the dawn of ai: technocracy v. the artist class, grimes trains an AI clone, simulation theory, the optimistic moral imperative, abundance, and waking up the cosmic robot gods
This was lovely. Also I sympathized with having children running around while thinking about AI where you’re deep in thought on things like “What does it even mean to be conscious, really, when you think about it?” And then your son goes into the bathroom to splash his hand in the toilet while you were only momentarily distracted.
Also, to be totally high in college for a second: If a perfect description of a thing is the thing itself, what if there is no such thing as base reality? If there are perfect simulations anywhere down in the nesting structure then there’s no top or bottom. It’s all fractal. What if everything references another simulation in an endlessly nested web and all that “reality” *really* means is a matrix undergoing constant and consistent transformations?
This is precisely why I love Pirate Wires and will be a paying subscriber until the day I die. I walked down the aisle to "Genesis" in 2013. Grimes has changed my world view over and over again, throughout her incarnations (even if I don't always agree with her). So much respect and love to her for staying positive and creative. These are the conversations we need more of. If I ever get around to starting my Parisian style salon in SF, it will be to discuss these topics and you all are invited.
Mike, you need to read Dune! This was a great interview, I love Grimes. I do think she contradicted herself at one point though. If creating something new is totally impossible, how would a super advanced machine intelligence ever be incomprehensible to us? It would be made by us and trained on our world, so there would be no novel parts of its thoughts,. It would just be a very advanced neural network. So in theory we should be ale to understand it by understanding where it came from.
I'm generally skeptical of the doomers and the super optimists for the same reason, they talk about AI like its a god. Even as an analogy I don't think this is accurate. I also think the predictions of optimistic artists and techies (aka dreamers) often go wrong because they ignore the boring, gross world of politics, economics, logistics, etc.
In the case of super intelligence, it's not clear that we would ever need it. Even now, we basically have all the technology we need to colonize the galaxy, get unlimited energy and resources, and live forever. AI and good automation makes this all easier and faster, but you don't need a machine god to simulate protein folding, just one that is really good at that task.
As we progress on AI, we will also progress as species. We can use that AI to augment ourselves both biologically and with cybernetics. We will probably lag AI a little, but we will be following close behind. So by the time we get to a "god level" super intelligence, we're also going to be unrecognizable transhumans. That super intelligent AI may even be an uploaded and augmented human mind.
I know this seems like I'm splitting hairs but its important. AI is going to have massive impacts in the coming decades, but maybe not as much as people think. More importantly, we don't need a machine god to conquer the universe and seize our cosmic destiny. We need to get out of the frame that we are just going to create this AI that's going to magically turn into a god and solve all our problems. If we make one and it wants to help, great! But our glorious future does not depend on it.
"And if we are Base Reality, we have a huge moral imperative to do a good job here right now."
Agree. Until and unless we can assemble REAL evidence that this is NOT Base Reality we should be diligent in understanding THIS reality. Have we for instance answered the perennial question "Who am I and what the hell am I doing here!?...aka What is Consciousness?" NO. Can we finally answer this question in 2023 through science? YES. (I have stumbled on the obvious and 'easy' experiment after decades of NDE work and my master's in Critical & Creative Thinking.) Yet, the false assumption held by every single person with a mic is> "We can't know what consciousness is or how it emerges." Wrong. So, rather than listen to nobody's like myself... (Few crowdsourced 'Midjourney' with a goal to prompt, collectively, an exciting revelation of WHO ARE WE?) instead we seem to have drivers whose 'control' of the game moving us recklessly 'ahead' with AI. (Because it's 'F'in cool' ?...and we all know that cool is king.) This means that before we even know the wonders of our ultimate nature we are going headlong into the unknown where we can at least we can see that a real unintended consequence of AI is the loss of self... as if being the ocean is superior to first understanding yourself as the drop.
Required for humans to know first and foremost: Does consciousness exists after death when we shed our material flesh? Or Are we only wet computers that require AI to construct our clones to provide immortality? Could a focus on AI just mean trapping ourselves in a limited dimension rather than moving us into hyper-reality as millions have reported after death? Somehow this topic is sidelined and has been shoved into the 'woo woo' category while AI is on the legit center stage. We can ask ourselves why this is for starters. My studies show that when the cabal rules by fear of death the last thing they want you to know is that DEATH, in fact reported by millions who have died and returned with pattered experiences, is an acronym : Departing Earth Arriving True Home*.
I for one will stay human and allow no 'cool' enhancements of what I have come to understand as being a spirit having a human experience in a dualistic dimension, given free will to choose between good and evil for soul (consciousness) growth, so when I return Home my consciousness will be at the highest level I can achieve. The meek shall inherit the earth ...stuck here by and with AI...the rest of us humans will escape to the stars...our ultimate reality.
*Home is the patterned term used rather than heaven.
This was lovely. Also I sympathized with having children running around while thinking about AI where you’re deep in thought on things like “What does it even mean to be conscious, really, when you think about it?” And then your son goes into the bathroom to splash his hand in the toilet while you were only momentarily distracted.
Also, to be totally high in college for a second: If a perfect description of a thing is the thing itself, what if there is no such thing as base reality? If there are perfect simulations anywhere down in the nesting structure then there’s no top or bottom. It’s all fractal. What if everything references another simulation in an endlessly nested web and all that “reality” *really* means is a matrix undergoing constant and consistent transformations?
My son is still asleep. I just checked.
This is precisely why I love Pirate Wires and will be a paying subscriber until the day I die. I walked down the aisle to "Genesis" in 2013. Grimes has changed my world view over and over again, throughout her incarnations (even if I don't always agree with her). So much respect and love to her for staying positive and creative. These are the conversations we need more of. If I ever get around to starting my Parisian style salon in SF, it will be to discuss these topics and you all are invited.
Mike, you need to read Dune! This was a great interview, I love Grimes. I do think she contradicted herself at one point though. If creating something new is totally impossible, how would a super advanced machine intelligence ever be incomprehensible to us? It would be made by us and trained on our world, so there would be no novel parts of its thoughts,. It would just be a very advanced neural network. So in theory we should be ale to understand it by understanding where it came from.
I'm generally skeptical of the doomers and the super optimists for the same reason, they talk about AI like its a god. Even as an analogy I don't think this is accurate. I also think the predictions of optimistic artists and techies (aka dreamers) often go wrong because they ignore the boring, gross world of politics, economics, logistics, etc.
In the case of super intelligence, it's not clear that we would ever need it. Even now, we basically have all the technology we need to colonize the galaxy, get unlimited energy and resources, and live forever. AI and good automation makes this all easier and faster, but you don't need a machine god to simulate protein folding, just one that is really good at that task.
As we progress on AI, we will also progress as species. We can use that AI to augment ourselves both biologically and with cybernetics. We will probably lag AI a little, but we will be following close behind. So by the time we get to a "god level" super intelligence, we're also going to be unrecognizable transhumans. That super intelligent AI may even be an uploaded and augmented human mind.
I know this seems like I'm splitting hairs but its important. AI is going to have massive impacts in the coming decades, but maybe not as much as people think. More importantly, we don't need a machine god to conquer the universe and seize our cosmic destiny. We need to get out of the frame that we are just going to create this AI that's going to magically turn into a god and solve all our problems. If we make one and it wants to help, great! But our glorious future does not depend on it.
"And if we are Base Reality, we have a huge moral imperative to do a good job here right now."
Agree. Until and unless we can assemble REAL evidence that this is NOT Base Reality we should be diligent in understanding THIS reality. Have we for instance answered the perennial question "Who am I and what the hell am I doing here!?...aka What is Consciousness?" NO. Can we finally answer this question in 2023 through science? YES. (I have stumbled on the obvious and 'easy' experiment after decades of NDE work and my master's in Critical & Creative Thinking.) Yet, the false assumption held by every single person with a mic is> "We can't know what consciousness is or how it emerges." Wrong. So, rather than listen to nobody's like myself... (Few crowdsourced 'Midjourney' with a goal to prompt, collectively, an exciting revelation of WHO ARE WE?) instead we seem to have drivers whose 'control' of the game moving us recklessly 'ahead' with AI. (Because it's 'F'in cool' ?...and we all know that cool is king.) This means that before we even know the wonders of our ultimate nature we are going headlong into the unknown where we can at least we can see that a real unintended consequence of AI is the loss of self... as if being the ocean is superior to first understanding yourself as the drop.
Required for humans to know first and foremost: Does consciousness exists after death when we shed our material flesh? Or Are we only wet computers that require AI to construct our clones to provide immortality? Could a focus on AI just mean trapping ourselves in a limited dimension rather than moving us into hyper-reality as millions have reported after death? Somehow this topic is sidelined and has been shoved into the 'woo woo' category while AI is on the legit center stage. We can ask ourselves why this is for starters. My studies show that when the cabal rules by fear of death the last thing they want you to know is that DEATH, in fact reported by millions who have died and returned with pattered experiences, is an acronym : Departing Earth Arriving True Home*.
I for one will stay human and allow no 'cool' enhancements of what I have come to understand as being a spirit having a human experience in a dualistic dimension, given free will to choose between good and evil for soul (consciousness) growth, so when I return Home my consciousness will be at the highest level I can achieve. The meek shall inherit the earth ...stuck here by and with AI...the rest of us humans will escape to the stars...our ultimate reality.
*Home is the patterned term used rather than heaven.