Tela Network

/ Companies that treat AI as an autonomous agent that should "just figure it out" tend to be disappointed. Meanwhile, companies that treat AI as an extension of their existing workforce, an amplifier of human capability rather than a replacement, are seeing genuinely transformative results. I think the best mental model for understanding AI isn't a new coworker. It's an exoskeleton. / When we think of AI as an autonomous agent as a separate entity with its own judgment and decision-making, we set ourselves up for disappointment. We expect it to understand context it wasn't given. We expect it to make judgment calls it isn't equipped to make. We get frustrated when it "hallucinates" or goes off the rails. / The AI handles the scale. The human interprets the meaning. This is the exoskeleton model. / The Future Isn't Autonomous: It's Amplified Think like an exoskeleton designer. / Source: Ben Gregory Feb 19, 2026 https://www.kasava.dev/blog/ai-as-exoskeleton

Experiment: Using Greek Mythology as a source for AI agent personas I wanted to design an AI persona for my codebase, to implement solutions, make suggestions, and provide pushback where relevant. So I had an idea: Why not use a Greek god ? The Greek gods already have well-defined psychological temperaments and social roles. The Greek pantheon is arguably the best model for human psychology that we have. It's certainly better than Homo Economicus, Homo Sovieticus, or Homo Oppressus. There's a large many-century literature about them, which has been used as training data for today's AI engines. I chose Athena: goddess of wisdom, craft, and strategy. She offers judgement and foresight to her followers. I have invoked her to be my "architectural guardian" AI persona. I've asked her to: - enforce naming conventions, domain boundaries, and architectural consistency - watch out for emerging conflicts - suggest new preferences where possible Man is a religious creature, after all.

People: - StJohn Piano - Nicholas Piano Items: - Trust can only be based on honest signals - Signals: -- Physical meetings --- Local city --- Remote city (so plane flights, Dubai) -- Spending money (pay to register, pay subscription) -- Spending time (e.g. lots of video calls) -- Public statement of affiliation e.g. badge, costume -- Certificate granted by an authority (e.g. HTTPS tree, FCA registration) - Problem: In the online environment, it was already difficult to distinguish between fake and honest signals. Now, post-AI, really difficult. Conclusion: - Tela Network can provide credible online social proof through posts of meeting notes, publicly validated by the participants. - Such proof must be long-lived, clear, and accessible. - This could provide a public basis for trust, even in the new environment of AI noise.

Been thinking about AI a lot recently. Had a discussion with a friend, which I then turned into an article. Start: ----- StJohn Piano: A thought i am circling around a lot recently, which has relevance to your career: StJohn Piano: There is value in synthesis. StJohn Piano: With AI, the value of the raw production of information, e.g. an article or a code module, is approaching zero, or at least a very small amount. For example, the physical and mental cost of typing and grammar checking has dropped precipitously. StJohn Piano: However, difficulty and scarcity and therefore tradable value always remain, somewhere, somehow. ----- Read the rest here: https://telablog.com/there-is-value-in-synthesis

/ The God of Norway is the God of Genesis 1-2, the spirit that moves over the face of the deep before anything has been separated or named, before light had been divided from the darkness or the waters above from the waters below. It’s the God that precedes language. It’s the God who exists in the formless void, in the silence before the first command, who is not happy or unkind but simply terrifyingly there and everywhere. Sitting on that ridge in Lofoten with the Norwegian Sea stretched beyond you in every direction, grey and endless and alive with a power that has nothing to do with you, you understand why the world’s ancient first instinct was not to worship this God but to survive his wrath. The separation of the waters in Genesis is not a creation story but a survival one. Someone had to put a boundary between the sea and the sky so human beings could exist in that small little space between them. / https://minutes.substack.com/p/reflections-on-norway