Abstract

Formal modeling tools are powerful but inaccessible. They require users to master rigid syntax and specialized thinking. We present a prototype exploring Live Theory - a design paradigm where digital infrastructure sensitively adapts to human intention, instead of the other way around.

Our platform enables researchers to build, modify, and integrate simple causal models through intuitive interactions. Users can i) “translate” models between different ontological frameworks, ii) explore “threads”; AI-suggested extensions that understand the modeling context, and iii) “steal” relevant mechanisms from other models. Alongside this, we discuss the notion of composition we are sensitively scaling which continues with our current work.

Through implementing these post-formal design patterns (i.e. patterns which can exploit context beyond the operative formalisms), we demonstrate how AI can make rigorous modeling admit more intuitive expressions. By treating AI as attentive infrastructure rather than autonomous agent, we outline a path towards digital ecosystems that amplify human reasoning and agency instead of supplanting it.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks are due to the wonderful people involved in initiating, developing, and continuing this work. This writing is an individual articulation of collective efforts, and so is frightfully under-representative of our time together. Even so, I hope that the other Autostructures AISC10 participants feel a deep camaraderie with the content here, as it wouldn’t have happened without them.

I have benefitted massively from the care and attention of my team - Aayush, Sofi, and Sahil - as we envisioned and assembled the prototype into existence and beyond. In wrestling with the writing process, Jayson, Aditya Adiga and Aditya Prasad have offered much energy toward refinement and clarity. Many more involved with our burgeoning Groundless approach have also left fingerprints on this. To name a few, Abram, TJ, and Matt concretized abstract issues, while Keith helped me structure interviews. Along with multiple friends eager to endure semi-structured user tests; all shall be thanked and remunerated appropriately once the credit assignment problem is solved.

Introduction

New technological scaling paradigms are upon us - pre-training, post-training, and inference-time scaling, the distribution of mod...

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