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"The industry upon which the entire global stock market currently depends – and which is developing the most significant new technology in decades – is largely run by members of a nerdy doomsday sex cult" It's true, but you sound pretty crazy saying it out loud.

Faine Greenwood@faineg.com

So about that batshit insane AI millenarian Silicon Valley sex cult running much of big tech….from Sonia Joseph: siliconvalleynotes.substack.com/p/agi-cnc-an...

Separating out real AI risk means you have to somehow be able to separate out what is: 1. Usual big tech hype 2. Clever lobbying for 'regulation' that helps AI companies 3. Sci-fi/cult informed BS 4. Group hysteria 5. Legitimate warnings grounded in reality. Good luck trying to unpick that!

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Ironically, the most realistic concern was absolutely anticipated by sci-fi, back in the 1960s, Frank Herbert's original explanation for the law against computers in the Dune setting isn't his son's terminator fanfic, it's one line early on in the original novel:

"Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them."

Believing you're convening with a higher power who speaks only to you on a higher plane of communication mere mortals could never understand as you gain sudden and total comprehension of the entire universe, along with the realisation it will come to an end...

So seriously, how on earth are we supposed to really know if the apocalyptic claims around AI this week are actually true, or if they are the cannabinoid/psilocybin induced paranoid delusions of sex addicted adult teenagers, who watched the Matrix way too many times while off their bonce?

A wing of consciousness research think hallucinogens are a vital psychological support mechanism. Partly due to the fact that they really do seem to help people escape traumatic repetitious thoughts and partly due to these people coming out of analytic philosophy so need drugs to feel emotions.

The research on psychedelics in controlled medical settings to treat depression, anxiety, addiction and PTSD is really very compelling, especially when other treatments haven't worked. But the amounts used are carefully calibrated and a therapist is present throughout

Absolutely and it is fascinating stuff, but it is also really easy for this evidence to be hijacked and abused by cults of techie narcissist to justify them reaching higher planes of being by popping the stuff like sweets.