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Nathan Peck

@nathanpeck.com

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Technologist in Software, AI, and Infrastructure Orchestration

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Nathan Peck @nathanpeck.com · Aug 25

I spent some time writing another essay in my ongoing series about humanity, consciousness, and AI.

I explore some of my recent thoughts about collapse and the future. I'm also experimenting with a new format designed to "prove" the human provenance of writing: nathanpeck.com/it-wont-happ...

It won't happen to me, and other lies we tell ourselves

“Ten decisions shape your life, you’ll be aware of five, about.” It’s a lyric from The Strokes. It’s also a surprisingly deep description of the relationship between choice, circumstance, and luck.

nathanpeck.com

Nathan Peck @nathanpeck.com · 2d

I'm thinking about this image. Each generation reduced the distance their kids could roam, despite experiencing broader freedom themselves (or perhaps because of it).

Did the parents remember close calls or scary circumstances that they wanted to protect their kids from?

A satellite map centered on Sheffield, England, showing how the distance children were allowed to travel alone has decreased over generations. In 1919, great-grandfather George (age 8) could walk six miles to go fishing. In 1950, grandfather Jack (age 8) could walk about one mile to the woods. In 1979, mother Vicky (age 8) could walk half a mile to the swimming pool. In the present day, son Ed (age 8) is only allowed to walk 300 yards to the end of his street.

Nathan Peck @nathanpeck.com · 3d

"It is estimated that more than one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness (59.3 million in 2022; 23.1% of the U.S. adult population)." (www.nimh.nih.gov/health/stati...)

The mental health epidemic in the US started long before ChatGPT. Glad to see OpenAI trying hard to not make it worse.

Nathan Peck @nathanpeck.com · 3d

Maybe AI translations help shift that as well, for example the massive rise in Cebuano Wikipedia thanks to AI translation bots.

But the real shift we'd need to see is broader world usage of alternative services like Baidu Baike, or KakaoTalk, etc. TikTok shows that will be an uphill battle though.

Nathan Peck @nathanpeck.com · 3d

I think the dominance of English as the "language of the internet" helps maintain that English standard as well.

The question is whether the next 30 years would also see a transition away from English as the dominant language of the internet. That's a bit harder to imagine

Reposted by Nathan Peck

JA Westenberg @joanwestenberg.com · 3d

The smarter you are, the longer you can postpone being wrong.

Every hour of research delays the moment you have to face the fact that the map and the territory will never match.

www.joanwestenberg.com/p/the-map-i...

The Map Is Not the Territory (and It’s Definitely Not Progress)

How Smart People Stay Stuck

www.joanwestenberg.com

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Nathan Peck @nathanpeck.com · 3d

Sounds about what I’d have expected. The stats for mental health issues, depression, and suicidality are absolutely horrifying.

ChatGPT is surfacing a view into a massive ongoing mental health crisis worldwide. About time they tried to direct these people to help

Reposted by Nathan Peck

Dare Obasanjo @carnage4life.bsky.social · 4d

Zohran Mamdani is so scary because he is planting the idea that you can tax billionaires and use the money to help people instead of debating what services to cut to pay for tax cuts. Which is literally why the US government is currently shut down.

He is destroying decades of political messaging.

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