The illusion of free will is helpful when you need to survive in a harsh environment and make evolutionary distinctions between good and evil, life and death.
Today it only causes suffering because you think you can disobey the universe.
What is natural will? It is the understanding that choices are made due to the entirety of nature’s influences. It is the better counterpart to free will. Does acceptance of natural will take away your kindness to others? Does it take away your compassion, your desire to grow, your desire to love and create? I … [Read more…]
If inner peace comes from detachment from desires and living in the moment, how do we do that? How do we experience the Now instead of living in imagined stories of good versus evil?
It seems to me the illusion is only broken (or most successfully broken) when we accept that nature is going the way it will go, and we get to experience it, rather than force it into a predefined box.
You don’t need an identity any more than you need a belief in invisible pink unicorns. The universe happens — and you’re in it.
The ego, the sense of an identity, is fundamentally an imagined idea. If you want to turn your attention on the experience of living rather than the delusions of thinking, you can.
When you become deluded that your identity exists in reality, you allow suffering. Inner peace is challenged when you believe you must be a certain way.
The truth is the universe is a certain way and you cannot influence it unless it allows itself to be influenced.
If we are automatic mental patterns with no inherent control over our future because of the unpredictability of quantum mechanics, shouldn’t we realize that our awareness operates automatically, and these human bodies are but tools to wear?
I believe minds are strange loops: level-crossing feedback loops. My understanding is that they are systems that edit how they edit themselves. This post is about self-improving artificial intelligences, which I believe are strange loops. The question is, could there be a class of strange loops that tend to increase in complexity? What environment would … [Read more…]
So there’s this thing call “3D printing” where you can melt plastic and create layer after layer in order to get a 3D object. Turns out you can make real, fireable guns using 3D printing. Here’s my question: do you think making guns should be banned? I tend to think even if it is banned, … [Read more…]
Ramez Naam is a pretty cool dude. The first book I read of his is called Nexus. It’s my new all-time favorite book. I don’t say that lightly. It has science and telepathy and empathy and hacking and insight into the future of humanity. Ramez is an optimist of the best kind: he’s extremely level-headed. … [Read more…]
Let’s talk about evil artificial intelligence. From Terminator to The Matrix, humans have feared computers taking over the world. I think there are great reasons why that’s unlikely: 1. Intelligence is hard to model. 2. Self-improving intelligence may be even harder. 3. Intelligence requires cooperation. 4. Intelligence grows. It is not a switch that is … [Read more…]