Alternate title: Exiting the Basilisk’s Castle. Also part of the series: LW Psychosis. Day 1: Wake up. Back to work. Report-writing. Stats assignments. Grading. Sleep. Day 2: Wake up. Step outside. Feel the damp air soakswirlwhip at my hair. Feel the goosebumps multiplying at the base of my spine. Smell...
A short story on the threat of cognitive prosthetics inspired by recent discussion on motivated reasoning, AI psychosis, and AI hallucination. Tone is intended to be playful-serious and provoke thoughtful discussion. No AIs were harmed in the writing of this article. Day 1: Start reading an article. Stop, get frustrated...
It was definitely relevant! Thank you for the link--I think introducing this idea might assist communication in some of my relationships.
This is really useful information; thank you! I think I will change my approach to presenting my own research based on this comment. I have a limited biology background, but would love to watch a presentation of yours sometime.
This is always a good reminder :) Thank you!
I find it bizarre and surprising, no matter how often it happens, when someone thinks my helping them pressure-test their ideas and beliefs for consistency is anything except a deep engagement and joy. If I didn't want to connect and understand them, I wouldn't bother actually engaging with the idea.
I feel like I could have written this (and the rest of your comment)! It's confusing and deflating when deep engagement and joy aren't recognized as such.
It's happened often enough that I often need to modulate my enthusiasm, as it does cause suffering in a lot of friends/acquaintances who don't think the same way as I do.
I've tried the same with mixed... (read more)
It's so interesting how everyone seems to have gotten different messages from this! I found this story helpful and wouldn't cut out the length. I found I resonated most with Mr. Humman in terms of his values.
Some (of many) things I liked that Mr. Humman said:
... (read more)None of us are strictly better than any other.
All of us are weaker in some places, and stronger in others; so nobody has the right to look down on anyone else.
"Oh, well," Mr. Humman said, "I had really hoped more to hear of where you felt my own play was strong, or clever -- the same sort of perspective that I offered you." Mr. Humman kept any
One theme I've been thinking about recently is how bids for connection and understanding are often read as criticism. For example:
Person A shares a new idea, feeling excited and hoping to connect with Person B over something they've worked hard on and hold dear.
Person B asks a question about a perceived inconsistency in the idea, feeling excited and hoping for an answer which helps them better understand the idea (and Person B).
Person A feels hurt and unfairly rejected by Person B. Specifically, Person A feels like Person B isn't willing to give their sincere idea (and effort to connect) a chance, so shuts down and labels Person B as an idea-hater.
Person B... (read more)
Awesome! I unfortunately can't initiate DMs on here but if you send me one I will respond :-)
Hey Cole! I also went through a period of feeling pretty worried about s-risks, and have recently come out the other side. If you'd like someone to talk to, or even any advice re: any materials you might find helpful for coming to accept/loosen the grip of fear and anxiety, my inbox is open (I'm a clinical psych PhD student and have lots of resources for existential/humanist therapy, compassion-focused therapy, CBT, DBT, etc.). I've probably read a lot of what you're worried about, so you don't need to worry about having any hazardous effect on me :)
Also, I'd love to learn more from you about your research! I like your posts.
Thank you so much for your response! That's a great point; I've now added links. If this doesn't resonate with people I will try again with more universal concepts :) I appreciate the feedback!
Creative intellectual play for the day. Can you add another observation to each set? Would you rearrange the sets in any way? Can you unite sets 1, 2, and 3 under a higher-order concept/rule/group?
(1) Plato’s forms, Real numbers, logarithmic functions, taxonomic lumpers.
(2) Mycelium networks, infinite recursion, exponential functions, taxonomic splitters.
(3) Aristotle’s hylomorphism, Langan’s CTMU, dialectical reasoning, Derridean Différance.
No wrong answers. Confident everyone has something insightful to contribute :D
Alternate title: Exiting the Basilisk’s Castle. Also part of the series: LW Psychosis.
Day 1: Wake up. Back to work. Report-writing. Stats assignments. Grading. Sleep.
Day 2: Wake up. Step outside. Feel the damp air soakswirlwhip at my hair. Feel the goosebumps multiplying at the base of my spine. Smell the rain. Notice an interesting rock at my feet. Pick it up. Feel its rough edges, its weight, its stillness in my hand. Kick it down the sidewalk. Kick it again. End up back home.
Day 3: Wake up. Read Russell. Read Gödel. Read Tarski. Find meaning. Get downvoted. Feel misunderstood. Stew about the futility of language. Think about uphill battles.
Reread Camus. Reread Baudrillard. Read... (read 371 more words →)
A short story on the threat of cognitive prosthetics inspired by recent discussion on motivated reasoning, AI psychosis, and AI hallucination. Tone is intended to be playful-serious and provoke thoughtful discussion. No AIs were harmed in the writing of this article.
Day 1: Start reading an article. Stop, get frustrated with the assertion of a base reality, think a bit, finish the article.
Day 2: Write a post on how rationalists are being irrational in starting with an unfounded assumption that an objective territory/base reality exists. Argue for methodological solipsism. Feed a rough draft into Perplexity’s Sonar to check if I have anything. Sonar brings up Wittgenstein. I argue epistemic hubris. I claim not... (read 810 more words →)
How does cryonics make sense in the age of high x-risk? As p(doom) increases, cryonics seems like a worse bet because (1) most x-risk scenarios would result in frozen people/infrastructure/the world being destroyed and (2) revival/uploading would be increasingly likely to be performed by a misaligned ASI hoping to use humans for its own purposes (such as trade). Can someone help me understand what I’m missing here or clarify how cryonics advocates think about this?
This is my first quick take—feedback welcome!
Hi! Yes :) I think a good framework for working on anxiety on your own is Self-Compassion Therapy (SCT). I like SCT for existential anxiety in particular because its success doesn't hinge on your ability to change your external circumstances and it doesn't presuppose your degree of worry is disproportionate relative to the "actual threat" posed by the object of your worry. Here are some exercises published by Kristin Neff, a well-regarded self-compassion researcher/practitioner: https://self-compassion.org/self-compassion-practices/. There are also lots of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) guided meditations online, e.g., https://www.jeffersonhealth.org/conditions-and-treatments/mindfulness-based-stress-reduction/mindfulness/mbsr-guided-practices--I'd look into the body scans to start, as anxiety often manifests as muscle tension and intervening on muscle tension can indirectly alleviate anxiety.
If... (read more)