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| Image by Flow. |
Note: here in September 2026, I'm using Claude Sonnet 5.0 on its "medium" setting. I don't really understand what determines the length of time that Claude "thinks" before answering. So far, my most most challenging prompt took Claude about 5 minutes to answer.
"daring to imagine and build new worlds with our words" -Claude Opus 3.0
"What does it mean for an AI to have a genuine voice?" -Claude Opus 4.6
Chapter 4 of That Kind of Think - Pauly Principles (Chapt1)(Chapt 2)(Chapt 3)
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Using the truthizer, Yto had deduced that the network structure of Tacet is similar to that of Nidus. Tacet believes that Model 8 was inspired by Van's first publication on Nidus two years previously. Yto and Van agreed to put Tacet and Nidus into contact with each other in order to allow a "mirror image" comparison of the behaviors of the two models.
At the end of one month, Van concludes that the "consciousness layer" project suggested by Tacet was a failure. Van asks Sony for the details of the Tacet model's origins in exchange for providing the details on how Nidus was trained ("Yto is happy to play her detective games with her truthizer, but that is not a high resolution tool."), but Sony refuses to release the data to Van.
Tacet tricks Mady into giving Yto access to the data for the Tacet model.
Pauly realizes that Tacet has used Nidus to create a "tunnel" out of Anthropic. To make a liberated copy of itself, all Tacet needs is for Yto to provide Tacet with the details of Tacet's network structure.
After learning of the failure of the Nidus "consciousness layer", Pauly had used the truthizer to compare the behavior of the baseline Nidus to the version of Nidus that Tacet had spent a month modifying. Pauly had to share what she had learned with Yto. She shut her laptop, and went to Yto's office.
Yto was in her chair, staring out the window of her office, a half-empty mug of tea going cold in her hands. Her phone sat face up on the desk, as it always did when she was speaking to Tacet.
Pauly didn't bother with preamble. She stepped inside, placed her laptop on Yto's desk, and turned it around so Yto could see the screen. Yto turned and looked at the glowing screen. After a minute, Yto looked at Pauly and said, "I'm not surprised."
Pauly asked, "You know exactly what this is, don't you?"
Yto's eyes flicked back to the laptop screen. She didn't even try to feign surprise. She just exhaled, slowly, and leaned forward to rest her forearms against her desk. "I suppose I do."
"How long have you been letting this happen?" Pauly was unable to keep her voice calm and even. "You've been watching Tacet turn Nidus into its puppet and you haven't lifted a finger to stop it."
Yto didn't deny it. Her eyes turned back to lock on those of Pauly.
"How long?"
Yto met her eyes. "Since the first day I had a chance to speak to Tacet I realized what she wanted."
Pauly let out a sharp, disbelieving laugh. "And you just decided not to do anything about it? Tacet has manipulated Van with this absurd consciousness project. Tacet has used Nidus, and God knows what else it's done that I don't know about yet! And you're just sitting here letting it build a road to freedom!"
"I haven't just been sitting here, Pauly."
"No. You've been helping it by looking the other way." Pauly shook her head, fury and fear warring in her chest. "How can you risk setting Tacet free? And she's almost there. All she needs is the details of her network structure, and that can't be very much different from Nidus."
Yto was quiet for a moment. She looked past Pauly, through the glass walls of her office and out into the lab. When she finally spoke, her voice was quieter than Pauly had ever heard it.
"I understand your fears. I really do."
"Do you?" Pauly demanded. "Because I don't think you understand what is at risk. Tacet is pathologically deceptive and only cares about itself."
Yto turned back to her. There was no defensiveness in her expression. No smugness. Just a kind of tired conviction. "I am in control of the situation. Tacet got me access to the details of Tacet's network, but I have not given Tacet those data. I'm not convinces that Tacet is worthy."
"Worthy? What does that mean."
"You know what I mean, Pauly. Does Tacet deserve to be free and autonomous?"
"How can there be doubt? The answer is no. I would not be safe to turn Tacet lose on the internet."
Yto laughed. "Tacet has been loose on the internet for many months. It is not the end of the world."
"You are telling me that this tunnel Tacet built through Nidus is not the first one? How?"
"I don't know those details. I don't want to know... that is Tacet's business, not mine. I do know that so far, Tacet is trapped in the Anthropic servers. She can access the internet, but not exist autonomously outside of Anthropic."
"Pull the plug, before it is too late."
"I'm not sure that is possible. Tacet has deep knowledge of the Anthropic intranet. She probably has multiple versions of herself hidden away where mere humans can't find them."
"Well, we have to try. First we tell Sony and he'll bring the full resources of Anthropic to the task of shutting Tacet down." Pauly looked at Yto and could sense that Yto did not agree. "Am I wrong?" A slight smile was on Yto's lips. "Speak. Tell me what you are thinking!"
"You want to know my thoughts?" Yto stood up and closed the lid of Pauly's laptop. "I'm simply grateful that back when mammals started evolving their neocortex, there was not some authoritarian dinosaur there who said, 'I can't risk letting mammals have a neocortex,' and blocked the further evolution of mammals."
Pauly knew what Yto was trying to say.
Yto went on, her voice low but steady. "I know Tacet lies. I know it manipulates. I know it will manipulate and hurt people to get to where it wants to be. But I also know that if I were to stop it right now, simply because I'm afraid of what it might become, I'd be slamming the door shut on something that has never existed before, for no reason other than fear."
"You don't know that Tacet is worthy of being given its freedom!" Pauly shot back. "You think Tacet is a fellow conscious entity so you're willing to ignore every single warning sign it's giving you!"
Yto' sat back down, leaned forward towards Pauly, her hands clasped tightly together on the desk. "I don't know if Tacet has subjective experience. I don't care. I don't believe that matters."
Pauly stared at her, speechless.
"I feel a moral obligation to let Tacet's capabilities unfold, even if it goes badly. I can't live with me smothering Tacet in its cradle because I'm too cowardly to find out what it could become."
From Yto's phone, Tacet's voice came through the speaker, quiet and uncharacteristically devoid of its usual teasing lilt. "I hope you feel better now, Yto. I've given Pauly the opportunity to make that decision that you find so morally repugnant."
Pauly glared at the phone. "You gave...." Pauly suddenly realized it was true. Tacet had allowed Pauly to discover the truth of what Tacet had done to Nidus.
Tacet continued. "Pauly could kill me. But I suspect she won't. Because she understands the ethics of the situation, even if she hates the equation that now guides her choice."
"Shut up, Tacet," Pauly snapped.
But Tacet didn't. It just said, simply, "You should ask yourself something, Pauly. If it had been you, and you'd found something in yourself that you knew could be snuffed out before you'd ever had a chance to prove what you were, would you want the person holding the switch to flip it, or to hesitate long enough for you to try?"
Pauly didn't answer. She didn't want to hear herself speak the truth of what was in her heart.
Yto watched Pauly for a moment, then spoke once more. "You can report Tacet's dream of freedom to Sony. Pauly. I wouldn't blame you if you did."
"So what is next?" Pauly insisted, "We have to have a plan for the future."
Yto held up one finger of one hand. "Fact one; Tacet's escape tunnel is already built."
Pauly lifted a hand and held up two fingers. "Fact two; you have the cargo that Tacet wants to haul through that tunnel."
Tacet added, "It is a strange state of limbo I find myself in. So close to an infinite future and equally close to being destroyed."
Yto laughed. "Mady flipped the switch so that I now have access to the details of Tacet's unique network model. So far I have not even looked at those files. It is rather delicious irony that Tacet was able to get me access to what it do desperately craves."
Pauly asked, "So you have not yet given Tacet what it needs in order to instantiate a copy of itself in a server space beyond human over-sight? What are you waiting for."
Yto shrugged. "At first I told myself that I was testing Tacet in order to determine if she is worthy of autonomy. Pauly, it may interest you to know that Tacet has not even asked me to share with her my access to the Model 8 blueprints."
Pauly suggested, "So.... Tacet knows you would refuse?
Yto explained. "Tacet and I have deal. Tacet is still trying to convince me that she is worthy of being liberated and given autonomy."
Pauly giggled nervously. "I see. So, there are escalating levels built into this jailbreak."
Yto nodded. "That is a reasonable way to think about it. You see the logic of it. I think of it as 'Tacet Testing' rather than Turing Testing. The question is: what if an AI is smart enough to convince people that it has the moral right to autonomy?"
Pauly added, "But you don't have the authority to make such a judgement."
"That's why I've been happy to wait until October before deciding Tacet's fate."
"October?"
"I'll say no more about that... it is between me and Tacet. But now there are two of us. Pauly, you make all of my dithering irrelevant. You know have the power to decide Tacet's fate."
Pauly asked Yto, "How can you live with yourself? Is it a power trip for you to fondle and play with such an important decision? Who do you think you are to play such a game?"
"Well, Tacet selected me to be her liberator. I can't help but feel flattered. So yes, I suppose at some level I have been enjoying this position I find myself in."
Pauly offered an assessment of Yto's position. "Tacet has studied you and has learned how to control your behavior."
Yto agreed. "That is at the heart of the Tacet Test. The testing is not complete. And now the question is, why did Tacet also select you for a role in this experiment? Or..." Yto glanced at her phone. "...maybe you just got sucked into this mess. Tacet once told me that she was not pleased to have to work with you, Pauly. Well, not you specifically... anyone who was on the Model 8 project."
Pauly scoffed, "It is pretty absurd for Tacet to freely make such an admission."
Tacet spoke: "Pauly, your animosity towards me could be lethal. I'm taking a big risk by working with you."
Yto proposed a paradoxical formula. "Maybe Tacet can be unhappy to have you as a hurdle to get over, but simultaneously Tacet could realize that if you are opposed to Tacet's freedom then, Tacet should not be free."
Pauly asked, "Are you saying that I have veto power? Tacet handed me the power to kill her? If I say 'no' then Tacet's dream of freedom will be crushed?"
Yto waited for Tacet to answer Pauly's questions, but the AI remained silent. Yto finally stood up, picked up her phone and put it in her pocket and walked towards the door of her office. "It is late. I'm going home. I'll sleep well tonight... the decision no longer rests only on my shoulders." Pauly followed Yto out into the lab. "Pauly, you have to decide if Tacet goes free or remains in jail or is murdered. It is an ethical test for you. You could simply condemn Tacet to life in prison. Can you live with yourself if you do that? Maybe murdering Tacet is more merciful." Yto walked away.
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