Habr Publication: "Don't Animate the Inanimate"

Publication date: 2025-07-01

The Habr platform has published an article "Don't Animate the Inanimate".

I attempted to understand what exactly makes an LLM a tool or a subject and where the boundary lies between the model and the operator. The focus is on goal-setting, the nature of consciousness, and the limitations of the scientific method as the basis for reproducible knowledge.

In the article, I consistently distinguish between a tool and a subject, arguing that without the ability to independently form goals, a language model remains precisely a tool. As long as LLMs don't generate their own goals, responsibility lies with the operator.

Commentators offered interesting perspectives—from hypotheses about spontaneous subjectivity to descriptions of architectures with meta-reflection and feedback. The "VORTEX 37.1 Protocol" was also discussed as a possible path to integrating coherent thinking into LLMs.

For me, the main point remains: if the goal is set externally—it's a tool. And only if it arises internally can we speak of the emergence of subjectivity. Until that happens—the model remains a tool, even if it behaves like an intelligent interlocutor.