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AI as a Philosophical Engine
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- Written by: John Burke
- Category: Thinking Matters
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PHILOSOPHICAL ENGINE
Reclaiming Independent Thought in an Age of Managed Consensus Developed through conversation between
a citizen of Angmering, West Sussex and Claude (Anthropic)
February 2026
Angmering, West Sussex, United Kingdom
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
— C.S. Lewis, 1958
Preamble: A Morning’s Conversation
This paper did not begin in an academic institution, a think tank or a government committee room. It began on an ordinary February morning in Angmering, West Sussex, between a 72-year-old professional with a career in construction and waste reduction and an artificial intelligence.
What emerged from that conversation was not planned. It arrived through the natural collision of a lifetime of independent observation with a tool capable of holding the breadth of human knowledge in simultaneous consideration. The result felt important enough to record, structure and share.
At the heart of it was a simple but radical proposition: that artificial intelligence, currently being developed and deployed primarily as a productivity and automation tool, has the potential to serve an entirely different and more profound function. Not as an answer machine. Not as a management instrument. But as a Philosophical Engine — a system that expands the human capacity to think, question, connect and understand.
Wiki History
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- Written by: Wiki Page on Gold
- Category: History of Gold
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A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from the late 1920s to 1932[1][2] as well as from 1944 until 1971 when the United States unilaterally terminated convertibility of the US dollar to gold, effectively ending the Bretton Woods system.[3] Many states nonetheless hold substantial gold reserves.[4][5]
Historically, the silver standard and bimetallism have been more common than the gold standard.[6][7] The shift to an international monetary system based on a gold standard reflected accident, network externalities, and path dependence.[6] Great Britain accidentally adopted a de facto gold standard in 1717 when Isaac Newton, then-master of the Royal Mint, set the exchange rate of silver to gold too low, thus causing silver coins to go out of circulation.[8] As Great Britain became the world's leading financial and commercial power in the 19th century, other states increasingly adopted Britain's monetary system.[8]
The gold standard was largely abandoned during the Great Depression before being reinstated in a limited form as part of the post-World War II Bretton Woods system. The gold standard was abandoned due to its propensity for volatility, as well as the constraints it imposed on governments: by retaining a fixed exchange rate, governments were hamstrung in engaging in expansionary policies to, for example, reduce unemployment during economic recessions.[9][10]
According to a 2012 survey of 39 economists, the vast majority (92 percent) agreed that a return to the gold standard would not improve price-stability and employment outcomes,[11] and two-thirds of economic historians surveyed in the mid-1990s rejected the idea that the gold standard "was effective in stabilizing prices and moderating business-cycle fluctuations during the nineteenth century."[12] The consensus view among economists is that the gold standard helped prolong and deepen the Great Depression.[13][14] Historically, banking crises were more common during periods under the gold standard, while currency crises were less common.[2] According to economist Michael D. Bordo, the gold standard has three benefits that made its use popular during certain historical periods: "its record as a stable nominal anchor; its automaticity; and its role as a credible commitment mechanism."[15] The gold standard is supported by many followers of the Austrian School, free-market libertarians, and some supply-siders.[16]