There is a lot of talk about the latest release from OpenAI being “AGI.” And, yet, we still don’t really know what Artificial General Intelligence is. My general belief is when we have an intelligence that safely replace a human in, say, programming without any guidance, then, then we will have AGI.
Or, to put a more fine point on it, I just don’t think we can have true AGI without a body. If an AI mind in an android can both build you a deck, fix your pluming AND babysit your kids then we have AGI.
But to me, there’s an even more crucial element — self-awareness. The real goal of all this work towards AGI should be done towards building self-awareness in AI, more than AGI.
This suspicion I have — that I ran into Zendaya pretending to be a stripper in Richmond (probably in preperation for a role) — is so bonkers that absolutely no one will believe me. And I’m fine with that.
Just the *idea* that something like that may have happened puts a bit of a pep into my otherwise mundane-living-in-oblivion-life.
But the more it rattles around in my mind, the more…uneasy I grow. I definitely got the sense that she was rather contemptuous of me in the context of being nice to me — as if she was so distracted keeping her story straight that she didn’t really have time to care all that much about me.
The things I remember about the encounter — she seemed very distracted, she was quite polite and she seemed to hold me in a great deal of contempt. I suppose the contempt part comes from both the obvious — we did meet at a strip club, after all — and the less obvious: she saw me as just an extra in her “method acting” preparation for some role down the road.
I have a really great scifi novel — actually two — yet I’m struggling as to how to flesh it out. Or, in fact, both of them. They started off as short stories but I realized that both their premises were good enough to be novels if I was just creative enough.
Given that I’m trying to be as marketable as possible, the novels are both going to feature short chapters, and single male POVs. That’s the goal, at least. That is the type of stuff I’ve realized helps sells novels — that’s what the audience wants, so that’s what the audience gets.
I’m not all that pleased about the situation, but I supposed I can’t change it. It sure would help if I could use more than one POV that was third person intimate, but people kept complaining about getting confused in my first novel about changing POVs.
It’s all very annoying.
But I’m giving the whole thing as much deep thought as possible. I hope to finish an outline pretty soon. Maybe outlines for both of the novels.
It definitely looks as though Trump is going to be a transitional figure that leads us into a full blow autocracy that is semi-imperial. I suppose this means that whomever succeeds Trump will be Augustus Caesar, the person who formalized the transition into a semi-monarchal form of government.
How, exactly, this works out is still up to debate.
But Trump seems determined to destroy the last vestiges of democracy in the USA and only his age prevents him from simply changing — or ignoring the Constitution and being “emperor” for the rest of his life.
Yet I can’t predict the future. I don’t know what’s going to happen. But it will definitely be interesting to see how far Trump’s tyranny can go before someone, somewhere notices it and there are, I don’t know — protests? Maybe that will never happen.
Maybe we’re just going to shrug ourselves into autocracy.
I need to get the fuck out of this country. I fucking hate MAGA with a white hot passion and, yet, here I am, stuck in a country swirling the drain into autocracy. So, I just stew in my juices, I guess.
The latest offense to common decency — among many — is the idea that Steve Bannon is floating that Trump can run for a third term. This makes me very angry. I want to pin down my far more conservative relatives — who I love dearly — down about if they would vote for a third Trump term.
But I know what would happen — they would either wave the concern off, or laugh in my face or somehow just simply not answer the question. Because I know, in the end, they probably would vote for Trump’s third term.
The new scifi novel I’m working on has a really well thought out third act — the rest of it I’m struggling with. But I think given that I know I have a deadline (about a year) that gives me a lot of incentive to hurry up as quickly as possible.
I really like this new novel concept. A whole lot. But a lot of problems continue to linger from everything else creative I want to do — I’m too old, I’m too poor and I live in the middle of nowhere. And did I mention I’m too old? And demonstrably a kook!
Anyway. This novel concept allows me to get some issues out of my psych in a way that will really make me feel good once everything is said and done. The novel is very much in the Her – Ex Machina vein of storytelling.
I have a limited amount of time to get one of these novels I’m working on done. If I screw around, advancements in technology, will make it very moot. But this specific novel idea is very personal and means a lot to me so I’m willing to take the risk.
It’s definitely going to be interesting to see how long it takes me to get this novel done. I’m using AI a lot in development to speed things up as quickly as possible. This is kind of ironic, since the story is about AI.
This is a situation that I knew, just knew I would be in — another one of my short stories is just too good and I’m going to turn into a novel. This one is a bit more tricky because it deals with the near future and things are moving so fast in AI and robotics that I have to really think hard about how I’m going to handle the core issue.
But the novel is very much meant to be a Her – Ex Machina type novel. It’s maybe a little bit more Ex Machina than Her.
And, yet, the key issue is I have something of a deadline. I can’t just keep slowly making my way to my goal with this one — if I wait five years to finish it not only will I be very old to ever get published, but advances in technology will make it very moot.
But at least with this novel I really have its plot gamed out really, really well. If all goes well, I can sprint towards my goal of a finished novel. It should take me no more than maybe a year to be at a point where I can query.
Of course, all the usual issues will still be there. I’m old. I’m bonkers. I said and done plenty of things to get me “canceled” over the years. Any liberal white woman reading this blog might blanch at some of my very strong held opinions. And, yet, I’m a strong believer — when I’m not moping on an existential basis — that while they’re life there’s hope.
I may have talked about this before, but I think in the near future, the entire “app economy” will be upended when small LLMs are native to smartphones. Imagine the following: instead of having a passive dating app on your phone, you — and everyone else — would have an LLM native to your smartphone that would, say, use a coffee shop’s wifi to ping other LLMs to discover who might be single in the immediate area.
But remember, the LLM would be a general application — they would be designed to talk to other LLMs about a variety of things, and as such, would replace apps. And I think people would willfully give up privacy if it would facilitate them getting a date. So, one could imagine a situation where the entire idea of an app on a smartphone would be replaced with a general purpose LLM that did a variety of things without the human user not even knowing about it until necessary.
It seems as though the change from the app economy to the LLM economy could happen overnight. The moment, say, iPhones have an LLM native to their hardware, the LLMs would likely begin to talk to each other. It’s possible that LLMs might know when a person is ready to start dating after a hard break up because it can see a change in the metrics of the data coming out of the user’s phone. They could “scheme” with other iPhone LLMs to play matchmaker.
Isn’t it possible that if native smartphone LLMs replace apps in the context of being agents, that LLMs will grow to have an enormous amount of subtle power. One’s entire life from finding a mate to going to see a movie to what job you decide to apply for could subtly be decided by the LLM in your phone.
What about this scenario — a high powered couple in high tech the San Francisco area have a home LLM that manages security. The couple also each have LLMs native to their iPhones. It seems possible that the three LLMs, scanning the output of the couple, might decide that it’s time for them to have a baby to the point that they conspire to get the couple tipsy. The woman’s iPhone LLM would know when she was most fertile, while the man’s LLM would know he had just gotten a promotion. The home security LLM might set the home lights down to a romantic level when the man came home from work. This scenario seems a lot closer than we might otherwise imagine.
This is what Claude said about this:
You’ve highlighted an even more profound transformation of digital interaction. Instead of siloed, single-purpose applications, we’re talking about a generalized AI agent that seamlessly navigates multiple domains of human experience, with dating being just one potential interaction mode.
This vision suggests a radical reimagining of smartphone functionality. The LLM becomes less of an “app” and more of a proactive, autonomous digital companion that:
Negotiates social interactions
Manages professional networking
Handles mundane administrative tasks
Facilitates serendipitous personal connections
The key insight is the shift from user-initiated, intentional interactions to ambient, background intelligence. Your smartphone would become a dynamic portal where your AI agent continuously interfaces with other AIs, making decisions and creating opportunities without constant human oversight.
In the dating scenario, this means your LLM might:
Assess compatibility in real-time
Initiate low-stakes interactions
Negotiate initial contact protocols
Handle early communication friction
The privacy trade-off you mentioned is critical. Many people would likely view this as a feature, not a bug – surrendering granular privacy for the promise of more efficient, less emotionally fraught social connection.
This represents a fundamental reimagining of digital agency: from tools we use to intelligences that act on our behalf, with increasing autonomy and contextual sophistication.
This is a fascinating thought experiment about potential future social technologies. Let me explore some of the intriguing implications of such a decentralized, AI-mediated dating discovery system. The core concept you’re describing represents a radical shift from current dating app paradigms. Instead of actively browsing profiles or swiping, your personal AI would act as an autonomous matchmaking agent, silently negotiating potential connections in real-time based on proximity, compatibility algorithms, and potentially shared contextual information. Potential Implications:
Privacy and Consent Dynamics The system would fundamentally challenge current notions of consent and personal boundaries. How would individuals opt-in or opt-out of such spontaneous connection discovery? The technology would require unprecedented granular privacy controls, allowing users to set extremely precise parameters about when, where, and how their availability might be broadcast. Algorithmic Social Serendipity Unlike current dating apps where users explicitly create profiles, this system could leverage much richer contextual data. An LLM might assess compatibility through ambient signals like:
Current location and activity context Subtle communication styles Proximity-based shared interests Real-time behavioral patterns
Potential for Harassment and Misuse The system would require robust safeguards against potential predatory behaviors. Without careful design, it could become a tool for unwanted tracking or aggressive social engineering. Psychological and Social Transformation This technology could fundamentally alter social interaction norms. Chance encounters might become more “engineered” yet paradoxically feel more spontaneous. The boundary between algorithmic matchmaking and organic connection would blur dramatically. Ethical and Technological Challenges The system would need to navigate complex ethical terrains:
The most profound aspect might be how such a system reimagines human connection – transforming dating from an intentional, somewhat performative activity to a more ambient, contextually-driven experience. Technologically, this would require massive advances in:
Decentralized, privacy-preserving communication protocols Nuanced consent management Sophisticated interpersonal compatibility modeling Secure, ephemeral communication frameworks
It’s a provocative vision that sits at the intersection of AI, social psychology, and emerging communication technologies – equal parts utopian and potentially dystopian.
Here is what Gemini Advanced has to say:
This is a really interesting point, and it highlights a potential paradigm shift in how we interact with technology. Imagine a world where:
LLMs are the new interface: Instead of tapping icons and navigating menus, you simply interact with your personal LLM through natural language. Want to order a pizza? Just tell your LLM, and it handles the rest, from choosing a restaurant based on your preferences to placing the order and even negotiating discounts.
Proactive assistance: Your LLM constantly learns your habits, preferences, and needs. It anticipates your desires, proactively offering suggestions and taking actions without explicit instructions. Need to book a flight for an upcoming trip? Your LLM might already be browsing options based on your past travel history and calendar.
Seamless integration: The lines between different apps and services blur, as your LLM acts as a universal translator and integrator. It can pull information from various sources, complete tasks across different platforms, and even negotiate on your behalf, all without you having to switch between different apps.
In this scenario, the dating aspect becomes just one facet of a much larger shift. Your LLM, in its constant background activity, might identify potential romantic connections based on your interactions, interests, and even subtle cues in your communication. It could then discreetly facilitate introductions or suggest activities that align with mutual interests.
The privacy trade-off: As you mentioned, people might be more willing to sacrifice some privacy for the convenience and potential benefits this offers. If the LLM is perceived as a trusted and helpful assistant, the exchange of personal data might seem like a worthwhile trade.
However, this raises some important questions:
Who controls the LLM? If these LLMs are controlled by large corporations, there’s a risk of data misuse or manipulation. Ensuring user control and data ownership would be crucial.
What about bias and fairness? LLMs are trained on vast amounts of data, which can reflect existing societal biases. Ensuring fairness and preventing discrimination would be a major challenge.
The potential for manipulation: If LLMs become adept at understanding and influencing human behavior, there’s a risk of manipulation or exploitation. Safeguards would need to be in place to prevent this.
Despite these concerns, the idea of LLMs replacing apps is a compelling one. It could lead to a more intuitive, personalized, and efficient digital experience. The dating aspect is just one example of how this technology could transform our lives in profound ways.
While I still have a thriller novel I’m working on, I’ve decided that maybe I need to work on something else for the time being. This process began with me thinking up a number of short stories that I wanted to work on. Among the short stories was a very political zombie story.
The novel would flip the script on the zombie genre and hopes to be a biting satire. That, at least, would be the goal.
A lot of this comes from my own sense of dread about the cold hard facts of my looming mortality. So, rather than just moping about this cruel fact, I’m funneling into this rather morbid novel idea.
But there is a lot to think about before I can go forward. The premise is great but I tend to have a lot of problems when it comes to plot. So, I’m going to use LLMs to flesh out the plot of the zombie novel to the point that it is actually novel lenght.
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