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What's the message of the AI Medium?

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Goal of this Meetup

  • Produce a community with the vibe of a
    • 21st Century Coffee House
    • Salon
    • Think Tank

What does "The Medium is the Message" even mean?

  • The Medium used by a civilization to communicate is more important than what is communicated using that medium
    • Example, Nixon vs Kennedy's 1960 Presidential Debate
    • Once the word of god was transmitted via "Broken Telephone" of people talking then it was written down to never be changed again
    • Obama likely won the 2008 election due to the use of AB testing
  • The Medium we use to communicate dictates the shape of our relationships
    • Pen Pal verses Facebook Friend verses Discord Friend
    • Classifieds verses Kijiji verses Facebook Marketplace
    • TV verses Netflix verses Youtube
  • The medium we use to communicate shapes our behaviours
    • Socrates verses Plato
    • People don't memorize phone numbers any more
    • Being an Anon online is pretty weird if you think about it

Take Away Memes

  • Civilizations and Religions are defined around their mediums of communication
  • We not only need to understand the psychology of AI systems the but psychology of people using AI
  • Become aware that the modern world did not evolve it is designed, and you can help design it too

Part 1: History, Civilizations, and Religion

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We always compare the mind to whatever is the most complex machines we have in society from the water wheel, the loom, the steam engine, the computer, and now the LLM

Civilization, Religion, and Law were born at the same time and were not "separated" until recently

  • "Before writing was invented, people had to rely solely on the words of priests for spiritual guidance. However, these priests had no way of remembering everything their divine beings required, and thus they couldn’t create a centralized system of belief."
  • "Rather than changing beliefs to match reality, many powerful leaders used writing to change reality to match their beliefs, allowing them to appear infallible and ignore their mistakes."

Religions that scale are rooted in written works

  • Islam
  • Christianity
  • Judaism
  • Hinduism
  • Budhism
  • Oral Religions
    • Broken Telephone plus Lies
    • There is no profit before Abraham because they could not write it down
  • Stone Tablets / Carvings
    • Code of Hamarabi
    • The 10 Commandments
    • Egyptian Hieroglyphs
    • The Rosetastone
    • Babylon / Egypt (Pypyrus)

Religions not based in written works didn't scale

  • Norse Religion
  • Druids (Ireland)
  • Aboriginal Religions

Notable Exception

  • Gnosticism and the Dead Sea Scrolls

The Religions of The Industrial Age

  • Liberalism
  • Communism
  • Fascism

Part 2: The Ouroboros of The Medium and Human Psychology

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Identity

  • We can't have an AI friends unless they have a psychological model we as humans can understand.
  • The AI's we interact with will become part of us the same way our friends do or a fictional character we really care about.

Psychology Models

Model of Mind

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Theory of Mind

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Myers Brigs

w:500 center

Big 5 Personality Types

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Id, Ego, Super Ego

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Jungian Archetypes

The Jungian Shadow

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Therapy Models

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

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Dialectical behavior therapy

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Internal Family Systems

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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

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Understanding Goals and Wants

The most important game in society is trying to understand what people want. It is how you make money, friends, purchases, and function as a household.

Manipulation is the name of the Game

  • How do you manipulate yourself?
  • How do you want others to manipulate you?
  • How do you want to manipulate others?
  • How does the media you consume manipulate you?
  • How do you want AI to manipulate you?

Part 3: Noticing the Design of Things

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  • What are tools for?
  • Youtube used to have video responses
  • Free apps in the app store
  • Free games on Steam
  • The design of the internet destroyed news papers because anyone could easily share the info of the news papers without people going to the news papers website
  • People used to Sign X on contracts when they did not know how to read or write

The Fractal Digital Self

  • Where are you online?
  • Why can't you search everything at once?
  • Why can't I selectively share different selected parts of my digital selves?

Why can't my alarm clock give me a pep talk with the voice of Arnold Schwarnager in the morning? And respond to what I say, then respond with various different levels of gaslighting depending on how I program it

Rather than summarize an article why can't the AI ask me why I want to read said article and help me integrate that article with my already articulated interests and goals

Why are AI algorithm feeds personal and private? Why can't I look at my friends Instagram or Twitter feed if they share it with me?

How can AI help people digest the media they consume? For example what questions are most relevant for a specific person to ask of a specific piece of media?

Where is our AI augmented Dungeon and Dragons software? Roll 20 and DnD beyond don't do AI

Notes: What's the message of the AI Medium - Notes