Reading this stopped me in my tracks. So clearly predicts where we are headed.
Paragraph 1: All human actions are mathematically calculated, outsourcing human judgment and decision making to AI “well meaning encyclopedia like publications” (LLMs). Information overload and precise calculation of all decisions reach a point where man no longer has any intrigue or adventure due to human calculated imperfect "gut/flow/wu wei" decisions.
Paragraph 2: UHI, Smart Contracts. Markets and economic decisions become calculated by machines with flawless perfection. AI operates with near perfect information. The “Crystal Palace” gets built. Abundance.
Paragraph 3: With all of this in place, with decisions made by perfectly rational and calculated machine creatures and automated financial markets and economic systems, what is left to bring excitement? Human life becomes boring. Solving problems, digging for answers, gambles, and life choices made with imperfect information are what bring excitement and what make us human. This new world is all entirely reasonable and “makes sense.” “It will leave us to focus solely on creative endeavors,” they say.
Paragraph 4: We are not grateful enough today for our humanity, our ability to strive, want, choose, take risks. Our humanity, our free will, our imperfections, our gambles, our on the fly choices, spontaneity, calculated risk, and the unknowns of life create adventure and bring us down paths we cannot predict. This is all what makes life enjoyable. It will take reaching a fully AI generated, predicted, near perfect information world for the cycle to come back around to where there is a movement to bring back human decision making and life choices.
Notes from Underground, Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1864: "Needless to say, all human actions will then be calculated according to these laws, mathematically, like a table of logarithms, up to 108,000, and entered into a calendar; or, better still, some well-meaning publications will appear, like the present-day encyclopedic dictionaries, in which everything will be so precisely calculated and designated that there will no longer be any actions or adventures in the world.
And it is then—this is still you speaking—that new economic relations will come, quite ready-made, and also calculated with mathematical precision, so that all possible questions will vanish in an instant, essentially because they will have been given all possible answers. Then the crystal palace will get built. . .
Of course, there’s no guaranteeing (this is me speaking now) that it won’t, for example, be terribly boring then (because what is there to do if everything’s calculated according to some little table?), but, on the other hand, it will all be extremely reasonable. Of course, what inventions can boredom not lead to! . . .
Man really is stupid, phenomenally stupid. That is, he’s by no means stupid, but rather he’s so ungrateful that it would be hard to find the likes of him. I, for example, would not be the least bit surprised if suddenly, out of the blue, amid the universal future reasonableness, some gentleman of ignoble, or, better, of retrograde and jeering physiognomy, should emerge, set his arms akimbo, and say to us all: "Well gentlemen, why don't we reduce all this reasonableness to dust with one good kick, for the sole purpose of sending all these logarithms to the devil and living once more according to our own stupid will!"
Gyms are coming to airports…
I had the privilege of spending time with @SecKennedy and @SecDuffy as the DOT announced a new initiative to bring gyms into U.S. airports.
This is a $1B grant program that airports across the country can apply for to build real spaces for people to move while they travel.
The problem is that airports, and travel in general, are one of the most sedentary experiences in American life.
Think about it: the traffic getting there, the waiting, the long flights… hours and hours without movement.
And we know that being sedentary is not good for us.
Even 1 hour of inactivity can lead to vascular dysfunction at the level of the endothelium (PMID: 25137367, 27443851).
And studies have shown that 2-3 hours of inactivity leads to a rise in inflammatory markers (PMID: 31562947, 22176839, 28323950).
Imagine having a place to actually move your body before a flight or during a layover.
This is the kind of change that can meaningfully improve health for millions of travellers.
And the craziest part?
This entire opportunity began from one story I posted in an airport. You never know who’s watching or where a simple idea can lead.
Moments like this make me incredibly grateful, and remind me why this work matters.
Every time you share a video or spread the message, it opens doors for conversations and initiatives like this - so thank you for your help.
If you want a mini-gym in your airport, tag your local airport, tag Secretary Duffy (@SecDuffy), and share this with your friends and family.
I've started by tagging the airports I frequent below.
Please help us make mini-gyms in airports a reality in hundreds thousands of airports across the country!
@iah@iflymia@flyLAXairport
What drives human behavior, nature or nurture?
Human = mind, nature = body, nurture = environment.
Questions should be answered at the level at which they're asked.
And the mind and its behavior are driven by creativity, knowledge, and choice.
https://t.co/0mgVWACZSl
If you watch the NEWS, you may think we're headed for Civil War and the world is in Bad Shape.
That's Bullsh!t
And, here's 10 Charts to Prove it:
1. Child Survival is Up
What is your "and then what?" i.e after you accomplish what you set out to accomplish, what would you spend your time doing? "I will do a,b,c 'and then' I will be able to x,y,z". Is x,y,z contingent on a,b,c occurring? Could you just do x,y,z now?
Reich was Sigmund Freud’s “brilliant protégé”. While Freud's name commands respect, Reich, became a victim of the only federally sanctioned book burning on American soil.