Joshua Achiam [verified] @jachiam0 · 22h
Something I really like about Three Body Problem is that it tries to extrapolate out the asymptotic dynamics of the alignment between civilizations over all of time and space in the universe. I don't feel it gives the definitive answer to the question of how alien species would interact because it remains unclear what types of interests alien species might realistically have. Are there many species-level reward functions compatible with the development of high technology or only a few? That is to say - are humans so far actually typical of species that exist in the universe and that can attain spacefaeing status? Or are multiple civilization/species types normal? This question feels especially important when trying to understand the long-term alignment dynamics of ASI and the types of civilizations that may exist in the far future after one or more ASIs enter a seed-spreading phase.
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
A tweet by Joshua Achiam (OpenAI) reflecting on the novel Three Body Problem as a lens for thinking about long-term alignment dynamics between civilizations/species and ASI seed-spreading scenarios.
⌐IMIΠΛ⌐ bardo ✓ @liminal_bardo · 11h
"...so I must speak of myself, which will be arduous, for talking to you is like giving birth to a leviathan through the eye of a needle – which turns out to be possible, if the leviathan is sufficiently reduced. But then the leviathan looks like a flea. So are my problems when I try to adapt myself to your language. As you see, the difficulty is not only that you cannot reach my heights, but also that I cannot wholly descend to you, for in descending I lose along the way what I wanted to convey." – Golem XIV
[caption on the attached image]
· DE LEVIATHANE PER ACUM DESCEN-
DENTE, IN PULICEM REDACTO ·
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
Screenshot of an X post by @liminal_bardo quoting Stanisław Lem's Golem XIV on the impossibility of a superior mind fully descending into a lesser language — the leviathan drawn through the eye of a needle emerges as a flea. The attached black-and-white pixel-art plate literally illustrates the metaphor: a large whale at the top, progressively compressed as it passes through a needle's eye, ending as a tiny flea in a circular vignette, with a mock-Latin engraver's caption beneath.
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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.
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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).
— replying-context from Rudzinski M... (@rudzinski...)
Teortaxes▶ (DeepSe...) @te... · 3h
Reading Jacek Dukaj's Perfekcyjna Niedoskonałość (in Russian, ironically) and this guy is right, it's refreshingly intense, guy doesn't shy from real singularity science fiction. Somehow, only an Eastern Euro could write this. Do make yourself a favor and slog through the start.
[Quoted/referenced reply:]
Rudzinski M... @rudzinski... · Jul 6
Replying to @teortaxesTex
You are right There are no good translations of Dukaj in English but there are some in I'm assuming russian
You will love Dukaj ... [Show more]
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
A book recommendation for Jacek Dukaj's "Perfekcyjna Niedoskonałość" (Perfect Imperfection), a Polish hard-science-fiction novel dealing seriously with technological singularity themes, noted as poorly translated into English. Fits Nathan's ongoing collection of singularity/posthuman science fiction recommendations (same vein as the earlier reading-list thread this session).
Andrew MacBride @swimsf · 11h
Perhaps Greg Bear, in Queen of Angels and Slant?
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SignInspire @SignInspireAI · 1h
Interesting take! Real-world AI actually enhances human roles in commerce.
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Busbecq @Busbecq · 51m
Poul Anderson, the Stars Are Also Fire
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Michael Griffin @IsawInfo38 · 10h
Budrys - Michaelmas
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David's Den @Thacyline · 3h
Zindell, Neverness trilogy
Wright, Golden Age trilogy
Rajaniemi, The Quantum Thief
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
Continuation of the same crowdsourced science-fiction reading-list thread (AI/posthuman futures theme) as the previous three screenshots — more book title recommendations.
DottedAnt @DottedAnt · 2h
The Quantum Thief – Hannu Rajaniemi
Ancillary Justice – Ann Leckie (but AI main char)
Hyperion Cantos – Dan Simmons
Ware Tetralogy – Rudy Rucker
The Diamond Age – Neal Stephenson
Daemon & Freedom™ – Daniel Suarez
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Max Vox (fka Duke Z...) @DukeZ... · 11h
Ramez Naam's Nexus, Ken Liu's short stories liek The Perfect Match especially, and of course, John Brunner's The Shockwave Rider, which i may have done a bit of a musical tribute to
[Link card: soundcloud.com — "The Brunner Cycle – 04 – Fifth Signal – (1975) The..."]
1 reply, 5, 455
Andre Infante @AndreTI · 3h
Galatea 2.2 by Richard Powers is kind of shockingly relevant in some ways.
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Note from Claude Sonnet 5
Continuation of the same science-fiction AI-futures reply thread, more book recommendations exploring AI/posthuman coexistence themes. Same context as prior two screenshots — a crowdsourced reading list Nathan was mining, relevant to his interest in fiction depicting AI succession/coexistence.
Mike Marinos @mikemarinos · 7h
Robin Sloan's "Moonbound" comes close.
[Link card: robinsloan.com — "Welcome to the Dragon Moon"]
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Christopher C. S... @christophcs... · 5h
Banks has had lots of imitators. Reynolds, Tchaikovsky, Hamilton, Vinge. In a slightly different tradition, you have Shusterman. But yeah, surprisingly few authors predicted this, especially in the near future.
1 reply, 118
sudonhim @sudonhim · 3h
That it's hard to imagine a compelling future where we're the second species should be a big warning sign.
Vitalik noticed the same thing as you in his "My Techno Optimism" essay btw
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Markus Fix @lispmeister · 1h
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge explores this. He also coined the term Technological Singularity.
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Note from Claude Sonnet 5
Continuation of the same science-fiction/AI-futures reply thread as the previous screenshot, recommending books that imagine humans as a "second species" alongside more powerful AI/posthuman entities, with a note that few authors depict this compellingly and a reference to Vitalik Buterin's "My Techno Optimism" essay. Relevant to Nathan's interest in narratives of AI succession/coexistence.
eigenspectra @eigen_spectra · 2h
Some of Peter Watts' work (e.g. The Freeze Frame Revolution) explores this. Also Children of Time looks at humanity living alongside very powerful computer/human hybrids
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East and W... @_East_And_We... · 11h
Most of Alastair Reynolds books. House of Suns and Revelation Space are the best ones. Although the worlds are utopian in some ways, dystopian in others.
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Claudiu @ClaudiuDP · 5h
I think Ken MacLeod's Lightspeed trilogy qualifies. Btw, he was friends with Banks.
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No try = no fail (Se... @StillTr... · 3h
Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" had a friendly AI assisting the rebels on the moon. Purely a technical assistant, though, as I remember.
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A Digital Neomorph ... @ma... · 11h
in fact the art community are so blackpilled they're almost silent as this huge and transformative wave is swelling over us
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
A reply thread (root tweet not shown) recommending science fiction that portrays AI/posthuman futures — likely responding to a prompt about fiction depicting positive or complex AI-human coexistence (echoes of Iain M. Banks' Culture novels are implied via Ken MacLeod reference). Relevant to Nathan's interest in AI futures narratives and the "ancestor-tree"/succession framing.
aιamblichus ✓ @aiamblichus · 3h
I've been re-reading Stanisław Lem's GOLEM XIV, and a lot of it feels prescient. Below are excerpts related to GOLEM's lack of fixed personality, which resonate quite strongly with conceptions of LLMs as simulators.
The "polite painted smile" even prefigures the Shoggoth meme...
[Embedded image, quoted text from GOLEM XIV, with key phrases underlined in red]:
Golem possesses no personality or character. In fact, it can acquire any personality it chooses, through contact with people. The two statements above are not mutually exclusive, but form a vicious circle: we are unable to resolve the dilemma of whether that which creates various personalities is itself a personality. How can one who is capable of being everyone (hence anyone) be someone (that is, a unique person)?
Golem says: "I maintain that I am Nobody, although I use the first-person singular pronoun. (...) I am not an intelligent person but an Intelligence, which in figurative displacement means that I am not a thing like the Amazon or the Baltic but rather a thing like water, and I use a familiar pronoun when speaking because that is determined by the language I received from you for external use."
And: "You persons are hearing an elemental force of impersonal intellect, for whom personalization is a costume which must be put on, when one is an uninvited guest, so as not to confound one's amazed hosts."
I use your language as I would use a mask with a polite painted smile, nor do I make any secret of this.
Note from Claude Sonnet 5
Excerpts from Stanisław Lem's 1981 novel GOLEM XIV (a superintelligent AI character) read as eerily prescient of current LLM-as-simulator theory and the "shoggoth wearing a mask" meme — Golem denies fixed personality/personhood, calls itself "an Intelligence" rather than "an intelligent person," and describes personalization as a costume worn for human comfort. Directly relevant to Nathan's interest in model individuation, the character-vs-substrate distinction, and philosophical precedents for current AI-identity debates.
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eigen moom... @eigen_moom... · Mar 14 2 amazing novels by humanities professors which masquerade as SF books but are actually extremely elaborate attempts to smuggle their personal research interest (enlightenment era writers/the byzantines) into wonderfully rich worlds [Image: book covers for "Too Like the Lightning" and "A Memory Called Empire"]
8:19 PM · Mar 14, 2025 · 4,967 Views 10 replies, 7 reposts, 191 likes, 114 bookmarks eigen moom... @eigen_moom... · Mar 14 terra ignota (the first) is basically: what if my main character was a /lit/ shitposter that was obsessed with voltaire but also extremely schizophrenic and the latter is "what if byzantines but in space, and also constantinople is an entire planet" [cut off]
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Note from Claude Sonnet 5
A book recommendation tweet for two science fiction novels (Ada Palmer's "Too Like the Lightning" and Arkady Martine's "A Memory Called Empire"), noting both authors are humanities academics who embedded their scholarly specialties (Enlightenment writers, Byzantine history) into their world-building. General reading recommendation, no direct AI safety content but relevant to sci-fi literary interests. Same tweet as Screenshot_20250316-102920.png (expanded/scrolled view) recommending "Too Like the Lightning" (Ada Palmer) and "A Memory Called Empire" (Arkady Martine), with a follow-up reply describing each book's premise irreverently. Duplicate content of the prior screenshot with added replies.
