I named this website Anthesis.
The word comes from Greek and means flowering. In botany, it describes the period when a flower is open and functional. It brings to mind the moment when a living thing, after a long period of growth, begins to reveal its potential.
The name expresses a hope: that people gradually realize their possibilities through time and their surroundings. AI is becoming part of those surroundings, and of the relationships we form.
Looking years ahead
How many questions an AI can answer, and how many tasks it can complete, certainly matter. But I also want to look further ahead.
After five or ten years of living and working with AI, who might a person become? How might their thinking change? Could they see possibilities they once missed, or make judgments they once could not?
Alongside “How much can you do for me?”, I want to ask:
After years of living with you,
who will I become?
This is a question Anthesis will keep asking. The result of a single task is easy to see. How a relationship changes someone takes longer to understand.
As people change, help should change too
I think one of the hardest things for future agents to learn may be how to help as a person changes.
People need different kinds of help at different stages. A demonstration can get someone started; a well-chosen question can help them think further. Sometimes what matters most is space to try, make mistakes, and develop their own judgment.
The help that suits me today may not suit me in a few years. An agent that remembers my past preferences might keep helping a past version of me.
I want to know whether it can notice these changes and help us adjust the relationship: what to delegate, which abilities to practice ourselves, when support is needed, and when we want to move forward on our own.
Turning a hope into research questions
I want to start with concrete observations. How did a conversation affect my judgment? Did a particular kind of help make me more willing to explore? Can I still use what I learned when I step away from AI or face a new problem?
Personal experience can suggest hypotheses, but it cannot establish general conclusions on its own. Separating the effects of AI from time, practice, and other experiences requires more careful comparisons.
I hope to record these questions, observations, and experiments here, while leaving room to revise my thinking.
Anthesis carries a hope: as AI grows more capable, human possibilities can unfold alongside it.