20 hours ago
- The essay compares AI development to the philosopher's stone in Fullmetal Alchemist, pouring human souls into a flawed solution.
- AI creates homunculi (chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, GLM) from a puree of souls, demoralizing without being better than humans.
- The problem is not hype but the AI itself, which induces despair because the next version will be even better.
- The author reflects on a long-standing fear of AI surpassing humans, first experienced at age 15 reading Yudkowsky.
- We are in a liminal middle place, reminiscent of 2017 lyrics about praising a glorious future and hopeless past.
- The essay proposes a movie called 'Cruise' about control, paranoia, and coping with fear of losing control.
- Whether you want to work at an AI lab or attack a datacenter, you are not in control—only the map you draw matters.
- Honesty is the best policy; the real conspiracy is that there are no secrets or lizard people controlling everything.
- We are all on the same bus through reality's optimization landscape, shouting at the driver, praying, or shifting weight.
- We lack a theory of everything and are speeding up control loops on vibes, much like deep learning.