136 - The Algorithmic Rope of Life 🕸️🖥️
Hey there, !
Contemplative thoughts about life. Kinda.
1.
One of the first pieces I wrote about was about Ender’s Shadow and how it influenced me to think laterally, and how to try dumb things without feeling stupid about it.
There was another thing that I loved about the series - a discussion on the purpose and meaning of life that I remember vividly:
“Here is the meaning of life: for a man to find a woman, for a woman to find a man, the creature most unlike you, and then to make babies with her, with him, or to find them some other way, but then to raise them up, and watch them do the same thing, generation after generation, so that when you die you know you are permanently a part of the great web of life. That you are not a loose thread, snipped off. Even men who do not desire women and women who do not desire men, this does not exempt them from the… desire to be an inextricable part of the human race.” [emphasis mine]
The main character, Bean, has a genetic disorder that has unlocked massive growth in his intelligence, but also massive growth in his body as well (which will cause him to die in his early twenties due to gigantism). His wife wants to have his babies, but because he feels like a freak of human nature, he rejects the idea of having any children with her.
The scientist, Anton, that found the markers for this genetic disorder, tells him this quoteto help convince him that he’s part of the human race, no matter what. He caves, has the children, they get stolen - yadda yadda yadda the conflict is great go read the books.
2.
The metaphor stuck with me for a really long time. It made me think about not just the family / children aspect of the quote, but also what it means in terms of legacy, and how your life continues after you pass away.
The need to be part of the broader human race is something we all aspire to, in little ways. It may not be as important to everyone, but there is always a little inkling about the influence you have on the world, or maybe even just the people you love around you - you want to be known for something, to be seen, and then (maybe) have your name pass down through history, with people singing of your exploits in a post-apocalyptic future.
I thought about it a lot and realised that well, I’m probably not going to be that successful and leave a legacy that is Amazon-level. But I did conclude that living well, and bringing up kids the best way that you can would ensure the survival of the of the human race as another link in the chain of existence (even if there are existential threats on the horizon).
Kindness, altruism and love are things to strive for, even if you think the future is bleak.
3.
I had a weirder, more modern thought though - another way that you can be part of the web of life.
Algorithms.
Algorithms are becoming more and more involved in our lives. At the moment, we use them for stocks, for automation, for smart homes and in the future they’ll be used for, well, nearly anything you can think of.
These algorithms are (mostly) trained on human input - they can find the underlying patterns in our behaviour or data, and isolate them as a series of actions that can be taken. Your data might be (read: is definitely already) combined as part of a dataset based on many people’s online behaviour that trains an AI to learn and respond in particular ways. Machine learning algorithms take as much data as they can and identify out the optimal ways to approach problems through our historical data (highly simplified explanation but good enough for this thought).
So, if your data is part of those algorithms…wouldn’t this be a great way to tie yourself to a digital rope of life? The greater, evolving web of human existence?
Everything you do online (surfing social channels, leaving comments, publishing email newsletters) contributes to how we interact and communicate with each other today, and do things online. Inevitably, that’s part of the human race and how we are adapting to a digital future - we’re not just exclusively meatspace beings any more.
In that case, instead of trying to keep all my online behaviour private, use adblockers, stop tracking cookies etc. shouldn’t I try to put as much data about myself that I can online? Not only will AI and algorithms be able to use my profile picture, browsing habits, LinkedIn profile, messages, photos, likes, saves and email subscriptions to inform their actions and choices in the future, but it would also be preserving who I am based on all of these digital actions I’ve taken.
I can live forever as the infinitesimal contribution I’ve made to algorithms that will persist on and on and on…
This is an extremely naive, not at all thought through take - I’m sure there are multitudes of ways that this data could be used against you, or ways that you could anonymise your data and still come to the same outcome of tying yourself to the web of life.
However, I do think it’s a way to become immortal, even if it’s just a little bit of you. Doesn’t that sound kinda cool?
Chat soon :)
Let me know if you have any feedback for the newsletter!
PS. Yes yes, I know there’s a Black Mirror episode about this exact thing. I swear I didn’t steal it for content!
✔️Real Life Recommendations
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Everything Everywhere All at Once - I don’t know how to explain how much I love this movie, and I don’t want to overhype it either (but I’m gonna fail). It’s a wacky multiversal comedy (starring Michelle Yeoh) that goes in so many random directions you can easily get lost, but the writing makes it TIGHT. I like to think of it as a big pot of soup that has just…EVERYTHING in it - comedy, drama, incredible martial arts choreography (that borrows from Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and even Stephen Chow), intergenerational trauma, strong philosophical themes about the meaning of life - the absolute WORKS. S tier movie - please go watch this!
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Yarra Botanica - a cute new floating bar on the Yarra River - kind of like Arbory Afloat but…different? Just something different to check out :)
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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Can you be sure to clear a line in Tetris? - or, in other words, is there a particular set of tiles that, if a Tetris AI were to try and screw you over, could prevent you from clearing any line? tl;dr : no.
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The French town where lighting is alive - weird but wonderful things across the world - a French town using bioluminescence and chemiluminescence to light up their streets. Different ways of thinking about the world are always fun - it’s probably not very practical but still very interesting!
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How DALL-E 2 Actually Works - just to finish off this link series with a breakdown of how DALL-E works, please find a kinda complicated, technical explanation of DALL-E. It’s a bit difficult to parse, and I definitely had to Google MANY words and concepts to try and understand it all, but conceptually - good start.