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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 10, 2025

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wallfacers

This is the absolute pinnacle concept of that series. I’m not exactly an AI skeptic, I truly think it will revolutionize the entire world in my lifetime.

But rationalists constantly underestimate the power and grace of intuition in service of subversion. Humans absolutely excel at it, and I can’t envisage a world where they are overtaken by machines in this particular task. It’s too messy, too inexact, too chaotic.

Under constant total surveillance and crushing power imbalances, prisoners develop their own occult economy, rituals, alliances, symbology, etc etc etc. the prison which is not in fact run by the prisoners is the unstable exception only bought by extreme and unwavering competence & creativity, not the rule.

People regularly deceive themselves in a richly woven pattern that only they themselves can unlock.

Deceiving a rationalistic / probabilistic super intelligence?

Child’s play. GG EZ.

I mean, even in the book almost every Wallfacer fails. Not just that, but most of the Wallfacers' plans are unraveled by their opposite "wallbreaker."

The one plan that worked out was due to the guy acting incredibly erratically for like a couple decades (because he had no intention of actually doing anything) then getting blackmailed into actually trying to succeed at his task, then managing to obtain an insight that would allow him to win but was also achievable without making any moves that would make his plan obvious. AND THEN, he was only able to beat the trisolarans because he was suicidally committed to said plan when the moment came.

Oh, and he almost got killed by the Trisolarans several times but happened to have a supremely competent and aware bodyguard around at the right time.