Cosmic Intelligence

Send us a textThe irony of the application of the word “hallucination” to LLMs making mistakes is that they are completely incapable of having psychedelic experiences. Why does that matter?In this mind-bending exploration, we dive into the fascinating intersection of artificial intelligence and expanded states of consciousness. We examine how imagination, creativity, and innovation seem to arise more frequently in altered or "holotropic" states of consciousness - such as through meditation, breathwork, dreams, dancing, psychedelics, or other experiences. I argue that current approaches to AI may never be truly inventive or creative, as they lack the ability to model the abductive reasoning and intuitive leaps that often occur in these holotropic states. To support this thesis, we explore historical examples of scientific and philosophical breakthroughs that emerged from dreams, visions, and other non-ordinary states of consciousness. In short, I am challenging the narrative that AI will soon surpass human intelligence, suggesting there may be profound mysteries of the human mind that AI cannot replicate, and offering a more sober and realistic view of the limitations facing AI research in attempting to model the wonders of human cognition and consciousness.This video is part of a series about the myths, hype, and ideologies surrounding AI.YouTube versionSupport ChadStan Grof's collected worksMy previous video on the impediments to AGIPaper using LLMs to model abductive reasoningWillis Harman's Higher CreativityEffects of conscious connected breathing on cortical brain activity, mood and state of consciousness in healthy adultsSupport the showWant to talk about how Chad can assist you with your own transformation? Book a free consultation! Join Chad's newsletter to learn about all new offerings, courses, trainings, and retreats. Finally, you can support the podcast here.

Send us a textArtificial general intelligence, or superintelligence, is not right around the corner like AI companies want you to believe, and that's because intelligence is really hard. Major AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic (as well as Ilya Sutskever’s new company) have the explicit goal of creating artificial general intelligence (AGI), and claim to be very close to doing so using technology that doesn’t seem capable of getting us there.So let's talk about intelligence, both human and artificial. What is artificial intelligence? What is intelligence? Are we going to be replaced or killed by superintelligence robots? Are we on the precipice of a techno-utopia, or some kind of singularity?These are the questions I explore, to try to offer a layman’s overview of why we’re far away from AGI and superintelligence. Among other things, I highlight the limitations of current AI systems, including their lack of trustworthiness, reliance on bottom-up machine learning, and inability to provide true reasoning and common sense. I also introduce abductive inference, a rarely discussed type of reasoning. Why do smart people want us to think that they’ve solved intelligence when they are smart enough to know they haven’t? Keep that question in mind as we go.YouTube version originally recorded July 1, 2024....Support ChadJames Bridle’s Ways of Being (book)Ezra Klein’s comments on AI & capitalism How LLMs workGary Marcus on the limits of AGIMore on induction and abductionNYTimes deep dive into AI data harvestingSam Altman acknowledging that they’ve reached the limits of LLMsMira Murati saying the same thing last month Google’s embarrassing AI search experience AI Explained’s perspective on AGILLMs Can’t Plan paperPaper on using LLMs to tackle abduction ChatGPT is Bullshit paper Philosophize This on nostalgia and pastiche Please leave a comment with your thoughts, and anything I might have missed or gotten wrong. More about me over hereSupport the showWant to talk about how Chad can assist you with your own transformation? Book a free consultation! Join Chad's newsletter to learn about all new offerings, courses, trainings, and retreats. Finally, you can support the podcast here.

Send us a textLong time no talk! I just finished my masters in philosophy, cosmology and consciousness, which didn’t leave me much time for producing this podcast in the past nine months. But I’m back with a short episode that offers a preview of a thesis I am developing around the hype and mythology of artificial intelligence, and the ways that it sidelines the human.Part of my mission is to expose the cyborgian, techgnostic ideologies underlying technology innovation in Silicon Valley, and offer an alternative that is more ecological, humane, holistic, and inspired. As we philosophers like to say, worldview create worlds. So let’s be thoughtful about it.In contrast with current approaches to AI development, I want to help shape AI development so that it reflects human values, and a richer, more imaginative vision of the future, beyond just copying Scarlett Johansson's voice.I want to elevate and celebrate the human in this exciting new age of AI. We have faculties that AI cannot replicate, including imagination, intuition, emotional intelligence, and wisdom. Let’s not forget that.In the coming months, I intend to start putting out more episodes, starting with one exploring the cyborgian, techgnostic ideologies animating Silicon Valley today.I’m also working on a book and a course centered around these ideas. More to say about that soon…Support the showWant to talk about how Chad can assist you with your own transformation? Book a free consultation! Join Chad's newsletter to learn about all new offerings, courses, trainings, and retreats. Finally, you can support the podcast here.

Send us a textThis week we're sharing an episode of a podcast called Hit of Happiness, where Chad spoke to Brian Dubow about artificial intelligence and consciousness, among many other things. This may have been Chad's favorite interview so far, just because he loves talking to Brian and because they explored so many topics in such a coherent fashion.This interview is a great teaser for this three-part series Chad is working on about the myth of artificial intelligence, the nature of consciousness, transhumanism, spiritual machines, and metaphor. As our long-time listeners know, Chad likes to do these deep-dive episodes once in a while. It’s taking a while to do all the research and writing so we can finally record it. But we think it will be worth the wait. Look for the first episode of that series in the coming week.Support the showWant to talk about how Chad can assist you with your own transformation? Book a free consultation! Join Chad's newsletter to learn about all new offerings, courses, trainings, and retreats. Finally, you can support the podcast here.