It is impossible to align artificial intelligence because agency is inherently unstable. A post-human world will be less unified than you think.
Alliances of families built the impersonal organizations that now regulate society. Only new alliances can replace them.
The genomics revolution has shown us our barbaric past. It now also forces us to decide our future.
Dreams of aligned AI give up too much agency to the machine, and assume “human values” are more stable than they are.
Nick Land has articulated a crisis of humanism in the face of artificial intelligence. The solution is to embrace your own will-to-power.
American education has become misguided in its goals even as it has grown increasingly competitive. Confucian teaching offers a solution.
Can online networks become viable communities and further their goals in the real world? I brought two hundred people together in Montenegro to find out.
Wagner Group arose out of Russia’s landscape of corruption, factionalism, and political fiefdoms. If similar conditions intensify in the West, powerful individuals will exploit the same opportunities.
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The Bay Area is a regional economy hindered by fragmented local governments. The answer is consolidation into Greater San Francisco.
The Cosmists pursued visions of resurrection and immortality but ended up recuperated into Soviet ideology. Modern tech utopians are following in their footsteps.
There is only one durable justification for space exploration. If we fail to understand it, our civilization will end on Earth, not among the stars.
Artificial General Intelligence is the central conjecture of the AI field. If it is possible, it will completely disrupt the human condition and probably kill us all.
Investor hype around AI doesn’t reflect the real impacts of deep learning. That hype rests on a false ideology in which the tech industry is the vanguard of progress.
The novelist turns his literary eye to the American story and finds we’re losing our memories under a new imperative to forget.
We face a crisis of false value. Ancient perspectives like that of Abraham offer a way out.
Those trying to justify parasitic behaviors often invoke the language of charity and compassion. But true charity is about enforcing a superior form of life.
As a normal life becomes more difficult for middle class parents to acquire, optimizing a child’s upbringing for educational and career success has become the norm—but at great expense. Is there another way?