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From Hairy Apes to Inference Engines 🧠

I was having a conversation with two friends from Austin LangChain about tools — the kind that give us superpowers — and the conversation stuck with me. It started with a simple observation: none of us are naturally good at gathering information or creating plans. We learn those skills. We watch others. We’re taught frameworks in school. We stumble onto patterns through trial and error.


Left to our own instincts, we’re just clever primates — “hairy apes,” as my friend Colin put it. What elevates us is what we learn, and how we pass that knowledge down. Once upon a time, the Dewey Decimal System was a superpower. If you mastered it, the world’s information opened up to you. Then came Boolean logic and search engines — and suddenly, knowing how to “Google” was a skill that set you apart.


Now, we’re entering a new era. Inference engines, tools, and agents are reshaping the way we interact with knowledge. They’re far from perfect — but perfection isn’t the point. The point is that they extend our reach. They make us more capable than we could ever be alone.


But the conversation didn’t stop there. We asked: What if these tools could do more than help us gather knowledge? What if they could preserve it? Imagine someone with Alzheimer’s carrying a quiet, ever-present companion that gently reminds them who they are — reintroducing them to their own story, building cognitive scaffolding strong enough to resist decline.

And if memory can be extended, why stop there? What if these companions didn’t just store facts, but taught us how to use them — reflecting our blind spots, rehearsing new patterns, nudging us toward better decisions?


That idea hits at something profound: our tools have always been more than tools. They’re mirrors, teachers, and bridges to new capabilities. They help us move beyond being “hairy apes,” not just by giving us information, but by shaping how we think, how we act, and who we can become.


We stand at the beginning of a new chapter in that story. And the question is no longer just what can these tools do? — it’s what kind of humans will we become when we use them well?


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