At least I believe in the AI research realm researchers were aware these are all very complex things, and there is much we still need to know about them? Maybe not!
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I think the researchers are well aware of the gaps. Less so the VCs, and I think there are a lot of non-technical tech industry people who have managed to convince themselves that they are actually inventing God, and so pouring money into this parlor truck is the Meaning they've been seeking.
aug 8, 2025, 8:39 pm • 3 0 • view
They’re just going to declare it GOD like people used to (kind of) do in the past about certain natural objects.
aug 8, 2025, 8:41 pm • 3 0 • view
And certain manmade ones!! Golden calves and such...
aug 8, 2025, 8:43 pm • 2 0 • view
Oh, right. Golden Calf. I wonder how people thought about such objects…whether it itself is imbued with cosmic properties or if it is imbued by a spirit. A worship of objects is curious. You can smash an object. You can turn off the AI God. Seems like it to work there must be a ‘spiritual element’
aug 8, 2025, 8:47 pm • 2 0 • view
I suspect a lot of it has to do with the inevitable caste of priests who attach themselves to the procedural worship of the object. You can't (easily) smash an object that has a high status caste dedicated to teaching people all the reasons to never smash it lol
aug 8, 2025, 9:14 pm • 3 0 • view
This is why I keep coming back to the idea of a Savonarola as the only figure who can set us right - the mystical hater, the guy willing to devote body and soul to there being No More Fun of Any Kind and self-annihilating in the process.
aug 8, 2025, 9:19 pm • 2 0 • view
Oh interesting—explain!
aug 8, 2025, 9:20 pm • 2 0 • view
I think the backlash to the "lol nothing matters" corruption of Trump is going to be a movement that takes everything way too seriously, probably after surviving whatever catastrophe gets caused by the failure of all the systems he's breaking. Probably a reaction against tech too.
aug 8, 2025, 9:29 pm • 2 0 • view
If you mean we’ll all be like the people who take everything way too seriously and are obnoxious about it now—many are status-seeking and do one-upsmanship. The more equal and less competitive our environments are, likely the more we can mellow out and enjoy ourselves even post-Trump.
aug 8, 2025, 9:34 pm • 2 0 • view
Yeah, I don't know what I mean either, it's sort of just vibes. I guess I expect extreme earnestness to have a cultural moment, maybe veering into censoriousness around whatever aspects of decadence caused whatever the salient catastrophe was. Again, this is all just wisps.
aug 8, 2025, 10:17 pm • 2 0 • view
I think a lot of the time, the spiritual element is the human imagination and mental investment we put into it. But it throws it into overdrive when the object can talk back very convincingly. The place of "truth" in our lives is about to undergo a radical shift.
aug 8, 2025, 8:52 pm • 2 0 • view
I know. 😭 I prefer Classic Truth. I do not want New Truth.
aug 8, 2025, 8:56 pm • 2 0 • view
I mean... I guess that's actually a hopeful metaphor in and of itself? The Classic is still what they sell by the siloful, while the New has been nothing but a punchline for 40 years...
aug 8, 2025, 9:00 pm • 2 0 • view
I guess I should say ‘responding to truth.’ When societies stop responding to truth in sustainable practices (fascism causes that) they crumble. You can HAVE a cult and flourish but can’t be Jonestown. We’re getting Jonestown now. You can believe the rainfall is from gods if you notice WHEN it comes
aug 8, 2025, 9:09 pm • 2 0 • view
That's a really good way to put it. And I do think most of the priests of this cult believe the bullshit too. Again, the difference between this and Jonestown is that Jonestown had a leader; AI is just a mirage.
aug 8, 2025, 9:13 pm • 1 0 • view
Yeah but it’s not truth-seeking. It cannot comprehend truth. That’s another way similar characteristic to fascist leaders and cult leaders that makes them so dangerous.
aug 8, 2025, 9:20 pm • 1 0 • view
How truth operates in society is one of my lifelong questions. Societies can work BEAUTIFULLY while organized around untruths (kings, priesthoods). But there still has to be a core way of addressing truth that works or they fall apart. Maybe there’s ‘survival truths’? AI will threaten that one.
aug 8, 2025, 9:07 pm • 2 0 • view
Yeah, it seems like the most salient feature of AI is that it has no core, and will say anything to anyone. In that way it's actually really Trumpian.
aug 8, 2025, 9:10 pm • 3 1 • view
Yes. 20 years ago in class discussion of ‘lying’ popped up and I found almost everyone in the class prefers to be lied to if the truth is upsetting. I hadn’t know I was an outlier on that. Believing lies or being in a fog of untruth is a disturbing idea to me even if nothing happens. I NEED to know.
aug 8, 2025, 9:16 pm • 1 0 • view