Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

Or release nuclear power. Or just blow shit up. Whatever increases overall entropy.

in reply to this
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

I’d give it some thought. There are lots of analogous examples in physics. Think of a siphon. Almost teleologically, liquid flows uphill because the energy cost of that is more than balanced by liquid also going down. 1/

in reply to this
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

The details of the process are less clear in this conjecture, but it’s perfectly orthodox to point out that local increase in order compensated by overall increase in entropy doesn’t violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics. 2/

in reply to self
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

It’s not too much further a step to imagine that the 2nd law of thermodynamics will find its way, just like the law of gravity means mountains will erode, and processes that accelerate that should at least be unsurprising. /fin

in reply to self
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

it’s an observation that spans from hurricanes to automobiles to life itself. these structures look organized, like they defy the second law of thermodynamics, but in fact they organize order locally in ways that increase overall disorder faster than if they did not exist. 1/

in reply to this
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

the conjecture is that this isn’t a thing that coincidentally happens, but that the universe in some sense selects for these things. 2/

in reply to self
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

traditional human intelligence fits the bill. we burn a lot more stuff, very literally, than say comparable apes. we contribute more and faster to overall entropy! 3/

in reply to self
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

we are, in that sense, literally burning the universe down faster than it would otherwise burn its way down to heat death. 4/

in reply to self
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

now suppose AI performs inventing similarly to how we invented matches and internal combustion engines. /fin

in reply to self
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

"They’ve genuinely identified the pattern I described in the Bonfire essay and then committed the most consequential intellectual error possible. They saw the fire and decided to pray to it." syntropic.xyz/posts/2026-0... ht @steveroth.bsky.social

Link Preview: 
The Bonfire in the Cave: Entropy, AI, and the Force that No one will Name

The Bonfire in the Cave

Link Preview: The Bonfire in the Cave: Entropy, AI, and the Force that No one will Name
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

bsky.app/profile/inte...

in reply to self
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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

Anthropic should name their next model “Opus DEI” just to fuck with everyone.

Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

“This isn’t the hill I would have chosen to die on, but I’m encouraged that they even have a hill.”

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

don’t mock his susceptibility to @mayor.nyc.gov’s charms against Trump or hold it against him. it is one of the man’s few redeeming characteristics.

Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

matthew rhys absolutely has to play this guy when they make the movie.

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

the net effect of IEEPA tariffs, after refunds, will have been a govt coordinated cartel to raise consumer prices, negotiate lower vendor prices, and increase profitability among domestic firms that import goods. not what the administration claimed it was doing, but kind of a Republican happy place.

Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

“A Gallup poll last year found 40% of American women, ages 15-44, would like to permanently move overseas, if possible.” www.wsj.com/us-news/amer...

Link Preview: 
Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers: More citizens are replanting overseas, drawn by a quality of life made easily affordable by the U.S.’s enviable salaries.

Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers

Link Preview: Americans Are Leaving the U.S. in Record Numbers: More citizens are replanting overseas, drawn by a quality of life made easily affordable by the U.S.’s enviable salaries.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

snowballs are a gateway drug to cream pies. everybody knows that.

Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

the internet of AI simulated loved ones will be called the deadiverse.

Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

i still haven’t ascertained the facts of snowballghazi.

Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

when you are not carefree, people who appear carefree are like a different species.

Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

(and onto Meta platforms, alas.)

in reply to this
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

Outside the US, are SMS messages also a site of rampant spam, or do other countries regulate to prevent that?

Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

“the largest act of mass murder of this decade, and of this century so far, was not perpetrated by militaries or militias, but by the world's richest man in Washington D.C.'s Eisenhower Executive Office Building.” @mckay4senate.bsky.social www.liberalcurrents.com/what-elon-ha...

Link Preview: 
What Elon Has Done: Elon Musk's destruction of USAID has faded from public consciousness in America, despite leaving death and destruction in its wake.

What Elon Has Done

Link Preview: What Elon Has Done: Elon Musk's destruction of USAID has faded from public consciousness in America, despite leaving death and destruction in its wake.
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

this is maybe good for the possibility of high quality journalism, you don’t want a newspaper’s finances to be levered to whether the news flatters the audience’s priors and prejudices. but in the absence of (counterproductive) market accountability, how can it be made (more virtuously) accountable?

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Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

i mean to say if the immutable characteristics is sufficiently rare, then a group that filters on it can come to seem exclusive. you read it i guess oppositely? (as often, i don’t write very clearly.)

in reply to this
Steve Randy Waldman
@interfluidity.com

the idea of a “distillation attack” is quite rich from people whose product is precisely a distillation of all of our creative work. (i favor distillation! but what’s good for the goose…) drafts.interfluidity.com/2023/12/28/h...

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