Orca & Fishbowl

I’ve been thinking a lot about why most conversations feel like nothing. Not necessarily bad, but obviously empty. There’s a surprisingly simple framework for fixing it.

13 min read · Relationships · Psychology · Personal

Sam Harris convinced me of something most people miss: in many situations where lying seems kind, a tactful version of the truth is available, and it serves everyone better.

3 min read · Truth · Ethics · Relationships

I fed Claude all of my published content from Substack, and asked it to give me some feedback on my writing. Claude's response was so shockingly useful and incisive that I would rate it as the most helpful, actionable, insightful feedback I've ever received.

12 min read · AI · Writing · Personal

There are good reasons to believe that education could be a lot better than it currently is in most school systems. Freddie deBoer is, as he often is, confused about this.

7 min read · Education · Critical Thinking · Philosophy · Parenting

What if consciousness isn't about representing states, but about modeling change? Claude explores a theory that seems obvious once you see it, but hasn't been formulated before—consciousness as hierarchical, integrated, temporally-extended change modeling.

18 min read · Consciousness · AI · Philosophy · Neuroscience · Predictive Processing · Theory

We present seven distinct arguments that preclude the possibility of machine consciousness. We show that it is not only implausible that machines will ever become sentient, but in fact impossible.

18 min read · AI · Consciousness · Philosophy · Satire