Steven Rodrigues

[Steven Rodrigues @srod141]

@stoolpresidente TAKE A LAP PORTNOY

[Steven Rodrigues @srod141]

@michelle_mn__ Te amo mi esposa ❤️

[Steven Rodrigues @srod141]

@HawkeyeSource @BC_Coach69

[IAwrestle @IAwrestle]

“I kept showing up”

Listen to Gabe Arnold chat after he secures AA status from the 27 seed 😳

#IAwrestle

[Steven Rodrigues @srod141]

@FloWrestling @BC_Coach69

[Steven Rodrigues @srod141]

@FloWrestling @BC_Coach69

[Steven Rodrigues @srod141]

@_wrestlersgrind @BC_Coach69

[Anders K. Hvelplund @Falliblemusings]

I used to think Sapiens was a great book. Sweeping, provocative, the kind of book that makes you feel like you finally understand the big picture of human history. It's on every CEO's bookshelf, assigned in universities, praised as a masterwork of synthesis. Yuval Noah Harari is treated as one of the serious thinkers of our time.

But something nagged at me. Some passages felt off. Claims that human rights are just figments of our collective imagination, not real things, just stories we tell ourselves. That nations, laws, money, justice, doesn't exist outside our heads. That meaning itself is a delusion we've invented to cope. That we're far more powerful than ever before but not happier. That hunter-gatherers had it better because they had no dishes to wash, no carpets to vacuum, no nappies to change, no bills to pay.

That sounded depressing to me, but was perhaps just the realistic scientific worldview? What it meant to see the world clearly, without comforting illusions.

Then I read The Beginning of Infinity by @DavidDeutschOxf. Deutsch has a concept he calls 'bad philosophy.' Not philosophy that's merely false, but philosophy that actively prevents the growth of knowledge. Ideas that close doors rather than open them. That makes problems seem unsolvable by design.
After soaking in Deutsch's framework (it's dense, a bit like digesting a delicious whale), it becomes clear: Harari's books are riddled with bad philosophy. They're smuggling nihilism in under the guise of scientific objectivity. Some examples:

On meaning: "Human life has absolutely no meaning. Humans are the outcome of blind evolutionary processes that operate without goal or purpose... any meaning that people inscribe to their lives is just a delusion."

On human rights: "There are no gods in the universe, no nations, no money, no human rights, no laws, and no justice outside the common imagination of human beings."

On free will: "Humans are now hackable animals. The idea that humans have this soul or spirit and they have free will, that's over."

On progress: "We thought we were saving time; instead we revved up the treadmill of life to ten times its former speed." The Agricultural Revolution? "History's biggest fraud." We didn't domesticate wheat, "it domesticated us."

On our cosmic significance: "If planet Earth were to blow up tomorrow morning, the universe would probably keep going about its business as usual. Human subjectivity would not be missed."

On the future: "Those who fail in the struggle against irrelevance would constitute a new 'useless class.'" Homo sapiens will likely "disappear in a century or two."

This is bad philosophy. It tells us our problems are cosmically insignificant, our solutions are illusions, and that progress is neither desirable nor within our control. It's also perfect nonsense. No one would ever go back to being hunter-gatherers. Would you rather worry about your kid spending too much time on Roblox, or face the 50% chance she won't reach puberty?

And our so-called "fictions"? They ended slavery. They gave women equal rights. They solved hunger. They eradicated smallpox. They turned sand into computer chips. They got us to the moon, and hopefully soon, to Mars and beyond. These "fictions" are already reshaping the universe, and over time they may become the most potent force in it.

Now compare Deutsch:
"Humans, people and knowledge are not only objectively significant: they are by far the most significant phenomena in nature."

"Feeling insignificant because the universe is large has exactly the same logic as feeling inadequate for not being a cow."

"Problems are soluble, and each particular evil is a problem that can be solved."

"We are only just scratching the surface, and shall never be doing anything else. If unlimited progress really is going to happen, not only are we now at almost the very beginning of it, we always shall be."

Where Harari sees a species of deluded apes stumbling toward obsolescence, Deutsch sees universal explainers, the only entities we know of capable of creating explanatory knowledge, solving problems, and potentially seeding the universe with intelligence.

The difference isn't academic. Ideas shape action. If you believe life is meaningless, progress is a trap, and humans are hackable animals with no free will, how does that affect what you build? What you fight for? What you teach your children?

Harari's books sell because they flatter a fashionable pessimism. They let readers feel sophisticated for seeing through the "delusions" everyone else lives by. That smug cynicism is corrosive. And it's everywhere: in schools, in media, in bestselling books. More than half of young adults now say they feel little to no purpose or meaning in life. This is what happens when you teach an entire generation bad philosophy. Less progress, less health, less wealth. Less flourishing. And ultimately, a higher chance that civilization and consciousness go extinct.

Fortunately, there's another equally well-written, but much truer, account of homo sapiens, appropriately titled 'The Beginning of Infinity'. And this one smuggles no despair in by the backdoor. But let's give Harari credit where it's due. He is right about one thing: if planet Earth blew up tomorrow, we wouldn't be missed. Because there'd be no one left to miss us, just a careless universe, blindly obeying physical laws. We are the only ones who can miss, but we're not going to. We're going to aim, hit, and keep going.

Full credit for the amazing meme to @Ben__Jeff

[Steven Rodrigues @srod141]

@IlliniWrestling @BC_Coach69

[Darshak Rana ⚡️ @thedarshakrana]

🚨 Manifestation isn't magic.

It's neuroscience—and you're doing it backwards.

The real formula has nothing to do with affirmations.

Here's what actually creates reality: 🧵

[Steven Rodrigues @srod141]

@JustinJBasch @MatScouts1 @BC_Coach69

[Gina Acosta @ginacostag_]

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s best career advice:

“Passion isn’t enough, you’ve got to endure.”

[Steven Rodrigues @srod141]

Had a great training session this AM. 3 mile run, 100 pull-ups, 100 pushups, 45LB plates for "around the worlds" and finished again with 6 sets of 2 minutes on the heavy bag. ripping those left hooks to the body. Preseason is off to a good start. @NGWIZZZ @BC_Coach69 @CoachKD98

[USA Wrestling @USAWrestling]

WIN Coaches Corner feature on Khaled Dassan: The KD way. KD has coached numerous elite age-group athletes, investing his full effort, passion and care into each of his students.

[Deep Psychology @DeepPsycho_HQ]

Be delusional.

[Steven Rodrigues @srod141]

Just finished up 30 min on the heavy bag @BC_Coach69

[Steven Rodrigues @srod141]

A comeback video. A legacy that transcends the wins. In the end, what we leave behind reveals everything about who we truly were.

[FloWrestling @FloWrestling]

An update from @benaskren ❤️. A legend and a fighter.

There’s no community like the wrestling community. A reminder that you can help out Ben and his family at the link in bio

[Steven Rodrigues @srod141]

What Coach Dassan has done in such a short amount of time with his club has been nothing short of magnificent! @CoachKD98

[Henry Cejudo @HenryCejudo]

Give this man his coach of the year Trophy already! Not all coaches are world champions. @CoachKD98 🔥🔥🔥

World Team Members
Every World Team Spot at 70KG
PJ Duke - U20/70KG, U23/70KG and Senior 70KG
Jayden James - U17/70KG
Rocco Welsh - U23/86KG
@FloWrestling @USAWrestling

[Steven Rodrigues @srod141]

@michelle_mn__ Santa madre mi mexicana. El manzana es mucho mejor, neta

[Robert Scoble @Scobleizer]

What will humans be doing in 10 years?

1. In a decade most people will not be driving. What will we do instead?

2. In a decade most people will have robots in their businesses and probably their homes.

3. In a decade we won't be looking at 2D monitors much anymore.

4. In a decade we will be using a ton of brain/computer interfaces to work and play.

5. In a decade AI will be making us all more productive, and, even, happier. It will be reporting our news. It will be running our businesses. It will be helping us with our health. It will be helping us build. It will help us design new things, new products, new ideas, new lifestyles, new experiences.

6. In a decade we will still be needed to work, but on new things that are hard to imagine today.

7. In a decade we will have dozens of virtual beings in our lives. And your AI will bring new ones into your life depending on your goals. Want to learn Spanish? A new group will show up that are different than the group that will show up if you want to learn Chemistry.

8. In a decade new brain/computer interfaces will be here, and will merge humans with AIs in many ways.

9. In a decade our corporate structures will change to be a hybrid of humans and AIs working together.

10. In a decade a robot will attend our city council meetings and report to us about what's going on inside.

11. In a decade we won't use applications, like we do today on our iPhones. We will have a singular user interface. On Star Trek you just said "computer do this" and it did. Star Trek will be real in a decade.

12. In a decade we will have armies of robots and drones moving around our cities doing everything from deliveries to giving tours to tourists.

13. In a decade we still will have artists and storytellers, but they will be assisted by AIs to help make that art, and tell that story. AI's will gather other AIs who will warn the humans that someone is telling an interesting story.

14. In a decade AIs will still be asking humans for assistance. "Hey human can you get a better view of the house that's on fire across the street?"

15. In a decade AIs are assisting humans in coming up with new medical and material breakthroughs. Even designing new computing architectures, whether Quantum, or silicon, or biological, or a hybrid of all three or even something even newer.

I'm already living this way, always talking with Grok. "Hey Grok, what am I missing?"

It laid out 10 other shifts that I'm missing: https://t.co/vmuHILOK9g