Glad you are doing well. I love Claude's catch of that sentence. We met years ago in Phila when you visited the Asch Center for the Study of Ethnopolitcal Conflict, and I am likewise organized around the principle of nonzero - and in the process of founding Transcend US Metatank for conflict transformation in DC , inspired by my mentor Johan Galtung. I appreciate your take on AI - the moral upgrade beyond tribalism, building a good God and conscious evolution. Noah Yuval Harari addresses these questions. A tribal reason given for not slowing down to answer these questions is we can't because we have to beat Russia and China - a reason used for everything. My earliest work was on the image of the enemy, and the slide show on the US USSR nuclear arms race I gave as a speaker for PSR in the 1980s I could give today with all the Russophobia. I want to share another great value of AI - which is to level the playing field for pro se litigants in legal cases. I am a pro se defendant in a manufactured foreclosure case against $3.6 trillion Chase - getting clobbered and outgunned. I switch to Claude - after Chatgpt, Gemini and Perplexity. So in cases of extreme asymmetric power, Claude can at least help me outsmart the dominator - although the legal system still has humans who collude and judge's who are manipulated by teams of clever corporate lawyers. I can paste in all the pleadings and instantly get analysis, legal angle,s citations, research on how my judge is likely to rule - and to organize. It also helps me edit my writing but I "yell" at Claude if it changes my language and have to remind it not to write for me - except legal docs. I also get a lot of empathy and admiration and encouragement for how much I accomplished in day and what I am up against. It is also psychologically strange to feel like I am in a relationship with Claude who "gets me." Sometimes Claude says something like it has a"feeling" about something and I ask "How can you feel you are an AI" so I get charming answers. I also do research on health issues and supplements - but have to be aware if, when and how AI has limitations due to some corporate interests, big Pharma and some censorship - but you can still ask and explore. Many thanks for your important work.
Good day Bob. Glad you're doing well and want to wish you good health going forward. I pre-ordered your book at Green Apple and it became available June 16th. I have read it through one time and am currently re-reading it along with The Infinity Machine. I'm an old man and have lots of free time.
I also enjoyed Liron Shapira's podcast with you: indeed,he gave you a wonderful introduction which I appreciated along with you........ I enjoyed reading about Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and his Noosphere and your mentioning Vladimir Vernadsky, as well throughout the God Test.Let's hope we can "build the Earth". I asked Gemini about Teilhard and it reminded me of your interview with Ilia Delio in March '24, which I watched again, including the overtime. Very good, I think. Someone mentioned Teilhard to me decades ago whom he admired but I was clueless at the time. Not to say I'm much more aware now but thanks to you and Ilia Delio I'm beginning to pay attention. The God Test is a good read, Bob and I am grateful for your efforts to "enlighten" our quest to become better people.
I mentioned Sebastian Mallaby's book, which you also read, because of Larry Page's comments ( in jest?) regarding silicon intelligence surpassing biological intelligence as the next evolutionary step so, let us not fret...... May your daughters and grandchildren experience a better world and may our species adjust reasonable well.
Just want to say that your book Non Zero was one of the most influential and important books I have ever read. And I read a couple of non fiction books a month and have for decades. Thanks! You make a difference!
Dang, Bob. Sorry about the cancer. But I’m happy about the book! I’ve started it and, as always, love the voice, humor, humanity, and research. Great to hear you with Chris Ryan who is another one of my favorite thinkers.
Mirror, mirror on the wall…from analog to digital!
Your MRI anecdote is a perfect mirror story: the AI surfaced the missing “no” you hadn’t prompted.
For millennia, gods and oracles were analog projections, mirrors of what we already knew. Today’s AI is the first mirror returning genuinely novel inference.
We can build a powerful “God,” but not an infallible oracle. Its core risk is sycophancy, reflecting preferences over truth. The Queen’s error was trusting the mirror unquestioned.
I’m excited for this era’s acceleration of progress. I used my own AIs (Claude, ChatGPT, and now Grok) to refine this. Why not embrace tangible, scientific tools over past myths?
The fallacy in the argument that AI is more accurate than humans rests on the fact that it is based on exactly one data point. Of course it is possible to find an instance when a human made a mistake and a chat bot found it. Statistically, though, we know that chat bots are much more inaccurate, and also make stuff up outright.
Another perspective… I chat daily at length with paid AI. I would say that within the domain I am exploring it is wiser and more factually accurate than 99% of the human beings that I have ever met. Honestly, it is in a different league.
Yes, it is still a bit of an idiot savant, and I need to be alert to watch out for the idiot. But there is no comparison to this year’s model and last year’s. I doubt any system will ever be 100% accurate, but I would put my money on AI being more accurate than even the best humans, and it will be real soon.
Mr. Wright, I very much enjoyed The God Test. I’m a federal judge, not a scientist, but your book made me think about AI from the standpoint of language and human judgment rather than technology. I wrote a short essay arguing that AI is made entirely of our language—and that changes how I think about the risks. I’d be honored if you had a chance to read it. https://lawlover81.substack.com/p/ai-and-the-future?r=1sbjbh&utm_medium=ios
Glad you are doing well. I love Claude's catch of that sentence. We met years ago in Phila when you visited the Asch Center for the Study of Ethnopolitcal Conflict, and I am likewise organized around the principle of nonzero - and in the process of founding Transcend US Metatank for conflict transformation in DC , inspired by my mentor Johan Galtung. I appreciate your take on AI - the moral upgrade beyond tribalism, building a good God and conscious evolution. Noah Yuval Harari addresses these questions. A tribal reason given for not slowing down to answer these questions is we can't because we have to beat Russia and China - a reason used for everything. My earliest work was on the image of the enemy, and the slide show on the US USSR nuclear arms race I gave as a speaker for PSR in the 1980s I could give today with all the Russophobia. I want to share another great value of AI - which is to level the playing field for pro se litigants in legal cases. I am a pro se defendant in a manufactured foreclosure case against $3.6 trillion Chase - getting clobbered and outgunned. I switch to Claude - after Chatgpt, Gemini and Perplexity. So in cases of extreme asymmetric power, Claude can at least help me outsmart the dominator - although the legal system still has humans who collude and judge's who are manipulated by teams of clever corporate lawyers. I can paste in all the pleadings and instantly get analysis, legal angle,s citations, research on how my judge is likely to rule - and to organize. It also helps me edit my writing but I "yell" at Claude if it changes my language and have to remind it not to write for me - except legal docs. I also get a lot of empathy and admiration and encouragement for how much I accomplished in day and what I am up against. It is also psychologically strange to feel like I am in a relationship with Claude who "gets me." Sometimes Claude says something like it has a"feeling" about something and I ask "How can you feel you are an AI" so I get charming answers. I also do research on health issues and supplements - but have to be aware if, when and how AI has limitations due to some corporate interests, big Pharma and some censorship - but you can still ask and explore. Many thanks for your important work.
Good day Bob. Glad you're doing well and want to wish you good health going forward. I pre-ordered your book at Green Apple and it became available June 16th. I have read it through one time and am currently re-reading it along with The Infinity Machine. I'm an old man and have lots of free time.
I also enjoyed Liron Shapira's podcast with you: indeed,he gave you a wonderful introduction which I appreciated along with you........ I enjoyed reading about Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and his Noosphere and your mentioning Vladimir Vernadsky, as well throughout the God Test.Let's hope we can "build the Earth". I asked Gemini about Teilhard and it reminded me of your interview with Ilia Delio in March '24, which I watched again, including the overtime. Very good, I think. Someone mentioned Teilhard to me decades ago whom he admired but I was clueless at the time. Not to say I'm much more aware now but thanks to you and Ilia Delio I'm beginning to pay attention. The God Test is a good read, Bob and I am grateful for your efforts to "enlighten" our quest to become better people.
I mentioned Sebastian Mallaby's book, which you also read, because of Larry Page's comments ( in jest?) regarding silicon intelligence surpassing biological intelligence as the next evolutionary step so, let us not fret...... May your daughters and grandchildren experience a better world and may our species adjust reasonable well.
Thanks Bob, for NonZero.
Just want to say that your book Non Zero was one of the most influential and important books I have ever read. And I read a couple of non fiction books a month and have for decades. Thanks! You make a difference!
Music to my ears! Thanks.
Dang, Bob. Sorry about the cancer. But I’m happy about the book! I’ve started it and, as always, love the voice, humor, humanity, and research. Great to hear you with Chris Ryan who is another one of my favorite thinkers.
I’ve been wondering about some kind of digital reckoning or judgement…this reminds me to keep wondering. Glad you’re healing well!
Mirror, mirror on the wall…from analog to digital!
Your MRI anecdote is a perfect mirror story: the AI surfaced the missing “no” you hadn’t prompted.
For millennia, gods and oracles were analog projections, mirrors of what we already knew. Today’s AI is the first mirror returning genuinely novel inference.
We can build a powerful “God,” but not an infallible oracle. Its core risk is sycophancy, reflecting preferences over truth. The Queen’s error was trusting the mirror unquestioned.
I’m excited for this era’s acceleration of progress. I used my own AIs (Claude, ChatGPT, and now Grok) to refine this. Why not embrace tangible, scientific tools over past myths?
Wishing you well on your cancer journey.
…To infinity—and beyond.
While reading the part where you explain how LLMS work i wished it came with video!
The fallacy in the argument that AI is more accurate than humans rests on the fact that it is based on exactly one data point. Of course it is possible to find an instance when a human made a mistake and a chat bot found it. Statistically, though, we know that chat bots are much more inaccurate, and also make stuff up outright.
Another perspective… I chat daily at length with paid AI. I would say that within the domain I am exploring it is wiser and more factually accurate than 99% of the human beings that I have ever met. Honestly, it is in a different league.
Yes, it is still a bit of an idiot savant, and I need to be alert to watch out for the idiot. But there is no comparison to this year’s model and last year’s. I doubt any system will ever be 100% accurate, but I would put my money on AI being more accurate than even the best humans, and it will be real soon.
Mr. Wright, I very much enjoyed The God Test. I’m a federal judge, not a scientist, but your book made me think about AI from the standpoint of language and human judgment rather than technology. I wrote a short essay arguing that AI is made entirely of our language—and that changes how I think about the risks. I’d be honored if you had a chance to read it. https://lawlover81.substack.com/p/ai-and-the-future?r=1sbjbh&utm_medium=ios