I consider myself a perpetual student of risk, and I really enjoyed this Ranjit. The snippet from David Whyte "we are meant to hazard ourselves for the right thing" definitely caught my attention, so I was gratified to see you weave back in at the end of your piece. The etymology of "project" "subject" etc being rooted in throwing is very intriguing, that we are cognitively throwing, perhaps throwing our imaginations against the wall of reality to see what sticks? Our speculative nature has taken us from bone-tipped spears, now to AI. I'm all for trying new things, but honestly, I really wonder these days if some of the forms of speculating we are doing as a species is going to devolve our condition instead of evolve it. Time will tell.
Hey rick - yes, that sense of throwing our imaginations against reality is something I've been thinking about a lot recently! I've got these slightly underdeveloped thoughts about this being what reasoning is - a sort of educated guess, where the more educated you are (i.e. the accurate your imaginative model of reality), the more likely the guess / throw will land in the vicinity of 'correctness'.
Who knows what's round the corner. It is crazy though - just how many things seem to happening right now. Moving to a multipolar world, AI, energy leaps, insane network effects. Feels like humanity is a fizzed up bottle of pop right now!
Amazing to see how your essay evolved Ranjit! I'm a big fan of the new meta introduction haha and you did a great job weaving these different ideas together. I love the risk taking and hope you share more drafts (and final essays) in the future!
Happy to have helped a tiny bit, Ranjit! Love this perspective of the creator as risk taker/speculator. It feels true and feels like a great motivational drive to take bold steps!
I consider myself a perpetual student of risk, and I really enjoyed this Ranjit. The snippet from David Whyte "we are meant to hazard ourselves for the right thing" definitely caught my attention, so I was gratified to see you weave back in at the end of your piece. The etymology of "project" "subject" etc being rooted in throwing is very intriguing, that we are cognitively throwing, perhaps throwing our imaginations against the wall of reality to see what sticks? Our speculative nature has taken us from bone-tipped spears, now to AI. I'm all for trying new things, but honestly, I really wonder these days if some of the forms of speculating we are doing as a species is going to devolve our condition instead of evolve it. Time will tell.
Hey rick - yes, that sense of throwing our imaginations against reality is something I've been thinking about a lot recently! I've got these slightly underdeveloped thoughts about this being what reasoning is - a sort of educated guess, where the more educated you are (i.e. the accurate your imaginative model of reality), the more likely the guess / throw will land in the vicinity of 'correctness'.
Who knows what's round the corner. It is crazy though - just how many things seem to happening right now. Moving to a multipolar world, AI, energy leaps, insane network effects. Feels like humanity is a fizzed up bottle of pop right now!
Yes, I'm just grateful that there's still the potential for human connection in the midst of it all.
Amazing to see how your essay evolved Ranjit! I'm a big fan of the new meta introduction haha and you did a great job weaving these different ideas together. I love the risk taking and hope you share more drafts (and final essays) in the future!
Happy to have helped a tiny bit, Ranjit! Love this perspective of the creator as risk taker/speculator. It feels true and feels like a great motivational drive to take bold steps!
Ha cheers man - appreciate the kind words! I saw one of your shorts on YouTube the other day - really really liked the knowledge injection!