= of Kanonic, and Jasmine Li, who is starting an organiz= ation focused on measuring and forecasting human agency as AI capabilities = advance.

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3. Epistemic humility

As one of our speakers o= bserved, autonomy requires humility. The philosopher-builder will need to c= onstantly ask whether they are doing the right thing and course-correct whe= n the answer is no.

Elsie Jang fro= m the Mercatus Center recently wrote an essay on how the same eviden= ce in frontier AI debates can justify sharply conflicting hypotheses. Despi= te all of this talent in one room, none of us left Austin feeling certain.<= /span>

The discussions raised vital questions that lack a d= efinite answers:

  • How can we build for second order prefer= ences without defaulting to paternalism?

  • How can we prioritize human autonomy, while using c= apital markets to reach hundreds of millions of people?

  • What are the limits of decentraliz= ation? What high-level coordination or condition-setting is needed to creat= e useful, coherent action in the real world?

Some debates, especially around frontier AI, can feel tribal, which is wh= y it’s important for communities to build strong norms. At the sympos= ium, we saw people treat conversations as conversations. Each interaction f= elt like an opportunity for two people to learn, and we received no reports= of distillation attacks.

4. Structure and spontaneity

Nietzsche thought Greek cultural greatness stemmed from the fusion o= f the Apollonian and the Dionysian. Apollo, the god of light, represented c= larity, structure, and rational boundary-making. Meanwhile, Dionysus, the g= od of wine-making, represented the dissolution of those boundaries.

In our own modest way, we attempted to replicate this formula. Alo= ngside our structured programming, attendees had time to mingle over drinks= , dinner, and across the sprawling, beautiful grounds of the venue. The bes= t conversations were often the spontaneous ones, still running late on Sund= ay morning, long after the formal programming ended.

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This was the first Cosmos = Symposium, but it won’t be the last. The Cosmos community is just ove= r a year old and we’re grateful to everyone who has contributed to wh= at we’re building.

If you’re interested i= n attending a future Cosmos event, register your interest on our seminars and = events form.

Cosmos Institute is the Academy= for Philosopher-Builders, technologists building AI for human flourishing.= We run fellowships, fund prototypes, and host seminars with institutions l= ike Oxford, Aspen Institute, and Liberty Fund.

If you’re someone who thinks deeply, builds deliber= ately, and cares about the future AI is shaping—join the Cosmos network<= /a>.

=
 
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