Category: Critical Thinking

  • the Physical Culture Podcast is LIVE! Listen Now to e001!

    the Physical Culture Podcast is LIVE! Listen Now to e001!

    We are delighted to announce the inaugural episode of our new podcast: the Physical Culture Podcast. Our first episode explores a wide range of topics from physical health to the purpose of life to what a future with UBI might look like for our civilization, with hosts Gregory Roberts and Abram Hodgens. Listen now to…

  • The Robots are Coming: Here’s the Plan, Humans!

    The Robots are Coming: Here’s the Plan, Humans!

    The wonks call it “AI job displacement”… but let’s just call a spade a spade: With the coming wave of autonomous AI software agents, combined with humanoid robot workers, there will be a massive leap in human unemployment. Ironically, it will probably affect the most industrialized and “developed” nations first. As mentioned all across this…

  • Why the 2023 Altman Coup Failed? The Ugly Truth : MONEY, HONEY

    Why the 2023 Altman Coup Failed? The Ugly Truth : MONEY, HONEY

    It was widely reported that within 72 hours of CEO Sam Altman being summarily executed and kicked out of the company he founded, that more than 95% of OpenAI employees signed a letter threatening to quit if he was not reinstated. And that this was why the Altman Coup Failed. In the popular and mainstream…

  • Why do We Risk Our Lives to Climb Mountains?

    Why do We Risk Our Lives to Climb Mountains?

    My recent adventures on the slopes of Mount Whitney (see 1 the initial summit & 2 the redemption mission), and the dancing with death that were a result of both, has me deeply thinking about the why of mountaineering. And not just for me — for Alex Honnold, for Scott Fischer — for anyone who chooses…

  • War of the AI Religions : Doomers vs. Accelerationists (r/acc)

    War of the AI Religions : Doomers vs. Accelerationists (r/acc)

    There is a war brewing amongst the AI Technorati. It is a war beyond logic. It is a war of belief. It is a war of AI Religion — a genuine techno-jihad playing out in Silicon Valley, Washington DC, and the broader world. It is a war that, allegedly, if the popular narrative is to…

  • Safety vs Speed: the AI Jihad / Nov 2023

    Safety vs Speed: the AI Jihad / Nov 2023

    Upon further examination of the Meltdown / Coup at OpenAI, a story is starting to materialize. This isn’t about money. This is about religion. The epic battle of Safety vs Speed. This is the Jihad that’s been rocking AI frontlines for years now. So: this was not a corporate takeover from Microsoft. And no, this…

  • Danger! Danger! Self-Driving Cars: Statistics vs. Politics in 2024

    Danger! Danger! Self-Driving Cars: Statistics vs. Politics in 2024

    On this one, I’m siding with the robots. Self-driving cars today are already provably safer — far safer — than human drivers. There are a few caveats to this, and several subtleties to grok to understand the shape of the debate. Lets examine the angles: Self-Driving Cars are Statistically Safer today, fully automated self-driving cars…

  • Deep Fake AI has arrived… and the Lines are Blurring

    Deep Fake AI has arrived… and the Lines are Blurring

    If a tree falls in the woods, and no one hears it…? What if a real photograph is cropped, framed, and exposed in just such a way as to convey a narrative that is counter to the “truth” of the “reality”? What if a deep fake is created that is “true” to the event in…

  • Power Seeking AI and Self-Replication with GPT4

    Power Seeking AI and Self-Replication with GPT4

    GPT4 launched today, to little fanfare and great surprise. Along with the launch, OpenAI published a 96-page research report. There are many gems buried in its hyper-technical blather. One in particular was what was done regarding “Safety testing and assessments of Power Seeking AI.” We quote here, directly from the report: Testing for Power Seeking…

  • This Changes Everything – Opinion by Ezra Klein

    This Changes Everything – Opinion by Ezra Klein

    This Changes Everything by Ezra Klein being a mildly stylised and textually verbatim reproduction of the article that appears behind the NYT paywall, here. Opinion for the New York Times — March 13, 2023 In 2018, Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google — and not one of the tech executives known for overstatement —…