One of the topics with the worst signal-to-noise ratio is the prospect of AI doom. It requires reasoning under uncertainty about intelligence, linear algebra, politics, consciousness, and morality—mos…

Note: a more recent version of this theory appears here.

The role of women and serpents in creation myths is the perfect test case for OpenAI’s deep research. Readers are likely familiar with the ground, so they can spot-check claims. Further, no such speci…

Brian Muraresku’s Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name makes a good case that Jesus is a reincarnation of Dionysus, and early Christianity was a continuation of the millenn…

Data scientist Matthew Fisher and I met at the Less Online conference at Lighthaven in Berkeley, where I gave a presentation on the Snake Cult of Consciousness. Between sessions, we discovered we had …

Dr. Tom Froese is a researcher in enactive artificial intelligence investigating the systematic organization of life and mind. He received his PhD in cognitive science from the University of Sussex, d…

“If we want to understand the phylogeny of language or any human production, we have to keep in mind the following timeline. What is most important is that an essential divide occurred around 15,000 B…

In the beginning, God created three beings: Man, Antelope, and Snake. There was only one tree, bearing red fruit. Every seven days, God would come down from the sky to pluck the fruit. One day, Snake …

If self-awareness emerged recently, this should show up in comparative linguistics. The ability to introspect is a big deal, and it would require the invention of new words to communicate new experien…

After millennia of debate on the origins of consciousness, experts still put forth start dates spanning five orders of magnitude. This post will highlight some of those attempts, relate them to recurs…