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Epistemic status: I feel reasonably confident (~75%) that some form of this is a worthwhile project. Looking for feedback to reduce that uncertainty. “Hedonium” is a theoretical, minimally conscious substance optimized for experiencing happiness. Imagine a mind pared down to the bare essentials required for having happy experiences, instantiated as...
Crossposted from https://jacktlab.substack.com/p/the-life-changing-magic-of-illusionist. DISCLAIMER: I am not a mental health professional. This is just one strategy for general quality-of-life meditation that has worked for me. If you are experiencing extreme negative emotions and you think anything I am advocating here would encourage you to tamp those down to treat them...
Crosspost from https://jacktlab.substack.com/p/i-lost-my-faith-in-introspection, originally published Jan 9, 2026. Epistemic status: confident in experimental results and in updating away from infallibilism, but am far from certain that this is an unsolvable problem for phenomenal realists. Reading Daniel Dennett’s Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking, I came across the following demonstration:...
Asking questions about Joe Carlsmith of Open Philanthropy's essay "Can you control the past?" (He thinks yes.) Carlsmith was a major contributor to Ord's The Precipice, and discussed this essay on the 80K hours podcast. I think this has direct parallels to the subjunctive dependence problem for FDT. Thoughts? Suggestions?...
I've been doing a series of posts on my substack about Functional Decision Theory as I work on addressing flaws and criticisms. Part of what persuaded me to work on these problems was the discovery that every single LLM I tested chooses one-boxing over two-boxing, though none of the LLMs...