Francisco Alexandre Pires

Fiction, non-fiction and tech writer. Essayist, photographer, storyteller at heart.

Creator @IngenuityFeed.

Stay curious, keep thinking, keep being human.

[Francisco Alexandre Pires @Asimulatedme]

I tried to play with the concepts of will, determinism, simulation arguments and integrated information theories in order to provide a thought experiment towards finally knowing whether free will is real or not.

Recommended on a Sunday morning-like mood - with coffee.

[Vivid Void @vividvoid]

Empathy isn't something you're born with - you develop it by spending real time and effort imagining what it's like to be other people.

The slow way to do this is by reading great fiction. The jet fuel method is creating a regular meditative practice in which you envision, as stably and clearly as possible, what it's like to inhabit the experience of your loved ones. Sight, sound, touch, every bit of sensory information you can append to the experience - all of it deepens your ability to understand, be present with, and predict others' internal states.

This is much more difficult than it sounds, and takes a lot of practice. But the payoff is an ability to relate at a depth of resonance and compassion that few others can.

[Visakan Veerasamy @visakanv]

there are many reasons why i write so much. i love words the way a painter might love paint. but if you ask me rn, i feel like the deeper thing that keeps me going is: from time to time i write something that deeply reconstitutes my understanding of myself, and it's exhilarating

[Francisco Alexandre Pires @Asimulatedme]

@parakeetnebula https://t.co/SeDntz4Flw

This one would feel amazing.

[Francisco Alexandre Pires @Asimulatedme]

@CosmicSkeptic But if we really want to know the answer to whether or not we have free will, then we could:

Copy a human mind; guarantee it's an exact extension of its owner; and run two copies of it within two perfectly reproducible digital environments. If they diverge... Then we'll know.

[Francisco Alexandre Pires @Asimulatedme]

@CosmicSkeptic It just doesn't really matter whether it does exist (from an existencial, experiencial angle), and it's wrong to use something so nebulous as that as the basis of our moral system.

That it's become so is part of the reason we still seek the answer so much.

[Francisco Alexandre Pires @Asimulatedme]

@WSPZoo @animalologist I like your answer, but I read the paragraph structure and the "at a constant rate" as clarifying that he moves at a constant rate within whatever parameters are introduced until I'm told that no longer applies.

[Francisco Alexandre Pires @Asimulatedme]

@JAN0L @neincubed @animalologist A man of culture.

[Francisco Alexandre Pires @Asimulatedme]

@tautologer We're together then. I feel your struggle.

[Francisco Alexandre Pires @Asimulatedme]

Wow, the environment here and in the comments is pretty... Dense... For any Y swimmer.

There was that bit about fighting monsters...

[Echo 🔆 @TheEcho13]

I get that these manosphere men seethe with jealousy at the thought of women receiving anything from a man but I think that a woman taking their wealth is probably the last thing they should be worried about.

[QC @QiaochuYuan]

in retrospect it's pretty fucked up that you can just say to people "hey you know that hole at the center of your being" and they'll just be like "oh yeah the hole, i know exactly what you mean, love that hole, one of my favorite holes"

[Francisco Alexandre Pires @Asimulatedme]

@itinerantfog @perpetuummobula Indeed. Categorization being "instantaneous" is a function of neuronal activation frequency and specificity.

And how deeply is this categorization grounded in language?

[Francisco Alexandre Pires @Asimulatedme]

@AlexanderNaume2 There are a number of ways and reasons this process can be optimized or solved for.

What does an "intelligent direction" of this selection process look like other than maximizing survivability? And what is survivability other than population increase?

[Francisco Alexandre Pires @Asimulatedme]

@szymongus @leecronin Unsure about swiftly. And these long-lasting "cultural mistakes" too have an impact on evolution - or at least, the general disposition of the masses at any given slice of humanity.

Hey, maybe it's corrected faster than I thought after all.

[Francisco Alexandre Pires @Asimulatedme]

@AlexanderNaume2 @leecronin They do demonstrate a surplus of time and energy that's not directly related to guaranteeing survival. They're (some) of the effects.

[Francisco Alexandre Pires @Asimulatedme]

@leecronin Should intelligence be defined as a measure of the ability to harness higher-order energy potentials in order to increase survivability? Should group survivability be considered as a higher-order intelligence demonstrator?

Just some things to toy with.

[Francisco Alexandre Pires @Asimulatedme]

@leecronin Should intelligence be defined as a measure of the ability to harness higher-order energy potentials in order to increase survivability? Should group survivability be considered as a higher-order intelligence demonstrator?

Just some things to toy with.

[Francisco Alexandre Pires @Asimulatedme]

@leecronin How is "general purpose problem solving" defined here? And does it have to be anything other than problem solving for maximizing survivability?

[Francisco Alexandre Pires @Asimulatedme]

And we'll, here's the ENTIRE HISTORY of LK-99 (at time of writing).

Ngl, it's interesting to see how some "fluencers" just ride the waves as they're climbing and leave as they start to fall. One of those cycles, I guess. Attention is a currency, after all.

[Francisco Alexandre Pires @Asimulatedme]

My latest Substack post is up and running. Life being what it is, It's been a while since I actually finished one of my drafts on there.

https://t.co/TEqgmaasPZ

[Francisco Alexandre Pires @Asimulatedme]

I have some questions, and I prefer to stand with the scientific process. There's been at least three announced breakthroughs on the superconductor space in the span of a week. If there's an area that ironically isn't sitting still, it's condensed matter physics.