Youtube Channel Ideas

[integral]

I was watching this video and I thought it would be interesting to use this presentation Style and instead frame it for philosophy or science or any topic.

The video is a very entertaining presentation Style of how speedrunners compete with each other to beat a map as quickly as possible. It's very engaging and interesting even for someone who's not interested in this topic at all.

So I think it could be adapted for different types of content.

Let's imagine the competition of ideas between scientists or between philosophers and you can see how the progression of a idea changed throughout history.

[integral]

Here's another video style that I think could be adapted to different types of content.

They're short style videos that just tell the basic story and use AI image generation to help depict the story.

This content like the previous one requires a good presentation voice.

 

[integral]

Hilarious Speed Running of Free Will Philosophy.

384 BCE, the year it all began. It was here that Aristotle kicked off with the first serious examination of free will. Free will, the concept that humans can make choices of their own volition, has puzzled philosophers for millennia. The idea doesn't seem particularly special at first glance - just the notion that we control our actions. But there's more to this concept than meets the eye, and although thinkers didn't know it yet, legendary breakthroughs with the potential to reshape our understanding of human nature were laying dormant, hidden in plain sight.

But for now, ignorant to the complexities ahead, philosophers had no choice but to focus on the basic route. Scattered throughout history are numerous tricks thinkers can use to defend or attack free will, and the first millennium of philosophical world record history saw many small improvements: maintaining more logical consistency after the initial premise, faster rebuttals to determinism, etc.

As expected, progress gradually slowed down as players like Augustine, Aquinas, and Descartes pushed the concept closer to perfection. And on July 1st, 1654, a player named Spinoza set back-to-back records, pushing it down to a strict determinism. This record isn't viewable today, but it was clearly an incredibly controversial take on free will. The idea went on to stand unchallenged for nearly a century.

But then, in 1781, the player Kant took it upon himself to push the concept further. His eyes firmly set on a transcendental run, Kant had single-handedly managed to bring the record down another level, driving the first truly modern conception of free will in philosophical history. After this flurry of ideas, free will was looking incredibly optimized. Kant had pushed every section to the limits of what was possible, and competitors would have to start thinking outside the box if they wanted to take his record down.

During these years of hunting on free will, players had long since theorized that a shortcut might be possible on the concept. Although the idea originated much earlier, the first known footage of the idea came from Schopenhauer in 1819 when he shared this clip with the community: 'A man can do what he wills, but he cannot will what he wills.'

The shortcut took advantage of a so-called 'will bug' to reach the finish line from a small patch of determinism to the left of free choice. For whatever reason, when the concept is balanced on its nose between freedom and necessity, if a player holds 'volition,' 'action,' and either 'cause' or 'effect,' there's a chance the idea will get sharply redirected in that direction.

The catch is that the exact direction the concept flies in is incredibly unpredictable, and in the case of free will, even getting the nose of the idea down is already fairly difficult. In the clip, Schopenhauer managed to execute the will bug perfectly, setting his concept hurdling towards a new understanding of freedom, but there was one other problem with this shortcut idea - the finish line is facing the wrong way. This made finishing with a will bug from the side nearly impossible and completely luck-based.

Because of all this, nobody really took the shortcut idea seriously, and it was slowly forgotten after even Schopenhauer moved on from the concept. It wouldn't be until June 1943 when someone new decided to give it a shot. Funnily enough, that someone was Jean-Paul Sartre. I had stumbled across Schopenhauer's failed clip during that June and, having always been fascinated with philosophical shortcuts, was surprised to see that nobody had given this one a real shot before.

So for the next few months, Sartre went all in, putting up a huge effort in the hopes of getting that one lucky run. Many of his best attempts came heartbreakingly close, but that pesky finish line rejected will bug after will bug. On October 28th, 1945, Sartre booted up the concept like any other day, ready to throw attempts at the cut once again. But this session wouldn't last nearly as long as he had expected.

On his very first attempt after loading the concept, this happened: 'Man is condemned to be free.' Finally, after countless hours of trying, Sartre had gotten a will bug that resulted in a lucky bounce, sending his idea tumbling into a new understanding of radical freedom. The shortcut dream on free will was real.

After clinching the record, Sartre knew there was more potential to save time off the concept, but personally, he was content with his run. Later that same century, a player named Benjamin Libet saw this same room for improvement and began putting up attempts of his own. And on September 15th, 1983, Libet got this run: unconscious brain activity precedes conscious decisions.

A few slightly better bounces after the will bug were all it took to improve the record down to a blazing fast neuroscientific challenge to free will, breaking the consciousness barrier for the first time. But this wasn't the only action free will saw in the late 20th century.

Little did Libet know, but when he claimed the record, another player had been trying the shortcut themselves at the exact same time. Daniel Dennett, after Libet shared his clip showing off the new world record, the philosophical celebration for this run didn't last for long. Just 8 years later, Dennett dropped a clip of his own. It was a tiny improvement, but an improvement nonetheless, snatching away Libet's world record with a compatibilist view that redefined what we mean by 'free will.'

Unlike Libet's record, Dennett's would stand atop the leaderboards for quite a while. That is, until Sam Harris set his sights on free will. Throughout the early 2000s, Harris had been on a dominant tear, claiming philosophical record after record, eventually working his way to challenge our deepest intuitions about choice and moral responsibility.

Free will became Harris's next target, and it wouldn't take long before his dominance once again became apparent when he drove this run on the concept: 'Free will is an illusion.' Harris had finally nailed the dream shortcut, bouncing directly into a hard determinist position without losing any argumentative speed.

This is where the philosophical world record stands today, sitting as another notch on Harris's ever-growing list of controversial achievements. But this shortcut wasn't just a personal victory for Harris, it was also a monumental step forward for the philosophical community, as discovering new perspectives on such ancient concepts is a rare feat.

So with that in mind, you might be surprised to hear that free will wasn't the only fundamental philosophical concept to be shortcut for the first time that night. But in order to fully appreciate this story, we have to go all the way back to 470 BCE when a groundbreaking new shortcut first emerged on the concept of knowledge itself...

Edited July 23 by integral

[LordFall]

I would say start posting stuff and see how you like it. I've been posting content of various kind for 10 years and I sort of like it sort of not. The image of being a famous Youtuber I had in mind proved to be less inspiring than I thought. It's a lot of consistent work and I'm an INTP that doesn't necessarily value other people agreeing with my thoughts so I don't find posting them very rewarding.

Also an interesting time to get into content production with AI-generated content making it easier and more competitive than ever.

Only way to know how you'll fare is trying though. Ideas are only as good as execution. 

[integral]

13 hours ago, LordFall said:

Only way to know how you'll fare is trying though. Ideas are only as good as execution. 

Execution is brutally difficult 😭

[integral]

@LordFall

Look at this masterpiece, The Voice 10/10, the visuals 10/10, the story telling/script 10/10, the vibe 10/10. 

I have no idea what they used to make the visuals...

Edited July 29 by integral

[MarkKol]

On 29/07/2024 at 11:31 AM, integral said:

I have no idea what they used to make the visuals

After effects with lots of plugins

[integral]

46 minutes ago, MarkKol said:

After effects with lots of plugins

I did some more research and these specific guys were using blender with some plugins

[MarkKol]

2 hours ago, integral said:

I did some more research and these specific guys were using blender with some plugins

Even better, Adobe is a pain and expensive. How would you make 3d videos like that? you either need a lot of time or a small team to make it. 

[integral]

@MarkKol I know man, it would easily take me two weeks to 3D model and animate that video and that's not even including the music the editing the voice acting the script writing.

It turns out that that channel does have a small team like you suggested, but right now I'm trying to figure out how to use image generation + image to video to get similar results. But right now the AI video generation is to unstable, I think in another 8 months it should be doable and then it will be possible to make a video of this quality at a far lower cost.

[integral]

But the voice acting is top tier in that video, the atmosphere it creates, the mystery/tension and the experience is very hard to replicate. 

Edited July 31 by integral

[integral]

Team of about 5 people, but this quality is where its at.