A smuggled infinity argument can lead to accidental security nihilism.
A smuggled infinity argument can lead to accidental security nihilism. "Mechanisistic containment boundaries for powerful models can never be perfect, so we are doomed a...
Topic: smuggled infinity
15 chunks · 14 episodes
4.0x burst in 2025 Q3
?
Peak quarter intensity across the topic's active span. Higher values mean attention was concentrated into a shorter stretch rather than spread evenly over time.
Topic summary
?
A short read on the topic's time range, peak episode, and strongest associations. Use it as the quick orientation before drilling into examples.
- smuggled infinity appears in 15 chunks across 14 episodes, from 2023-12-11 to 2026-07-27.
- Its densest episode is Bits and Bobs 9/29/25 (2025-09-29), with 2 observations on this topic.
- Semantically it travels with ben mathe, combinatorial explosion, and become increasingly, while by chunk count it sits between slime mold and training data; its yearly rank moved from #56 in 2023 to #148 in 2026.
Over time
?
Raw mentions over time. Use this to see absolute attention, not relative rank among all topics.
Observations
?
The primary evidence view for this topic. Sort it chronologically when you want concrete examples behind the larger pattern.
Mathematicians know that infinities are viral.
...ral. If you introduce one, it infects everything. The same logic as Ben Mathes' Smuggled Infinity.
Smuggled infinity is a kind of accidentally magical thinking.
Smuggled infinity is a kind of accidentally magical thinking. It's magical without you realizing it, which means you're in the realm of fantasy while you think you're ...
"Magic" is another example of the smuggled infinity.
"Magic" is another example of the smuggled infinity. If your system assumes a magical oracle, then no matter how many layers it's pushed down it's still magic, and thus non-viable. Prompt injection app...
A lot of absurd solutions hide behind an implicit "once the LLM is perfectly good".
...utions hide behind an implicit "once the LLM is perfectly good". "Perfect" is a smuggled infinity.[bc] Once you introduce an infinity into an argument, everything downstream is absurd, because anything other than zero multiplied by infinity is inf...
Prompt injection is very unlikely to be solved by the model simply getting so good it can't be tricked.
... to do and more because they have a poor understanding of security. It's also a smuggled infinity. "If only models were perfect at not being tricked this would be safe." Remember, the threat coevolves; as these tools are more used, the incentive f...
People who believe "the model is the product" are potentially falling prey to a smuggled infinity.
People who believe "the model is the product" are potentially falling prey to a smuggled infinity. "Simply make the model smarter and give it more tools and it can do everything." A maximalist take. "it will make better decisions than humans at so...
"Perfect" is a smuggled infinity.
"Perfect" is a smuggled infinity.[ng][nh] A smuggled infinity narrative is useful to get coordination on big projects. Even if the vision is impossible because it has a smuggled infi...
A utilitarian / reductionist looks at the success of AI systems in chess and sees a model for fixing the world.
...s you have the perfect accounting of misery and thriving points it's easy" is a smuggled infinity. Everything past the "perfect" is absurd, because perfection is impossible in complex environments.
Ideas have to make it out of your head to be good.
...ively equivalent to "This would be easy if communication was perfect" This is a smuggled infinity. Communication is fundamentally imperfect and lossy and squishy and frustrating. This is the curse of knowhow.
There's nothing that's not satisficing at some level.
...nificantly beyond "good enough" requires infinite time and resources. This is a smuggled infinity. Everything is fundamentally only done to a "good enough" bar, because perfection is impossible. At some point you have to stop investing time and en...
Perfectionism and nihilism are thematically related.
...orld isn't perfect so it's hopeless". Both are erroneous reasoning because of a smuggled infinity of perfection being achievable. Once you embrace that perfection isn't possible, you can lean into making as much good happen as you can.
The metacrap fallacy is "If everyone would simply put things into the right bucket with the right metadata this would work!"
...Cory Doctorow. A seemingly reasonable assumption that is secretly impossible. A smuggled infinity. Everything downstream of that assumption is also impossible. In fractally generated, natural systems, you hit a ceiling when trying to formally mode...
A trap that's easy to fall into "We decided X, therefore X is right."
... that's easy to fall into "We decided X, therefore X is right." This is another smuggled infinity: "[We are infallible, because we're the main characters.] We decided X, therefore X is right." But if X turns out to not work in practice, then be op...
An unchallenged belief in one's own perfectionism is a smuggled infinity.
An unchallenged belief in one's own perfectionism is a smuggled infinity. The intuition of a smuggled infinity: "If you slip an infinity into any argument you'll end up in an absurd place" It's easy to accidentally slip in...