This week just Kevin (no Gordon) talked with internet theorist, writer, and owner of Kevin’s favorite twitter account Visakan Veerasamy. We talk about Visa’s work in building a worldwide social network of friendly ambitious nerds, Sci-Fi’s themes and ideas being stuck in the past, and some current uses of LLM’s.

Thanks for listening!

EPISODE TIMESTAMPS:

0:12 - Introduction and discussion of Visa’s “50 year plan for a global nerd network”

6:56 - Explaining this Dominos Image

10:26 - People are remarkably unambitious in their social networks

14:58 - How do you feel randomly encountering someone in the real world who knows your stuff?

16:38 - Encourage people to have their own sense of sovereignty

17:21 - Kevin applies the Hegelian Dialectic to the history of Sci-fi

20:39 - Has Visa ever considered writing Science Fiction?

28:41 - Modern Sci-fi is built on old themes and ideas

31:00 - Sci-fi about artificial intelligence has not prepared us for the real thing

32:44 - Did you see the effect of AI on social relationships coming?

34:44 - What are the most novel things you have used AI for?

38:38 - Using ChatGPT as a superior rubber duck

40:22 - People's intuitions on what LLM's are useful for are miscalibrated

47:08 - It is bad to let your attention be held hostage by the worst thing happening in the world at any given time

48:14 - Coining the term Psychofauna to describe modern memetic hazards

52:02 - What would the optimal form of social media look like?

57:42 - The trouble with making new social media is people are willing to sacrifice a lot to be where the action is

58:24 - Conclusion and sci-fi author recommendations of Eliot Peper and Jordan Chase Young

LINKS

* Visa’s Substack

* Visa’s Twitter

* The Library Ethos

* Visa’s books: Friendly Ambitious Nerd and Introspect

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