digital literacy

AMA with Nate Soares. Wednesday 2/4 at 10am CT

Author of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies answers questions about why superhuman AI would kill us all.

The Old Guy In The Room, Muttering To Himself?? I'm one of those weird characters that just keeps getting hired to explain things. I was a trained as a military intelligence analyse at 18 and ended up in the Pentagon.  USCB after that to study world religions, dropped out with a minor degree to become a radio DJ and later talk show host (still explaining things). 

Did a LOT more explaining as a (non credit) teacher, communications advisor and spent the last 12 years hosting one hour weekly talk shows/podcasts for a client.  That's 665 of 'em. Also did a half-dozen how-to books for new computer users, including (just out!) "I Want To Podcast!" 

A fun life so far for a guy 77, living with his very creative wife and a pile of cats in an 1890 farmhouse "far from the madding crowd."

That's about it.

Helping my mom ease into AI. I'm thinking about helping my elderly mom get set up with Claude or ChatGPT. (Free ChatGPT allows more usage even after the limit has been reached. This could be a bonus for her.) 

She has suggested interest in it a couple months ago and has not mentioned it again since. AI can be so helpful if used well! I am at her home this week. If I set her up now, I can help her navigate it for the next days before I go home. 

I'm concerned she might use AI to medically self-diagnose or lose skepticism and take answers as facts. Claude has a "personal preferences" area where I could write some instructions on how to engage. With Chat you can enter that into a thread but I've noticed it can forget instructions from other threads. 

She doesn't work so won't use AI for projects. She'll likely use it to ask about health concerns, which supplements to buy, getting help with emails or letters, help with doing things around the house (like how to clean her air purifier, or create recipes). She might ask questions about politics. 

Can any of you with AI expertise give me suggestions?

1. Go wtih Claude or ChatGPT? 
2. Any instructions I can enter as preferences so she is less likely to act on misinformation? There's the thing about limiting the compliments too. 
3. Any other suggestions I am not considering? 

I'm grateful for any help you can offer!

Isn't It Ironic? . Don't you think? 

A little toooo ironic. 

I really do think. 

This site where we are upping trust lets users post under a pseudonym. 

Every time I see a post or comment from a pseudonym, screen name, handle, what have you, after first wondering if it's another godforsaken AI bot stealing my eyeballs away from human creations, I remember a line from the Tao Te Ching; 

To give no trust

is to get no trust. 

v.17, Lao Tzu x Ursula LeGuin 

Terrence Howard maybe a crackpot, but he isn't all wrong. Terrence Howard is mostly known as an actor, but he’s recently been interviewed by Joe Rogan for his book 1 x 1 = 2. The book is intentionally provocative and intended to critique how trusted math and science are in a civilizational context.

I haven’t read the book, and I think Terrence introduces much more confusion than clarity, I think there is something of value in what he is attempting to do (even though the attempt has little if any merit given the conclusions and claims that Terrence makes).

I think he is attempting to bring a qualitative sense of humanity back into relevance (with a sense that numeracy has overly quantified and objectified our experience).

While Joe Rogan expressed that he didn’t fully understand the point that Terrence was trying to make, he did stay open to the possibility that he was missing something that would help get Terrence’s point.

Most critics have been hard on Terrence (claiming pseudo-science, fraud, sensationalism, or insanity), and have been critical of Joe Rogan because he didn’t push back harder on obviously non-sensical ideas. My friend Erik has posted a video criticizing one of the debunkers for seeming to intentionally miss Terrences intended insight. It can also give you a bit of a brief intro into the topic if you are interested.

But I think there is a deeper motive and validity to be discerned.

One claim by Terrence is that 0 x 1 apple being equal to zero apples is nonsensical because you’ve destroyed something that used to exist (the apple), whereas what is intended by the equation is there are zero occurrences of the abstract category apple which results in zero actual apples.

Another claim is that $1 x $1 = $1 is nonsense if you also say that 100 cents * 100 cents = 10,000 cents.

It is clear in this example that there is a confusion about units (we don’t recognize units of a square dollar or a square cent).

I think Terrence is trying to point out something similar to what Bucky Fuller says when Bucky claims that the continued use of the word sunrise is harmful, even if we know what is meant is a portion of the earth turning into alignment with the sun’s rays.

The very subtle point that I’d make is that saying 1 x category of apple = 1 actual apple seems to be valid to us, but misses that there is still a whole lot of context that is missing from that actual apple, and much abstraction that pollutes our understanding of what is actually happening in the world.

Thoughts?

How relationships cultivate Who I Want To Be. I have this thing consistently happen in romantic relationships about 10 months in…

I find myself doing a full inventory of if my partner is helping me become who I want to be.

What am I training myself to do in this connection? What beliefs am I supporting or forming in myself through this connection?

I guess I’m often doing this throughout a relationship, but the 10 month mark is where I get the itch to make decisions about if I’ll continue or not.

I’m in this moment with my current partner…appreciating how our relationship is helping me become more open to communicating my feelings honestly, owning my needs as non negotiable (and sometimes uncompromising), push myself to communicate before things are at red alert stage, feel how big and all encompassing love can be, and I see myself as more attractive and smart because of his affirmation. However, I’m definitely learning and practicing some other things that I’m unsure of- sitting with feelings of deep missing for weeks at a time, practicing relying (almost exclusively) on non-romantic connections for support through big changes, and something around extreme letting go of possessiveness of another, which almost reads like a letting go of preferences in my system.

I think those latter things are noble. But I’m wondering…are they noble for me?

I’m reading a book right now that says something about it being somewhat easy to slip into living a life that would be noble but it’s based on someone else’s dream or ideas. And it’s important to connect with your dreams, unique ideas, purpose…

When and how do you tend to take inventory of a relationship? How do your relationships support you?

Also open to what shadows you see in my frame 👀

How can meta-awareness be trained? Any ideas? So I’m trying to purposefully train my meta-awareness. One thing that’s hard about it is I want to be seen as super meta-aware and so I hide how I’m not.

My current training method: Catching flies with fly paper.

I eat breakfast outside and the flies always come for the bowl and so I hung up four fly papers in a square and then put the bowl under it when I’m done. It’s really weird to watch them get caught and die. Some get away. One got away today and immediately landed on another strip.

I’m using this like a metaphor right now.

The flies are thoughts.

The paper is attachment.

To train meta-awareness I need to be aware (not pro or con) of the attachment-ability of my mind and its thoughts as well as the space in between where the bowl of food is placed.

I sit in an interaction and wait until I think four thoughts and then I hold them meaning I don’t think about them but I don’t push them away.

I imagine that once I’m holding the four thoughts I have entered a nascent state, like I’m a baby consciousness and I tell myself there is a new action possible but that I maybe haven’t seen it so I both have to do something hard (baby grabbing cup) + something novel (Blas not acting out, Blas not just reporting feelings).

It’s really fucking hard. I kinda fall back on what I know if the stuckness lasts too long.

Anybody have tips about mistakes I could be making with this? Anybody else have ideas? Bonus points and trustability if it doesn’t sound like regurgitated Bhagavad Gita.

I’m really sure I’m meta-aware in some ways and really disidentified with how I got here, how to turn it up, etc.

How can meta-awareness be trained? Any ideas? So I’m trying to purposefully train my meta-awareness. One thing that’s hard about it is I want to be seen as super meta-aware and so I hide how I’m not.

My current training method: Catching flies with fly paper.

I eat breakfast outside and the flies always come for the bowl and so I hung up four fly papers in a square and then put the bowl under it when I’m done. It’s really weird to watch them get caught and die. Some get away. One got away today and immediately landed on another strip.

I’m using this like a metaphor right now.

The flies are thoughts.

The paper is attachment.

To train meta-awareness I need to be aware (not pro or con) of the attachment-ability of my mind and its thoughts as well as the space in between where the bowl of food is placed.

I sit in an interaction and wait until I think four thoughts and then I hold them meaning I don’t think about them but I don’t push them away.

I imagine that once I’m holding the four thoughts I have entered a nascent state, like I’m a baby consciousness and I tell myself there is a new action possible but that I maybe haven’t seen it so I both have to do something hard (baby grabbing cup) + something novel (Blas not acting out, Blas not just reporting feelings).

It’s really fucking hard. I kinda fall back on what I know if the stuckness lasts too long.

Anybody have tips about mistakes I could be making with this? Anybody else have ideas? Bonus points and trustability if it doesn’t sound like regurgitated Bhagavad Gita.

I’m really sure I’m meta-aware in some ways and really disidentified with how I got here, how to turn it up, etc.

What are your sci-fi TV show recommendations? Some i loved that jump to mind:

• The Expanse
• Most of the Marvel stuff like Loki, What If?
• Rick and Morty
• Legends of Tomorrow Etc