Working notes from Anteroom Studio on artificial general intelligence and the problems that precede it.
Not tutorials. Not paper summaries. Not predictions.
Observations — recorded as the work happens, in the form the thinking actually arrives. Hypotheses in formation. Patterns noticed and not yet explained. Questions that don't close.
The central tension: something is being built, and nobody knows exactly what it will be when it arrives. The word "intelligence" is carrying weight it was never designed to hold. "Consciousness" is being debated by people who can't agree on what they mean by it. "Alignment" presupposes a stable target, but the target keeps moving as the systems grow more capable.
We're recording the field as we move through it.
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Substrate independence — Is consciousness tied to biological carbon, or is it a pattern that any sufficient substrate can instantiate? The field assumes independence (functionalism). That assumption hasn't been earned — it's been adopted because the alternative closes off the project before it starts.
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The hard problem — Why is there something it is like to be a system at all? Every theory in the current literature describes correlates of consciousness, not causes. The explanatory gap remains open.
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Agency without phenomenology — A system can pursue goals without experiencing anything. Current LLMs arguably do this. Does AGI require phenomenology, or just sufficiently complex goal-pursuit? The answer changes what "alignment" actually means.
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Phase transitions — The field expects AGI to emerge gradually. But phase transitions don't give much warning. Are we paying enough attention to the edge conditions?
Each note is dated. Can be short (a question that opened) or long (a position being worked out). Revisions and updates to existing positions are marked with the revision date.
The reader this is written for: someone doing serious work in this space who wants a second track of thinking alongside the papers.
| Date | Entry | Thread |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-05-29 | The Substrate Question | Consciousness |
Anteroom Studio — Toronto