This is a blogpost version of a talk I gave earlier this year at GDM.

Epistemic status: Vague and handwavy. Nuance is often missing. Some of the claims depend on implicit definitions that may be reasonable to disagree with. But overall I think it's directionally true.

It's often said that mech interp is pre-paradigmatic.

I think it's worth being skeptical of this claim.

In this post I argue that:

Mech interp is not pre-paradigmatic.
Within that paradigm, there have been "waves" (mini paradigms). Two waves so far.
Second-Wave Mech Interp has recently entered a 'crisis' phase.
We may be on the edge of a third wave.

Preamble: Kuhn, paradigms, and paradigm shifts

First, we need to be familiar with the basic definition of a paradigm:

A paradigm is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research [...]