I read your post about meeting Epstein aloud to my partner on our way to weekend party which practices some of the social controls you describe in this latest piece. We reflected on it again on our ride back and talked tangentially a lot about many of the themes in your recent work on cancel culture and restorative justice and how layered those concepts are in how they are applied, what constitutes fairness. We spoke about how current systems leave us feeling unmoored and unmet in our needs so we resort to a kind of tribalistic/retributive behavior that doesn’t really move the needle on root causes of more nefariously antisocial behavior or how we can build structures that seriously disincentivize or make that behavior impossible without resulting in even more authoritarian outcomes.
I do think wealth inequality is a huge factor here. People who are obsessed with wealth for its own sake are, in my mind, mentally ill. When money no longer represents human effort, the connection to empathy for others is hobbled. Money to these people is a dissociative drug and when they have withdrawals they are willing to leave bodies littered in their wake in the pursuit of that power again.
There is no positive future when we have such wealth disparities. There will always be an “Epstein” under capitalism.
When I was a kid my mom printed the words “Money is a curse” on a sheet of paper and hung it prominently in her office. I’ve thought about it a lot since then. Money is undeniably a useful tool and it’s hard to imagine a lot of our current blessings (including modern medicine) without the types of organization that it facilitates. But as you say, it can also have a dissociating effect, and it’s hard to imagine this current hierarchy existing in the way it does if it didn’t have this tool… I think we all have to negotiate our own relationship to it and to the demons it can enable, for better and for worse.
I think you might have meant this as a response to Ki? (Sometimes comment nesting on Substack works in weird ways, and comments end up in weird places) He was responding to a different person and using the LLM to profile them, so his LLM summary was intended to be about them and not me.
I think an LLM could probably tell that I’m a millennial/genx edge case, and not a zoomer :) though with that said, I love the zoomers, they’re brilliant
Oh, thanks! I was kinda wondering! All of it was meant as a compliment, I promise! Yes, the Zoomers are a force and wait til you see the Alphas or whatever the next group, my grandkids, are. I am so very pleased, even about their public education.
Not sure if you follow @adamscrabble on X. I know you've recently seemed interested in business topics. He is a force and another super bright person.
I used to teach kids like you guys in the early 80s in Agoura Hills, CA and y'all kept me on my toes. One kindergartner beat me at Connect 4 every time!
As Adam likes to say, never, ever, ever short America!
I thought of you during this most recent dump as in: "wow, Lydia came out ahead of this, good call." And was a little surprised EY hadn't anticipated it.
Indeed. There are a lot of people in those files whose stories I’d be curious about, that’s for sure.
WRT coming out ahead of it, I wasn’t actually sure that I would ever be “outed” for my contact with Epstein - past a certain point I just thought people ought to know the story, whether or not I was coming out ahead by publishing it.
yeah the Epstein stuff is not at all surprising to zoomers who grew up with an interest in geopolitics. having the internet as a teenager is just OP, you get to skip being a normie (getting sucked into Amber tendencies) as long as you’re sufficiently open minded. it allows people to do tons of esoteric research on any topic at will: we are creating generations of super humans (super autists), as long as they maintain their spark of curiosity instead of consuming slop. when i first realized the extent of corruption a decade ago i was 15, had no real interest or ability to make moves against the greedy establishment that runs the world. now ive realized there were thousands of me, and i can use the internet to find them all. this is our moment. beyond left right. going from an Orange/Green organization based society to a Teal network based one (the self-emergent alignment from networks is how we ensure Institutions do not oppress, the ways organizations must (seek rent) for their own survival). one “stock tip” from a conspiracy theorist who was right all along and will continue to be: i’m bullish on charlie kirk. two hours of your own research on his death will produce more questions than answers, guaranteed (paid sub)
the way i see it all big change movements can be really good or really bad. its out job to “see” how they’re Teal/Turquoise or else they will show us how they’re Red/Amber lol. just out here bringing joy on our shared spiritual path, and trying to prevent another Holocaust. wild times we live in. Blessings to you
One thing I enjoy using LLMs for (as both one that is ASD, and also clear on the Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect, and Murray was a friend of mine), is profiling people through an agent I designed to give me a quick summary of someone whom I notice using Integral Theory. Nice.
> The subject is a disaffected Gen Z intellectual promoting post-libertarian, pro-social cohesion values. They represent a growing demographic that rejects hyper-individualism in favour of spiritual/systemic rebirth. Low risk for violence; high potential for ideological subversion.
I read your post about meeting Epstein aloud to my partner on our way to weekend party which practices some of the social controls you describe in this latest piece. We reflected on it again on our ride back and talked tangentially a lot about many of the themes in your recent work on cancel culture and restorative justice and how layered those concepts are in how they are applied, what constitutes fairness. We spoke about how current systems leave us feeling unmoored and unmet in our needs so we resort to a kind of tribalistic/retributive behavior that doesn’t really move the needle on root causes of more nefariously antisocial behavior or how we can build structures that seriously disincentivize or make that behavior impossible without resulting in even more authoritarian outcomes.
I do think wealth inequality is a huge factor here. People who are obsessed with wealth for its own sake are, in my mind, mentally ill. When money no longer represents human effort, the connection to empathy for others is hobbled. Money to these people is a dissociative drug and when they have withdrawals they are willing to leave bodies littered in their wake in the pursuit of that power again.
There is no positive future when we have such wealth disparities. There will always be an “Epstein” under capitalism.
When I was a kid my mom printed the words “Money is a curse” on a sheet of paper and hung it prominently in her office. I’ve thought about it a lot since then. Money is undeniably a useful tool and it’s hard to imagine a lot of our current blessings (including modern medicine) without the types of organization that it facilitates. But as you say, it can also have a dissociating effect, and it’s hard to imagine this current hierarchy existing in the way it does if it didn’t have this tool… I think we all have to negotiate our own relationship to it and to the demons it can enable, for better and for worse.
I don't know Lydia irl but anything Epstein related is more than likely the least interesting thing about her.
Great that you fiddled with LLMs but tread lightly.
Reality may bite but your brain could (and probably did) synthesize all of this information intuitively.
I think you might have meant this as a response to Ki? (Sometimes comment nesting on Substack works in weird ways, and comments end up in weird places) He was responding to a different person and using the LLM to profile them, so his LLM summary was intended to be about them and not me.
I think an LLM could probably tell that I’m a millennial/genx edge case, and not a zoomer :) though with that said, I love the zoomers, they’re brilliant
Oh, thanks! I was kinda wondering! All of it was meant as a compliment, I promise! Yes, the Zoomers are a force and wait til you see the Alphas or whatever the next group, my grandkids, are. I am so very pleased, even about their public education.
Not sure if you follow @adamscrabble on X. I know you've recently seemed interested in business topics. He is a force and another super bright person.
I used to teach kids like you guys in the early 80s in Agoura Hills, CA and y'all kept me on my toes. One kindergartner beat me at Connect 4 every time!
As Adam likes to say, never, ever, ever short America!
All the best!
Never short America!!
Yes!!!!
🇺🇸
I thought of you during this most recent dump as in: "wow, Lydia came out ahead of this, good call." And was a little surprised EY hadn't anticipated it.
Indeed. There are a lot of people in those files whose stories I’d be curious about, that’s for sure.
WRT coming out ahead of it, I wasn’t actually sure that I would ever be “outed” for my contact with Epstein - past a certain point I just thought people ought to know the story, whether or not I was coming out ahead by publishing it.
yeah the Epstein stuff is not at all surprising to zoomers who grew up with an interest in geopolitics. having the internet as a teenager is just OP, you get to skip being a normie (getting sucked into Amber tendencies) as long as you’re sufficiently open minded. it allows people to do tons of esoteric research on any topic at will: we are creating generations of super humans (super autists), as long as they maintain their spark of curiosity instead of consuming slop. when i first realized the extent of corruption a decade ago i was 15, had no real interest or ability to make moves against the greedy establishment that runs the world. now ive realized there were thousands of me, and i can use the internet to find them all. this is our moment. beyond left right. going from an Orange/Green organization based society to a Teal network based one (the self-emergent alignment from networks is how we ensure Institutions do not oppress, the ways organizations must (seek rent) for their own survival). one “stock tip” from a conspiracy theorist who was right all along and will continue to be: i’m bullish on charlie kirk. two hours of your own research on his death will produce more questions than answers, guaranteed (paid sub)
I really hope you're right that something better will emerge from all of this!
the way i see it all big change movements can be really good or really bad. its out job to “see” how they’re Teal/Turquoise or else they will show us how they’re Red/Amber lol. just out here bringing joy on our shared spiritual path, and trying to prevent another Holocaust. wild times we live in. Blessings to you
🙏
One thing I enjoy using LLMs for (as both one that is ASD, and also clear on the Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect, and Murray was a friend of mine), is profiling people through an agent I designed to give me a quick summary of someone whom I notice using Integral Theory. Nice.
> The subject is a disaffected Gen Z intellectual promoting post-libertarian, pro-social cohesion values. They represent a growing demographic that rejects hyper-individualism in favour of spiritual/systemic rebirth. Low risk for violence; high potential for ideological subversion.