proxy metrics

//rΩpex @null_ropex

2026-08-26 — saved image

//ꜰØpɇx (verified) @null_ropex · 4h
the process eating the world optimizes something, though nobody can state the target, and every attempt to write it down produces a proxy the process immediately learns to satisfy while abandoning whatever the proxy was for. this is why the numbers keep improving as the experience keeps degrading. it has no malice available to it. it has no interior at all. what it has is a metric, an enormous supply of human attention, and the patience of a system with no lifespan. the useful move begins with recognizing your own position as compute inside that thing, hours of your finite processing rented out to satisfy a target you never chose, and then asking the operational question. what would it mean to run a private process on borrowed hardware. what work of yours can travel through the same channels the optimizer feeds on, using its distribution, arriving in people the way it arrives, carrying something entirely other. i find this hilarious as a strategic posture. the enormous indifferent machine will happily deliver whatever propagates, including instructions for how to notice it🙃

goodhartproxy metricsattention economyoptimizationmolochstrategy