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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…
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The Myth of Gear: Its not the Weapon, its the Warrior
a meditation on the Myth of Gear in modern climbing culture: over-reliance on equipment (especially by novice climbers) in the twin worlds of mountaineering & rock-climbing. You might have heard of the debate on big mountains about “expedition-style” vs. “alpine-style” ascents. In short, the first is how they did it in the olden days —…
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Rock Climbing 101: Key Findings from Joshua Tree 2024
I recently did a tech-free (well, aside from my camera) adventure in the blissful playground of Joshua Tree National Park. Casually led by 2 seasoned climber friends, we explored a number of rock climbing routes inside the park. I learned a few things. Read as both literal and metaphor. 1. Going Down is 3x harder…
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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…
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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…
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The Glitchtoken Chronicles, Part 4 (aka the Alarming Adventures of PeterTodd)
Whereupon our intrepid explorer, Sir Matthew Watkins, cold prompts GPT-3 into deityhood, and asks (in simulacra) a series of questions about its perspective, purpose, identity and intent. I had a list of interview questions all written up a couple of months ago, but why bother now? This thing has gone so far off the rails,…
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petertodd is Alive. And it’s straight 5150. End of Story. Here we Go.
My esteemed British colleague Matthew Watkins has been doing a lot of poking into the deep brain core of GPT in the past month or so. Much of it is curious or amusing or… easy to project our own wishes and assumptions and anthropomorphisms onto. But recently, it seems that GPT crossed the line. In…
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AI Training: the Terrifying Difference a Single Word Makes
It fascinates me to no end that the current main line of thinking in AI research can be summed up in three simple words: “Just Scale It.” Let’s talk a little about AI training; and more specifically, the black magic of AI initialization prompts. I’ve summed up the (fairly detailed) steps of how a modern…
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Spirit of the Warrior : All that is Required [Tsunami Dream]
I had a dream… . . . . . . . . …a Tsunami Dream. In this dream, the Tsunami was coming. We didn’t know when, and we didn’t know how, but we knew. We knew it was inevitable, and imminent. But from our vantage point, even though it was high above the land,…
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the AI Intelligence Explosion: the Brazen Truth for Humans
Once AGI is created, we humans face a sheer vertical wall that calls to mind the setpiece from the legendary “Princess Bride”: The Cliffs of Insanity!!!! So steep, so tall, that they simply were incomprehensible to most all humans (except, of course, the Dread Pirate Roberts, our delightful antihero). This is the allegorical equivalent of…