epsilonic

Just release the Epstein files already...

How is calibration of Jev or Jev-inspired models being evaluated?

There's a movie based on Stephen K. King's work whose ending depicts a similar scenario. I believe it's called Cell.

I recommend reading this short essay to understand what self-propagating systems are:

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ted-kaczynski-why-th...

Here is an expanded version of the same essay as well (part 5 is prescient):

https://www.thetedkarchive.com/library/ted-kaczynski-why-the...

Also, a very lucid synthesis of TK's work is provided in Chad A. Haag's book: The Philosophy of Ted Kaczynski.

I'm curious to know why you'd say that. I'm asking because I've been prescribed it since 2021 to manage depression and chronic pain from spinal disc herniations. I've had moments of high strangeness with it, much to the effect of what John Lilly described in his writings. I do intend to stop it once I've established a better quality of life via alternative methods.

Ted Kaczynski, despite his violent activism, had interesting things to say about this in the form of self-propagating systems.

It’s a sane default to label power as evil in a society driven by greed, usury, and capital gain. Power tends to corrupt, particularly when the incentives driving its pursuit or sustenance undermine scruples or conscientiousness. It is difficult to see how power is not corrupting when it becomes an end in itself, rather than a means directed toward a worthy or noble purpose.

Ted Kaczynski shared a similar view, but he would’ve added that these technological artefacts or amenities have major de-humanizing effects.

I don't disagree. Unfortunately, I cannot edit the comment anymore.

Not a useful analogy because nihilism is a human pursuit, not an OS one. The aggregate history of humanity does have meaning; it embodies information, cultural transmission, a lineage of ideas, which are all artifacts of human interactions that often shape the trajectory of civilization and the choices we make as individuals.

We know that the current administration functions like a cabal of sex-trafficking mobsters, so none of this is surprising; strong-arming is the norm, not the exception. I expect this to get ugly, and I hope Anthropic has the financial and legal resources to respond accordingly.

An antidote to this antiquated and distorted view of Plato can be found in the following book: In Defense of Plato by Ronald B. Levinson.

Sounds like nihilism.

At least Plato did the work in attempting to describe the qualities (of the soul) and structure necessary to erect a just society; the problem is that we have not cultivated the frame of mind to produce people with "philosopher king" traits. As we advance further in our technological development, we will need to think carefully about how we form societies that cultivate responsible stewards of technology. After all, not everyone is equal in their capacity to manage certain technologies responsibly. Plato made a serious attempt at addressing this problem. If we have failed in realizing his vision, it is because we forgot how to attend to our soul.

They will have machines do that for them, curating collections of dissident files that are categorized by various propensities, then proposing among a range of soft to hard interventions. This is why we're seeing an uptick in the construction of AI data centers (e.g. STARGATE); it's going to get ugly very soon. And before you know it, your social mobility will be dictated by how well you adapt to the narratives they endorse. The fact that they (i.e., the elites) have gotten away with so much depravity, and are now revealing it publicly, emboldens them further to commit the type of oppression that I foresee happening. What we're experiencing now is ritual humiliation at scale.

Book 1 of Plato: Republic demonstrates the folly of such thinking.

We're definitely going in the direction of "might is right". The "palantirization" of data stores (not just those for surveillance) is going to be an enabler of the "hard power" you're alluding to. This whole platform is probably a dragnet for identifying intelligent people with dissident views. Expect things to get uglier and stranger as well.

This is really good, thank you for sharing!

I think they’re waiting for bargain bin deals once the bubble collapses.

They are the proponents of The Great Reset. Here’s an excerpt from a book I read:

‘As Hitler declared in 1934, “The German revolution will be concluded only when the entire German Volk has been totally created anew, reorganized and reconstructed” (cited in Koonz, 2003, p. 87). The “Great Reset,” announced by World Economic Forum (WEF) director Klaus Schwab, son of Nazi industrialist Eugen Schwab, attempts the same thing on a global scale, promising to “revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, from education to social contracts and working conditions. Every country [ . . . ] must participate, and every industry [ . . . ] must be transformed” (Schwab, 2020).’

The book is: Wall Street, the Nazis, and the Crimes of the Deep State

By David A. Hughes

There’s a good book that discusses dark patterns in Gambling games, making it easier to appreciate how they extrapolate to other contexts as well. The title of the book is:

Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas

Author: Natasha Dow Schüll

Sure. When I have a night of poor sleep or anticipate one, I usually take 6 grams of BHB salts in the morning on an empty stomach. You can work your way up to a maximum of 12 grams, but I would advise caution since it can cause diarrhea. I would start by buying the cheapest product (nutricost) you can find online; if it costs more than $80 for ~300g, then you're probably getting ripped off. I noticed that I have very lucid dreams and experience strong hypnagogic jerks when I take this supplement.

Here is some literature that I've perused to support my experimentation with BHB salts:

1. β-hydroxybutyrate is a metabolic regulator of proteostasis in the aged and Alzheimer disease brain (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S245194562...)

2. Refueling the post COVID-19 brain: potential role of ketogenic medium chain triglyceride supplementation: an hypothesis (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3...)

My motivation for pursuing this was protracted sleep disturbance from long-covid.

Exogenous ketones (such as BHB salts) are known to help with glymphatic drainage in the brain during sleep. I've used them extensively and have noticed improved sleep with nearly a doubling of the time spent in REM stage.

What signals make you so certain that we are in another civil war? Just curious.

Linear Algebra and Geometry by Igor Shafarevich, coupled with Linear Algebra by Friedberg, Insel, and Spence; the latter has great problems to work with, whereas the former is for a lucid exposition.

This attribution criteria might be subject to revision based on research like this: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...

If you like this article, you’ll probably enjoy reading most publications from the Santa Fe Institute.

Not quite. I've been taking Beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) salts in powder form, mixed with water. Here is some interesting literature discussing its benefits as a metabolic regulator of proteostasis in aged and Alzheimer-diseased brains:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37461525/ (same research article referenced in the post link)

I personally take it to manage brain fog due to long-Covid.

This is something I've been experiencing as well, and I just started exogenous Ketone supplementation three days ago.

Yeah… let’s just strap you to a plunging plane, then invalidate your experience as “overflowing with hyperbole”.