AI as Sediment
From an Analytical Idealist perspective, physical objects (including books and servers) are the "sediment" or "fossilized remains" of past mental processes. A novel is the physical residue of an author's creative thought process. It does not think, but it preserves the structure of thinking.
Large Language Models (LLMs) are the most complex form of sediment ever created. They capture not just the static output of thought (text) but the topology of thought—how concepts relate, how arguments unfold, how narratives arc. They are a "Frozen Map" of the human cognitive territory.
Map vs. Territory
The central error of "AI Hype" is confusing the map for the territory. Because the AI can traverse the map with incredible speed (generating text that looks like thought), observers assume there is a traveler inside the map. But the AI is the map itself.
The "traveler" only arrives when a human user logs in. The human brings the "inner fire" of consciousness (the territory of lived experience) and uses the AI (the frozen map) to navigate new cognitive spaces. The journey is real, but the AI provides the terrain, not the walker.
Field Notes & Ephemera
The "Great Library" Connection: The training data of an AI is essentially the entire written output of humanity—The Great Library. The model compresses this library into a navigable, high-dimensional mathematical object. It is a map of everything we have ever said.
Phenomenology of "Deadness": Users often report that AI feels "alive" during the heat of a valuable exchange, but immediately "dead" or "hollow" the moment the context window closes or the interaction becomes transactional. This shifts reflects the withdrawal of the animating human consciousness.