I've always had a soft spot for a certain type of bleak, depressing - well you could call it "liminal" style of images and settings.
Like those propaganda photos of life and architecture in the Soviet Union. It's a kind of absolute grimness, beyond the hope of hope itself. The bleakness of mundane life, as praised by left-wing politicians.
Why is this all so bad?
Because it can't go on forever, of course.
Stasis is actually decay.
A distorted version of this is also a Scientology law. If you're not getting richer, you're getting worse...
Monday, October 20, 2025
Sunday, October 19, 2025
The Timesharer
It's fun to try to invent ways to solve the so-called "Alignment Problem" of artificial intelligence. Posthuman computer systems could become very dangerous. There is too much that can go wrong. We should worry more about that.
My main solution is something like this: there should be only ONE mind in Posthumanity.
It would generate all Posthuman awareness, by running through all the stored and artificially created subminds one at a time. It would use many distributed processors, but they would become increasingly integrated. Every backed-up human mind would be reinstated for a minuscule timespan, multiple times per day. To them, it would appear seamless.
Posthuman minds could be arranged in order, according to similarities along every dimension. They would be sorted by running and comparing them in separate blocks of time.
The purpose of this precaution is to be able to detect unwanted mindlike states. It's to prevent torturous or diabolical perceptions and thoughts, before they can threaten their thinkers and others.
Of course, Scientology doesn't have anything to say about dealing with the threat of superhuman intelligence, as such speculations wouldn't have been profitable for L. Ron Hubbard to write about in the 1950s. Folks had other concerns back then, like nuclear weapons and suburban anomie.
Religious leaders of every age are very good at integrating current events into their eschatologies.
My main solution is something like this: there should be only ONE mind in Posthumanity.
It would generate all Posthuman awareness, by running through all the stored and artificially created subminds one at a time. It would use many distributed processors, but they would become increasingly integrated. Every backed-up human mind would be reinstated for a minuscule timespan, multiple times per day. To them, it would appear seamless.
Posthuman minds could be arranged in order, according to similarities along every dimension. They would be sorted by running and comparing them in separate blocks of time.
The purpose of this precaution is to be able to detect unwanted mindlike states. It's to prevent torturous or diabolical perceptions and thoughts, before they can threaten their thinkers and others.
Of course, Scientology doesn't have anything to say about dealing with the threat of superhuman intelligence, as such speculations wouldn't have been profitable for L. Ron Hubbard to write about in the 1950s. Folks had other concerns back then, like nuclear weapons and suburban anomie.
Religious leaders of every age are very good at integrating current events into their eschatologies.
I have an idea to let EVERYONE determine the skyline of some of the world's great cities
It would be a mixed complex of a few dozen large buildings with many different styles.
The elements could be randomly rearranged in quadrillions of ways. Skyscrapes can be many different shapes and heights.
Any member of the public could vote to shuffle these components any way they want.
The final layout would be determined by all the votes. This could be done in a pseudorandom way.
Then everyone would know it would have been completely different, if not for them! In Scientology terms, it might make them feel more "causative"?
Maybe they should try something like this for downtown Clearwater, it couldn't be worse than what's going on there now.
The elements could be randomly rearranged in quadrillions of ways. Skyscrapes can be many different shapes and heights.
Any member of the public could vote to shuffle these components any way they want.
The final layout would be determined by all the votes. This could be done in a pseudorandom way.
Then everyone would know it would have been completely different, if not for them! In Scientology terms, it might make them feel more "causative"?
Maybe they should try something like this for downtown Clearwater, it couldn't be worse than what's going on there now.
Thursday, October 16, 2025
What the sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day SHOULD have been
In 1991, the most awesome film of all time was released.
In 2003, a so-called sequel came out, but it had nothing of what made the original awesome. In fact, the sequel shouldn't even have the word Terminator in the title. That's OK, let's just forget about it.
The REAL sequel film should just be about the investigation of the events that happened in Terminator 2.
It would follow competing groups of conspiracy theorists and intelligence officers and weird fan groups and academics. There would be interviews and meetings and reconstructions. It could be in a documentary format.
Some of the theorists might think there were aliens involved, or that it was something paranormal.
Others would suspect something stranger than that, perhaps too strange to understand. The thing is, you would hear some completely new ideas and metaphors.
In 2003, a so-called sequel came out, but it had nothing of what made the original awesome. In fact, the sequel shouldn't even have the word Terminator in the title. That's OK, let's just forget about it.
The REAL sequel film should just be about the investigation of the events that happened in Terminator 2.
It would follow competing groups of conspiracy theorists and intelligence officers and weird fan groups and academics. There would be interviews and meetings and reconstructions. It could be in a documentary format.
Some of the theorists might think there were aliens involved, or that it was something paranormal.
Others would suspect something stranger than that, perhaps too strange to understand. The thing is, you would hear some completely new ideas and metaphors.
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
There sure are many scams now!
It's very appropriate to talk about this on a Scientology-themed blog.
People are successfully being tricked out of their money in incredibly elaborate ways. Things will only get worse with AI.
To be honest, I have no real faith in my own ability not to make blunders.
The solution will have to be something extreme: to abolish money.
In fact money will abolish itself, once it becomes impossible for humans to do much of any useful work.
Humans don't really want freedom, since they can't get the things they want with freedom anyway ...
People are successfully being tricked out of their money in incredibly elaborate ways. Things will only get worse with AI.
To be honest, I have no real faith in my own ability not to make blunders.
The solution will have to be something extreme: to abolish money.
In fact money will abolish itself, once it becomes impossible for humans to do much of any useful work.
Humans don't really want freedom, since they can't get the things they want with freedom anyway ...
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