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Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection

joanwestenberg.com

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Re: Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection

#411
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They changed. You wouldn’t believe it but those most impacted by the mental rot that social media can induce - are the ultra wealthy.

I often wonder if tech billionaire psychosis might lead to a "Great Filter" event for our species. They have entirely unchecked power, lack of empathy, and gleeful ignorance of everything our species has done that their success rests upon.

They haven't even read the scifi that positions AI as an obvious resource trap. Sure, let's devote all our resources to birthing an AI. Do we think if its smarter than us we can contain it? Do we think it will help us by default? Have we not thought through the basics of what we're attempting?

Re: Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection

#412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I cleave to the extremes of the hyperintrospective portion of the spectrum, so no, I think taken at face value his comments are absurd. Nonetheless you need to understand the dark and less visited corners of the mental landscape whence these ideas and his (putative) target audiences were borne (Bay Area rationalism), and the strategic nature of this communication which is more intended to send a message to…

But why give him credit for subtext for which there's no apparent evidence? By all appearances he's saying this stuff in earnest. Why does it need to be "encoded"?

Information asymmetry is power in the era of abundant information.

Re: Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection

#413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a tangential theory to this. Being rich != being famous. There are tons of extremely wealthy people out there that keep a very low profile. Sure they might be well known within their circle but ask the average person and they have no clue who that person is. I would say this is the case for like 90-95% of billionaires. Musk, Andreessen, Zuck and others were all in this camp 10 years ago but they all decided th…

> Being rich != being famous. > decided that simply being rich wasn't enough, they wanted to be famous While these are true, the real detail is that these people were never satisfied with being rich -- they wanted to be powerful . And influence is what makes one powerful. Being rich goes a certain distance: once you have f you money, the only thing worth buying to gain more power is fame. They also truly believe they…

> They also truly believe they have all the right ideas, and the validation that comes from being platformed for a financial success

Not only that, but they clearly surround themselves with sycophants who always tell them they're absolutely right. Imagine what it's like to go 10 years without anyone having the guts to tell you you're wrong or your ideas are actually stupid. What would that do to your ego?

Re: Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection

#414
Andreessen's criticism of introspection, and Musk's criticism of empathy, are projections of their fear of being disconnected from spirit (primarily the notion that we're all one).

Some of us eventually find ourselves in situations that defy logical explanation. I've witnessed my own thoughts and plans rippling out into the world and causing external events to unfold. To the point that now, I'm not sure that someone could present evidence to me to prove that our inner and outer worlds aren't connected. It's almost as hard of a problem as science trying to solve how consciousness works, which is why it has nothing to say about it and leaves it to theologians.

The closest metaphysical explanation I have found is that consciousness exists as a field that transcends 4D timespace, so our thoughts shift our awareness into the physical reality of the multiverse that supports its existence. Where one 4D reality is deterministic without free will, 5D reality is stochastic and may only exist because of free will. And this happens for everyone at all times, so that our individuality can be thought of as drops condensed out of the same ocean of consciousness. One spirit fragmented into countless vantage points to subjectively experience reality in separation so as to not be alone.

Meaning that one soul hoarding wealth likely increases its own suffering in its next life.

That realization is at odds with stuff like western religion and capitalism, so the wealthy reject it to protect their ego. Without knowing that (or denying that) ego death can be a crucial part of the ascension process.

My great frustration with this is the power imbalance.

Most of us spend the entirety of our lives treading water, sacrificing some part of our prosperity for others. We have trouble stepping back from that and accepting the level of risk and/or ruthlessness required to take from others to give to ourselves. We lose financially due to our own altruism, or more accurately the taking advantage of that altruism by people acting amorally.

Meanwhile those people win financially and pull up the ladder behind them. They have countless ways, means and opportunities to reduce suffering for others, but choose not to.

The embrace or rejection of altruism shouldn't be what determines financial security, but that's the reality we find ourselves in. Nobility become its opposite.

That's what concepts like taxing the rich are about. In late-stage capitalism, a small number of financial elites eventually rig the game so that others can't win, or arguably even play.

It's the economic expression of the paradox of tolerance.

So the question is, how much more of this are we willing to tolerate before the elites reach the endgame and see the world burn?

Re: Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection

#415
post #289

Is the 1 percenters getting dumber or acting like it? Like 10 years ago, I felt like Andreesen and Elon were thought leaders. Now they sound like idiots. Did I or did they change? Did I grow up and they changed to a younger audience and what I used to enjoy was just a different kind of stupid?

I think people get dumber as they age. I feel like I'm probably dumber than me 10 years ago. No one wants to admit it, but I sense it in myself and I think I can see it in other people. I feel like peak brain is probably like 22 years old if we are being honest. Yeah you might still be doing dumb kid stuff but you are at the age where you just have this energizer bunny inside. You can just go to the library and churn…

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Re: Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection

#416
post #374

Is the 1 percenters getting dumber or acting like it? Like 10 years ago, I felt like Andreesen and Elon were thought leaders. Now they sound like idiots. Did I or did they change? Did I grow up and they changed to a younger audience and what I used to enjoy was just a different kind of stupid?

I believe in some form of the Twitter poisoning theory: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/11/opinion/trump-musk-kanye-... It seems to explain some of the weirdest of hang ups and strange / desperate choices.

All of what currently ails western society online is likely to be a russian psyop. All of it. We've left ourselves open to direct manipulation.

Re: Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection

#417
post #374

Is the 1 percenters getting dumber or acting like it? Like 10 years ago, I felt like Andreesen and Elon were thought leaders. Now they sound like idiots. Did I or did they change? Did I grow up and they changed to a younger audience and what I used to enjoy was just a different kind of stupid?

I believe in some form of the Twitter poisoning theory: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/11/opinion/trump-musk-kanye-... It seems to explain some of the weirdest of hang ups and strange / desperate choices.

That's a nice essay from Lanier. Operant conditioning is certainly something everybody on HN has experienced, watching the numbers next to their posts go up and down.

Re: Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection

#418
post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe in some form of the Twitter poisoning theory: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/11/opinion/trump-musk-kanye-... It seems to explain some of the weirdest of hang ups and strange / desperate choices.

All of what currently ails western society online is likely to be a russian psyop. All of it. We've left ourselves open to direct manipulation.

No, we did this to ourselves. Blaming Russia is the easy way out... even when it's likely true, as in the trajectory of Trump's career.

A healthy, rational society would be much harder to bamboozle -- by Russians or demagogues or preachers or billionaires or anyone else -- than Americans have proven to be. Over the last 10-20 years, many events that I thought would serve to immunize us to BS have fed an addiction instead.

Re: Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection

#419
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has always been the case with the massively wealthy. They may be incredibly smart in their specific line of business, which leads them to an enormous amount of wealth and fame. Because our culture likes to lionize success stories, we collectively lean hard into putting people like that on pedestals and giving them more opportunities to speak their minds. Their own egos get inflated as a result, and a feedback lo…

> This has always been the case with the massively wealthy. They may be incredibly smart in their specific line of business, which leads them to an enormous amount of wealth and fame. ... Their own egos get inflated as a result, and a feedback loop ensues - they think everything they do is great because, collectively, our culture wants everything they do to be great. This doesn't just apply to the wealthy, but more l…

In undergrad I had a buddy who was a political science major, and he put it pretty bluntly one day: "Do you engineers realize how arrogant you sound when you're talking about things you have no clue about?" 20 year old me just laughed and thought to myself "lol liberal arts majors" but now that I'm older and more grown up, he was totally right and I see it all around me in the industry. Especially here on HN.

Re: Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection

#420

What Andreessen is hinting at, albeit still largely surface level, is 无心 or no mind. Popular in martial arts and Buddhist philosophy, I think practically what you should take away is that body and mind are fundamentally intertwined. Introspection is a practice of the mind, specifically cognition centered around portions of the brain like the prefrontal cortex. There’s a lot more to who you are and areas you can hone…

That is a very very very charitable interpretation of what he's saying.
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