Living Comfortably in the Future

I know I talk a lot about the need for real life connections and face to face conversations and doing more things that put you out in the real world around other people. That’s like one of the central values I explore here. So, I’m actually doing something in the real world— next Wednesday I’m going to be hosting a Conversation salon at Nalu Kava, for those readers who are in Portland. If you’re interested in that Kava Salon, you can find out more at Nalu Kava. That’s going to be March 11th.

If you have never tried Kava before—it’s a very weird and interesting tea. It’s only available at a handful of places, there’s Nalu in NE Portland, there’s a kava house on Burnside and then there is one in deep SE. But the stuff is, I think kind of magical. It tastes . . . let’s just say it’s an acquired taste. It tastes like drinking a bitter mud puddle that makes your tongue fall asleep.

But the effect is really interesting, it makes you relaxed and chatty. Which doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a pleasant and interesting sensation. I don’t know— I keep seeing articles claiming that nobody is drinking alcohol anymore, which if that’s the case—you should go try kava, it’s like some of the more pleasant parts of a beer—the relaxation and the camaraderie but without any hangover.

It’s honestly, kinda of what I wish weed was. I like the idea of weed, like take a puff and feel mellow. Groove with the music. Cool, that’s kind of my natural bandwidth. But when I get high it’ makes me paranoid, I forget how to talk, and get locked into paralyzing thought loops, and time breaks down so 5 minutes takes approximately 3 hours.

The only time it’s worth it is if there is a really good sci fi movie or show. I got stoned and watched Dune in the theater, that was awesome. I was like “whoa those worms are really big. daaaamn.” But then afterwards I was too high to drive home and I had to hang out in the sketchy park by the Lloyd Center for hours. Plus the problem with getting high to watch great sci fi when you are high you can’t actually tell if the sci fi is any good or not. I used to smoke pot and watch doctor who on my laptop. I was pretty into it. Then one day I tried watching it without getting high and I realized ‑hold on this show actually is terrible. The weed was making it so I wasn’t noticing how cheesy it was.

In general, I do like sci fi. The problem with sci fi is it can’t keep up with the fact that we are now living in sci fi. With AI like Chatgpt and Claude, we are now in a sci fi universe. Reading or watching sci-fi feels a little silly because it’s like —we are already here! And nobody really predicted how it would actually go down.

Sci fi of the past liked to predict flying cars and lots of robots, but— a talking auto-complete that could write your emails for you or do you homework but it had no self-awareness . . . nobody foresaw that, it’s too weird and unlikely.

I recently walked into Parallel Worlds, a cute fantasy and sci fi book store over on Alberta, and bought a copy of Blindsight by Peter Watts, which many people have been mentioning as one of the best books to understand AI lately.

I have heard multiple people claim it’s one of the best sci fi books for understanding AI. It’s a fun read, spooky and thought provoking. It’s pretty bleak, kind of Grimdark if that’s your thing. It also feels like it was written by a man who maybe has some issues with women, but that’s I think a problem with sci fi in general is it often feels very male p.o.v. to the point of feeling kind of techy and incel and a bit on the spectrum. You know pages and pages of describing the specs and details of imaginary space craft technologies. Trains in space!

The thing about Blindsight is, it was written 20 years ago. And that’s the book that sci-fi fans are saying is relevant to understanding A.I. ? So while it is a smart and thrilling book, it’s not a fun read and it’s not really that insightful when it comes to modern A.I. — it’s more about A.I. as alien thought experiment.

We are living in the Sci fi future. The technology of right now has outpaced the ink pens of the sci fi writers. The present moment is weirder and more absurd and changing faster than the imagination of most authors can keep up with.

And that acceleration is going to continue. Which brings me full circle, as everything feels like it is speeding up, the best thing to do is slow down. Take time to be present. Eat meal without looking at your phone. Spend some time outside. Take up gardening, hiking, pottery. Hang out more with people. Go buy a book at a book shop. Hang around the book shop. Go to a reading. Become a regular at your local books store, coffee shop, bar, movie theater. Talk to people. Be in your body. Hell, maybe smoke a doobie. Or try some kava.

See you out there in the real world!