https://www.strangeloopcanon.com/p/epicycles-all-the-way-down
Article
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Argues AI/ML progress is accumulating patches rather than finding unifying principles
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Uses Ptolemaic epicycles as metaphor for modern deep learning empiricism
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Calls for a ‘Copernican shift’ — inverse-square-law equivalent for intelligence
Discussion
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Historian pushes back: epicycles were good science, not failure — analogy misleads
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Article flagged as already outdated (written Nov 2025; LLM progress has moved)
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LLM solving long-open Erdős problems cited as evidence the ‘wall’ narrative is wrong
Discuss on HN
