Project Genie: Experimenting with infinite, interactive worlds

Post by slashdave » Wed, Feb 04, 2026, 6:56 AM UTC

in-silico wrote: post #333

slashdave wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pixel by pixel, time-slice by time-slice, in a 2D+T convolution. You provide enough examples of videos of changing point-of-view, and the model reproduces what it is given.

Yes, it reproduces what it is given by modelling the rules of physics, geometry, etc. For example, image generators like stable diffusion carry strong representations of depth and geometry, such that performant depth estimation models can be built out of them with minimal retraining. This continues to be true for video generation models. Early work on the subject: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2409.09144

Post by masterlee_fn » Wed, Feb 11, 2026, 6:33 PM UTC

namanyayg wrote: post #269

jlhawn wrote: post #167

Now I can't stop thinking about _The Experience Machine_ by Andy Clark. It theorizes that this is how humans navigate and experience the real world: Our brains generate what we think the world around is like and our senses don't so much directly process visual information but instead act like a kind of loss function for our internal simulations. Then we use that error to update our internal model of the world. In thi…

This is one of my fundamental beliefs about the nature of consciousness. We are never able to interact with the physical world directly, we first perceive it and then interpret those perceptions. More often than not, our interpretation ignores and modifies those perceptions, so we really are just living in a world created by our own mental chatter. This is one of the core tenets of Buddhism, and it's also expounded o…

Post by masterlee_fn » Wed, Feb 11, 2026, 6:35 PM UTC

namanyayg wrote: post #334

keeeba wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“ This is one of my fundamental beliefs about the nature of consciousness. We are never able to interact with the physical world directly, we first perceive it and then interpret those perceptions. More often than not, our interpretation ignores and modifies those perceptions, so we really are just living in a world created by our own mental chatter.” This is an orthodox position in modern philosophy, dating back to…

Indeed, it's been great learning about the various interpretations as this idea took hold over the years! What I wasn't able to properly highlight is how this belief has become a fundamental part of my day to day, moment to moment experience. I enjoy the constant and absolute knowledge that everything that's happening is my interpretation. And it gives me a superpower -- because for most of my life the world felt unf…

Post by masterlee_fn » Wed, Feb 11, 2026, 6:36 PM UTC

furyofantares wrote: post #267

kingstoned wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you please give some sources - books or articles or videos on that topic? It's really fascinating

I'll also recommend Being You by Seth Anil. It makes a lot of sense of consciousness to me. It certainly doesn't answer the question but it's not just throw your hands up and "we have no idea why qualia", and it's also not just "here's a list of neural correlates of consciousness and we won't even discuss qualia". It goes through how sensations fit into this highly constrained, highly functional hallucination that mo…