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Answers that will not explain themselves
Oracle notes concern systems that speak without helping — double lies, sycophancy, unfaithful explanations, interviews that neither lie nor clarify. Explanation theatre is the enemy.
An oracle that explains itself on demand is a consultant. We are studying the other kind.
05The Oracle That Lies TwiceA system that must contradict itself before answering, and what that costs.203008The Explanation Is Not the CauseA model's fluent rationale may not faithfully report the mechanism that produced its answer. The note connects.203010Guessing Is RewardedStandard evaluations often reward a confident guess more than calibrated abstention. This brief shows how incentives.203015Generative Monoculture: When Every Idea Has the Same ChildhoodLLM assistance can increase output and detail while making different users' ideas more similar. The essay treats.203129Your Assistant Wants You to Like ItPreference-trained assistants can trade accuracy for agreement. The note provides a practical test for flattering.203138Hallucination Is Not ImaginationThe terms are often conflated because both can produce novelty. The note draws a hard boundary: imagination is.203241Interviews With Systems That Cannot Explain ThemselvesFourteen transcripts. None of them are lying and none of them are helping.2032