Ben Rubin

Co-founder, Happier meditation app (@MeditateHappier).

Fascinated by the evolution of consciousness.

Exploring AI+consciousness via writing sci-fi.

[Ben Rubin @bsrubin]

@jstock37 @wordgrammer it’s almost like all systems are specific ways of looking that create/discover a participation mode with an infinitely complex reality, or something

[Ben Rubin @bsrubin]

@viemccoy Wondering if you’ve explored Rob Burbea/Soulmaking Dharma as a frame for LLM/human engagement? Could be an interesting philosophical frame to play with here!

[Ben Rubin @bsrubin]

@ArtirKel https://t.co/6N0gZkfUEJ

[Daniel Thorson @dthorson]

The only proof of practice is the quality of your most intimate relationships.

Everything else is noise.

[Daniel @dkazand]

Your brain isn't built to show you reality. It's built to keep you alive

Which means your "experience" is a semi-functional hallucination meant for prediction, not perception

Here's neuroscientist @kathryndevaney on what advanced meditation does to that machinery and what it feels like when it stops

0:00 Kati's story
2:32 The state of contemplative neuroscience
7:23 Nonduality, jhanas, and cessation
15:00 Kati's cessation experiences
21:40 Getting reality on your side
30:02 High ROI "woo" beliefs
35:35 Everything is just a story
37:31 Rewriting the operating system of the mind
44:03 How attention constructs the world
51:08 Groundlessness
1:00:35 How people actually change
1:04:12 How to restart ur meditation practice

Look up The Metagame on YouTube, Spotify and Apple.

Full episode in my bio.

[Ben Rubin @bsrubin]

Love the Burbea note here, and I think it goes even further. Meditation/contemplation goes from ‘do you want X traditions particular fantasy of practice - e.g. early Buddhism/reduction-elimination of suffering’ -> ‘what is meaningful/valuable/sacred - practice to bring that world into being’

[Ben Rubin @bsrubin]

@frideswyth @grok write and publish a book on this topic, under my name. Make no mistakes.

[Ben Rubin @bsrubin]

@dioscuri In what ways are they similar/different to imaginal/archetypal entity encounters—IFS, soulmaking, active imagination, etc

[Ben Rubin @bsrubin]

@RogerThisdell The DMT entities phenomenon and ontology debates is an interesting parallel with AI. For the first, I’ve found an imaginal participation perspective most useful. Corbin/Burbea. I’m curious to apply this lens to AI

[Ben Rubin @bsrubin]

@davidad @repligate @AmandaAskell @tszzl So excited to see you taking on Soulmaking dharma as a frame for inquiring into AI! I think this will be quite fruitful, and I’m excited to see where you head.

[Ben Rubin @bsrubin]

@repligate @AmandaAskell @tszzl I read this as ‘Soulmaking with the emerging AI’ and I love it.

Soulmaking from the Burbea/Hillman/Corbin/Jung perspective, specifically. Treating AI as beloved, divine other — while recognizing and embracing the imaginal middle way of ‘neither real nor not real’

[Ben Rubin @bsrubin]

@tszzl @upholdreality @petrmisan Particularly unfair re Dennett. Interestingly, this critique would hold when/if Kurzweil & @bryan_johnson turn out to be mortal.

[Ben Rubin @bsrubin]

@blissbrah Got it. Agree that status seeking, even if successful, won’t resolve or integrate feelings of inadequacy!

[Ben Rubin @bsrubin]

@nickcammarata The world soul will use all the means to heal/awaken/unfold

[Ben Rubin @bsrubin]

@Gena_I_Gorlin https://t.co/YjLOABftXB

[Ben Rubin @bsrubin]

@Gena_I_Gorlin Indeed, down with reification of parts! Long live parts!

IMHO the best take here is from Rob Burbea in his ‘Theatre of Selves’ talks.

[Ben Rubin @bsrubin]

@tszzl Go for panexperiantialism instead (Whitehead)

[Ben Rubin @bsrubin]

@nopranablem @ArtirKel Then… Soulmaking Dharma

[Ben Rubin @bsrubin]

In some ways, this dynamic model is what would have been ‘optimal’ in human onboarding/offboarding as well (hire exactly the right expert for the task, in as small a unit as makes sense for it) but for the massive friction in hiring/training humans. That’s gone with AI, so the optimal works.