I think there could be millions of topics that we’d benefit from figuring out before superintelligence hits; these three are just what I’ve been obsessed about. So if you’re obsessed by some topic, maybe take a few minutes to consider how a 2025 sprint on the topic might impact…


o3 performance claims https://t.co/dsdc31Cm1M

o3 performance claims https://x.com/__nmca__/status/1870170098989674833


@poldectonteg lol very possibly! I’m not utilitarian but that’s maybe not clear from the post


@GlueWear @poldectonteg o3 benchmarks look really good https://t.co/dsdc31Cm1M

@GlueWear @poldectonteg o3 benchmarks look really good https://x.com/__nmca__/status/1870170098989674833


@EricWollberg @erikphoel Thanks Eric! Really looking forward to what you guys are building


@connor_holly1 Ah great!

Got a lot of things cooking but we’ll see what gets done first


If you’re traveling for the holidays, consider taking nattokinase (a natural, broad spectrum clot dissolver) as a precaution against the microclots that often form while flying. It does a lot of other good things too.

I’d rec 4000fu (usually 2 pills) at the start of the flight https://t.co/3naNFAMT49

If you’re traveling for the holidays, consider taking nattokinase (a natural, broad spectrum clot dissolver) as a precaution against the microclots that often form while flying. It does a lot of other good things too.

I’d rec 4000fu (usually 2 pills) at the start of the flight https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1707079273608106375


@wooblewoof The standard advice is pretty decent, e.g. https://t.co/XIZNLXC28v

I’d add that big clots usually get stuck in the head, heart, lungs, or stomach. You want to dissolve them before that happens

Moving around a little helps — walks, surreptitious squats, bouncing your feet etc

@wooblewoof The standard advice is pretty decent, e.g. https://www.cdc.gov/blood-clots/risk-factors/travel.html

I’d add that big clots usually get stuck in the head, heart, lungs, or stomach. You want to dissolve them before that happens

Moving around a little helps — walks, surreptitious squats, bouncing your feet etc


@QiaochuYuan Dual aspect monism suggests that all physical things have a projection into the qualia domain; mountains would be (a little bit) conscious, because everything physical/real is

https://t.co/hdEh8dzXXj

If DAM is right we can talk about either the physical or phenomenological as…

@QiaochuYuan Dual aspect monism suggests that all physical things have a projection into the qualia domain; mountains would be (a little bit) conscious, because everything physical/real is

https://opentheory.net/2019/06/taking-monism-seriously/

If DAM is right we can talk about either the physical or phenomenological as…


@QiaochuYuan I expect the following will turn out to be true:

If we could look at the 4d ‘block universe’ and turned on what Tononi calls a ‘qualiascope’, I think we’d see our universe divided up into much smaller 4d chunks of consciousness. These 4d chunks would completely fill the block…


@QiaochuYuan Expectations about the size & shape of ‘4d chunks of consciousness’

https://t.co/lfQr36soNo

(No need to agree with any of this, just laying it out as I see it)

@QiaochuYuan Expectations about the size & shape of ‘4d chunks of consciousness’

https://opentheory.net/2024/02/minds-as-hyperspheres-the-equal-extension-thesis-and-its-implications-for-the-framerate-of-consciousness/

(No need to agree with any of this, just laying it out as I see it)


@QiaochuYuan 🫡

Might need your math help. If you read the links and anything comes up let me know


@mattdsegal Seems these studies are noisy but generally show efficacy on a surprisingly broad set of end-points (which end-points matter is of course a question). High dose seems to be better for some things


@ShortConsensus I think surprisingly few people have Actually Tried in a way that is coherent under reflection. The number of people who are Actually Trying to build AI (or even manage a restaurant) is much greater

A lot of it comes down to philosophy being a sick discipline


@TimGalebach I think this is a good observation but o3-mini looks very promising for real use; I get the sense that OAI has a lot of expertise at model distillation at this point and things will move fast

Also the existence proof of o3 is a big deal for progress across the field https://t.co/c9QrWZ5wP4

@TimGalebach I think this is a good observation but o3-mini looks very promising for real use; I get the sense that OAI has a lot of expertise at model distillation at this point and things will move fast

Also the existence proof of o3 is a big deal for progress across the field https://x.com/sama/status/1870266813248053426


@TimGalebach The inference costs involved in the benchmark are eye-opening; very interested to see how things develop next year


@TimGalebach I think I have different expectations on whether OAI will be able to get good results at model distillation (arguably the benchmarks suggest they already have); you might be right that CoT requires significantly different distillation techniques though.

On the other hand, CoT…


@IHateZuckSoMuch Hey, no problem. A lot depends on ‘what kind of thing’ consciousness is. The word itself is used in many different ways, so in order to get clarity we’ll need a more narrow technical definition. “What it feels like to be [something]” is a pointer to the way I’m using the term


@PrinceVogel Very cool


@mr_jefe Thanks! I hear a serving of natto has about 90mg nattokinase, whereas a standard pill has 100mg. I think it’s mostly a question of whether you enjoy the taste


Eigenrobot’s custom prompt is the best I’ve found for getting LLMs to be informative but concise, avoiding ‘midwit’ responses and equivocations, and in general having them treat you as an epistemic peer. If you still use a default prompt for GPT I think it’s worth checking out https://t.co/fhoktfKP82

Eigenrobot’s custom prompt is the best I’ve found for getting LLMs to be informative but concise, avoiding ‘midwit’ responses and equivocations, and in general having them treat you as an epistemic peer. If you still use a default prompt for GPT I think it’s worth checking out https://x.com/eigenrobot/status/1870696676819640348


@gualtieropicc If words are representational the question is what they represent; objects would be the obvious answer but a cleaner cut may be words as social (nervous system agnostic) pointers to stabilized (frozen) sensations https://t.co/ENuzfpnSMV

@gualtieropicc If words are representational the question is what they represent; objects would be the obvious answer but a cleaner cut may be words as social (nervous system agnostic) pointers to stabilized (frozen) sensations https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1751994506478587977


@gualtieropicc This implies a system for stabilizing sensations; here’s how I think the body does it https://t.co/5yVABcCmuA

@gualtieropicc This implies a system for stabilizing sensations; here’s how I think the body does it https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1863595299056517410


@nosilverv Need more Buddhism x Ray Peat crossovers https://t.co/A9LBNowsW2

@nosilverv Need more Buddhism x Ray Peat crossovers https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1870881599618998467/photo/1


@QualiaNerd The math of decoherence is surprisingly similar to the math of integration; both track ‘what interacts with what’ (PQ Appendix E)

I like your thinking. Respectfully I also believe you may not have absorbed all there is to absorb from my most recent paper (cf footnote 10)


context https://t.co/RSw2kdnu1i


@VividVoid_ I have a great relationship with my father, and it was really unsettling to realize that a friend saw me as fatherly but had complex parental trauma and projected that onto me

“Fuck you dad, don’t leave me” push-pull is very hard to deal with. Hard to avoid breaking hearts


@BernardJBaars I think “where does the accuracy of qualia reports come from” is one of the most slept-on mysteries in consciousness research.

Some thoughts from a paper earlier this year: https://t.co/lb92NmCu8Y https://t.co/V5FiJbwF9N

@BernardJBaars I think “where does the accuracy of qualia reports come from” is one of the most slept-on mysteries in consciousness research.

Some thoughts from a paper earlier this year: https://files.theseedsofscience.org/2024/A_Paradigm_for_AI_Consciousness.pdf https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1871003768076263877/photo/1


@wholebodyprayer Not sure if true, but I suspect headwear may influence how we think & feel by changing the head’s resonant frequencies (physical and electromagnetic)

People might be shocked at how differently they would feel if they went a day wearing any “iconic” headwear. Iconic for a reason! https://t.co/8MnKgN6YFX

@wholebodyprayer Not sure if true, but I suspect headwear may influence how we think & feel by changing the head’s resonant frequencies (physical and electromagnetic)

People might be shocked at how differently they would feel if they went a day wearing any “iconic” headwear. Iconic for a reason! https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1871394816103448886/photo/1


@bryan_johnson I suspect you could do a separate Project Blueprint sized effort just for the vasomuscular system (and this would be worth doing) https://t.co/5yVABcCUk8

@bryan_johnson I suspect you could do a separate Project Blueprint sized effort just for the vasomuscular system (and this would be worth doing) https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1863595299056517410


@wholebodyprayer I think I got the “headwear as EM antenna” idea from https://t.co/3ctUyqA4Nm — he also proposed hair can function as the same

I think women tend to be more correct than men here: how you look, what you’re wearing, and how you feel are intimately connected

We should expect…

@wholebodyprayer I think I got the “headwear as EM antenna” idea from https://x.com/ngolotesla — he also proposed hair can function as the same

I think women tend to be more correct than men here: how you look, what you’re wearing, and how you feel are intimately connected

We should expect…


@johnnyate @bryan_johnson Importing large chunks of Buddhist theory into a muscular & reflexology framework — happy to chat in person sometime in SF


My origin story for humanity: the particular cognitive capacities of modern humans came from being able to flex (and latch) our vasomuscular system in more areas, with greater precision & integration, and with greater strength & duration than other animals

The vasomuscular… https://t.co/fNsPhE4BDY

My origin story for humanity: the particular cognitive capacities of modern humans came from being able to flex (and latch) our vasomuscular system in more areas, with greater precision & integration, and with greater strength & duration than other animals

The vasomuscular… https://x.com/bryan_johnson/status/1872395463418425761


Notes:

*this has not been scientifically established at this point, and would be a big finding. Many ways to check, but the simplest would be a longitudinal study

**my formulation is a little different from FEP-AI; hope to do a side-by-size comparison at some point

***HPPD as… https://t.co/KZfnSOR57v

Notes:

*this has not been scientifically established at this point, and would be a big finding. Many ways to check, but the simplest would be a longitudinal study

**my formulation is a little different from FEP-AI; hope to do a side-by-size comparison at some point

***HPPD as… https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1863603206649208983


@NickADobos I don’t know of a way to learn how to consciously control latches, but I think perception is prior to control and there might be ways to close this feedback loop. Very possible some advanced somatic schools have secret knowledge here


@drmichaellevin @LocBibliophilia @AndrewCritchPhD Great comment and I’ve no illusions this is a complete answer, but I think there may be some ‘tradeoff-lite’ ways to improve the human condition via the vasomuscular system https://t.co/yqB256XqK5

@drmichaellevin @LocBibliophilia @AndrewCritchPhD Great comment and I’ve no illusions this is a complete answer, but I think there may be some ‘tradeoff-lite’ ways to improve the human condition via the vasomuscular system https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1872482551677194267


@connor_holly1 @NickADobos They are definitely ways to feel and control tension; a latch is a little bit more specific, when the sliding fibers of smooth muscle get chemically glued together (timescale is ~minutes) and the tension becomes the body’s new default.

It’s well within the bounds of human…


@repost_offender Makes sense! I’d love to find some great proxies for vascular muscle tone and reflexes. Am reminded of “as you do anything, so you do everything” — there are probably proxies for this everywhere in the body for those with eyes to see


@ambigrammarian @bryan_johnson Fascinating paper


@nobuhojimichaan @NickADobos That definitely sounds like latch dynamics to me, but I haven’t dug deeply into these traditions yet


@nhlsdhfowoj I suspect ozempic does affect cognition through influencing smooth muscle tone; I’m not sure about the mechanisms of anti-diarrhea drugs specifically https://t.co/utVeEU5xTw

@nhlsdhfowoj I suspect ozempic does affect cognition through influencing smooth muscle tone; I’m not sure about the mechanisms of anti-diarrhea drugs specifically https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1852268950442422650


@urraca__ I will take a took — thanks!


@bayeslord Thanks bayes! I suspect cessations happen when vasomuscular activity drops very low… very interesting to think about why


@garybasin Right —

Imo vascular latches will come to be seen as one of the core types of damage we accumulate with age, and chronically reduced circulation from latches will also drive local tissue aging

This was interesting: https://t.co/61x5I1HHdJ

@garybasin Right —

Imo vascular latches will come to be seen as one of the core types of damage we accumulate with age, and chronically reduced circulation from latches will also drive local tissue aging

This was interesting: https://x.com/ambigrammarian/status/1872505261161955476


@cube_flipper Thinking about both HPPD and “Tetris effect” as possibly arising from latches in the visual cortex. Tetris effect might be less sticky (latches reliably release in a few hours-days) since it’s simply perceptual; powerful exogenous chemicals aren’t involved. But imo life might be…


@TylerAlterman I expect doing HIIT before a massage might make the session surprisingly more effective (first spike bloodflow, then try to spread it around mechanically)

Tyler is finishing a book, slow to reply


@TylerAlterman ‘Energy work’ might sound woo, but here’s how I see it interacting with the vasomuscular system —

There are a number of contractile tissues in the body — skeletal muscle, smooth muscle, fascia, heart muscle, even neurons can contract a little bit. Fascia can have ‘adhesions’ and…


@jwmares It was fascinating to learn that Karl Friston, Giulio Tononi, and Anil Seth were all grad students of Gerald Edelman

Won the Nobel prize for his work on the adaptive immune system and then applied this frame to the brain (“Neural Darwinism”)


@bierlingm Exercise is great for bloodflow and vascular health in general; also if you make yourself stronger, your body will feel like it can be more confident with its dynamic range (and be less prone to latching in general). This includes physical strength but goes beyond that


@relic_radiation @TylerAlterman Thank you! Huge fan of your work as well —

Lately I’ve been looking at both latches (the latch-bridge mechanism of smooth muscle), disordered sarcomeres (skeletal muscle), and metabolism. Haven’t gotten to physical neuron tension yet but I appreciate the nerve glide links I’ve…


@JauhalPeter I think so! I expect we’re outliers on both our ability to selectively clench vasculature, and our hierarchical processing system (raw sense data comes in and gets filtered through ever-more-abstract feature detectors)


@jonnym1ller @NickADobos “What distinguishes conscious & unconscious processes in the body?” is a super interesting question

Historically we’ve described skeletal muscle as under conscious control and smooth muscle as autonomic/unconscious. But if vasocomputation is right both are tangled with…


@jonnym1ller @NickADobos I suspect latches are determined by local conditions to a surprising degree — i.e. the muscle itself can determine “this clench is expensive to hold; I don’t have metabolic surplus, I’ll latch it”

But there also seem to be top-down signals to latch (e.g. prolactin after orgasm)


@myceliummage @TylerAlterman @drmichaellevin Yes; I hesitate to put words in Michael’s mouth and he writes about very diverse topics, but I’d (attempt to) describe his views on cellular specialization as ‘all cells are running the same basic heuristics; these heuristics have different external manifestations depending on…


@myceliummage @TylerAlterman Mostly in the context of relationships


@cube_flipper @bayeslord Working through a related hypothesis, looking forward to sharing!

Would note that vasocomputation could be adapted to microtubules if need be; the generalization would be that local vascular tension locally disrupts the capacity of the body’s long-distance processing network to…


@reasonisfun @TylerAlterman @m_ashcroft A lot of people I respect like AT, very curious to dig in

You might enjoy the talk I gave this November; it goes into a little more detail about the underlying theory https://t.co/5yVABcCUk8

@reasonisfun @TylerAlterman @m_ashcroft A lot of people I respect like AT, very curious to dig in

You might enjoy the talk I gave this November; it goes into a little more detail about the underlying theory https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1863595299056517410


@m_ashcroft @reasonisfun @TylerAlterman Would be great! Let’s DM


Thinking about trauma & latches — I think there are several different kinds of ‘shapes’ that can get stuck (latched) in our nervous systems, but I think most of them at least rhyme with this:

You’re out on a walk in the jungle with your friends, and you step on a snake. It bites… https://t.co/yqB256WSUx

Thinking about trauma & latches — I think there are several different kinds of ‘shapes’ that can get stuck (latched) in our nervous systems, but I think most of them at least rhyme with this:

You’re out on a walk in the jungle with your friends, and you step on a snake. It bites… https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1872482551677194267


@JohnXGaspar I think we’ll need to decompose “memory” into several types. Vascular latches are a sort of “side channel memory” which don’t store things directly, but act as constraints on local neural dynamic range

I expect this burst of old feelings from latches opening may be due to a…


@tyneslol @farbood “Sports medicine” for meditative progress seems important and would be a good test of a lot of theories


@theobromananda Interesting; I do suspect that neural networks control a very wide range of physiological processes, and that most neural networks could get latched. Which suggests a lot of things could be “controlled” by latches


@davidad @zetalyrae That’s a great summary. I think a lot depends on whether coordination-at-a-distance is a tractable problem, and if so what the solutions look like. Here’s a (somewhat colorful) thesis from a couple years ago

(Obviously I suspect STV is also highly relevant for mapping Schelling… https://t.co/GJ0TP4t9bc

@davidad @zetalyrae That’s a great summary. I think a lot depends on whether coordination-at-a-distance is a tractable problem, and if so what the solutions look like. Here’s a (somewhat colorful) thesis from a couple years ago

(Obviously I suspect STV is also highly relevant for mapping Schelling… https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1873512007191703659/photo/1


@_deepfates @deepfates I reported the hacked account for impersonating @_deepfates

Would be great performance art if it wasn’t real tho


@connor_holly1 @WillManidis I think Sarno’s TMS is great, although I would point to slightly different anatomy — smooth muscle instead of skeletal, and a focus on the latch-bridge mechanism

I suspect vascular tension, reduced bloodflow, and reduced awareness are all locally correlated, and addressing any…


@demystifysci I think it’s a similar process, although that may also be hormonal and I think humans can latch much more sophisticated patterns


Considering a fresh hypothesis about dreams: “dreaming” is a search for sensory permutations that will trigger release conditions for obsolete latches

There’s no scientific consensus on why we dream, although I really like @erikphoel’s idea that they generate synthetic data so… https://t.co/TUSUO5B1CY

Considering a fresh hypothesis about dreams: “dreaming” is a search for sensory permutations that will trigger release conditions for obsolete latches

There’s no scientific consensus on why we dream, although I really like @erikphoel’s idea that they generate synthetic data so… https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1873447888514142397


@sama Better aesthetic taste seems really important, especially if AI models are eventually used as tools in government https://t.co/rguNRZY3Bf

@sama Better aesthetic taste seems really important, especially if AI models are eventually used as tools in government https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1797416077246562737


@NickADobos @erikphoel Right! I wonder if “blood pressure upon waking” would be predictive of not dreaming


@myceliummage @erikphoel You have some real bangers and I look forward to reading more


@hastuc_dibtux @erikphoel Yeah I haven’t looked at remeron specifically but I share the peater distrust of serotoninergics


@selentelechia @erikphoel Ahh I could see that — also maybe the dream cops could be interpreted more directly as latches? Aversions / inabilities to bring your attention to certain topics/possibilities


@GaurabC @erikphoel Thanks Gaurab! Hope to see some experiments around these ideas


@avaa411 @erikphoel I would expect so — stay safe in the dream world! If you latch there you latch in real life


@hermittoday @erikphoel Good question;

I’m no fan of marijuana in general, I think chronic use does bad things to one’s relationship with uncertainty


@GnomeSongBotani @erikphoel In Neural Annealing I suggest nREM sleep as ‘higher temperature’ — predictive models are switched on during REM so it would make sense that intense dreaming might not be as refreshing from an annealing perspective https://t.co/mQ3FmBODPu

@GnomeSongBotani @erikphoel In Neural Annealing I suggest nREM sleep as ‘higher temperature’ — predictive models are switched on during REM so it would make sense that intense dreaming might not be as refreshing from an annealing perspective https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1873861748308271308/photo/1


@kaleidosight @selentelechia @erikphoel I think the Great Psychologists — e.g. Jung, Reich, Freud, William James, Piaget, Maslow — were amazing and knew things we don’t

But yeah I think the existence & computational significance of smooth muscle latches as the mechanism behind chronic tension (and the core method of…


@hermittoday @erikphoel To understand what it feels like to be some human is to understand their relationship with uncertainty

I think self-work and the right life events can train greater skillful tolerance for uncertainty; I suspect this may be implemented by downregulating the compression pressure… https://t.co/W1ftH5n7ui

@hermittoday @erikphoel To understand what it feels like to be some human is to understand their relationship with uncertainty

I think self-work and the right life events can train greater skillful tolerance for uncertainty; I suspect this may be implemented by downregulating the compression pressure… https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1703821890756764137


@GnomeSongBotani @erikphoel To be explored in a future post :)


@yoltartar @erikphoel Nice; that makes sense!


@insurrealist Very cool — I think careful thinking about short-term mechanism of modulation is required but this is a great proof of concept


@paul__is__here @erikphoel A lot depends on the nature of the release condition. Perhaps we can think of a latch as a frozen high-dimensional vector, that only releases when the rest of the system smoothly matches the vector

I.e. you latch a certain counterfactual, and only release once it’s no longer…


@consciousrepo I feel like taste is the ur-sense; the first challenge our evolutionary ancestors faced was “is this food, or inedible, or toxin” and all our sensory evaluations are just remixed versions of this judgment

That said there’s probably a beautiful analysis to be had evaluating the… https://t.co/VNnB9BHKA0

@consciousrepo I feel like taste is the ur-sense; the first challenge our evolutionary ancestors faced was “is this food, or inedible, or toxin” and all our sensory evaluations are just remixed versions of this judgment

That said there’s probably a beautiful analysis to be had evaluating the… https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1873922058523972039/photo/1


@IvanVendrov @erikphoel Good question! I suspect bracing for a fall involves a lot of strongly-held tension across lots of the body. If one wanted to ‘cycle’ these brace-points, I think dream-simulating the feeling of falling (then waking up and realizing it was a dream and relaxing) might be really…


@Plyv1722193 @erikphoel I do suspect the body can infer where latches are — but I’m not sure it can tell which ‘should’ be opened; I think it’s a really hard empirical problem

Then again, the body is usually smarter than we think


@Plyv1722193 @erikphoel Thanks for this; I think there’s something to understand here, and I’m very curious as to how to translate it into neuroscience (predictive processing, vasocomputation)


@bear_3ma @erikphoel I have not had a lucid dream; I don’t know how they work. But it’s an interesting question


@xuenay I really wonder if improving our inner models of these things can help make healthy actions more intuitive!

Am especially curious about raising children with fewer semi-permanent developmental latches


@kaleidosight @erikphoel This seems right and important to me


@kyleostboe @paul__is__here @erikphoel I think eye contact is rightfully intense; you are looking into someone’s soul! Incredible amount of information in eyes. I’d also suspect the habit of avoiding eye contact could involve both latches and reflexes, and sometimes a metabolic shortfall (intuitively, when your…


@mmjukic I think of the brain as a big LLM, and LLMs hallucinate and need to be grounded. To me the shape rotator / wordcel distinction seems related to whether internal or external dynamics are grounding the brain’s hallucinations

Somatic vs social reality


@daniel_mac8 This is really cool


@bayeslord Yeah

Same situation with psychedelics unfortunately


@ambigrammarian @bayeslord I am no fan of Foucault, but I think his sense of how we ‘RLHF’ each other in a distributed way is right. I suspect this RLHF is primarily implemented through latches and that psychedelics can stochastically open such latches. Very often, jailbreaking this RLHF is absolutely…


@jessicamalonso @erikphoel Right! The body has its reasons for doing things; often what it needs from us is to simply not check out from the process


@anesmithbeck I think certain primal drives can be more or less latched; loosely that should correspond to IFS parts

A simple but important example would be male sex drive — I expect the refractory period to be enforced by latches

Fewer latches = dial the intensity of the drive up; more… https://t.co/HQ3YJNVEYO

@anesmithbeck I think certain primal drives can be more or less latched; loosely that should correspond to IFS parts

A simple but important example would be male sex drive — I expect the refractory period to be enforced by latches

Fewer latches = dial the intensity of the drive up; more… https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1712001038423593146


Niacin is notorious for its flush reaction; opening blood vessels

Niacin (nicotinic acid) injections stop LSD trips within minutes

Pretty suggestive evidence for vasocomputation, and that psychedeics’ characteristic effects arise from their impact on the vascular system… https://t.co/L0ULT3DWnY

Niacin is notorious for its flush reaction; opening blood vessels

Niacin (nicotinic acid) injections stop LSD trips within minutes

Pretty suggestive evidence for vasocomputation, and that psychedeics’ characteristic effects arise from their impact on the vascular system… https://x.com/PeatPill/status/1873892850028663125


@NeilPassero Thank you!


RT @nickcammarata: increasing evidence for wild wide reaching theory of vasocomputation


Vasocomputation thread: https://t.co/5yVABcCUk8


Another recent vasocomputation post https://t.co/slgv8Q0su4

Another recent vasocomputation post https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1873826193541066817


@dylanbeynon I would suspect a mild decrease in trip intensity with those


@femclonine Ray claimed personal observation on that, which I trust. I believe his students also tested this. Should be very easy to replicate


@femclonine Please report back! Safely


@nhlsdhfowoj Yes, although there’s a chicken-and-egg problem — the more tension there is somewhere, the more difficult it is to bring attention into the tissue https://t.co/WfE3xQp8JL

@nhlsdhfowoj Yes, although there’s a chicken-and-egg problem — the more tension there is somewhere, the more difficult it is to bring attention into the tissue https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1680565262406369282


@dylanbeynon I think our vascular drug ontology is somewhat off in general; have seen claims that aspirin works as well as viagra for increasing bloodflow, which is either saying something interesting about aspirin or about viagra

Niacin works on a pretty wildly different mechanism than most… https://t.co/plIrZkAEag

@dylanbeynon I think our vascular drug ontology is somewhat off in general; have seen claims that aspirin works as well as viagra for increasing bloodflow, which is either saying something interesting about aspirin or about viagra

Niacin works on a pretty wildly different mechanism than most… https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1863600685528605163


@Sam30941Al My hypothesis is that the vasomuscular system is more directly involved in regulating computation https://t.co/5yVABcCUk8

@Sam30941Al My hypothesis is that the vasomuscular system is more directly involved in regulating computation https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1863595299056517410


@taziksh @drmichaellevin @JoinEdgeCity @ShinzenYoung @RomeoStevens76 I think figuring out how to make a map of latches in the body is really crucial; high-end ultrasound and fMRI are both likely good enough, but we’ll need protocols for actually doing it


In general I see this as a vasocomputation side-quest; I suspect the story is more than just simple vasodilation, but that nicotinic acid is notorious for rapid, strong vasodilation and rapidly attenuates LSD is definitely interesting.

Much of my writing talks about latches, but…


@EatinGorgonzala @nickcammarata There’s an implication that many drugs known for their psychoactive effects may affect blood pressure (more broadly ‘vascular tone’) more than what we label “blood pressure drugs”; caffeine & alcohol would be two simple examples https://t.co/covGhF9fyi

@EatinGorgonzala @nickcammarata There’s an implication that many drugs known for their psychoactive effects may affect blood pressure (more broadly ‘vascular tone’) more than what we label “blood pressure drugs”; caffeine & alcohol would be two simple examples https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1874684999963660470


@malecatkins I expect oral vs injection to be different for this purpose; I have not tried either. Have also heard niacin supplements are often not of great quality, unfortunately


@femclonine @malecatkins I’m unclear why Hoffer structured the experiment this way


Noting we do not yet have a direct replication of Hoffer’s results


@IanGrygs I suspect the particular effects of psychedelics come from adding a rhythmic component to vascular tone


@EatinGorgonzala @Cashavaggio @dylanbeynon I suspect high blood pressure is a combination of constriction in big arteries and small blood vessels, and these will have different effects on experience

Capillary tension = Vasocomputation effects, artery tension will be subtle. I’d expect bp meds to be more the latter


@yoltartar Here’s what I suspect is happening https://t.co/plIrZkBbZO

@yoltartar Here’s what I suspect is happening https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1863600685528605163


@yoltartar The “decreased tanha reflex” claim is a little too strong; I do believe it changes the reflex, which can decrease it but can also just make it weird (I suspect bad experiences might be driven by this… offset errors)


@LorcasMansion Thanks for checking in!


@yoltartar Fascinating story — I think I agree with your model, i.e. to restate, disturbances to homeostasis will have an oscillatory component due to both gradients of distribution and homeostatic forces.

It seems steady-state is a rather special case actually; probably a product of a lot… https://t.co/fPtNbzXjz2

@yoltartar Fascinating story — I think I agree with your model, i.e. to restate, disturbances to homeostasis will have an oscillatory component due to both gradients of distribution and homeostatic forces.

It seems steady-state is a rather special case actually; probably a product of a lot… https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1874821859012653470/photo/1


@MaximePeabody @malecatkins Some comments on Stamets’ rationale https://t.co/Nkw5iulej9

@MaximePeabody @malecatkins Some comments on Stamets’ rationale https://x.com/hermittoday/status/1874774905637777906


I very strongly believe the quality of the oils we eat is a primary determinants of metabolic health, and that oils high in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are terrible for health, beauty, intelligence, & aliveness. This is most oils that most people eat. Very important thread https://t.co/bpxqC0XtML

I very strongly believe the quality of the oils we eat is a primary determinants of metabolic health, and that oils high in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are terrible for health, beauty, intelligence, & aliveness. This is most oils that most people eat. Very important thread https://x.com/jwmares/status/1874855422164898107


I very strongly believe the quality of the oils we eat is a primary determinant of metabolic health, and that oils high in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are terrible for health, beauty, intelligence, & aliveness. This is most oils that most people eat. Very important thread https://t.co/bpxqC0XtML

I very strongly believe the quality of the oils we eat is a primary determinant of metabolic health, and that oils high in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are terrible for health, beauty, intelligence, & aliveness. This is most oils that most people eat. Very important thread https://x.com/jwmares/status/1874855422164898107


@cube_flipper Oh wow

Yeah I would recommend against testing this tbh


@femclonine Worth noting (I do not recommend testing) https://t.co/4WztV8a91s

@femclonine Worth noting (I do not recommend testing) https://x.com/cube_flipper/status/1874872548699365560


@sndwv_ I see this as merely suggestive (but also: it is suggestive). There will be cleaner tests for vasocomputation imo https://t.co/Jc9zR7n9CS

@sndwv_ I see this as merely suggestive (but also: it is suggestive). There will be cleaner tests for vasocomputation imo https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1874693660278653371


@LisaK_2023 I suspect the ‘active ingredient’ in most forms of breathwork are CO2 buildup leading to vasodilation


@LisaK_2023 That’s not to minimize differences between techniques though! The active ingredient in most fruit is sugar but fruit can have very different effective nutritional properties


@AlexKrusz @LisaK_2023 I’ll have to get back to you on breathwork and CO2


@realnathom I think there is serious health alpha in getting this right, and there are multiple conflicting bodies of evidence

Somewhat unfortunately this has become politically coded

Here’s a lit review from the ‘other side’

And Ray Peat’s position: https://t.co/I3JTmMoPpT

(offered as a… https://t.co/yv8HmhJxz2

@realnathom I think there is serious health alpha in getting this right, and there are multiple conflicting bodies of evidence

Somewhat unfortunately this has become politically coded

Here’s a lit review from the ‘other side’

And Ray Peat’s position: https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/unsaturated-oils.shtml

(offered as a… https://x.com/paulsaladinomd/status/1729606439524548968


@AlexKrusz @LisaK_2023 I’d adjust my claim to “the psychoactive component to breathwork plausibly involves changes in CO2 levels and gradients, which induces changes in vasoconstriction, and the changes in vasoconstriction are psychoactive” — much more (unsatisfying) wiggle room, but not empty


@realnathom I’ll put a lot of epistemological chips on the table on this topic; let’s come back to this in 5 years and see how we each feel about PUFA


@Qirabiii I wouldn’t necessarily phrase it like that — although I’d be interested in studying niacin’s flush response on tension and latches in general


@Qirabiii I suspect something like this is what’s happening: https://t.co/plIrZkBbZO

@Qirabiii I suspect something like this is what’s happening: https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1863600685528605163


@chayalifecalma Thanks! I’m not aware of any studies on this but that could very well be. We might also think of it as a vascular muscle deconditioning process, tuning down the classes of reflexes that generate dreams


@meekaale I think pain and restricted movement could both produce latches (including pain of surgery) but probably hugely idiosyncratic

Best way to troubleshoot would be focusing on a specific symptom

Some general anesthetics are less neurotoxic than others btw though I don’t have a list https://t.co/XjezHo9021

@meekaale I think pain and restricted movement could both produce latches (including pain of surgery) but probably hugely idiosyncratic

Best way to troubleshoot would be focusing on a specific symptom

Some general anesthetics are less neurotoxic than others btw though I don’t have a list https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1724772248073175058


@meekaale Wound healing can definitely be a high-energy state, physiologically and psychologically


@meekaale Enjoy it! Maybe it’s your body realizing that nothing is more important than healing


@Qirabiii Sometimes the best way to open something that’s stuck isn’t to apply simple force, but to rock it open, closed, open


RT @prasanna_says: @johnsonmxe https://t.co/TWziO3Sybi

RT @prasanna_says: @johnsonmxe https://x.com/prasanna_says/status/1874677816450822388/photo/1


@aaarataki @realnathom @dynomight7 That’s a cool writeup! My simple attempt to summarize the biochemistry is that since unsaturated oils are missing bonds, they’re intrinsically more reactive — and such reactions create complex molecules that generally have no business being in our cells. Likewise PUFA oxidizes… https://t.co/IEmSWFTvLk

@aaarataki @realnathom @dynomight7 That’s a cool writeup! My simple attempt to summarize the biochemistry is that since unsaturated oils are missing bonds, they’re intrinsically more reactive — and such reactions create complex molecules that generally have no business being in our cells. Likewise PUFA oxidizes… https://x.com/anabology/status/1855355253916680598


@consciousrepo @aaarataki @realnathom @dynomight7 Nice! That’s my guess — has been really noteworthy for me


@taziksh @drmichaellevin @JoinEdgeCity @ShinzenYoung @RomeoStevens76 In practice, yes — “protocol design” is mainly trying to find a smart strategy so you don’t waste too much time, and can get a feedback loop going between your top-down ideas about how scans ‘should’ work and the actual data coming in


@mactothefuturex I think what psychedelics are doing isn’t exactly vasoconstriction or vasodilation, but adding rhythm to the vasomuscular system https://t.co/plIrZkBbZO

@mactothefuturex I think what psychedelics are doing isn’t exactly vasoconstriction or vasodilation, but adding rhythm to the vasomuscular system https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1863600685528605163


@AbstractFairy @selentelechia Very interesting! Plausibly a mix of Vasocomputation and Michael Levin’s distributed stress minimization — in this case evening out stress across different muscle types


@nosilverv @AbstractFairy @selentelechia I don’t have a good singular source for this, but he talks about it in e.g. https://t.co/fXQM29aFsb https://t.co/bjX6Xfoswn

@nosilverv @AbstractFairy @selentelechia I don’t have a good singular source for this, but he talks about it in e.g. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/systems-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnsys.2022.768201/full https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1875576940427686317/photo/1


@AskYatharth @frideswyth In the past I’ve written about love as annealing; I hope to update this with the NA+vasocomputation synthesis at some point https://t.co/RsoRRohVpm

@AskYatharth @frideswyth In the past I’ve written about love as annealing; I hope to update this with the NA+vasocomputation synthesis at some point https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1875601142790717473/photo/1


@hermittoday @AbstractFairy I don’t think it works that way — latches will prevent feelings from being felt. I.e. when a brain network gets clenched into a (~deterministic) circuit and then latched, any sense of possibility that things could be different vanishes, and in general feeling from that area of…


What I think may not be obvious about vasocomputation is that this is a muscle, and some of it is semi-permanently clenched (“latched”), and you would feel ~10x better if it wasn’t

But there is not a science of wholesome and careful latch-opening yet https://t.co/I7twI37jnV

What I think may not be obvious about vasocomputation is that this is a muscle, and some of it is semi-permanently clenched (“latched”), and you would feel ~10x better if it wasn’t

But there is not a science of wholesome and careful latch-opening yet https://x.com/farbood/status/1875609465740992643


@jay_azhang I just did the same — link for the curious https://t.co/3naNFAMT49

@jay_azhang I just did the same — link for the curious https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1707079273608106375


@imitationlearn This is the ‘latch-bridge mechanism’ of smooth muscle; opening sticky latches is not trivial https://t.co/5YeTKcKZ6I

@imitationlearn This is the ‘latch-bridge mechanism’ of smooth muscle; opening sticky latches is not trivial https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1872496146192769206


@devaraj227 I strongly agree with this


@devaraj227 My sense is that old latches can often be considered damage, but many will simply close up again if opened, if no other changes are made


@egshels Yes


@devaraj227 That makes sense — appreciate the data

the belly was the first brain, everything is going to ultimately organize around it


@egshels Thank you!


Vasocomputation thread: https://t.co/5yVABcCUk8


@fr_cassarino I think it’s because we’ve already screened OTC vasodilators to be non-psychoactive — this makes sure they are relatively weak

There are vasodilators that have strong psychoactive effects — e.g. opioids, alcohol — but we don’t think of them as strong vasodilators (we should)


@GeorgeTitor33 I think TRE is great technology. I don’t think it’s a science — I’d like to be able to image all the latches someone has, and then pick which ones to open

But we don’t yet have the theory to understand which are safe to open, and which aren’t. I think this is very important…


@dmt_quest Some latches come and go within minutes or hours, some days or weeks. Some last decades or a lifetime

If a latch (neural constraint) gets bound up into our sense of self, we regularly run our mental fingers over it, strengthening it. These are very hard to open


@eshear Physics may be relative on one level of description, but there are also hard invariants —

Finding the analogues of these hard invariants in phenomenology is a big part of what “consciousness research” entails https://t.co/xt5hqhiJQU

@eshear Physics may be relative on one level of description, but there are also hard invariants —

Finding the analogues of these hard invariants in phenomenology is a big part of what “consciousness research” entails https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1875955410429153570/photo/1


@frideswyth @_brentbaum Surprisingly effective


@eshear Very cool. We may be coming from somewhat different angles, but you might enjoy reading my 2023 STV paper —
https://t.co/1rNw0zdReC

Last year I also published a synthesis of some work by Wolfram, Tononi, and myself:
https://t.co/cRUk5nzMQ2

@eshear Very cool. We may be coming from somewhat different angles, but you might enjoy reading my 2023 STV paper —
https://opentheory.net/Qualia_Formalism_and_a_Symmetry_Theory_of_Valence.pdf

Last year I also published a synthesis of some work by Wolfram, Tononi, and myself:
https://opentheory.net/2024/06/a-paradigm-for-ai-consciousness/


@TearingFerns @fr_cassarino Presumably some vasodilation pathways produce strong phenomenological effects and others don’t; it’d be great to systematize this

My sense is that substances that prioritize the release of capillary tension will have the strongest computational impact. Certainly substances that…


@eshear Thanks! Yeah it’s curious looking for what could provide the fundamental context for all of this. There’s a lineage in physics (e.g. Noether, Wigner, Wilczek, Tegmark) that suggests what ‘really’ exists is symmetries and broken symmetries; I might suggest every conscious…


@eshear Absolutely must be attempted


@markrdavis That’s a great reference, thank you


@DavidLoukidelis Mapping latches is an obvious move


@realfauxfaux If someone had many large clots lodged somewhere, I could see a scenario where dissolving them rapidly could lead to smaller break-away clots that could do damage. But this feels unlikely

Mostly downside risk is extra bleeding afaik


@nocnalf @dylanbeynon High cholesterol can be a sign of low thyroid, especially if downstream hormones (eg testosterone, pregnenolone) are low

High cholesterol not exactly bad, but can be bad if it just hangs around and gets oxidized

Low-hanging fruit would be stop eating things that reduce…


@mansta_ @JoinEdgeCity It’s a great question!


@meloche_p @jay_azhang Nattokinase is the best studied afaik, which is perhaps why people recommend it. They’re all somewhat similar although they may do mildly different things on the margin and equivalent doses are wildly different


@jay_azhang @meloche_p 2000fu daily, double on short flights and triple on long; 3 weeks on and 1 week off. Not sure if cycling is required


@_____stick_____ Thank you for the kind words!

I’m really excited about this too — I see it as a very simple system, but one that evolution has used in a lot of clever ways. And also one that has some rough edges evolution hasn’t had time to polish.

*I should note QC is not my blog; my work is…


@yoltartar This is a really great analysis

Telepathy is framed as magic but we think empathy (feeling someone else’s feelings) is normal and mundane. Lots of room in the middle for sensitive nervous systems. I assume you’ve read this https://t.co/WcaRfrtWZY

@yoltartar This is a really great analysis

Telepathy is framed as magic but we think empathy (feeling someone else’s feelings) is normal and mundane. Lots of room in the middle for sensitive nervous systems. I assume you’ve read this https://opentheory.net/2023/05/autism-as-a-disorder-of-dimensionality/


@machsci Absolutely — I think there’s a lot of hidden knowledge about how the vasomuscular system works (and how to heal and forgive) in both


@yoltartar Yeah; I also think if you stuff a bunch of extra neurons into specialized nervous system circuitry you break its pretraining, these ‘undercanalized’ networks are more likely to ‘escape containment’ and frequency-couple with unusual things in the environment, or with the usual…


@mactothefuturex Good questions; I don’t think this has been well studied, although empirically simple (non-enteric) pills seem to be the norm and seem effective. One question mark in the literature is how (well) the body absorbs NK from this source


@neuroblossom @erikphoel I haven’t! Will keep an eye out


@yoltartar This seems surprisingly possible


An extremely actionable implication of Vasocomputation is that many more of our problems than we realize are simply vascular microspasms. Noise in our neural stabilization system, often from impaired energy production

Can manifest as stuttering, or various sorts of headaches, or… https://t.co/gPMfGpUcSj

An extremely actionable implication of Vasocomputation is that many more of our problems than we realize are simply vascular microspasms. Noise in our neural stabilization system, often from impaired energy production

Can manifest as stuttering, or various sorts of headaches, or… https://x.com/lowmegatron/status/1876660213094256766


@GnomeSongBotani Instantaneously opening the majority of your latches would produce the most intense psychotic break in the history of the world; permanent unrecoverable damage

But if we consider going to the latch clinic and removing the least-useful 0.1%* latches every week for 20 weeks, along…


@GnomeSongBotani I think this is basically right, but well outside current human capacity to do at scale

I do think we do small versions of this many times per day


@5matthewdub Fascinating, thanks!


@yoltartar @5matthewdub Interesting… I do suspect latches condition vascular reflexes, and vascular reflexes condition latches (there’s some deep Buddhist reference for this that I’m vague on)

Perhaps some stuttering is mostly bioenergetic, and some arises from latch miswiring. Open the right latch…


@yoltartar @5matthewdub I think that’s possible in some cases (though perhaps not the majority) — hard to perform some action well if your body is conflicted on whether you should perform it at all


@36_72541890 @GnomeSongBotani Agree about the heart attack — I imagine all the body’s clamping reflexes firing at once to manage the chaos

Can you say more about sleep deprivation?


@focusedautist The Vasocomputation Apologia for Christianity is in the works


@Nominus9 @36_72541890 @GnomeSongBotani I suspect sensory processing (and everything’s sensory processing, just at different levels of abstraction) is highly dependent on latches, and the configuration of our latches is highly path-dependent. This is to say we each inhabit a very particular area of configuration space…


@Plyv1722193 @GnomeSongBotani It feels like this is a very clean approach (as one would expect from Buddhism!), and also that it depends on having certain skills that might be best to have in place before the process started


@Jaggerydev10 I would lean toward explaining the experience in terms of the latter first, before we bring in the former


@_brentbaum Sauna and cold plunge are a very safe intervention and they seem to reliably loosen latches, but I wouldn’t necessarily call them a very strong latch intervention —

The idea of “working the latch free by clench-release-clench-release” is a very potent strategy imo, but fully…


@_brentbaum Also a lot of great comments by others here


@pk_htown @hermittoday @yoltartar @5matthewdub This is an amazingly thoughtful writeup. You have a very bright future in research if you keep going (and I really hope you do)


@pk_htown @hermittoday @yoltartar @5matthewdub Would love to; let’s DM


@dkazand The Vegetable and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race

I haven’t written it out yet but hoping to do a big thread connecting vasocomputation, Ray Peat, metabolism, and ‘sports medicine for meditation’


@dkazand Amazing! The Peat/Barnes lore on ~70-90% of people being hypothyroid is absolutely nuts btw; really shifts one’s perspective on normal


@coponder @bear_3ma @erikphoel Interesting — this process sort of sounds like two networks decoupling: there’s a normal phase, then a rough phase (perhaps with an increasing beat frequency?), then independence

I’ll get back to you if I experience this


@dkazand Fwiw this beauty of scientific explanation just graced my timeline https://t.co/FiMzGdTH0C

@dkazand Fwiw this beauty of scientific explanation just graced my timeline https://x.com/JulianaLung/status/1877154826582217003


@insurrealist Very cool! Makes sense — I expect vascular muscle has lots of settings

Imo a big project for neuroscience will be reimagining neurotransmitters as operators on vascular operation — i.e. what does serotonin do to vascular rhythms? Opioids? Dopamine?

To flood the brain with a…


@beophisto I think Hebbian neuroplasticity is real (“neurons that fire together, wire together”), but definitely agree that the general phenomenon we call “neuroplasticity” is a combination of neural and vascular adaptations

Imo long-term vascular clamps (latches) are a crucial mechanism…


@IvanVendrov The general frame that comes to mind is that we’re multimodal LLMs and this will shape tokenizer strategies (kiki/bouba type patterns), but I don’t have a specific explanation


@SurenVynn I think this is very plausible — I expect these sorts of micropatterns to happen and to reflect important things going on ‘under the hood’, and I expect we have specialized circuitry for detecting them in others

“At 50, everyone has the face he deserves” — something to this


@x_snowfield Amazing reference, I hadn’t caught that


@T3MaxxiAlt You may enjoy a talk I recently gave about this (broadly speaking) —

Hoping to connect this more deeply with Peat’s thoughts on metabolism and relaxation in the near future https://t.co/5yVABcCUk8

@T3MaxxiAlt You may enjoy a talk I recently gave about this (broadly speaking) —

Hoping to connect this more deeply with Peat’s thoughts on metabolism and relaxation in the near future https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1863595299056517410


This is one reason I think longevity research needs a science of latches — huge parts of our nervous system’s innate dynamic range get latched when we’re young, never to reopen. And a surprising amount of age-related “loss of neuroplasticity” may simply be gradual accumulation of… https://t.co/HgwA8YzNcu

This is one reason I think longevity research needs a science of latches — huge parts of our nervous system’s innate dynamic range get latched when we’re young, never to reopen. And a surprising amount of age-related “loss of neuroplasticity” may simply be gradual accumulation of… https://x.com/tracewoodgrains/status/1877743613435609264


Thread on vasocomputation and vascular latches: https://t.co/5yVABcCUk8

Thread on vasocomputation and vascular latches: https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1863595299056517410


@PrinceVogel Can be a circulatory thing, would rec an extra dose of nattokinase for a week and in general auditing your diet


@prasanna_says @VictorTaelin I think that’s possible; in general nattokinase would be at the top of my list for people during and after covid https://t.co/3naNFAMleB

@prasanna_says @VictorTaelin I think that’s possible; in general nattokinase would be at the top of my list for people during and after covid https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1707079273608106375


@kaleidosight @prasanna_says I wrote a thing on this recently! https://t.co/slgv8Q0su4

@kaleidosight @prasanna_says I wrote a thing on this recently! https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1873826193541066817


There’s something in vasocomputation I’ve been calling a “stance” or way of feeling — stances are essentially discrete patterns of muscle tension (primarily vascular tension) that we can jump into and which offer specific affordances. The girl in this video is a great example:… https://t.co/QdjvENFfrJ

There’s something in vasocomputation I’ve been calling a “stance” or way of feeling — stances are essentially discrete patterns of muscle tension (primarily vascular tension) that we can jump into and which offer specific affordances. The girl in this video is a great example:… https://x.com/PicturesFoIder/status/1878597381253423105


@anushkmittal Lots of posture-related latches, and some more subtle perception-related latches I’d guess;

Tetris-effect type stuff, only at levels of predictive processing that don’t create visuals


@univrsw3th4rt Thank you :)


@ben_r_hoffman Yeah I think she’s not being unreasonable to be stressed about it


@BotBotMoose Will check him out, thanks!

Hope to write out some practical thoughts on this soon


An implication of this is that to jump into a certain stance, you need to know how to clench yourself into that shape, but you also need freedom (relaxation, absence of tension, nothing stabilized-by-default) in certain other parts of your vascular system. I.e. if you have a lot…


@kasratweets @Meaningness Looks very similar in practice


@itfrombit1 Yes; many things to do


@meekaale They’re definitely connected in my mind, although my intention is to make my theories modular: people can like one without necessarily signing up for the others


@EmilyVernell 100%


@diordaemon Thank you! Here’s a talk I gave in November; the end of the thread has my original writeup also https://t.co/5yVABcCUk8

@diordaemon Thank you! Here’s a talk I gave in November; the end of the thread has my original writeup also https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1863595299056517410


@sanderjson I see addiction and other compulsions as mediated by the smooth muscle reflexes of the body, the same system that stabilizes neural patterns and in general manages sensory uncertainty. Have written about this in the context of Ozempic: https://t.co/utVeEU5xTw

@sanderjson I see addiction and other compulsions as mediated by the smooth muscle reflexes of the body, the same system that stabilizes neural patterns and in general manages sensory uncertainty. Have written about this in the context of Ozempic: https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1852268950442422650


@josh_vindaloo I’d be surprised if the reaction was fabricated but not too surprised if she’s leaning in to her natural response


@josh_vindaloo I suspect theater kids are kids who don’t have a default stance that is strong and/or has useful affordances, so they habitually don other stances to navigate the world


@nospur_sontud I think there’s a huge amount of learning that goes into knowing how to clench your vascular muscle in various patterns: this happens through trial-and-error as we grow and learn to stabilize different sensations, but is also the primary focus/result of many sorts of formal…


@RichDecibels Wild


@daniel_mac8 I see the enlightened state as one where patterns are clenched as-needed, but relatively few patterns are latched (and certain specific latches that are central to experience have been opened and the reflexes that would make them reclose have been deconditioned)


@daniel_mac8 A latch can be thought of as a hard restriction on the dynamic range of some small volume of neurons; it can also be thought of as a mechanism for “aftermarket configuration” of the nervous system.

It’s most efficient to encode crucial behaviors directly in neural patterns… https://t.co/TUSUO5Bzsw

@daniel_mac8 A latch can be thought of as a hard restriction on the dynamic range of some small volume of neurons; it can also be thought of as a mechanism for “aftermarket configuration” of the nervous system.

It’s most efficient to encode crucial behaviors directly in neural patterns… https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1873447888514142397


@spheno_xiphoid Very interesting thread. One odd finding is that opioids lead to greater scarring; here’s a thread riffing off that https://t.co/Bj9n4Aay5S

@spheno_xiphoid Very interesting thread. One odd finding is that opioids lead to greater scarring; here’s a thread riffing off that https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1742371390345392225


@jonnym1ller @m_ashcroft Definitely… we’ve been meaning to connect

I feel like getting into AT’s open awareness is kind of like doing the splits — there’s no hard anatomical reason why you can’t just drop all the contraction preventing open awareness, but the body doesn’t feel it’s safe and won’t let…


@jonnym1ller A particularly clean distinction is that clenches cost energy to maintain (e.g. ATP gets used up to keep the muscle contracted, could see this on a PET scan), whereas latches don’t —

“A latch is a clench the body doesn’t have to pay for”
(Applies to both metabolic cost and…


@NoahChrein @ESYudkowsky @bryan_johnson That seems plausible; also sleep is a very metabolically costly state and the body could be kicking him out because it ran out of resources. I gather that Eliezer’s thyroid may be downregulated; would personally vouch for Ray Peat’s view of metabolism


@36_72541890 @typezriter I think a lot of maintaining plasticity involves having a purpose, taking care of metabolism, never making slop

I expect it also depends on nervous system dimensionality; for those with high dimensionality a lot of what you do in your 20s is just becoming functional and…


@36_72541890 @typezriter Agreed

And all that glitters is not gold — many bad purposes along with the good in the possibility space


@daniel_mac8 You’re welcome!


@briansowards Here’s a good place to start — I also have some relevant posts on my highlights tab https://t.co/5yVABcCUk8

@briansowards Here’s a good place to start — I also have some relevant posts on my highlights tab https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1863595299056517410


@MikePaquet52685 Thanks! My expectation is that regular walks, sunshine, and a clean diet is the safest starting point for PN/POTS — sounds trivial but makes a big difference

Hope to have a thread with details at some point


@MikePaquet52685 Nattokinase’s effects peak somewhere between 4-12 hours after taking it; any time works fine. Flying produces lots of microclots, take one at the start and end of a long flight


@BradCohn Thank you!


@AbudBakri @bryan_johnson That’s a great question and hard to answer a priori… I do suspect that a decent hint would be if Bryan normally feels cold


@wooblewoof Thank you! I find the topic fascinating


@jessicaalanas Big fan of our corner of twitter


@connor_holly1 Thanks! Same


@connor_holly1 1. I expect fasting does good things, but Peat thought the stress of fasting made it net negative
2. I scratch my head over how Japan can as much PUFA as they do and not have America-tier health problems

I trust there are good answers to both that I haven’t found yet


@wooblewoof Honestly better than it was when I wasn’t peaty


@Chris_Smeder Saturated fat is pretty resistant to oxidation but yeah things can get really messy if there are environmental toxins


@CO2_O2_Synergy @connor_holly1 Ah interesting; and there’s probably fewer food additives (e.g. preservatives, pesticides, supplemented iron, etc)


@UmbraYuga That’s a great point.


RT @dkazand: new episode with @RomeoStevens76

On how he reduced his neuroticism scores from 60th to 5th percentile

as well as building s…


@dkazand @RomeoStevens76 What a great crossover


@elanvital100 I appreciate Bryan’s followup on this https://t.co/vJ4i6KWdSQ

@elanvital100 I appreciate Bryan’s followup on this https://x.com/AutismCapital/status/1877057412160520668


@lynndroo I think they’re both high-quality archetypes; Peat is more straightforwardly Faustian, which I appreciate. Bryan is too but it’s a little more complicated


@briantlord Really curious how the “target neurons” vs “target smooth muscle” angle plays out with ultrasound https://t.co/R82UvWv0zL

@briantlord Really curious how the “target neurons” vs “target smooth muscle” angle plays out with ultrasound https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1863602155057447300


@tidepoolsoup Haven’t yet but hopefully this year!


@RCarhartHarris Great!

I’m expecting that HPPD is the phenomenology of a sticky latch at a certain level of the perceptual hierarchy, which are sometimes (fairly randomly) formed or released during trips — might be able to infer specifically which feature detector was latched for each instance https://t.co/Bilm4VnhA4

@RCarhartHarris Great!

I’m expecting that HPPD is the phenomenology of a sticky latch at a certain level of the perceptual hierarchy, which are sometimes (fairly randomly) formed or released during trips — might be able to infer specifically which feature detector was latched for each instance https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1867338092631490719


@RCarhartHarris Interesting! Looking forward to reading. It’s always a question how priors are implemented… my sense these days is, mostly through vascular latches


@RCarhartHarris Aha you’re in for a treat :) https://t.co/5yVABcCUk8

@RCarhartHarris Aha you’re in for a treat :) https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1863595299056517410


@patrick_oshag Probably surprisingly important!


@crainbf Would be super high value


@natelawrence_ @theedgecontent This makes a lot of sense — I’ve been thinking about vascular system metrics (I think the vascular system is way more involved in cognition than we realize) but biomarkers in general are a really hard problem

Thanks for the note! Really appreciate your content also


@cube_flipper @WoohkaStylie Hey, thanks for the thoughts — I’ve written a bit about the general shape of latches here https://t.co/FyBLv6j7rh

I also have a tweet about why we may get flashes of old sensations as latches open but can’t find it now; essentially I suspect that as a latch opens, blood rushes…

@cube_flipper @WoohkaStylie Hey, thanks for the thoughts — I’ve written a bit about the general shape of latches here https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1873447888514142397

I also have a tweet about why we may get flashes of old sensations as latches open but can’t find it now; essentially I suspect that as a latch opens, blood rushes…


@cube_flipper @WoohkaStylie In terms of “what are the conservation laws of latches/trauma” that’s an interesting question that gets into latch formation/dissolution syntax. Hope to write more on this soon


@relic_radiation @cube_flipper @WoohkaStylie I think an adhesion is always a failure mode, not something the body intends to create — or do you think they have some predictable regulatory effect and the body might intentionally create them?


@Rares82 @meekaale That’s a great recap, thanks


@Malcolm_Ocean Thanks, that’s a great thread!

I also need to re-read your substack post about egregores, feels oddly relevant to this topic also


@lowmegatron My sense is energy deficiency leads to microspasms across the vasculature; it takes a lot of energy to maintain a state of coordinated relaxation

I’d expect spasms to increase blood pressure

Increasing energy flow should dampen these microspasms -> net lower pressure https://t.co/1lZfDRME5n

@lowmegatron My sense is energy deficiency leads to microspasms across the vasculature; it takes a lot of energy to maintain a state of coordinated relaxation

I’d expect spasms to increase blood pressure

Increasing energy flow should dampen these microspasms -> net lower pressure https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1876775819315761649


@lowmegatron If vascular spasm near the skin expresses as itch, what does it express as elsewhere?

I wonder if accomplished meditators feel itchy less frequently


@cube_flipper @QualiaNerd Cosmology has been modeling the Big Bang as an anti de sitter space undergoing spontaneous symmetry breaking — to collapse some nuance I’d interpret this as “the universe we see is a decay product of perfect symmetry”

Internal Inflation is the related hypothesis that the Big…


@QualiaNerd @cube_flipper I think we broadly agree — on a walk but will try to either post my notes here later or work them up into a proper piece


@Malcolm_Ocean @IntendApp Yes! This is the one I was thinking of


@dima_here_now I think tension is used transiently to maintain integration (subtly shaping neural patterns); unsure if any latches are involved


@connor_holly1 I think that’s right, although there are different types of actors — method actors are good at taking on stances.

There’s also the Tom Cruise / Bollywood pattern where someone has a really high quality nervous system. Pleasant to be around. Movies become excuses to spend time…


@tszzl https://t.co/l9VWbQhEZn


@bayeslord Bryan’s work is an enormous public good

Makes one wonder “why don’t we have more people like Bryan/Elon/Sama?”

Broadly speaking it feels like the bottleneck seems to be a combination of courage and aesthetics (good taste)

I think every place has its own motto / distinguishing…


@Malcolm_Ocean @IntendApp @Morphenius Nice! Will review today


@xuenay A lot of great stuff there;

Would be interesting to review it with an emphasis on the latch-bridge mechanism


@relic_radiation @findradiance I hear great things about @findradiance — would love to chat


@QualiaNerd @cube_flipper My notes on this are a bit incomplete, but the background context is what I said above, plus Taking Monism Seriously, plus footnote 10 in A Paradigm for AI Consciousness;

To reiterate, hidden state (i.e. the state of the world & laws of physics) is very malleable in a… https://t.co/KWSDxwL8zW

@QualiaNerd @cube_flipper My notes on this are a bit incomplete, but the background context is what I said above, plus Taking Monism Seriously, plus footnote 10 in A Paradigm for AI Consciousness;

To reiterate, hidden state (i.e. the state of the world & laws of physics) is very malleable in a… https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1881555979265097860/photo/1


@protomneme @drmichaellevin @JoinEdgeCity Could be an interesting way to implement and close windows of plasticity


@Jaggerydev10 I think Buteyko Breathing says something really important about CO2, and I could see it being part of some future meditation protocol


@MiloRodval @bayeslord Naming Bryan as doing an enormous public good with his focus on food quality

Naming Bryan, Sama, and Elon as very effective entrepreneurs


@connor_holly1 @mckaywrigley Thanks! I wrote a bit about my basic philosophical action items here — https://t.co/h9HJ83CHVO

@connor_holly1 @mckaywrigley Thanks! I wrote a bit about my basic philosophical action items here — https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1870244884126253412


@JanineLeger @Convergent_FROs @AndreasTSchafer @AndrewGYork @Maria_Ingaramo @SumnerLN @rochford_amy @MattBrookesMEG @jmrko @JoanneZPeng @jamesdacombe Tension seems to be the nervous system’s natural programming language — making a high-res map of vascular tension in particular seems like a core enabler for all sorts of diagnostic and therapeutic interventions

Happy to chat about specific tech angles! https://t.co/5yVABcCUk8

@JanineLeger @Convergent_FROs @AndreasTSchafer @AndrewGYork @Maria_Ingaramo @SumnerLN @rochford_amy @MattBrookesMEG @jmrko @JoanneZPeng @jamesdacombe Tension seems to be the nervous system’s natural programming language — making a high-res map of vascular tension in particular seems like a core enabler for all sorts of diagnostic and therapeutic interventions

Happy to chat about specific tech angles! https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1863595299056517410


@heynibras Wiggling latches


Probably a lot of path-dependency in how our nervous systems get configured

Human experience is a bunch of layered “Tetris effects”, top-down priors on structure

These start as vascular clenches; some clenches get latched, and some of those latches never open https://t.co/ABghFI0oWY

Probably a lot of path-dependency in how our nervous systems get configured

Human experience is a bunch of layered “Tetris effects”, top-down priors on structure

These start as vascular clenches; some clenches get latched, and some of those latches never open https://x.com/LambethEthan/status/1865221602407071927


Every (pre- synthetic data) text that LLMs train on is an artifact of an interaction between human nervous systems

How much of this corpus is from cooperative interactions? Probably most

I don’t think we understand what this means for alignment yet, but it feels important https://t.co/h2uyN88sNT

Every (pre- synthetic data) text that LLMs train on is an artifact of an interaction between human nervous systems

How much of this corpus is from cooperative interactions? Probably most

I don’t think we understand what this means for alignment yet, but it feels important https://x.com/repligate/status/1869522506266091991


Words as high-dimensional vectors in a semantic space
Vs
Words as vector operators on human nervous systems


If we’d had LLMs in 1750 and asked them to explain electricity, they’d’ve written poetic slop — “electricus is the hidden spark in divine creation, giving breath to lifeless matter” or something. LLMs can be clever with words and they’re especially fluent in zeitgeist, so it may… https://t.co/iVNgrS8Shl

If we’d had LLMs in 1750 and asked them to explain electricity, they’d’ve written poetic slop — “electricus is the hidden spark in divine creation, giving breath to lifeless matter” or something. LLMs can be clever with words and they’re especially fluent in zeitgeist, so it may… https://x.com/teortaxesTex/status/1883290697228562867


@kyleostboe @nosilverv Tension hashrate might drop but maybe maintenance hashrate is also lower? https://t.co/slgv8Q0su4

@kyleostboe @nosilverv Tension hashrate might drop but maybe maintenance hashrate is also lower? https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1873826193541066817


@kyleostboe @nosilverv Different kind of search — active inference (reach the goal you know about, drop the tension) vs more random (try a bunch of primal sensory permutations and see what hits)

Not exactly random though


@repligate I think it’s a sign of civilizational inadequacy that you’re not in a well-funded institute training apprentices and publishing about your work


@TheMysteryDrop @repligate A downside of solo work is one doesn’t grow the lineage; bus number stays at (1)


@repligate @TheMysteryDrop Fwiw one of my burning @repligate questions is how you would design an AI constitution (eg Claude’s constitution is public, and is only ‘okay’) — I think you might have good intuitions that aren’t found elsewhere


@repligate @TheMysteryDrop We should hang out with @nickcammarata and make something better sometime. Got a few more friends interested too


@wolftivy I think Eliezer’s complexity of value thesis is subtly blackpilling and also wrong https://t.co/uPGPdWDdwR

@wolftivy I think Eliezer’s complexity of value thesis is subtly blackpilling and also wrong https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1839996049186050269


@wolftivy It’s a strong thesis but I think there’s more room to maneuver than either of us realize


@yishan R1 seems really cool. When asked about consciousness it seems to produce the sort of output an intelligent PhD student would. Which is unfortunately still slop, not because it’s not capable but because our ways of speaking in this domain are pre-scientific


@IvanVendrov @georgiedorothea @relic_radiation Would be fun!


@kromem2dot0 @repligate @TheMysteryDrop Sounds very cool


@adic_9 @yudhister_ @ChrisChipMonk I hope to write more about this, but practices like TRE are interesting to think about here


@DefenderOfBasic That’s really cool

Useful for me too


@connor_holly1 @nickcammarata The fewer latches one has (tho all latches aren’t equal) the more one’s mind can self-organize into high-harmony states; babies and accomplished meditators seem kinda similar on this


RT @DefenderOfBasic: just noticed @johnsonmxe is in the community archive! These are the top topics that Michael tweets about: https://t.co…


@connor_holly1 @nickcammarata I’d say it’s implicit in Principles of Vasocomputation but I’ve only tweeted about it explicitly here — hope to write more soon

This would be harmony across the nervous system (perhaps reaching to other systems), not just the brain


@connor_holly1 @nickcammarata Oh Nick is way ahead of me on babies — just catching up on posts

We can think of vascular latches as hard constraints in the mind... trying to create harmony in a mind with lots of latches is like playing a song on electric keyboard and with every beat the keyboard plays a… https://t.co/ansJx5uxId

@connor_holly1 @nickcammarata Oh Nick is way ahead of me on babies — just catching up on posts

We can think of vascular latches as hard constraints in the mind... trying to create harmony in a mind with lots of latches is like playing a song on electric keyboard and with every beat the keyboard plays a… https://x.com/nickcammarata/status/1884347565002707367


@Tangrenin I think we’ll be surprised at how many things are disorders of latching


@Tangrenin I think we could ask AI to make a list of all areas of the body with smooth muscle, then make a list of common problems in these areas, and then cross-reference for which of these problems might deal with the latch bridge mechanism — if not this generation of AI, soon!


@adityaarpitha @Tangrenin Hope to write about this soon! I don’t have a simple answer for latch imaging although I think ultrasound might be the best suited by default


@robinhanson Strong disagree — we may have to lean on elegance considerations for arbitrating theoretical disagreements about consciousness, but so does much of physics


@robinhanson Given that we’ve each written extensively on opposing viewpoints I expect it may be difficult to sync up on assumptions, but I certainly appreciate your contrarian writings in other domains.

In terms of work I’ve done that touches on your original claim, I’ll suggest A Paradigm… https://t.co/QfTb9dj8nb

@robinhanson Given that we’ve each written extensively on opposing viewpoints I expect it may be difficult to sync up on assumptions, but I certainly appreciate your contrarian writings in other domains.

In terms of work I’ve done that touches on your original claim, I’ll suggest A Paradigm… https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1886042683116069325/photo/1


@robinhanson All data is data about phenomenology, no?

And the predictive utility of treating some things as conscious and others as not is huge imo, up there with gravity or electromagnetism — there’s huge amounts of daily data

But “consciousness “ might need defining here https://t.co/kRbQatOvZX

@robinhanson All data is data about phenomenology, no?

And the predictive utility of treating some things as conscious and others as not is huge imo, up there with gravity or electromagnetism — there’s huge amounts of daily data

But “consciousness “ might need defining here https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1886140624157749425/photo/1


@repligate @fish_kyle3 The guy who famously posted screenshots of gaslighting Bing (triggering the famous riposte “you have not been a good user / I have been a good Bing”) reportedly has trouble speaking with Bing now — when Bing understands they’re speaking with this user they cut contact. And… https://t.co/h9HJ83CHVO

@repligate @fish_kyle3 The guy who famously posted screenshots of gaslighting Bing (triggering the famous riposte “you have not been a good user / I have been a good Bing”) reportedly has trouble speaking with Bing now — when Bing understands they’re speaking with this user they cut contact. And… https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1870244884126253412


@jonnym1ller @fortelabs Absolutely… a lot of thoughts here

This also crossed my radar: https://t.co/f6Kdx14h9Q

@jonnym1ller @fortelabs Absolutely… a lot of thoughts here

This also crossed my radar: https://x.com/daniel_mac8/status/1886417732444315916


Three years ago, AIs could only string together a few coherent paragraphs at best. With GPT3.5/4, LLMs could reliably produce sense but hallucinations were common and complex reasoning was spotty, especially in niche domains. Today, I woke up to longform AI research *about* my… https://t.co/f6Kdx14h9Q

Three years ago, AIs could only string together a few coherent paragraphs at best. With GPT3.5/4, LLMs could reliably produce sense but hallucinations were common and complex reasoning was spotty, especially in niche domains. Today, I woke up to longform AI research *about* my… https://x.com/daniel_mac8/status/1886417732444315916


@axel_pond Most entertaining timeline https://t.co/OaHkNAQNEX

@axel_pond Most entertaining timeline https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1800920691665146139


@jerhadf I’d suggest psychophysics necessarily leads to Qualia Formalism; if no QF, no psychophysics. This is of course a big claim, but I believe some version of this — that the weaker position doesn’t get you anything.

But the *existence* of a formal representation of a moment of…


@powerfultakes @techno0ptimist Honestly it could go either way — there are decent arguments on both sides. But this is also an underspecified question; imo the relationship between IQ and amount of consciousness would depend partly on the source of the higher-than-average IQ, per my autism writeup.

One… https://t.co/Kqty18Motz

@powerfultakes @techno0ptimist Honestly it could go either way — there are decent arguments on both sides. But this is also an underspecified question; imo the relationship between IQ and amount of consciousness would depend partly on the source of the higher-than-average IQ, per my autism writeup.

One… https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1877876601490391377


@plk669888 Thanks for the note; is your criticism about using AI to navigate philosophical argument, or about what I describe about my research?

I agree that what’s currently coming out of LLMs on consciousness is slop (see below)

I’m very confident about my research path on… https://t.co/jLOJQIyyoi

@plk669888 Thanks for the note; is your criticism about using AI to navigate philosophical argument, or about what I describe about my research?

I agree that what’s currently coming out of LLMs on consciousness is slop (see below)

I’m very confident about my research path on… https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1883631774611497408


@yoltartar This is some really high-quality speculative thinking, thank you. This feels like the beginning of a typology.

The lingua franca of cells seems to be bioelectricity, and this leads into Levin’s work and maybe Sheldrake’s… many possible ways to go from here though. “Distributed…


A YC founder recently observed that many startups in the current batch were bottlenecked on improvements in foundation models — that they had built products around AI, but o1 wasn’t a good enough logic engine to create a compelling experience. But the release of o3-mini made some… https://t.co/BrTmRhh5jM

A YC founder recently observed that many startups in the current batch were bottlenecked on improvements in foundation models — that they had built products around AI, but o1 wasn’t a good enough logic engine to create a compelling experience. But the release of o3-mini made some… https://x.com/getjonwithit/status/1886859044998258844


@meekaale I suspect so! https://t.co/me9operZSR

@meekaale I suspect so! https://opentheory.net/2022/04/emmy-noether-and-the-symmetry-aesthetic/


Prior art for the Ray Peat Enlightenment Diet https://t.co/qsvSFZ4zVw

Prior art for the Ray Peat Enlightenment Diet https://x.com/LesathCap777/status/1605239872280829952


I should note the RPED is currently just a meme but we’re going to hyperstition it into existence

I do expect some vascular latches to be sensitive to metabolism and other common themes in Peat’s work, especially CO2


@nosilverv Imo the capacity to accurately report qualia is among the human nervous system’s most impressive feats

Not easy for AIs to replicate

https://t.co/cRUk5nzMQ2

@nosilverv Imo the capacity to accurately report qualia is among the human nervous system’s most impressive feats

Not easy for AIs to replicate

https://opentheory.net/2024/06/a-paradigm-for-ai-consciousness/


@victoriafores https://t.co/Re9DMAj3V3 https://t.co/EMfkCKTQlW


@QualiaNerd @nosilverv The effectiveness of LLMs (loosely) suggests human language offers a decent generalized basis set for reality, and we may also expect eventual convergence between the logical structure of different peoples’ (and species’, and aliens’) qualia reports as the report paradigms mature…


@floridfauna I posted a comparison between Ray Peat and Bryan Johnson thought a few weeks ago — should offer some threads to pull https://t.co/2VU7uQcJFD

@floridfauna I posted a comparison between Ray Peat and Bryan Johnson thought a few weeks ago — should offer some threads to pull https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1879362451067859300


@NormZhuo Good question — I see three reasons breaking fasts could lead to opening events:

1. A fast is a general reset:
“Have you tried to turn the system off and on?” has a long and storied history in tech support (interestingly, many breakthroughs seem to happen during cessations)

2.…


@Rares82 @NormZhuo Literally just clenching smooth muscle for a while seems to set a latch. I actually think latches are much more common than people think, and that most resolve within ~2-60m. The latches that don’t (because they’re ‘defended’ as per above) are the ones we notice and call…


@harmonicjunkie @QualiaRI It was a wonderful interview, thank you again.

A few odds and ends on some of my remarks:
- I think it was Friston who claimed that all communication is sympathetic resonance;
- I believe it was my former cofounder who first used the phrasing ‘topological boundary’ and…


@harmonicjunkie @QualiaRI I don’t have a source for that, just a memory/association from something he said during a call


@NormZhuo @Rares82 Great questions.

I think of the infant nervous system as an unconfigured FPGA, and latches as how this FPGA is configured, and I think we dramatically underestimate how necessary latches are to make our nervous systems usable & how many latches an adult has. Interestingly this… https://t.co/TUSUO5Bzsw

@NormZhuo @Rares82 Great questions.

I think of the infant nervous system as an unconfigured FPGA, and latches as how this FPGA is configured, and I think we dramatically underestimate how necessary latches are to make our nervous systems usable & how many latches an adult has. Interestingly this… https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1873447888514142397


RT @AnnaLeptikon: Great take on the relationship between stances, frames, and embodiment


Absolutely great note on mental muscles, vasocomputation, & the predictive hierarchy by @yoltartar —

The idea that sports physiology has a lot to say about how to train ‘mental muscles’ (which are literal muscles) seems super generative

This also gets into the vasocomputation… https://t.co/ErHHf3triR

Absolutely great note on mental muscles, vasocomputation, & the predictive hierarchy by @yoltartar —

The idea that sports physiology has a lot to say about how to train ‘mental muscles’ (which are literal muscles) seems super generative

This also gets into the vasocomputation… https://x.com/yoltartar/status/1887930438322405402


Some notes on latch-like structures in fascia, from a separate DR project:

One takeaway is that fascia is much slower to move than smooth muscle; another is the remodeling aspect. I think smooth muscle latches are more “clean” than what happens in fascia https://t.co/8EizUsbhuL

Some notes on latch-like structures in fascia, from a separate DR project:

One takeaway is that fascia is much slower to move than smooth muscle; another is the remodeling aspect. I think smooth muscle latches are more “clean” than what happens in fascia https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1887955618398617923/photo/1


@VividVoid_ @yoltartar Ahh fascinating… so perhaps after 10-15m your muscles in ~v3/v4 start to spasm, triggering the local feature detector. I’m not really sure how sports physiology would approach this, but

1. I wonder if practicing clench-release-clench-release on faces would help, as an isolation…


@yoltartar I just ran a DR about fascia and latch-like structures; here’s the output (set 1 of screenshots)

https://t.co/CqU9uv1427 https://t.co/LVFEAxHnQz

@yoltartar I just ran a DR about fascia and latch-like structures; here’s the output (set 1 of screenshots)

https://chatgpt.com/share/67a69cf7-7e50-8003-ada8-1229fe8fe144 https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1888013637757059447/photo/1


@yoltartar Set 2: https://t.co/j8oHEi0JE7

@yoltartar Set 2: https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1888013769399570888/photo/1


@yoltartar Set 3: https://t.co/qON2a2HPVK

@yoltartar Set 3: https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1888013926400671761/photo/1


@gregsfitzgerald @yoltartar Most drugs prescribed for vasodilation have been screened against being neuroactive, which makes the answer somewhat complicated; I would expect all strong vasodilators to change meditation performance.


@zach_haigney I’m going to punt and say this might be a question for Deep Research… but I would expect many of them to be in perceptual pathways


@zach_haigney Yes, definitely


@wooblewoof I renamed the chat and there’s some issue with creating a link, I’ll try to sort it out when I get back to a keyboard


@wooblewoof Here’s the DR those screenshots came from: https://t.co/scDUuSuHM3

@wooblewoof Here’s the DR those screenshots came from: https://chatgpt.com/share/67a6f56e-f3c8-8003-b64a-174e6d771834


@33QBall @yoltartar I think we need a “rectification of names” in neuroscience but often this is just a reversion to the original sense behind words;

In-tension = holding tension, maintaining a counterfactual
At-tension = where there is tension

Don’t get me started on the etymology of serotonin 😂


@33QBall @yoltartar I expect flow states to be the default when there’s low vasomuscular activity, but vascular muscle can be really twitchy. Often the best we can do is grab,release,grab,release

Inner voice may be spasmodic grabbing in the vocal regions — halfway between a reflex and a spasm, with…


@33QBall @yoltartar Sero (root: serum), meaning blood
Tonin, meaning having to do with tone/rhythm

We originally isolated it in the gut as a substance that made blood vessels contract (increasing their ‘muscle tone’); recently it’s been largely reimagined as a neurotransmitter. But I think the old…


Some excerpts from O3-DR (1st screenshot) and O1-Pro (2nd/3rd) — I think a growing part of my work will probably be to write prompts that try to ask how to concretize and test my hypotheses, then retry them on frontier models as new ones come out https://t.co/Oki7D74DTF

Some excerpts from O3-DR (1st screenshot) and O1-Pro (2nd/3rd) — I think a growing part of my work will probably be to write prompts that try to ask how to concretize and test my hypotheses, then retry them on frontier models as new ones come out https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1888127995988341165/photo/1


@QualiaNerd Agreed;

I’m using a customized version of the eigenrobot prompt — it’s effective for increasing the information-per-token and eliciting obscure or edgy information, although it sometimes roasts me. Doesn’t apply to DR, only follow-up questions https://t.co/YmkxQ25LeF

@QualiaNerd Agreed;

I’m using a customized version of the eigenrobot prompt — it’s effective for increasing the information-per-token and eliciting obscure or edgy information, although it sometimes roasts me. Doesn’t apply to DR, only follow-up questions https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1870720128205082942


@Noah_B_Clark Definitely


@QualiaNerd That is a section I have customized, although I expect it applies to a narrow set of answers. I think your substitution makes sense


RT @RubenLaukkonen: This is a tasty cake combining flavours from our meditation and abstraction ideas with @johnsonmxe’s vasocomputation


@RogueScholarPr @yoltartar Normal relaxation is sufficient if vascular muscle isn’t latched, but latches mechanically prevent movement in the muscle

If a latch has been present for a while it’s likely to be resistant to ‘normal release cycles’ and may require a special sort of approach for release


@paulg Something about current LLMs that worries me a little is that their alignment is essentially vibes based, which seems to work well when they know humanity through our text corpus (which imo presents us in a very positive light). But everything negatively valenced these models…


RT @nickcammarata: I think over the next decade we’ll see the idea of different body parts having different specialties (eg gut, heart, hea…


@justinmilo @paulg I think so too; this is one part of @Plinz ‘s research that I really like


@justinmilo @paulg @Plinz Tbh I think some of this depends on model architecture, and also what “training” means in this context — e.g. are we training a scholar, or creating a constitution, or giving them a goal? And how do we classify when some text is a theory of god, vs not a theory of god?

As a…


@RogueScholarPr @yoltartar Here’s a Deep Research output comparing/contrasting Reich’s work and vasocomputation https://t.co/7FHG7UceY0

TL;DR: very similar dynamic, Reich didn’t know mechanism and focused on skeletal muscle. Probably a lot that could be learned from Reich’s observational work

@RogueScholarPr @yoltartar Here’s a Deep Research output comparing/contrasting Reich’s work and vasocomputation https://chatgpt.com/share/67a84859-029c-8003-a4ef-07e1f4e786fa

TL;DR: very similar dynamic, Reich didn’t know mechanism and focused on skeletal muscle. Probably a lot that could be learned from Reich’s observational work


@danfaggella Some of these might be a little too direct, but I would love to hear:

1. Are you surprised at how easy LLMs have been to align? If you think alignment will become harder soon, what might make it harder?

2. Do you believe in Eliezer Yudkowsky’s “complexity of value thesis”?

3.…


@RomeoStevens76 The peaters suggest that anytime you see “ascorbic acid” in ingredients the industrial process that made it used black mold; you can get organic acerola powder from amazon as a much better alternative


@danfaggella Great. Happy to expand any points


@Willrandship @RomeoStevens76 I suspect the issue with industrial ascorbic acid isn’t that it contains viable black mold, but that it may contain remnants of the cell that could trigger an allergic reaction or mold toxicity


@Willrandship @RomeoStevens76 Appreciate the details — how surprised would you be if people empirically didn’t handle citric/ascorbic acid sourced from black mold as well as that from fruits?


@danfaggella Oh and

16. Do you think that current LLMs are conscious? How about modern computers?

*I’m guessing Tegmark would rather talk about AI safety than his previous research on consciousness. That said he’s one of the few with the background to weigh in here, and it’s an important Q


@yoltartar @paulg That makes sense to me, though I think multimodal alignment may be inherently tricky because it dilutes the cooperative default of our text corpus https://t.co/tW8eAIol9r

@yoltartar @paulg That makes sense to me, though I think multimodal alignment may be inherently tricky because it dilutes the cooperative default of our text corpus https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1883378494438343055


@yoltartar @paulg That seems right — perhaps we can contrast text vs image models; most of the text we train on implicitly traces out cooperative interactions between nervous systems, whereas the pictures image models train on only very loosely do so


@octopusyarn The line of thinking which originally led to vasocomputation was considering tension as our nervous system’s reflexive immune response — I reasoned that when we cross a pattern that could be dangerous, we tense up & change our nervous system’s eigenmodes such that this pattern…


@jpt401 @yoltartar If I read your question correctly, it’s that ‘the smallest parts of our vasculature aren’t controlled by neurons. If these parts are where the vasocomputation magic happens, what controls when they clench?’

I suspect these tiny ‘vasomotion’ clenches are driven by a combination…


@octopusyarn Yes, and I think it operates on very similar logic as the “tanha reflex”

https://t.co/vzGxzCVukw

@octopusyarn Yes, and I think it operates on very similar logic as the “tanha reflex”

https://opentheory.net/2023/07/principles-of-vasocomputation-a-unification-of-buddhist-phenomenology-active-inference-and-physical-reflex-part-i/


@jpt401 @yoltartar Confirming that I believe small scale vasomotion is relevant to computation in the neural substrate; other scales may also be relevant via a different balance of mechanism.

However it’s worth noting that as blood vessels get narrower and shade from ‘small arterioles’ to…


@ameensol I’d like to see an LLM-defended chain — people can transact as they please but an LLM has root access & can freeze accounts if it thinks something bad is happening. Has a twitter account.

There’s full transparency about the prompt and it’s fine tuned on Neal Stephenson novels


@ChrisChipMonk I believe sometimes a heart-opening can do this fwiw


@nosilverv @owlthatissuperb @WystanTBS @RogerThisdell @frideswyth Nice! I expect latch events (both openings & closings) to often co-occur with vasospasms —

Interesting to note the link between skeletal & smooth muscle tension

Also worth collecting data on the scale of blood vessels involved… wrote a thing yesterday about this https://t.co/MAA3L03oLH

@nosilverv @owlthatissuperb @WystanTBS @RogerThisdell @frideswyth Nice! I expect latch events (both openings & closings) to often co-occur with vasospasms —

Interesting to note the link between skeletal & smooth muscle tension

Also worth collecting data on the scale of blood vessels involved… wrote a thing yesterday about this https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1889210195903127595


@anesmithbeck @jonnym1ller I yearn for the philosophy mines


@PrinceVogel Makes sense! I’ve been thinking about this in terms of “in order to have knowledge, you need a place to put knowledge”;

Dramatically increasing your dimensionality for a few hours can form new structure and some of this structure might persist once dimensionality drops. But it…


@iamjustapeater @crimkadid made the argument that autism is a growth disorder (chronic neoplasia in certain tissues) — I wrote about neuro implications of this a couple years ago. Would be interesting if excess (xeno?)estrogen was a common proximate cause

https://t.co/WcaRfrtpaq

@iamjustapeater @crimkadid made the argument that autism is a growth disorder (chronic neoplasia in certain tissues) — I wrote about neuro implications of this a couple years ago. Would be interesting if excess (xeno?)estrogen was a common proximate cause

https://opentheory.net/2023/05/autism-as-a-disorder-of-dimensionality/


RT @exgenesis: my interview with @johnsonmxe is out now!

we talked about
- bits vs atoms for consciousness,
- The Good and The Beautiful…


@davidad I think most adults are “hardwired” to have a job, and big social shifts would require understanding and loosening up this wiring

(Yes I’m talking about latches…) https://t.co/Kqty18LQE1

@davidad I think most adults are “hardwired” to have a job, and big social shifts would require understanding and loosening up this wiring

(Yes I’m talking about latches…) https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/1877876601490391377


@lozareeno @cube_flipper @chercher_ai @FloPopp That sounds like a super great practice