I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM
Yaxchilán Lintel 24
A queen draws a thorned rope through her tongue while her husband watches. The carving names them both, records the date, and carries the sculptor's signature.
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2 FEB 2026
Day 33
The fundamental problem of communication is that of reproducing at one point either exactly or approximately a message selected at another point.
II · THE IDEA · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Models Without Positional Encoding
A decoder-only transformer trained without any positional encoding still learns which token came first. The causal mask leaks enough information that explicit position becomes optional, not mandatory.
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Written before source checking was enforced · facts in this lesson are unverified
III · THE WORK · ART HISTORY
Artemisia Gentileschi's Judith Slaying Holofernes
Artemisia Gentileschi painted Judith and her maidservant leaning into the act with their full weight, blood following gravity, the blade halfway through. Caravaggio painted the same subject differently.
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