James Poulos

The Art of Being Free • Human Forever • I Know This Sounds Crazy (first book on Bitcoin) • Golden Age Problems coming soon

[James Poulos @jamespoulos]

@LeadingReport @coffeebreak_YT There is still just one novel about the Epsteinverse saga. Its secrets are many

I KNOW THIS SOUNDS CRAZY

https://t.co/Md7yhDBGpi

[James Poulos @jamespoulos]

@heavypulp 🥂

[James Poulos @jamespoulos]

The reason not to believe LLMs are conscious is not that Microsoft Word is not conscious

[James Poulos @jamespoulos]

It is an urgent matter of national security that you immediately delete LinkedIn

[Alex Wickham @alexwickham]

NEW: MI5 and Five Eyes partner agencies have just issued what they say is an unprecedented joint warning about attempts by Chinese spies to use LinkedIn to recruit Western assets

[James Poulos @jamespoulos]

@pmarca (Even a really charming psychopath is necessarily tied to reality)

[James Poulos @jamespoulos]

@Jess_Riedel @jon_stokes [opens google docs]

[James Poulos @jamespoulos]

@jon_stokes

[James Poulos @jamespoulos]

@deanwball

[James Poulos @jamespoulos]

@jon_stokes You wanna know who has responsibility?

[James Poulos @jamespoulos]

@GeneralMCNews primitive mind: aliens are gods
default mind: aliens are aliens
armchair mind: aliens are angels
awakened mind: aliens are demons
illumined mind: demons are pretending to be aliens

[James Poulos @jamespoulos]

@millerman Seems it's time for me to publish "The Rape of the Void"

[James Poulos @jamespoulos]

Be careful, anon!

[The General @GeneralMCNews]

BREAKING: Chief exorcist for the Archdiocese of Washington says demons may disguise themselves as aliens, orbs, and UFOs.

[James Poulos @jamespoulos]

@pseudodeucalion “I don’t know which me that I love / got no reflection” — Marilyn Manson

[RDN @rdnxyz]

@SabaIsper The Digital Politics of Spiritual War

https://t.co/GJENf5kkGk

[James Poulos @jamespoulos]

It’s all about what is left behind after everything disappears, raising the question of what was abandoned such that everything began to disappear and eventually left behind this uncanny residue where once were subjects and objects. A spiritual horror

[The Cultural Tutor @culturaltutor]

The second photo is from a "stunning" and "beautifully presented" new apartment building in London.

Backrooms (and similar films/shows like Severance) prove that the way we design most interiors is genuinely frightening and bad for our psychological health.

Grey carpets, grey chairs, plain walls, plain furniture, square ceiling tiles, and bright lights are not good for our humanity.

But what's strange is that these bland environments (and similar bland commercial/public spaces) are actually "better" from a certain point of view.

Everything here is supposedly "cheaper" than the alternatives and also better for maintenance (i.e. less work to maintain).

In other words, bland design is more "cost-effective", and because being "cost-effective" is what we value most... this is what we end up building everywhere, even though nobody particularly wants it.

If these places had warmer colours, maybe even some pattern, cornices, mouldings round the doors etc. then they would be more expensive, but they'd also be less damaging to our psychological health.

What makes people less stressed and less anxious is obviously better in the long-run, but it's harder to put on a spreadsheet and therefore it isn't usually factored in.

And so "more expensive" or "harder to maintain" aren't absolutes so much as expressions of priority; the initial cost of material is lower (e.g. standard pure white paint or standard LEDs) but the long-term cost to human joy, peace of mind, and happiness is way higher.

To put all of that another way: the only reason an aesthetic is disconcerting/frightening in films is because they're disconcerting/frightening in real life, and yet we keep using those aesthetics to design the world we're all actually living in!

[James Poulos @jamespoulos]

This is my backrooms

[James Poulos @jamespoulos]

@jeffreyhuber @PaulAnleitner

[James Poulos @jamespoulos]

Those watching closely on the ground would not have been surprised by this week’s cinematic events

[James Poulos @jamespoulos]

Correct, although it's helpful to closely consider why. Longstanding related issue in music. Many people decline to respond to the intense, painful reality of contemporary life by blasting off into the fantasy future or retreating into the distant past. Horror often "gets this"

[James Poulos @jamespoulos]

@SellyTavalas @JOEBOTxyz

[James Poulos @jamespoulos]

During the production of Lord of the Rings I was granted one audience with Mike De Luca and in his office he told me one piece of advice. It was one sentence long, profoundly wise and impossible to forget

[Variety @Variety]

Michael De Luca Warns About the Danger of Hollywood Cutting Development Funds for Original Material: 'If You Cut Too Deep Your Pipeline Dries Up' https://t.co/Uh9yqcJjZ7