January '25

Superintelligence, cold approaching, and a crush

Sentinel, 2020 by Tilo Baumgärtel

Cold Approaching

Everyone wants a “meet cute”. Where you’re at the grocery store or grabbing a coffee. Standing in line and making eye contact with the cute guy who just walked in. Where you sit down and open your book and that same cute guy has the gall to come up and make idle conversation — which turns out to be easy, fluid. Like talking to an old friend.

The problem is that this sort of thing simply doesn’t happen anymore. Guys don’t approach girls. And girls never approach guys. Simple as that. Yet, these sorts of encounters _used to_ happen. Our parents and our grandparents never cease to stop reminding us of that fact (at least, mine certainly don’t).

So what’s changed?

Well, for starters, men stopped approaching women given the feminine backlash to such advances. And to their credit, I don’t blame them; especially when you consider the way things used to be. Men used to have no shame (and some still don’t). Catcalling and flirting with women (other than your wife) was a commonplace thing. Toxic masculinity is undeniably a thing, but I’d argue that men have come a long ways in 40+ years. So much so, that we don’t approach women anymore (even the ones we like). Instead, the common consensus among men is that “she doesn’t wanna be bothered” and that it would be “awkward” to do so.

However, I sense a shifting sentiment among young people. When I talk to my friends, the undeniable theme is “unhappily single”. Yet its not for a lack of trying? Everyone’s tried the apps, everyone’s asked their friends to set them up. It feels as if there aren’t any means to make your own future. That on one hand, there is crippling singularity and the other forcing dates with online strangers and hoping for a spark that can only be felt in person.

And I think this culminates into an interesting societal dichotomy. One where young people are looking back at “dating norms” and shaking their heads. Where taking the lead, picking her up, paying for dinner…idk, doing the albeit masculine things?? is in short supply and desperate demand.

We’re all just waiting for a signal. A sign of openness. The green light to approach.

Flagstaff

I’ve been coming down here every winter for three years now. And before that it was Sedona. But Flagstaff has this way about it. Like all mountain towns, it feels more soulful. More spiritual. And that’s reflected in the desert art and the lifestyle; as if a city of 70k could still manage to retain its small town general store appeal.

It must have something to do with the mountains.

There’s always this sense of calm when I catch their peaks in my rearview.

Aside

Superintelligence

I think about the epochs of AI in three stages:

1. The Information Era

2. The Interpretation Era

3. The Superintelligence Era

The creation of computers and data at scale was the information era. Now we’re trying to build something that can harness/interpret it all. When we do, we’ll have created an intelligence even beyond the bounds of our own. And the only conclusion to this is the acceptance that there will someday be an “intelligence” that supersedes our own.

At which point, what does our role become? When we don’t need to solve complex problems anymore? We’re eventually gonna have computers that can harness and “interpret” the accumulation of all human information (effectively, everything that exists on the internet). And these artificial engines are gonna be “smarter” by all accounts and measures.

All of that said, I still see room for us. That there will still be Classics and Philosophy and Sociology professors who have to teach AI “why”. To teach AI how to be “human”.

Because it’s easy to do math in a vacuum, but the ponderous questions of morality? Big questions with difficult answers.

Crush

I asked a girl out yesterday. First time in a long time. Was over text, been over a year since we’d spoke.

And I was telling some buddies, that what got me thinking about her was a note on my phone. From when I was hiking in Zion:

- The girl you’re best suited for is the one you want first. First instinct. But you talk yourself out of it. And make the wrong choice every time. You’re scared to give in.

Turns out she has a boyfriend. And we were cordial. Polite even. But I heard a song on the radio the other day, and it went:

“Why waste another day girl, we ain’t gettin no younger…”

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