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Syam & Yagn Adusumilli

AI systems create approximations of human minds. Understanding what this means is one of the defining questions of our time.

AI systems create approximations of human minds. Understanding what this means, for both humans and AI, is one of the defining questions of our time.

This is not a claim about technology. It is a claim about identity, dignity, knowledge, and power. The Approximate Mind explores it from every angle: philosophical, practical, emotional, political, institutional, developmental, familial.

Written by a father and son whose combined perspectives give the series its distinctive character. Syam Adusumilli brings 33 years in healthcare, technology, and architecture. Yagn Adusumilli brings the intellectual restlessness of a Purdue freshman studying Anthropology and AI. Together they produce something neither could alone: writing that is simultaneously grounded in institutional reality and unafraid to reimagine it.

Recent

The Approximate Mind, Part 2: When to Trust Hunches

·6 mins

You’re at the grocery store. You’ve made chicken three times this week. You could make it again, 95% confidence it’ll turn out well.

But you reach for fish instead. Never cooked this type before. Maybe 40% confident. The recipe looks complicated.

The Approximate Mind, Part 3: The Irrational Quest for Everything

·6 mins

We chase impossible dreams. We hold contradictory beliefs. We want everything at once, even knowing we can’t have it. Parts 1 and 2 explored how AI systems approach functional understanding through confidence calibration and context-aware decision-making. But the most distinctively human behaviors aren’t the rational ones we can model. They’re the irrational ones we can’t.

The Approximate Mind, Part 4: How Close Can We Actually Get?

·5 mins

After three articles exploring how AI approaches understanding, through confidence calibration, context-aware reasoning, and the limits imposed by human irrationality, there’s an obvious question: How close can cutting-edge AI actually get?

The Approximate Mind, Part 5: What Will AI Eventually Feel?

·6 mins

Throughout this series, I’ve carefully skirted a question. I’ve discussed functional understanding, confidence calibration, context-awareness. But I’ve added disclaimers: “AI doesn’t have phenomenal consciousness,” “It doesn’t feel uncertainty.”

These aren’t evasions, they’re honest acknowledgments of what we don’t know. But they leave hanging the question many people actually care about: