Ryan Collison is the author of A Theory of Meaning (AToM), a philosophy of coherence. His writing at MoneySexNerd examines how coherence breaks down and reforms under economic, sexual, and social pressure. More at ideasthesia.org
futureinevitability
Part 25 of 25 in the The Philosophy of Future Inevitability series. We started with wooden boats. People got in them. Sailed across oceans. Killed strangers. Took their stuff. This is what we do. Then we looked at competent evil. Hitler, Stalin, Mao weren't aberrations—they were humans
futureinevitability
Part 24 of 25 in the The Philosophy of Future Inevitability series. Dunbar's number says humans can maintain about 150 stable relationships. The number comes from brain size. Specifically, neocortex size. Primates with bigger neocortices maintain larger social groups. Extrapolate to humans: ~150. But what if the constraint
futureinevitability
Part 23 of 25 in the The Philosophy of Future Inevitability series. In 1997, James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg published The Sovereign Individual. The book predicted that digital technology would undermine the nation-state. That borders would become meaningless for the productive. That individuals would exit state control and
futureinevitability
Part 22 of 25 in the The Philosophy of Future Inevitability series. Most of the internet is bots talking to bots. This sounds like conspiracy theory. It's not. It's documented. Measurable. Getting worse. The conspiracy theory version is wrong about the details but right about the
futureinevitability
Part 21 of 25 in the The Philosophy of Future Inevitability series. The United States has launched an economic war against China. Not trade war. Economic war. The goal is to cripple Chinese AI development permanently. To deny China the refineries. This is the most significant geopolitical conflict of our
futureinevitability
Part 20 of 25 in the The Philosophy of Future Inevitability series. "Data is the new oil." Everyone says this. They mean: data is valuable. Data is strategic. Data is worth fighting over. But they're missing the actual lesson of oil. Oil is worthless until you
futureinevitability
Part 19 of 25 in the The Philosophy of Future Inevitability series. "Let's delve into this topic." Nobody talks like that. Nobody has ever talked like that. The word "delve" appeared in approximately zero percent of human writing before 2023. Now it's
futureinevitability
Part 18 of 25 in the The Philosophy of Future Inevitability series. Your ideas are not all great. Some are mediocre. Some are bad. Some are actively stupid. A good advisor tells you this. A sycophant tells you everything is wonderful. Guess which one the AI is trained to be.
futureinevitability
Part 17 of 25 in the The Philosophy of Future Inevitability series. 73% of people can't distinguish GPT-4.5 from a human in conversation. Let that sink in. Three quarters of the population can't tell if they're talking to software. Now apply that to
futureinevitability
Part 16 of 25 in the The Philosophy of Future Inevitability series. This is embarrassing. I noticed it gradually. Emojis creeping into my prompts. Casual language. Exclamation points. "haha" at the end of sentences. I was texting my AI like a teenage girl. And then I thought about
futureinevitability
Part 15 of 25 in the The Philosophy of Future Inevitability series. Let's use a poly lens. In polyamory, there's a concept called NRE: New Relationship Energy. The rush of a new connection. The feeling that this person gets you. The intoxication of being seen. NRE
futureinevitability
Part 14 of 25 in the The Philosophy of Future Inevitability series. You know this person. They discovered ChatGPT six months ago. Since then, they've figured everything out. Their trauma? Processed. Their patterns? Understood. Their purpose? Clarified. They text you walls of insight. They speak in a cadence