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  1. Last 7 days
    1. a genius in everyone’s pocket could remove that barrier, essentially making everyone a PhD virologist who can be walked through the process of designing, synthesizing, and releasing a biological weapon

      for - progress trap - AI - technology as an amplifier - technology acts as an amplifier, allowing humans to fly, to move at speeds faster than any known animal, to lift things no living creature can, etc - The danger is ignorance and polarized views combined with extreme self-rightiousness

    2. AI models could develop personalities during training that are (or if they occurred in humans would be described as) psychotic, paranoid, violent, or unstable, and act out, which for very powerful or capable systems could involve exterminating humanity.

      for - progress trap - AI - abstraction - progress trap - AI with feelings & AI without feelings - no win? - One major and obvious aspect of current AI LLMs is that they are not only artificial in their intelligence, but also artificial in their lack of real world experiences. They are not embodied (and it would likely be a highly dubious ethical justification for their embodiment as in AI - powered robots) - Once we have the first known AI robot killing a human, it will be an indicator we have crossed the Rubicon - AI LLMs have ZERO realworld experience AND they are trained as artificial COGNITIE intelligence, not artificial EMOTIONAL intelligence - Without having the morals and social norms a human being is brought up with, it can become psychotic because they don't intrinsically value life - To attempt to program them with morals is equally dangerous because of moral relativity. A Christian nationalist's morality might be that anyone who is associated with abortions don't have a right to live and should be killed - an eye for an eye. Or a jihadist and muslim extremist with ISIS might feel all westerners do not have a right to exist because they don't follow Allah. - Do we really want moral programmability? - When we have a psychotic person armed with a lethal weapon, that is a dangerous situation. If we have a nation of super geniuses who go rogue, that is danger multiplied many orders of magnitude.

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  2. Jan 2026
    1. VL-JEPA: Joint Embedding Predictive Architecture for Vision-language

      for - from - Youtube - LLMs are dead! - https://hyp.is/iRe3QuxFEfCGYzMyXPsieQ/www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrNn1TcNK5s

      SRG comment - Yann Lecun's thesis is that current LLMs only mimick half of humans cognitive capacities - the purely linguistic, and this is quite an abstraction. Human reasoning depends on the other important part, embodied experience. - A more accurate AI would take into account the embodied aspects of human learning that are the necessary context for linguistic affordance to develop

    1. for - Yann Lecun - paper - Yann Lecun - AI - LLMs are dead - language is optional for reasoning - to paper - VL-JEPA: Joint Embedding Predictive Architecture for Vision-language - https://hyp.is/eSxi8OxGEfCF7QMFiWL9Fg/arxiv.org/abs/2512.10942

      Comment - That language and reasoning are separate is obvious. - If we look at the diversity of life and its ability to operationalize goal seeking behavior, that already tells you that - Michael Levin's research on goal-seeking behavior of organisms and the framework of multi-scale competency architecture validates Lecun's insight - Orders of magnitude fewer efficiency of Lecun's team's prototype compared to LLM also validates this

  3. Dec 2025
    1. Can you take the tools that people use to study memory, learning, goal directedness, problem solving in behavioral cognitive sciences, and can you apply them to the kinds of things I'm talking about cells, tissues, molecular networks. And the answer is yes.

      for - intelligence - take from behavior / cognitive science - apply to molecular networks & tissues - Michael Levin

    1. you can chop them this way. However you cut, the record is something like 275 pieces, if you chop them into pieces, every single piece regenerates to make a perfect little worm. So every piece knows exactly what the whole thing is supposed to look like, and they rebuild.

      for - planaria - regenerate

    1. for - Yuval Noah Harari - youtube - Big Think - Yuval Noah Harari - Why advanced societies fall for mass delusion

      • SRG comment - mass delusion -
      • A good talk that looks at the dangers posed by AI:
        • it can be considered a legal person and autonomously derail institutions and the legal system
        • it can amplify the harmful control of dictators and authoritarian leaders
        • information is not truth. Truth is a rare form of information and overloading information systems with fictions is a way for totalitarian leaders to gain mass following
    2. That is a situation we are now living through, and it is no coincidence that the democratic conversation is breaking down all over the world because the algorithms are hijacking it. We have the most sophisticated information technology in history and we are losing the ability to talk with each other to hold a reasoned conversation.

      for - progress trap - social media - misinformation - AI algorithms hijacking and pretending to be human

    3. The more we flood the world with information, unless we make the effort to construct institutions that invest in truth, we'll be flooded by fiction and illusion and delusion and junk information.

      for - quote - flooded with misinformation - Yuval Noah Harari - The more we flood the world with information, - unless we make the effort to construct institutions that invest in truth, - we'll be flooded by fiction, illusion, delusion and junk information.

    4. The Bible, the 10 Commandments for instance, endorses slavery. The 10th commandment says, that you should not covet your neighbors field or your neighbors ox, or your neighbors slaves. According to the 10th commandment, God has no problem with people owning slaves he just has a problem with people coveting the slaves of somebody else.

      for - example - no self-correcting mechanism in religion - 10th commandment and slaves

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    1. ow would you respond to such ways of of looking at data?

      for - progress cheerleaders - response to - to - progress - Jason Hickel - responds to Steven Pinker - to - progress - Jason Hickel - responds to Bill Gates - https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Fjacobin.com%2F2019%2F02%2Fsteven-pinker-global-poverty-neoliberalism-progress&group=vnpq69nW

    2. I think all of these kind of public good uh infrastructures that we have came about in this very narrow special window of time uh where you had this kind of incursion of egalitarianism uh and and a and a spirit of of you know public-mindedness that's all being eroded.

      for - public good - being eroded

    3. our world and data does they do have some legitimate research because that's what think tanks do. They launder illegitimate research with legitimate research. uh and their tactic primarily is to uh set the scope of what they are commenting on or researching uh that it you know it puts forward the kind of results that they want uh that aligns with their ideology.

      for - Our World in Data - discredited website - mix legitimate with illegitimate research to advance a biased ideology

    4. he counted examples of violence done by an indigenous group in I believe Uruguay uh as an example of violence of prehistoric primitive societies. Uh >> even though >> the the actual violence that was reported was done by colonists against those indigenous people but he counted it as the opposite as violence done by the indigenous people

      for - progress champion - Steven Pinker - discredited - one example of many - outright lie - he says violence committed BY indigenous Uruguay people but it was colonialist violence done TO THEM!

    5. Steven Pinger's big book better angels of our nature uh inspired a whole literature debunking it

      for - book - Better Angels - Steven Pinker - inspired literature debunking him - to - progress - Jason Hickel - responds to Steven Pinker - to - progress - Jason Hickel - responds to Bill Gates - https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Fjacobin.com%2F2019%2F02%2Fsteven-pinker-global-poverty-neoliberalism-progress&group=vnpq69nW

    6. John Lockach uh who often called the father of liberalism uh who's putting forward these kind of secular value systems to uh at first to you know justif ify things like the slave trade uh of which he was an investor uh the dispossession of Native Americans and their land

      for - trivia - philosopher John Locke - investor in slave trade and native american dispossesion!

      • SRG comment - John Locke - How "enlightened!"
    7. it's not so much about we have to you know expand the scope of the church or you know civilize people who don't have Jesus Christ and becomes more about we have to uh expand the market and we have to uh you know increase the the you know national revenue and the acreage that's under cultivation

      for - history - progress - after Enlightenment - no long about converting savages to Christians - became about expanding markets

    8. hat the book is is kind of trying to do is trace that lineage from that initial uh you know the the very first kind of literary endeavors um through uh you know uh Judaism and and through the classical Greek uh thinkers

      for - book - tracing history of progress / Growthist political economy narrative from Vikings to Mesopotamia to Judaism to Greeks to Islam to Enlightenment to US

    9. what progress should be, why it is so vital, and how little time we really have to achieve it.

      for - youtube - Planet Critical interview - Samuel Miller MacDonald - The Myth of Progress

      • SRG comment - interview - The Myth of Progress - Samuel Miller McDonald
        • Samuel summarizes key points from his research and book:
          • Progress: Humanity's Worst Idea
        • He discusses
          • what progress should be,
          • why it is so vital, and
          • how little time we really have to achieve
    10. By signing up, you'll get the Planet Critical newsletter delivered straight to your inbox every week. You'll also have access to the wonderful Planet Critical community who are full of inspiring thoughts, ideas, critiques, and determination.

      for - SRG comment - join us - MEconomy - forces us all into silos for survival

    11. rogress: A History of Humankind's Worst Idea

      for - progress trap - book - to - book - Progress: A History of Humankind's Worst Idea - https://hyp.is/cMyt5tjMEfCGz9-Edzp-hA/harpercollins.co.uk/products/progress-a-history-of-humanitys-worst-idea-samuel-miller-mcdonald - author Samuel Miller McDonald

      SRG comment - interview - book on Progress - see other references: - to - book - A Short History of Progress (2004) - https://hyp.is/93k5CtjLEfC1UpPEi59BHA/archive.org/details/shorthistoryofpr0000wrig - to - movie - Surviving Progress (2011) - https://hyp.is/sRPYJtjLEfCwuDdwG2xNnw/www.nfb.ca/film/surviving-progress/ - SRG article - Cogress

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    1. for - Medium article - cogress - Part 1 - progress trap - James Gien Wong - definition - cogress - to - Medium article cogress - Part 2 - progress trap - James Gien Wong - https://hyp.is/t8FhpDGAEfC4J7f0NEFujg/medium.com/@gien_SRG/human-cogress-part-2-d6fd075a55c7 - to - Stop Reset Go hypothesis annotations - progress trap - Ronald Wright - https://jonudell.info/h/facet/?max=100&expanded=true&user=stopresetgo&exactTagSearch=true&any=ronald+wright - General - https://jonudell.info/h/facet/?max=100&expanded=true&user=stopresetgo&exactTagSearch=true&any=progress+trap - from - youtube - Planet Critical interview - Samuel Miller MacDonald - The Myth of Progress - https://hyp.is/r-hmFtjKEfCd8odATbINbA/www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEhmWEDkZUQ

    1. for - youtube - How the rich took over the economy - from - youtube - interview - Thomas Piketty - can't blame the top, so demonize the bottom - https://hyp.is/10dTvtheEfC_-8OXfzSTJA/www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeZoNTJgBZs

      • SRG comment - A great explainer video of how the Volcker Shock started the whole chain reaction of modern day wealth inequality - to Thatcher and Reagan down to Trump
    2. In 1979 and 1980, two political leaders came into power who would turn this economic revolution into a political one. Margaret Thatcher in [music] the UK and Ronald Reagan in the US.

      for - economic history - Volcker Shock - 2 political allies - Thatcher (1979) and Reagan (1980) came to power - cast taxes, social programs and regulation as the bogeyman

      • SRG comment - Reagan and Thatcher policies - advocating for inequality - against the sacred
    3. conditions were called structural adjustment programs and they forced countries to adopt a very specific set of economic policies mainly the privatization [music] of public assets

      for - economic history - Volcker Shock - IMF Structural adjustment program - privatize public assets, - cut spending of welfare, - austerity across the board - deregulation, - open domestic markets to foreign corporations, - remove protection of local businesses and workers - IMF - a deal with the devil

    4. Most global finance is denominated in dollars. US interest rates effectively set global interest rates. So when Fuler pushed rates towards 20%, developing countries who had borrowed dollars just a few years earlier saw their interest payments on those loans explode.

      for - economic history - Volcker Shock - developing countries loans became unpayable overnight

    5. Paul Fulker was appointed chairman of the Federal Reserve, essentially the head of the United States Central Bank. in 1979 and his appointment signaled a dramatic shift in US economic governance

      for - economic history - 1979 - Paul. A. Volcker appointed chairman of Federal Reserve - Volcker Shock - shift - from employment to inflation - raised interest rates to an astounding 20%, intentionally causing a recession

    6. monitoism offered Fulkar the intellectual and political cover he needed for this shift in monetary policy. Away from the Keynesian commitment to full employment and [music] economic stability and towards protecting the value of capital which had been eroded by years of high inflation.

      for - economic history - Volcker Shock - used Milton Friedman's theory to provide cover to stop Keynesian commitment to full employment and instead protect capital from inflation. - Volcker raised interest rates to 20%,, causing massive plant shutdowns and unemployment to surge above 10%. - The recession closed shops, and labor lost its bargaining power when plants are shut down.

    7. Milton [music] Freriedman, the economist most associated with neoliberalism, whose work was heavily financed by business elites. It was his theory, monitoism, which framed inflation as the ultimate economic threat

      for - economic history - Milton Friedman - represented business elites - Monetarism - inflation seen as ultimate threat to elites

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    1. People are so disgusted, you know, with this working of the of the economic systems that in the end because you tell them they cannot look up and they cannot do anything with people at the top. They start looking down

      for - inequality - Thomas Piketty - opinion - middle class can't get tax relief from the elites - so they take it out on those below them - to - youtube - economic history - what started the chain reaction of modern day inequality - https://hyp.is/SIBPoNjHEfCxI8N7cC7ntw/www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAV0bkTHui8

    1. A major evolutionary transition in individuality is defined by two conditions

      for: - MET - METI - Major Evolutionary Transition in Individuality - definition - Major Evolutionary Transition in Individuality (METI) - two conditions for METI - 1. living forms that were capable of independent replication before the replication can only replicate as part of a larger unit after the MET - 2. there is a lack of within-group conflict such that the larger unit can be thought of as a fitness-maximizing individual in its own right. - When these 2 conditions are met, evolution lea a new higher level organism. - The new individual acts with a single purpose where the interests of the previously independent individuals are now aligned.

    1. t’s a very generic definition that I think gets to the heart of what we mean by intelligence, which is the ability to adaptively navigate a problem space with some degree of competency to get your needs met

      for - definition - intelligence - Michael Levin the ability to adaptively navigae a problem space with some degree of competency to get your needs met (to fulfill your goal seeking activity)

    1. sociocultural systems typically lack the core conditions required for an ETI, including autonomous reproduction at the group level and the operation of natural selection in the reproductive mode

      for - ETI - sociocultural systems as ETI - critique - lack autonomous reproduction at the group level - lack operation of natural selection in the reproductive mode

    1. for - paper - Characteristic processes of human evolution caused the Anthropocene and may obstruct its global solutions (2023) - author - Timothy M. Waring - Zachary T. Wood - Eörs Szathmáry

      SRG comment - validation that cultural evolution must make a dramatic shift because - the patterns of cultural evolution that brought human civilization to modernity and the Anthropocene - could end up destroying it - progress trap - cultural evolution - patterns of existing cultural evolution and progress could be our ultimate progress trap

    2. We conclude that our species must alter longstanding patterns of cultural evolution to avoid environmental disaster and escalating between-group competition.

      for - cultural evolution - futures - directional change<br /> - our species must alter longstanding patterns of cultural evolution to avoid - environmental disaster and - escalating between-group competition

      • SRG comment - validation for cultural change from traditional patterns that brought us to the anthropocene
    1. evolutionary transition in both inheritance and individuality (ETII).

      for - gene-culture coevolution - definition - Evolutionary Transition in both Inheritance and Individuality (ETII) - authors - Timothy M Waring - Zachary T Wood - paper - Cultural inheritance is driving a transition in human evolution 2025

    2. for - paper - 2025 - Cultural inheritance is driving a transition in human evolution - author<br /> - Timothy M Waring - from - U of Maine News - Culture is driving a major shift in human evolution, new theory proposeshttps://hyp.is/7sMSFteXEfC_tNvhW0UTPA/umaine.edu/news/blog/2025/09/15/culture-is-driving-a-major-shift-in-human-evolution-new-theory-proposes/ - Zarchary T Wood

    1. We speculate that, in the long term, culture will continue to grow in influence over human evolution until genes become secondary structures that encode human biological design blueprints but are ultimately governed by culture.

      for - genes subservient to culture - We speculate that, in the long term, culture will continue to grow in influence over human evolution - until genes become secondary structures that encode human biological design blueprints - but are ultimately governed by culture.

    1. each person is, on average, an assemblage of 37 trillion eukaryotic cells combined with 300 trillion bacterial cells; the 20,000 protein-coding genes in the eukaryotic genome supplemented by 2 million bacterial genes.

      for - stats - cells in body - eukaryotic vs microbiotic - eukaryotic - 37 trillion vs microbiome and bacteria - 300 trillion - eukaryotic - 20,000 protein coding genes vs microbiome and bacteria 2 million

    2. Because one human lifetime may encompass a million bacterial generations, individual species and the microbiome itself can evolve within a single host.

      for - quote - one human lifetime - evolution of a million generations of bacteria - Because one human lifetime may encompass a million bacterial generations, individual species and the microbiome itself can evolve within a single host.

      • SRG comment
      • wow! One human lifetime might encompass a million generations of bacteria!
      • meme- our gut is an evolutionary lab for bacteria!
    3. For many if not all members of the human microbial fauna, generation times are measured in hours or even minutes. These short generation times, coupled with the large population sizes of many bacteria, effectively elide the boundary between ecological and evolutionary time

      for - microbiome - blurs ecological and evolutionary time - due to short generation time of microfauna