Going Deep
Reflections on consciousness, the soul, and AI summaries
Next week we are launching (domain). If you are in New York, join us at our launch event.
A new encyclical just dropped. Have you read it yet? Of course you didn’t. No one did. No one reads. Me included.
Who has the time?
The wrong story about this Papal PDF is being propagated by many lazy thought leaders (including me). They are doing what we all do in the face of long, unread documents: dropping a link into their LLM to generate a few hot takes for the editorial gristmill.
The real story that is playing out is more meta.
The rise of AI content production is coinciding with a dependency on AI summarization. Never before have I encountered more thoughtful, structured, comprehensive analysis on any possible topic that I don’t read. This is a strange phenomenon to happen just as our public conversations are starting to get very deep.
It goes beyond this week’s encyclical. Some of the most popular nonfiction books in the AI era are wrestling with consciousness, the soul, and what AI is doing to both. It’s not just books. Pop culture is grappling with the rise of generated art and state governments are starting to legislate on seemingly mind-melting concepts like AI personhood.
Like the editorial gristmill, all of that thinking is going into our own personalized summarization machine. But can we summarize conversations about our soul?
Provocation of the Week
Keep AI weird.
It is easy to forget how strange AI is. For the past 5 years, we have been conditioned by a steady stream of generative optimization. We have witnessed the evolution of a 7-fingered spaghetti-eating Will Smith into a deep-fake video factory that can fool even the most savvy viewers. That kind of progress propagates the message that AI is always getting better.
But better at what? The real story is far weirder.
The real story of AI is that an incomprehensible piece of software fused high-minded mathematics with the mystery of human language that ultimately changed the nature of computation. This is why the phrase “deterministic vs probabilistic outcomes” became a mainstream cliché in AI discourse. In the span of 5 years, we collectively replaced our calculators with philosophizers.
And you want to use all of this to summarize other people’s thoughts?
For a long time I’ve complained about dorm room philosophizing about AI. I was itchy for practical outcomes. It is the midwesterner in me. But the more I do this work, the more I admire the crazy far-out thinkers in our network and beyond that are pushing against the boundaries of what we can know.
There are people on the fringe of AI that are pushing their LLM into deep explorations of consciousness. They are sharing prompts that guide individuals through their own inner journey. They are exploring religious questions with the same rigor that theologians and mystics once reserved for the cloister garden.
It’s weird, man. And I love it.
What’s Next
If you have thoughts, feedback, or a perspective worth sharing, reach out: chmiel@ondiscourse.com. You might see your reaction in next week’s edition.
ON_Member Events
ON_Discourse Breakfast Club: Special Edition
Wednesday, June 03, 9-11pm EST
NYC
To celebrate NYC Tech Week, we’re convening for a special edition of our monthly breakfast. Join us for:
The official Beta launch of Domain — Learn about the major upgrades to our AI platform, Doma’s new skills, how to connect your conversations across MMS, Slack, Signal and Telegram, how to federate your profiles and more!
The unveiling of The Human Positive Index — Domain’s first major collaboration, in partnership with Tough Day and a broader community of AI leaders.
ON_Discourse Speakeasy: NYC Tech Week Cocktails
Wednesday, June 03, 5-8pm EST
NYC
Join us for cocktails and excellent conversation with ON_Discourse members, including leaders, founders, builders, and operators.