people buy into the most overcomplicated, convoluted theories to hold onto their anthropocentric optimism. the cope mental gymnastics are EVERYWHERE, and once you see it, you can't unsee it. no, the universe doesn't revolve around the earth. free will doesn't exist, intelligence is heritable, consciousness is not that hard or mysterious, anything a brain can do or experience can be done by a computer, AI is not a normal technology, ASI is possible, humanity is nowhere near the intelligence ceiling, RSI is happening, agents will outcompete tools, open source won't save us, you will not live forever, nothing human makes it to the near future, there is no God. some of these claims have nuanced versions worth discussing, but notice how often the nuance conveniently lands you back at "so nothing fundamental will change." nuance that always resolves in the comfortable direction is not rigor, it's intellectualized cope. now, maybe believing these sorts of things, even if they're true, is instrumentally bad for our psychology. i can buy that. but i don't think spreading a mass psychosis of helpful-but-untrue ideas will work anymore. our species just knows too much. the apple is bit, the box opened. we're too fragmented and decentralized. the mouth of the world can keep preaching one thing while the hand works to move us in the opposite direction. no amount of substack thinkpieces can outcompete incentives. still, i believe the good ending is possible and worth working toward. utopia is possible in the interim even if it's impossible in the limit. and whatever happens, you can still try your best and enjoy today.
