Why is Mark Zuckerberg so obsessed with the Roman Empire?

Why is Peter Thiel so obsessed with the Antichrist?

Why does Sam Altman want $7 trillion dollars for an uncharted course to an unknown destination? 

And how can be build AI models and an AI company based on principles of kinship and reciprocity? 

In my ongoing exploration of what's rotten in Silicon Valley tech innovation and the ideologies driving it, last time I talked about the pandemic of what I called the Apollonian Mind Virus, a tendency throughout the modern world to favor cold, disembodied hyperrationality and cognitive intelligence over all other ways of knowing and being, over intuition, emotional intelligence, embodiment, and wisdom. This Apollonian orientation toward nature has ushered in what Sam Altman has dubbed the Intelligence Age. "Apollonian" describes the worldview and theories of intelligence behind current approaches to AI. 

Today, inspired by Native American thinkers like Jack D. Forbes and Robin Wall Kimmerer, as well as Karen Hao’s work, I explore an adjacent pandemic of the mind or sickness of spirit that is insatiable, extractive, and exploitative: The hungry ghost of the Windigo. I argue that current approaches to AI are largely the result of these two features of the modern, Western ethos—the interwoven helix of the Apollonian Mind and the Windigo soul sickness. I then close this post by beginning to explore whether there is a better way to innovate and evolve, collectively. 

Substack version here.

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In this conversation, philosopher Matt Segall and I address the role of philosophy in contemporary culture, emphasizing the need for discernment amidst ideological ferment. We critique transhumanist Silicon Valley ideologies, highlighting their left-hemisphere bias and magical thinking. We also discusses the implications of AI, arguing that while it's a valuable tool, the real danger lies in the extractive, capitalist machine driving its development.

More about Matt, including his Substack, his YouTube channel, and his conversation with Michael Levin. 

God Human Animal Machine by Meghan O’Gieblyn https://amzn.to/3IzujNq 

Against the Machine, by Paul Kingsnorth https://amzn.to/4ntYp4b 

‘Other,’ by R. S. Thomas

The machine appeared 

In the distance, singing to itself 

Of money. Its song was the web 

They were caught in, men and women 

Together. The villages were as flies 

To be sucked empty. 

God secreted 

A tear. Enough, enough, 

He commanded, but the machine 

Looked at him and went on singing.

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Peter Thiel is speaking this month in San Francisco about the antichrist. Nicole Shanahan, ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin and former vice-presidential running mate of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., called the annual Burning Man festival "demonic" last week. These are the most recent developments in the rise of techno-Christianity, a reaction in part to transhumanism and Effective Altruism. 

Peter Thiel has also questioned the viability of democracy, which brings us to the "Dark Enlightenment" of Curtis Yarvin and Nick Land that advocates for anti-democratic CEO-kings. Although it was a fringe idea for many years, it has now gained traction with Silicon Valley billionaires like Balaji Srinivasan, who advocate for the "Exit," seasteading, and "network states." 

It feels like we live in the strangest times, shaped by powerful people with the worst ideas. Because technology reflects the consciousness of the people creating it, I am deeply concerned about the people creating our technologies, especially artificial intelligence.

In my new podcast series, I begin trying to understand the philosophical and psychological underpinnings behind the strange ideologies coming out of Silicon Valley, ideologies very much shaping technology innovation today. Inspired by Nietzsche and Iain McGilchrist, I'm calling the imbalanced thinking behind all of this that emphasizes left hemisphere qualities “Apollonian Intelligence" or the "Apollonian Mind."

Peter Thiel on Ross Douthat’s New York Times podcast raving about the antichrist 

Thiel’s four-part lecture series about the antichrist https://luma.com/antichrist

Nicole Shanahan’s rant about demonic Burning Man 

New Yorker coverage of Curtis Yarvin’s “Dark Enlightenment” 

Iain McGilchrist’s wonderful book The Matter with Things 

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In this episode I explore the complex relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and wisdom, particularly focusing on discernment. I argue that while AI can hinder discernment by perpetuating biases and misinformation, it also holds some potential for cultivating it through tools that aid meditation and self-reflection. I also emphasize the importance of truth and self-awareness in this "age of AI." Ultimately, I argue that discernment is a uniquely human quality that requires ongoing effort and vigilance, whether aided by AI or not. 

This one was a long-time coming so I hope you get as much out of listening as I did writing it!  

More on OpenAI's recent decision to remove some of the content guardrails on ChatGPT.

This episode was adapted from a guest post on Michael Spencer's AI Supremacy newsletter. 

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Continuing our deep dive into what it means to be human in the age of AI, and inspired by the physicalist yet transcendent worldviews of the transhumanists, in this episode I start to explore the concept of worldviews, focusing first on physicalism / scientific materialism (the idea that matter / energy is fundamental), and how that particular metaphysics or worldview was based entirely on a series of assumptions that were never empirically proven. We contextualize all of it via the postmodern zombie mythology.

I focus on the unexplained anomalies from quantum physics as how they undermine the physicalist worldview. I then explore the reasons that physicalism is so intractable as a worldview.

All of this is just to set the table for an exploration of #idealism in my next episode (the idea that mind or consciousness is fundamental). Then we can finally turn our attention to transhumanism and human faculties.

You can find a YouTube version of this episode here.

Sam Altman’s “Intelligence Age” post

Quantum measurement explained: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHDMJqJHCQg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kxmR82QMN8

Quantum entanglement explained:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqmIVeheTVU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuvK-od647c

John Vervaeke on being rational and spiritual

John Vervaeke on Zombies

The famous Einstein - Bergson debate of 1922

My video on the hurdles to AGI 

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The irony of the application of the word “hallucination” to LLMs making mistakes is that they are completely incapable of having psychedelic experiences. Why does that matter?

In this mind-bending exploration, we dive into the fascinating intersection of artificial intelligence and expanded states of consciousness. We examine how imagination, creativity, and innovation seem to arise more frequently in altered or "holotropic" states of consciousness - such as through meditation, breathwork, dreams, dancing, psychedelics, or other experiences.

I argue that current approaches to AI may never be truly inventive or creative, as they lack the ability to model the abductive reasoning and intuitive leaps that often occur in these holotropic states. To support this thesis, we explore historical examples of scientific and philosophical breakthroughs that emerged from dreams, visions, and other non-ordinary states of consciousness.

In short, I am challenging the narrative that AI will soon surpass human intelligence, suggesting there may be profound mysteries of the human mind that AI cannot replicate, and offering a more sober and realistic view of the limitations facing AI research in attempting to model the wonders of human cognition and consciousness.

This video is part of a series about the myths, hype, and ideologies surrounding AI.

YouTube version
Support Chad

Stan Grof's collected works
My previous video on the impediments to AGI
Paper using LLMs to model abductive reasoning
Willis Harman's Higher Creativity
Effects of conscious connected breathing on cortical brain activity, mood and state of consciousness in healthy adults

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Artificial general intelligence, or superintelligence, is not right around the corner like AI companies want you to believe, and that's because intelligence is really hard.

Major AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic (as well as Ilya Sutskever’s new company) have the explicit goal of creating artificial general intelligence (AGI), and claim to be very close to doing so using technology that doesn’t seem capable of getting us there.

So let's talk about intelligence, both human and artificial.

What is artificial intelligence? What is intelligence? Are we going to be replaced or killed by superintelligence robots? Are we on the precipice of a techno-utopia, or some kind of singularity?

These are the questions I explore, to try to offer a layman’s overview of why we’re far away from AGI and superintelligence. Among other things, I highlight the limitations of current AI systems, including their lack of trustworthiness, reliance on bottom-up machine learning, and inability to provide true reasoning and common sense. I also introduce abductive inference, a rarely discussed type of reasoning.

Why do smart people want us to think that they’ve solved intelligence when they are smart enough to know they haven’t? Keep that question in mind as we go.

YouTube version originally recorded July 1, 2024....

Support Chad

James Bridle’s Ways of Being (book)
Ezra Klein’s comments on AI & capitalism
How LLMs work

Gary Marcus on the limits of AGI
More on induction and abduction
NYTimes deep dive into AI data harvesting
Sam Altman acknowledging that they’ve reached the limits of LLMs
Mira Murati saying the same thing last month
Google’s embarrassing AI search experience

AI Explained’s perspective on AGI
LLMs Can’t Plan paper
Paper on using LLMs to tackle abduction
ChatGPT is Bullshit paper
Philosophize This on nostalgia and pastiche

Please leave a comment with your thoughts, and anything I might have missed or gotten wrong. More about me over here

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Long time no talk! I just finished my masters in philosophy, cosmology and consciousness, which didn’t leave me much time for producing this podcast in the past nine months. But I’m back with a short episode that offers a preview of a thesis I am developing around the hype and mythology of artificial intelligence, and the ways that it sidelines the human.

Part of my mission is to expose the cyborgian, techgnostic ideologies underlying technology innovation in Silicon Valley, and offer an alternative that is more ecological, humane, holistic, and inspired. As we philosophers like to say, worldview create worlds. So let’s be thoughtful about it.

In contrast with current approaches to AI development, I want to help shape AI development so that it reflects human values, and a richer, more imaginative vision of the future, beyond just copying Scarlett Johansson's voice.

I want to elevate and celebrate the human in this exciting new age of AI. We have faculties that AI cannot replicate, including imagination, intuition, emotional intelligence, and wisdom. Let’s not forget that.

In the coming months, I intend to start putting out more episodes, starting with one exploring the cyborgian, techgnostic ideologies animating Silicon Valley today.

I’m also working on a book and a course centered around these ideas. More to say about that soon…

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This week we're sharing an episode of a podcast called Hit of Happiness, where Chad spoke to Brian Dubow about artificial intelligence and consciousness, among many other things. This may have been Chad's favorite interview so far, just because he loves talking to Brian and because they explored so many topics in such a coherent fashion.

This interview is a great teaser for this three-part series Chad is working on about the myth of artificial intelligence, the nature of consciousness, transhumanism, spiritual machines, and metaphor. As our long-time listeners know, Chad likes to do these deep-dive episodes once in a while. It’s taking a while to do all the research and writing so we can finally record it. But we think it will be worth the wait. Look for the first episode of that series in the coming week.

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In this episode, Chad explores a scientific theory of consciousness first put forth by Nobel Laureate Roger Penrose and Dr. Stuart Hameroff in the 1990s called quantum consciousness. This unorthodox, yet-scientific theory proposes that consciousness arises out of highly coordinated quantum processes occurring in the cells of the brain. This theory combines quantum mechanics, relativity, neuroscience, cognitive science, molecular biology, and philosophy.

It’s different than prevailing theories of consciousness, which suggest that consciousness is an epiphenomenon of the firing of synapses in the neurons of the brain. Instead, Penrose’s theory suggests that subatomic particles collapse of their own accord and thereby create what Penrose calls proto-consciousness. It is an elegant way to bridge the two prevailing theories of consciousness: materialist and idealist.

This theory also has major implications for artificial intelligence because it means that machine learning and neural networks may never achieve true intelligence, strong AI, superintelligence, or anything resembling artificial consciousness.

Chad also explores the idea of computability, computers as universal metaphor, and the possibility that quantum computers might be a more promising avenue for research into artificial general intelligence.

This episode was inspired by Chad's work in the philosophy, cosmology and consciousness program at CIIS under Kerri Welch, for a course called The Epic of the Universe. Thank you Kerri for providing such rich pointers for further study!

The original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa5eRD4lGDA

To learn more, we recommend starting with this Penrose & Hameroff paper https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1571064513001188

For more about quantum weirdness and how nobody really understands what is happening when the quantum and classical worlds interact, check out this explainer from PBS Spacetime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT7SiRiqK-Q&ab_channel=PBSSpaceTime

This conversation with Roger Penrose by Lex Fridman is pretty great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orMtwOz6Db0&t=644s

For a great intro to quantum computing, check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3fz3dqhN44&t=6s

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