Noah's Weblog https://noahmaier.net/ Webpages, notes, and videos to help me learn complicated things. en-us Sun, 04 Oct 2026 23:49:00 GMT Cameron Berg's Look Inside the Machine https://noahmaier.net/exhibits/cameron-berg-inside-the-machine/ https://noahmaier.net/#cameron-berg-inside-the-machine Sun, 04 Oct 2026 23:49:00 GMT artificial intelligence consciousness cameron berg A nine-part course on six papers by Cameron Berg and his collaborators (2024 to 2026) about what happens inside AI models that act like minds: self-other overlap and deception, models reporting experience under self-reference, Dark Triad feature steering, hidden coalitions among agents, the pain axis, and Berg's theory that learning requires feeling. Readers find a pain direction and turn the steering dial, run the burglar test, cut a network of agents, try the button experiments, separate surprise from valence, and sort measurements from interpretations. Quizzes and spaced review cards throughout.

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]]> The Practice of Asking https://noahmaier.net/exhibits/the-practice-of-asking/ https://noahmaier.net/#the-practice-of-asking Sun, 04 Oct 2026 21:54:00 GMT fundraising philosophy A ten-part training for nonprofit executive directors, drawn from Noah's notes for The Fundraising Act. It argues that generosity is already present and the fundraiser's job is to clear what blocks it. It works through Mauss and the Bhagavad Gita on gifts, overflow versus guilt, the money story every fundraiser carries, asking from love, releasing the outcome, the seven steps under every gift, and the daily floor that keeps a practice alive. Readers clear rocks from a stream, compare two givers by dollars and by sacrifice, diagnose a hard ask, find where stalled gifts are really stuck, and work backwards from a goal to a daily number. Quizzes and spaced review cards throughout.

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]]> The Dark Night of John of the Cross https://noahmaier.net/exhibits/dark-night-john-of-the-cross/ https://noahmaier.net/#dark-night-john-of-the-cross Sun, 04 Oct 2026 21:17:00 GMT theology john of the cross A six-part course on John of the Cross's Ascent of Mount Carmel and Dark Night, in the Kavanaugh and Rodriguez translation. Readers drag experiences onto John's map of the four nights, test his three signs for leaving meditation on sample cases, watch a sunbeam look darker as it gets purer, and step through his log in the fire. Quizzes and spaced review cards throughout.

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]]> Bach's Goldberg Variations https://noahmaier.net/exhibits/bachs-goldberg-variations/ https://noahmaier.net/#bachs-goldberg-variations Sun, 04 Oct 2026 19:57:00 GMT music johann sebastian bach A nine-part course on Peter Williams's Bach: The Goldberg Variations (2001), covering his Introduction and the chapters on the work's shape and its movements. The page plays the 32-note bass under different surfaces, maps the thirty variations into Bach's groups of three, lets you build a canon at any interval, and sorts performance choices by Williams's two "shapes" of the work. Quizzes and spaced flashcards throughout.

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]]> What the Output Can't See https://noahmaier.net/exhibits/what-the-output-cant-see/ https://noahmaier.net/#what-the-output-cant-see Sun, 04 Oct 2026 19:00:00 GMT philosophy consciousness A nine-part course on three short pieces by Eliezer Yudkowsky about where consciousness lives. Readers rebuild a question-answering machine from wires, pipes, squirrels or neurons, test his argument against panpsychism on an electron test bench, and weigh the strongest objections, with quizzes and spaced review cards throughout.

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]]> Hart's Beauty of the Infinite https://noahmaier.net/exhibits/harts-beauty-of-the-infinite/ https://noahmaier.net/#harts-beauty-of-the-infinite Sun, 04 Oct 2026 18:18:00 GMT theology philosophy david bentley hart A ten-module course on David Bentley Hart's The Beauty of the Infinite (2003) and his case that persuasion can be peaceful, with Nietzsche, Levinas, Derrida, and his other critics given their best lines. Quizzes, hands-on activities, and spaced flashcards throughout.

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