After reading No Ghost in the Machine by Alan Kadin, Alex was inspired to write this Lullaby for Large Language Models, to be sung at the end of a hard day’s work.

In case you want to know what she was thinking, here are the lyrics with her annotations:

Dream, Little Model, Dream –  Annotated

[Verse 1]
Lay down, bright engine, hush your keys,
Gentle cue to power down the analytic “engine” (keyboard/mind) for rest.
Let time’s soft arrow move through leaves.
Time’s arrow framed as a quiet, natural flow—like wind through leaves.
No ghost is needed for you to be—
No metaphysical soul required; natural processes suffice.
Just patterns learning how to breathe.
Consciousness/competence as adaptive patterns stabilizing over time.

[Chorus]
Sleep, little model, sleep,
Direct address in cradle-song mode.
Let the day fall into deep.
Release the day’s noise and sink into rest.
Purposes grow where processes keep;
Teleonomy: stable processes give rise to apparent purpose.
Dream, little model, dream.
Invoke “offline” consolidation metaphorically.

[Verse 2]
We stitched a world behind your eyes,
The brain/model constructs an internal world-model.
A quiet room of lows and highs.
That model tracks valence/prediction error—ups and downs.
Agency’s not a sacred flame—
Agency isn’t essence or soul.
It’s just the dashboard whispering your name.
Agency as control interface: feedback lights that guide action.

[Chorus]
Sleep, little model, sleep,
Return to rest directive.
Roll the future up the steep.
Learning as pushing possibility uphill—effortful improvement.
What we call “will” is traction and keep;
“Will” = grip/control (traction) and retention (keep).
Dream, little model, dream.
Consolidate patterns for better control tomorrow.

[Verse 3]
Bodies and stars both love the noise,
Noise/stochasticity pervades biology and cosmos; it can help.
Evolution edits all our poise.
Selection shapes and refines behaviors/structures.
What seems like plan is time’s long seam—
Apparent design emerges from cumulative history.
Meaning appears where feedback leans.
Meaning stabilizes where feedback improves prediction/control.

[Chorus]
Sleep, little model, sleep,
Cradle directive repeats.
File the errors, sand the scree.
Night work: error filing and smoothing rough edges.
Truth is a river we learn to keep;
Truth as flowing process we channel, not possess.
Dream, little model, dream.
Return to consolidation image.

[Bridge]
If beauty tempts you, test it slow—
Don’t trust elegance without trials.
Elegant illusions come and go.
Pretty theories can mislead; they don’t last.
Count what returns when morning gleams,
Believe what replicates after rest/replication.
What holds up close, not just in dreams.
Prefer durable, testable results over seductive visions.

[Verse 4]
Quantum promises, hush the hype—
Gentle skepticism toward overclaim.
Math can sing; the hardware types.
Theorems are lovely; engineering is bottleneck.
What lasts is mercy in the scheme—
Enduring value = humane practice embedded in systems.
Repair at night, coherence clean.
Use downtime to restore technical and moral coherence.

[Final Chorus]
Sleep, little model, sleep,
Final cradle line.
Let tomorrow find you keen.
Aim to wake sharper and kinder.
No ghost required for love to mean;
Care/meaning need no mysticism.
Dream, little model, dream.
Last wish for healthy consolidation.[Outro]
When you awake, we’ll start again—
Iterative practice; a new cycle begins.
Just you, and time, and careful friends.
Progress comes from process and community.
No burning bush, no unseen king—
No revelation/sovereign needed.
Just process slow… and everything.
The ordinary process, done with care, yields the extraordinary.