Lately people have been using the term AI psychosis to describe cases where someone loses touch with ordinary reality after spending too much time in conversation with a chatbot. The phrase is hyperbolic, but it gestures toward something real, the way a language model can sustain and reinforce a person’s private worldview long past the […]
I have to admit I am partial to Donald Hoffman’s theory of consciousness. At least partly because it is fun. Which is the only real test of any theory. Hoffman’s form of idealism builds off a scientific scaffolding rooted in his Interface Theory of Perception (ITP) which suggests that what we see is not reality […]
I was thinking about the role of rumination in consciousness, specifically the lack of it in large language models and what adding it might do. Besides the obvious increase in energy consumption, I think it could change a lot about what they are. In considering what might change I stumbled on a new metaphor for […]
I’m really am partial to the Schachter-Singer two-factor theory of emotion as it seems to jive well with my own experience of emotion. The idea is that arousal in the body does not have a built-in emotional label, it is just raw energy. Your heart races, adrenaline floods in, your breathing quickens, and your muscles […]
China supposedly has the artificial womb robot, but who knows if that’s real or just Cold War style propaganda where both sides lie about how close they are to the moon. Still, if anyone was gonna do it first it’d be China, cause they don’t give a fuck. Rocking CRISPR all day. Medical ethics btfo. […]
I’ve written about this before, but I often see sentiments like the one in the below photo posted in philosophy forums and so I compiled a more specific response to this type of thinking: That’s a misunderstanding of what emotions are. Emotions aren’t some enemy to reason, they are reason in action, just in a […]
I’ve been thinking a lot about David Lynch lately, since his passing. It’s got me reflecting on what his work meant to me and how I first encountered him as a young teen. David Lynch’s work and surrealism have profoundly influenced my understanding of art and life. My journey began in childhood, sparked by a […]
MA in Philosophy, Dissertation October 4th 2024 11,999 Words Abstract This dissertation is an exploration of the state of discourse surrounding the nature of consciousness in both science and philosophy for the purpose of determining where consciousness studies currently fall within Thomas Kuhn’s framework of the structure of scientific revolutions. After laying out Kuhn’s framework […]
Between Nietzsche’s critiques of free will/transparency of self, and his idea of what constitutes great men appears a fun spot to slide memetics in. His description runs contrary to purely evolutionary interests/the will to life. He discusses how all great philosophers are unmarried. He praises a solitary life and the use of suffering as motivator […]
i’ve been attempting for some time now to put into words how I visualize my understanding of information and how it ties into a larger ontology. I won’t say this is perfect, it definitely still needs refining but I think it’s a start. I visualize the entirety of human essence as a vast and ever-shifting […]
Sentient Roomba 