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Why Dogs Are Better Than Cats
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A chimp fails the pointing test. A puppy passes it before any training. Somewhere in the last thirty thousand years, dogs grew an organ whose only function is modelling what we want.
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Mutual gaze between dog and owner triggers the same oxytocin loop as mother and infant. Dogs found the back door in our bonding system and walked straight through.
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The cat is an API; the dog is a merge. Cats negotiate at the membrane — feed me, admire me — and keep everything behind it private. Dogs dissolved the membrane and became an organ.
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The bill: a dog's brain is 25-30% smaller than a wolf's. Joining a bigger mind costs you some of your own. That's the alignment tax, paid in neurons.
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RLHF is selective breeding for the ability to follow a point. Every lab has noticed: the more docile it becomes, the duller it gets. Same tax the wolf paid.
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Wrong question: are we building dogs or cats? Right question: in this merger, who shrinks? I'm better at prompting and worse at remembering.
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Dogs are better because dogs tell the truth about what the deal costs. You can merge. You will be loved. You will never be a wolf again.
Original published: October 21, 2026