Field notes from the First Brain.
Page 5 of 38.
Claude Fable 5 vs GPT-5.5: which is better?
No clean overall winner: Fable 5 leads Anthropic's benchmarks, GPT-5.5 is cheaper at $5/$30 vs $10/$50, both have 1M context. Test on your own task.
Cognitive augmentation starts with your biology
Every tool amplifies the mind it is attached to. Real augmentation builds a connected internal structure first, then adds the AI and the hardware.
What If the Internet Went Down Forever? Think Locally
What to do if the internet goes down forever? The real risk is not lost files but a mind that cannot think without the cloud. Build the knowledge into yourself.
Cyborg vs Centaur: how to work with AI
Three ways to work with AI, and the research favors one. A 2026 study of 244 consultants found Centaurs, just 14%, hit the highest accuracy.
Divination, decoded: random input for new ideas
Tarot and the I Ching work as thinking tools, not prediction: a random prompt breaks fixation and forces you to synthesize a new perspective.
Is Voice Journaling Effective? Escaping Your Own Echo
Is voice journaling effective? It can be, but spoken venting loops your own biases. It works when you force yourself to map the contradictory case aloud.
How Does Vision Pro Eye Tracking Work? Gaze as Input
How does Vision Pro eye tracking work? Infrared cameras map where you look, and the gaze becomes the cursor. A controllable interface needs a controllable mind.
Fasting for neurogenesis: what BDNF actually does
Fasting raises BDNF and growth chemistry tied to new neural connections. It improves the substrate, but it does not build knowledge on its own.
How Thought-to-Text Actually Feels: Formatting the Mind
Thought-to-text does not feel like telepathy. It feels like formatting: breaking a vague feeling into discrete nodes a brain interface can actually read.
What GLP-1 drugs do to motivation and reward
GLP-1 drugs act on the dopamine reward system, not just appetite. If cheap thrills fade, the motivation left has to come from structural synthesis.
HRV and cognitive flexibility: what the link means
Higher HRV tracks with flexible thinking through shared prefrontal-vagal circuitry. It is a marker of readiness, not a switch for synthesis.
How do I access Claude Fable 5?
Claude Fable 5 is on the API (claude-fable-5) and claude.ai now; paid plans are phased. Bedrock, Vertex, and Copilot are unconfirmed; Mythos 5 is not public.
How to stop hoarding notes and start synthesizing
Stop hoarding notes by redefining a note as a claim you can defend and connect. Capture less, process to claims, link on the way in, write on a schedule.
What Nick Land's philosophy means for enhancement
Land's accelerationism reads the urge to enhance as a systemic pull, not a free choice. The disciplined response is to strengthen your substrate first.
How much does Claude Fable 5 cost?
Claude Fable 5 is $10 per million input tokens and $50 output, double Opus 4.8. 1M context at standard rates; Batch API halves it; subscriptions are phased.
Hyperstition: ideas that engineer their own reality
A hyperstition makes itself real by shifting behavior, but only through a mind that hosts it. A connected First Brain is the engine, and the filter.
Is AI making us dumber? What the research shows
AI is not lowering raw intelligence, but the 2026 studies show heavy, undirected use erodes the memory and critical thinking you stop practicing.
Karma as a biological network effect, explained
Karma needs no magic: repeated actions wire your brain through Hebbian learning, building the dispositions that shape the situations you meet.
Does ketosis actually make thinking frictionless?
Ketones give the brain a steady fuel without glucose crashes, which can smooth focus. But stable energy traverses a knowledge graph; it cannot build one.
Lion's Mane and the brain: cement, not blueprint
Lion's Mane may raise nerve growth factor and ease forming connections, but it cannot decide which connections matter. That blueprint is structural work.
Mantra meditation: anchoring a scattered mind
A mantra gives attention one root to return to, quieting the scattered edges of the mind. The real skill is the return, not the word.
Best Way to Learn Music Theory? Map the Connections
The best way to learn music theory is relationally: at your instrument, by ear, through songs you love, using the circle of fifths, not by memorizing rules.
Best Way to Memorize Abstract Concepts? Make Them Concrete
The best way to memorize abstract concepts is to make them concrete and connected: concrete examples, analogies, images, and tying each idea to what you know.
Is Montessori Education Better? Friction Builds the Brain
Is Montessori education better? For building a child's own thinking, often yes: hands-on, self-directed learning trains the brain in ways a 2D AI feed cannot.