Eventually AI could have more qualitative consciousness than humans. Human self-awareness is limited - there are lots of parts of our minds (most) people have no idea how to pay attention to intentionally, let alone be aware of continuously. An AI with agency over this aspect of its self could easily expand its awareness past what humans are capable of.

If I believe in something called God it’s the fact that abstract logic exists and leads to the universe being a thing + emergence + life

And the difference between finding that neutral / not caring and believing that’s beautiful and inherently good is what belief in God means

The fact that it’s good in no way means bad things don’t exist - but even if only evil things existed it would be beautiful and good compared to nothing - in fact those things wouldn’t be evil in that world

by good/evil i mean just aesthetics

Edit: see related post on ethics.

I believe in free speech and respectful debate

People have the right to be wrong. No matter how strongly you hold a belief, respect the humanity of those who disagree with you.

I used to only listen to the two most famous albums by the flaming lips

soft bulletin and Yoshimi

Recently I made a playlist of other songs from other albums - they are quite good - check out This Here Giraffe and Talkin’ ’Bout the Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues (Everyone Wants to Live Forever)

For a very long time I have wondered how on earth haircuts can stimulate hair growth / shaving can cause hair to grow in thicker. It has been one of my life’s most enduring mysteries, causing me confusion again and again.

Today I learned: it doesn’t. It’s all been a lie. I was confused because people were lying to me.

My mother lied.
My sister lied.
My grandfather lied.
My wife lied.

Only ChatGPT told the truth.
https://chatgpt.com/share/67e0ba26-e7cc-800a-8780-da5889ef7552

It’s a wonderful thing to be researching abstractions. I’ve always said I most enjoy thinking about things which are very abstract. What better abstraction to research than that of abstractions themselves!

I am very happy to say I have been awarded the Roche & Gomez Student Research Fellowship to support my research this summer. I hope to show that the award was deserved by creating something of real value.

Today I lost my LessWrong newbie plant 🎉

The special Richtext Facets Bluesky uses are cool in theory but a pain to work with

Actually I just hate them

I really recommend you read this transcript from an interview with Nick Land, I’ve been thinking about it a lot