Philip Sheldrake -

4 June 2026 / 0 Comments

Software 4.0 — A New Neurosymbolic AI

Photo titled "MicroRNA Delivery" by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash.

We’ve reached an uncanny milestone in tech. We are building intimate conversational bonds with AI chatbots, yet the software infrastructure surrounding our daily lives remains as rigid, silent, and fragile as ever.

LLMs tease us with their facilities to write code, but forcing this new form of intelligence to work with programming paradigms that pre-date the World Wide Web is driving a silent crisis of structural decay in large-scale software systems.

This post introduces the Software 4.0 era. Informed by biological processes, it turns software into a living, self-verifying organism that provides the perfect complement to LLMs. It transforms how we build and co-evolve the digital fabric of our world.

24 February 2026 / 0 Comments

Something Big Could Be Happening: A response to Matt Shumer’s post

Abstract image that looks vaguely like a planet rotating at speed.

A 2022 article in Noema magazine describes apophenia as "faulty pattern recognition. People see faces in clouds and alien ruins on Mars. ... Humans are pattern-recognizing creatures, and so apophenia is built in."

A Google engineer had claimed an LLM to be conscious, sentient, and indeed a person, and the article explores reasons for why he had reached such a conclusion. It's well worth a read, particularly its observation that we apply concepts that have wholly anthropomorphic heritage and meaning to LLM technology. Pehaps we need new vocabulary.

The technology's stochastic prowess is much advanced 42 months later, and perhaps that's all the more reason we continue to see things that aren't there. Matt Shumer's "Something Big Is Happening" is the latest example.

27 November 2025 / 0 Comments

Supersoftware — software that is itself symbolic AI

Abstract image created by Nano Banana Pro in response to the prompt to create an abstact image in the theme of this post's title

Trillions of dollars are flowing into LLM technology and services — that's not an exaggeration — and yet LLMs can’t grapple with enterprise software. When we invite them to code, to update schemas, to modify configurations, they break things. Constantly.

But this isn't an LLM problem. It's a software problem.

23 April 2025 / 0 Comments

Transition9 — the natural integration of human and next-level artificial intelligence

I'm never quite sure if the phrase is that we're blessed or we're cursed to live in interesting times. Either way, we're definitely here and it's definitely interesting.

Both the internet and the web were designed purposefully to be decentralized. No-one could take control let alone turn them off. Since then we've witnessed many power grabs — from privately owned social networks to nation states 'protecting' their citizens — interspersed with a series of community action and associated projects to re-decentralize things.

Decentralizing done well is a means to some very welcome ends, but it has proven to be a harder design challenge than centralizing. And just as you think you're making progress, along comes the next centralizing innovation.

21 February 2025 / 0 Comments

Addresso — your web3 address book, and a bit more besides

We’ve needed purpose-designed address books for every technological wave, from the postage stamp to cell phone numbers. Web3 is no exception.

Yet any old address book simply won't cut it when it comes to web3. As a valuable part of the decentralized web, there are certain things you just have to get right.

Addresso is the first purpose-built web3 address book that isn't welded to a specific wallet application. We've designed it so we can say with just a hint of pride:

Addresso is yours
You have sole control
It runs solely on your devices
The data lives only on your devices
It’s always encrypted with your passphrase
You sign additions and changes for complete security.

2 May 2024 / 0 Comments

Reusable KYC: when a dedication to decentralization self-sabotages

The Procession of the Trojan Horse into Troy, by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo. An 18th Century painting depicting the citizens of Troy pushing and pulling the horse into their city.

Are we our own worst enemy?

Originally posted to the generative identity website.

15 August 2023 / 0 Comments

Once more with meaning — a review of a draft industry paper on human-centric digital identity

Two children on steps with a clipboard trying to figure something out together.

The paper falls far short in its appreciation for human-centred design, and this is quite typical of contemporary approaches to digital identity.

Originally posted to the generative identity website.

30 January 2023 / 0 Comments

Live or DIE — a review of a draft industry paper on the harms of SSI

Dear lawmakers and regulators, this draft industry paper doesn't do the job. I explain why in the hope that you will act.

First published to the generative identity website.

6 November 2022 / 0 Comments

Web3’s future #fail is avoidable

The point of failure is precisely where Web3 technology meets you and me. We must change our approach, not just to avoid failure, but to fully explore and expand the gifts of being human.

First published to the generative identity website.

14 July 2022 / 2 Comments

Digital identity is not human identity, and that matters

A drawing outlining two people and the information flows without.

If your work involves architecting or designing or developing or policymaking for the interweave of people and digital technologies, or researching the consequences, may I invite you to check out my new essay: Human identity — the number one challenge in computer science.

Wonderfully, I've been helped by thirteen reviewers offering more than two hundred questions and suggestions over six months. The work has been funded 🙏🏼 by the AKASHA Foundation, and is co-published with the brilliant Kernel community. Here's a very quick outline ...