“Loving a world you don’t trust” by Joe_Carlsmith

(Cross-posted from my website. Audio version here, or search for "Joe Carlsmith Audio" on your podcast app.) This is the final essay in a series that I'm calling "Otherness and control in the age of AGI." I'm hoping that the individual essays can be read fairly well on their own, but see here for a brief summary of the series as a whole. There's also a PDF of the whole series here. Warning: spoilers for Angels in America; and moderate spoilers for Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.) "I come into the presence of still water..." ~Wendell Berry A lot of this series has been about problems with yang—that is, with the active element in the duality of activity vs. receptivity, doing vs. not-doing, controlling vs. letting go.[1] In particular, I've been interested in the ways that "deep atheism" (that is, a fundamental [...] ---Outline:(02:19) In praise of yang(02:26) In praise of black(06:32) Bad things are bad(11:44) Killing dementors(16:48) Humanism(18:28) Stars and campfires(22:32) Adulthood(24:39) Angels in America(31:03) What depth of atheism?(35:11) The Lovecraft-Sagan spectrum(41:23) Mother love and loyalty(47:15) Innocence and forgiveness(54:08) Creating God(59:53) Final thoughtsThe original text contained 55 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: June 18th, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/FteYFp3xssP6gxfeD/loving-a-world-you-don-t-trust --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.