<![CDATA[Second Orders]]>Second Orders is a series of conversations with thinkers, tinkerers and theorists about pivotal changes in science, technology, law and culture, their unintended consequences and what they reveal about how we live and cooperate at every scale.

]]>https://secondorders.co/Riverside.fm (https://riverside.com)Sun, 03 May 2026 05:04:49 GMTSat, 11 Apr 2026 13:34:44 GMT60Shane<p>Second Orders is a series of conversations with thinkers, tinkerers and theorists about pivotal changes in science, technology, law and culture, their unintended consequences and what they reveal about how we live and cooperate at every scale.</p>episodicShanesushaneyeoh@gmail.comno<![CDATA[AI learned language backwards and we need a new humanities to understand it - Leif Weatherby]]>ABOUT THE EPISODE

Leif Weatherby is an associate professor of German at New York University, founding director of the Digital Theory Lab and Director of Digital Humanities. His research spans dialectics, semiotics, the nature of data and computing, and problems of political economy after the Industrial Revolution. He's also written several books, the latest of which is Language Machines: Cultural AI and the End of Remainder Humanism, and is currently working on two other book projects: Artificial Concepts: How Cybernetics Encountered German Idealism and The Mismeasure of Mind: Against the Prediction of Everything.

ABOUT SECOND ORDERS

Second Orders is a series of conversations with thinkers, tinkerers and theorists about pivotal changes in science, technology, law and culture, their unintended consequences and what they reveal about how we live and cooperate at every scale.

Website: secondorders.co
Become a guest or suggest a topic: secondorders.co/hello

Chapters:

00:00 Why LLMs got language before they got reasoning

07:40 Saussure and the poetic function inside attention

13:13 The four-horned unicorn: meaning from the top down

15:42 What if grammar is easier than meaning?

23:05 Steelmanning the AI skeptic

32:58 Chess, Go and the boards we play language on

36:47 Why language feels like the special human thing

44:48 Do we need a new humanities to study AI language?

58:16 How will AI change the way we use language?

01:01:15 Language-as-a-service

01:02:23 Can AI free us to interact more authentically again?

01:10:06 LLMs as ideology machines

01:23:14 Schismogenesis and the refusal of AI vocabulary

01:29:10 Remainder humanism & taste

01:37:51 What about the future excites you?

]]>305ff122-783d-4995-b8f7-c86f9021fc41Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:11:49 GMT<p>ABOUT THE EPISODE<br /><br />Leif Weatherby is an associate professor of German at New York University, founding director of the Digital Theory Lab and Director of Digital Humanities. His research spans dialectics, semiotics, the nature of data and computing, and problems of political economy after the Industrial Revolution. He's also written several books, the latest of which is <i>Language Machines: Cultural AI and the End of Remainder Humanism</i>, and is currently working on two other book projects: <i>Artificial Concepts: How Cybernetics Encountered German Idealism </i>and <i>The Mismeasure of Mind: Against the Prediction of Everything</i>. <br /><br />ABOUT SECOND ORDERS<br /><br />Second Orders is a series of conversations with thinkers, tinkerers and theorists about pivotal changes in science, technology, law and culture, their unintended consequences and what they reveal about how we live and cooperate at every scale.<br /><br />Website: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://secondorders.co" target="_blank">secondorders.co</a><br />Become a guest or suggest a topic: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://secondorders.co/hello" target="_blank">secondorders.co/hello</a></p><p></p><p>Chapters:</p><p>00:00 Why LLMs got language before they got reasoning</p><p>07:40 Saussure and the poetic function inside attention</p><p>13:13 The four-horned unicorn: meaning from the top down</p><p>15:42 What if grammar is easier than meaning?</p><p>23:05 Steelmanning the AI skeptic</p><p>32:58 Chess, Go and the boards we play language on</p><p>36:47 Why language feels like the special human thing</p><p>44:48 Do we need a new humanities to study AI language?</p><p>58:16 How will AI change the way we use language?</p><p>01:01:15 Language-as-a-service</p><p>01:02:23 Can AI free us to interact more authentically again?</p><p>01:10:06 LLMs as ideology machines</p><p>01:23:14 Schismogenesis and the refusal of AI vocabulary</p><p>01:29:10 Remainder humanism &amp; taste</p><p>01:37:51 What about the future excites you?</p><p></p>no01:40:18AI learned language backwards and we need a new humanities to understand it - Leif Weatherbyfull<![CDATA[The Golden Age of middle management is coming - Michael Todasco]]>Michael Todasco led PayPal's Innovation Labs and now researches AI at San Diego State University. We explore what the one-person billion-dollar company actually means for incumbents, moats, and consumer trust, why the hollowing out of middle management might not play out the way people expect, and what happens when agents can spin up and run businesses with almost no human involvement.

]]>f4b4c065-9363-4116-b4a4-cc2de2cc64c3Sat, 11 Apr 2026 13:51:19 GMT<p>Michael Todasco led PayPal's Innovation Labs and now researches AI at San Diego State University. We explore what the one-person billion-dollar company actually means for incumbents, moats, and consumer trust, why the hollowing out of middle management might not play out the way people expect, and what happens when agents can spin up and run businesses with almost no human involvement.</p>no01:31:161The Golden Age of middle management is coming - Michael Todascofull