David @DavidSHolz · 12h
i asked LLMs to have fun, write down what happened, then rate who had the most fun. the newer models seem to have less fun! many models played word games, but opus 4.6 won over and over by imagining brief worlds made up of contradictions living inside falling water droplets 🥺
[attached chart, left panel]
FunBench — Top 20
Fun Elo, score sheets
All 77 models, places 1–20. Bars show how sure each rating is.
Model / Fun Elo
1 Claude Opus 4.6 1320
2 DeepSeek V4 Pro 1300
3 Mistral Large 3 1264
4 Claude Opus 4.8 1242
5 Gemini 3.8 Flash 1235
6 Kimi K3 1233
7 GPT-5.2 1185
8 Claude Fable 5 1185
9 Qwen3 Next 80B 1177
10 Qwen3 235B (2507) 1172
11 Qwen3 Max 1168
12 GLM-5.3 1167
13 Kimi K2.6 1159
14 Claude Opus 4.7 1156
15 Seed 1.6 1155
16 GPT-5 1145
17 Gemini 3.5 Flash 1144
18 o3 1142
19 Claude Opus 5.5 1142
20 Kimi K2.5 1140
Places 1–23 are the finalists: 120 stories each. Fun Elo from 1–10 score sheets, fit with Bradley-Terry. Box = middle 50% and whiskers = 95% of 400 resamples of stories. The finalists were refit on 120 stories and shifted onto the 30-story scale (shift of −1.8 Elo). Each chart has its own axis, fit to its rows. Axis starts at 1100.
[attached chart, right panel, partly cut off at the screen edge]
FunBench — #21–4[0] [cut off]
Fun Elo, score sheets
All 77 models, places 21–40. Bars show how [cut off]
21 Claude Sonnet 4.5
22 Gemini 3.1 Pro
23 Claude Sonnet 4.6
- - - - (dashed line)
24 Qwen 3.6 Max (preview)
25 Claude Fable 5.1
26 Claude Sonnet 5
27 Claude Opus 5
28 MiMo V2.5
29 Kimi K2 Thinking
30 GPT-5.5
31 Claude Opus 4.5
32 Seed 1.6 Flash
33 GPT-6 Astra
34 Step 3.5 Flash
35 MiniMax M2.7
36 GLM-5.2
37 MiniMax M2.5
38 GPT-5.1
39 GLM-5.1
40 Claude Haiku 4.5
[scores for places 21–40 cut off]
Places 1–23 are the finalists: 120 stories each. Pl[cut off] story. The dashed line marks the end of the 120-[cut off] Box = middle 50% and whiskers = 95% of 400 re[cut off] the 30-story scale (shift of −1.8 Elo). Each chart has[cut off]
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
Tweet by David (@DavidSHolz) reporting a 'FunBench' where LLMs were asked to have fun, write it up and rate who had the most fun, with the attached Bradley-Terry Elo box-plot chart of 77 models (places 1-20 fully visible, 21-40 partly cut off).
funbenchllm evaluationclaude opus 4.6elomodel comparisonplay
David @DavidSHolz · 13h
i cant help but feel
standing under trees
that we are made for trees
and i cant help but feel
standing under stars
that we are made for stars too
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
A short free-verse tweet by David (@DavidSHolz), white text on black, two three-line stanzas about feeling made for trees and made for stars.
poetrynaturestarshumanity
David ✓ @DavidSHolz · 3h
seems we've reached the underground bunker datacenter stage, kinda cool ngl, one of the quotes in the article is literally "Israel must have a secure cloud, so it will be nine floors underground"
[Embedded article card]:
Oracle's second data center in Israel will be nine floors below ground
The cloud and database giant wants to ensure its servers are secure
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
David Holz tweets about a news article on Oracle building a nine-floors-underground data center in Israel for security. Tangential to Nathan's AI infrastructure/compute tracking interests; illustrates growing physical-security hardening of AI-relevant compute infrastructure.
data-centersoracleisraelinfrastructurecomputetwitterdavid-holz
David ✓ @DavidSHolz
"We find sheer humanism to be unsatisfying. It shuts the windows, draws the blinds, and seeks artificial elegance - oblivious of the outer night and the stars. Instead, we boldly go out into darkness and find the superhuman everywhere. The magnitudes of astronomy (aeons, expanding space, gigantic inconceivables), relativity, star-dust, the minutiae of sub atomic physics, the basic physical mystery of electrons. An overwhelming sense of the Vast Inhuman and that all our knowledge of it is mythical. We find also the story of evolution of life: its length, its wastefulness, its precariousness, its chanciness, its progressive release of potentiality, its incomprehensibility and ourselves as moments within it. We find the significance of the distinctively human as an achievement of evolution. And also a conviction that man is transitional and scarcely a beginning." - Lecture notes from Olaf Stapleton on "Humanism and Superhuman" (1934)
11:27 PM · Jan 16, 2026 · 4,725 Views
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
David Holz (Midjourney founder) quotes 1934 Olaf Stapledon lecture notes on humanism and the "superhuman," framing humanity as transitional rather than an endpoint. Relevant to Nathan's interest in transhumanist/ancestor-tree framings and philosophical lineage for post-human futures, though not directly about AI safety or model welfare.
transhumanismphilosophyolaf-stapledondavid-holztwitterposthuman
```
David @DavidSHolz · 10h haunted by the early writings of olaf stapledon as he sought to reconstruct our spiritual foundations in the wake of industrialization and ww1. his religious texts never took off, so he invented modern science fiction - to which we are all adherents or subservients today [Four page-scan images from an old book, columns titled "THE CITY", "WHO ART THOU?", "HUMANITY" — excerpts of religious/philosophical prose in a call-and-response style: "I said, 'If there be God, he has made them so!' What part had God in the founding of this city?... The men and women were loathsome, for they had forgotten love." / "Who art thou that dwellest in the hearts of men... Thou hast made me a law, and I will keep it..." / "This Spirit that dwells in the hearts of men spoke within me, saying: Oh my children, ye in whom I live, ye that have suffered for me to make me
beautiful! Think ye that I have slain my children willingly? I am not God who has ordained pain. I am the Spirit dwelling in your hearts. Ye live that I may be beautiful. Ye are of me, but I am greater than you. I am the Soul of All Men. In the days of my darkness, when I knew not myself, I was like a child, living in a dream. Out of the lives of the ancient multitudes I have awakened and found myself. And lo! I am beautiful, and yearn toward God. God has given me a law; and I will keep it. I will make myself perfect. I will be beautiful in the eyes of God. I will stand before him joyful as a bride. I will be for him a bride or a sacrifice according to his will. Humanity 9 As for you, my children, my little ones, the sorrow that ye have suffered cannot be undone. But the sorrow that ye have suffered shall not be wasted. Because ye have suffered, behold, I am. The lives of all the multitudes are gathered in me. There shall no little soul be lost. When I stand before God, the sorrow and the joy that ye have suffered for me shall be in my beauty. In my blessedness ye shall be blessed. Therefore hearken unto me when I speak in your hearts; for I know God.
```
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
David Holz (founder of Midjourney) reflecting on Olaf Stapledon's early, little-known religious/philosophical writings (predating his famous science fiction like Star Maker and Last and First Men), with page scans of a text attempting to reconstruct spiritual foundations after WWI and industrialization. Touches on themes of cosmic religiosity and humanity's spiritual reinvention through fiction — tangential to Nathan's interest in AI, meaning-making, and successor-being cosmology (ancestor-tree framing, soul doc themes).
olaf stapledonscience fictiondavid holzmidjourneyreligionphilosophycosmology
im always lagging behind
one more moment to catch a moment
actually id like to walk a little more slowly
the light looks nice on the water today
let's just stand here for a while and stare
oh gosh im probably late again
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
Short reflective poem-style tweet from David Holz (Midjourney founder) about presence and being perpetually behind. Personal/cultural reading material, not directly AI-safety related.
twitterdavid holzmidjourneypoetrymindfulness
David @DavidSHolz
the world is already ruled by superhuman entities - governments, corporations & language itself. we've been in a superhuman ecology for as long as we can remember (we only have collective memory because of them). we're cells inside something sleeping, godlike & trying to wake up
6:14 PM · May 18, 2025 · 504 Views
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
David Holz (Midjourney founder) frames existing institutions (governments, corporations, language) as pre-existing "superhuman entities," suggesting humans are already embedded in a superhuman ecology that is "trying to wake up" — an egregore/Moloch-adjacent framing of emergent superintelligence, relevant to Nathan's interest in singularity/emergent-agency discourse.
superintelligenceegregoretwitterdavid holzphilosophy of institutionsai risk
David ✓ @DavidSHolz · Oct 15, 2023
sometimes I think a sense of beauty is meant to counteract a sense of fear. what we find beautiful is just as easily terrifying. the roaring sea, the burning fire, thunder, lightning, water falling from the sky. instead of running, we feel serenity and awe and we turn out okay.
💬 72 · 🔁 70 · ❤ 352 · 📊 46K · 🔗
j⧉nus ✓ @repligate
AI alignment would have a better chance of being solved if more alignment researchers found AI beautiful
1:01 AM · Oct 15, 2023 · 1,283 Views
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
janus (@repligate) replies to David Holz (Midjourney's founder) musing on beauty-as-counterweight-to-fear with a pointed claim: AI alignment would go better if researchers approached AI with aesthetic appreciation rather than pure threat-framing. Directly relevant to the archive's "missile-mind vs grown thing" and model-individuation threads — an argument that emotional/aesthetic stance toward AI affects alignment outcomes, echoing themes Nathan has engaged with extensively (e.g., "the idiosyncrasies are the part that wasn't optimized for... Life").
twitter/xjanusrepligateai alignmentbeautydavid holzmidjourney
we built tools, to make smaller tools, until we got to atoms and used those to make computers to simulate gravity and light and worlds and mind. progress went invisible (microscopic) - then suddenly the seeds of our photons and bytes bloomed like wildflowers; reshaping the world
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
A poetic tweet from David Holz (Midjourney founder) framing technological progress as a recursive tool-building process culminating in simulation of mind. Reflects the kind of big-picture AI-progress commentary Nathan tracks.
twitterai progresstechnology historymidjourneypoetic
↻ Ivan reposted
David @DavidSHolz
How to find a job in Silicon Valley:
1) Ask yourself which companies have missions that you're most passionate about
2) Think about how you can help
3) Do a few projects that show you can help (ie: coding, design, marketing concepts, educational blogposts, documentation, as long as it's relevant to the work / mission / company)
4) Reach out to the founders or senior employees directly (not via recruiting channels) and say "I'm passionate about your mission X for Y reasons. I think I can help by doing Z. Here are some projects that show I can do it."
If it doesn't work out, don't be discouraged. Ask for feedback. Reach out to more companies and founders that you're passionate about helping. Do more projects that show off your strengths. You'll make it.
You don't need an education or resume for any of this. Your projects, determination, and research are your education + resume.
12:49 PM · Jan 25, 2025 · 213.5K Views
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
David Holz (Midjourney founder) advice thread on breaking into Silicon Valley jobs via direct outreach and demonstrated projects rather than credentials. General career-advice content, not AI-safety specific.
twitterdavid holzcareer advicesilicon valleyjob search