Read on Twitter
I was talking about this with @gritcult the other day, what does it mean to be human? Obviously the question is meaningless if you view it from the wrong zoom level, but supposing the nature of Man could take a walk in mind space, what are the boundaries of his kingdom? https://twitter.com/thezahima/status/1036819707473616897
The human condition is tensionâtension between what one will do and what one ought to do, tension between the animal and the machine, tension between society and self, tension between man and woman, tension between heart and head
Why do we feel these tensions, and why are they at the core of our humanity? One could imagine a man who never feels conflicted in the slightest, who from the depth of animal instinct eats and ruts and shits with no care for alternatives
One could similarly imagine a man who never feels conflicted in the slightest, who always performs his duty like a machine, with never a longing in his heart.
But on 2nd thought, in these cases, has one imagined a man?
But on 2nd thought, in these cases, has one imagined a man?
Consider game theory: the search for a mathematical model that describes and predicts the behaviors of agents in competition. It describes human behavior because it is abstracted from human behavior.
we can conceive of perfected game theory, a fully correct and rarified model. Call it game theory prime, GTP. GTP is a mathematical model but from within humanity we experience it as emotional dramas, FIERY passion, like the radiance of the sun, the calculus of defect-cooperate.
Ontology is a shell game, and you're the mark; even so one can say that GTP "precedes" humanity. When water is liquid, what is ice? it's a phase shift, but the phase of ice "exists" in some sense, and it would not be so unreasonable to think of humanity as a phase shift of GTP
Thatâs all bullshit though. Aliens if they exist are also governed by game theory. Ravens deceive each other, they have a theory of mind. Any scenario with agents and scarce resources comes to this
More than just the tensions in our inclinations, what makes us uniquely human? Itâs likely that monkeys and other mammals have very similar qualia. The way that we transmit stories and the way they make us feel, is maybe a good candidate
The truth is it canât be any one thing. categories dissolve when you get too close to them. If you stare at it long enough you can make your own self seem to dissolve. Many categories arenât peaks, theyâre plateaus
Attempts to rigorously define humanity always end up comically wrong, or pre- instead of de- scriptive, or not even wrong. There are a lot of things you canât define, but you know it when you see it. Humanity is like that
Whether the singularity happens at all is a crapshoot, I wouldnât hold my breath. Iâm accelerationist in the sense that 1 day, may it be long in coming, there will be no more humans, and Iâd rather leave behind a universe-devouring technogod than a huddle of shit-singing monkeys
