Nilsi

Right. I'd rather implant it into anyone brain and embed it into supply chains and things like that - then it's at least in part human.

I feel like the biggest thing is building the right infrastructure to embed AI in. If it remains some incorporeal superintelligence, it's way more likely to just brush over life, as if it's nothing. Again, not sure that's really true. There certainly is an argument to be made for keeping it as far away from our infrastructure as possible, to avoid catastrophe.

I have no idea. Maybe it will lead to mutually assured destruction and a stalemate. I'm down for the race though, to be honest

Assuming we can deliberately steer the development of AI - the West has way better scientists, so we just need to keep outracing them and use our more powerful AI to check theirs. Assuming we can't deliberately steer AI - they won't be able to use it for their malevolent intents and all is good. Not saying that's necessarily how it works, but at least it's imaginable.

I get it, but it will never happen. I grew up with the prospect of AGI always at the periphery of my mind and so did all the people working in these tech companies - just pulling the plug from this dream won't fly. We should redouble our efforts on understanding AI and coming up with human aligned applications for it - this technophobia doesn't help anyone.

Let's not kid ourselves here, the highest value is God, of course. The only question is how one goes after this value, which is where I maintain, there is no algorithm or universal narrative for it. Some "mystics" are so malnourished and poor that they barely stay alive. Some "mystics" are yoked as fuck and wear designer clothes (shout-out to Mr. Wilber). Someone may need to put a gun to their head, to get closer to the "highest value." Someone else may need to become a Wallstreet hustler. The next guy may need to find a girlfriend. Who is to say?

Alhamdulillah.

New Lana record slaps.

You know how they say "look at the philosopher, if you want to know what this philosophy will do to you." I feel the same way about vegans and people eating plant burgers. 9/10 times they are meek, unattractive, unintelligent, uninspired, unsuccessful people - yet they are so righteous about knowing whats "healthy." Look at some carnivore and animal based guys and you will find the exact inverse. If postmodernism and psychoanalysis have taught us anything, its that this is far from being a trivial point. But people will deny this and quote some stupid scientific papers of course. Which is really the same level of irony as a fundamentalists claiming that God exists, because it says so in the bible.

I dont. In your case a procedure might be dropping out of college. For someone else it might be going to evening school, getting a high school degree and signing up for college. Whatever makes you less ignorant, is what I would prescribe. Hate to be that guy, but its all relative. Exactly this is my problem with religion and grand narratives. They make lowest common denominator prescriptions and with that domesticate entire populations of people. Isnt it obvious that this can never work? Its the same problem with AI alignment. In fact, its literally the infamous Gödels incompleteness theorem. Fair. In practice that means shedding all distinctions and beliefs. To you God is some event at the end of time. Thats fine. But God is also an experience, that actually happens - like having to take a shit. I might not have to take a shit now, but I did this morning. And the next time I do, I will recognize the feeling again. I dont need a grand narrative to make myself take a shit, when I feel like having to take a shit. Not necessarily. I dont have any meaningful definition for mysticism - to me precisely that is spirituality.

lol You can call my a postmodernist, if you really want, but my spirituality has nothing to do with that. Spirituality happens outside the realm of ideology. What is spirituality then? What you call spirituality, I call religion; and what you call religion, I call religion. You know exactly what I mean. Im not anti science. Im anti bullshit.

That would be me. But besides that, good shit. That's the energy we need a lot more of here.

Just like evolution went from atoms to molecules to cells...; from fish to mammals to humanoids; - humans evolve as well. Spiral Dynamics tracks the evolution of humanity by way of their value systems - the stages are just different clusters of MEMEs (as opposed to genes, in biological evolution) that are distinct enough to be categorized as a "developmental stage." The stages Spiral Dynamics tracks are quite robust though, as demonstrated eloquently by Ken Wilber. The colors correlate with anthropological, sociological, technological etc. developmental breakthroughs - they are a fractal of all dimensions of humanities evolution.

Just compare the socio-philosophical traditions of France and Germany. France was always about social justice, revolution and civic engagement. Germany was always about metaphysics and historical progress. They play two entirely different games. That's still very much the case, although largely unconscious

Quit academia, that shit is rotting your mind.

Spirituality is first hand experience of the Divine; religion is second hand hearsay of the Divine - not that hard to settle.

I'm not lonely and neither do I have any affiliations with the New Age, yet I reject religion - shocking, I know.

You know what? Fuck this. You can not assert any kind of value or goal, without fucking shit up as a byproduct. That's why grand narratives will never work. I got lured in and tried to be constructive, but that was foolish. There is nothing to assert and everything to negate as far as grand narratives go.

The more I think about it, the more I can get behind the idea of simply orienting toward the "infinite game." We have a big other/common enemy in existential risk. That should be enough of a narrative to not have to go on anyone's nerves with more elaborate stories about good and evil and how to conduct oneself.

The point of a grand narrative is to structure society and orient people towards a common goal, no? So, there is no "right to do that," as far as deviating from the narrative goes - that would undermine the whole thing. Please tell me what you have in mind, but I can not stretch my imagination that far. I'd take Lyotard's "Postmodern Condition" over the Bible every day of the week, but because I'm an idiot and I want to be charitable, I actually started reading the damn tome. So, we'll see, if there is anything resembling an integral roadmap for 21st century humanity in the grand narrative.

Dreaming a thought that could dream about a thought That could think of the dreamer that thought That could think of dreaming and getting a glimmer of God

You're assuming that everyone has the same needs, to the same degree. I need constant competition and challenge; I need extreme levels of aesthetic stimulation; I need to be the authrotiy, wherever I am; and I need to feel my power increase consistently. Does your grand narrative call me evil, or will it deny the validity of my needs? In any case, I want nothing of it.

My God, do I really have to sit through half an hour of some indian nerd talking to a blue-haired gamer about grand narratives? What good could possibly come from this? I'm not critiquing some strawman version of a grand narrative. I mean what I say. No matter how many safety meassures your narrative has, it will always be partial - that shouldn't be so shocking. Especially in the age of exponential technology and thus ultra rapid sociocultural evolution, the idea of some grand narrative is absolutely silly. I say, lets figure out how not to blow ourselves up and then let people live and express themselves however they wish. All we need to get right is the not blowing ourselves up part.

Would you rather fight 1 horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses?

Apparently our incentives and goals are not alligned, so how do we allign them, if not through debate? We will never reach complete consensus, so the best we can do is rule by majority (i.e. what we're doing) - which creates a whole gamut of problems that have been nicely illuminated by postmodern thinkers (e.g. marginalisation, alienation, oppression etc.) We need villains, precisely to keep the status quo from becoming too decadent and complacent - so let's just fight it out, instead of trying to make peace.