BlogmyQuery – BMQ

Tthink about the great relics of human civilization—the pyramids, the magnificent castles of Europe, the Great Wall of China, meticulously detailed sculptures from different eras, the awe-inspiring churches and temples that dot almost every landscape we’ve ever inhabited…

All made of stone. All hundreds of years old. All crafted with the intention of permanence and standing the test of time.

For most of human history, this has been our MO. Kings built temples and tombs because they wanted their legacies to live on forever. Religious structures were built to signal strength, sanctuary, and an everlasting permanence—divine qualities.

Once upon a time, we just got this. It didn’t require conscious thought or consideration; it’s just who we were and what we did.

But thanks to the technological revolution, that ancient paradigm is shifting. We are actively moving—or perhaps have already moved—from a mindset of permanence to one of almost complete impermanence.

This is rapidly changing everything about our world, from externalities like the structures we build to more internal matters like how we behave and what we value.

Watch this video and see why humanity is shifting from permanence to impermanence.

In that video, I posited that the only reason you would ever really operate with a mindset of impermanence is if you knew you were never going back home.

This is life’s reset button.

But while individuals may invoke an impermanence mindset from time to time, entire civilizations never do this unless faced with the immediate threat of extinction.

And yet here we are, in the midst of this great technological revolution and without any fear of immediate extinction, all operating in increasingly impermanent ways.

When I first produced the video above, I struggled to make sense of this great shift. How could we abandon our ancient ideals so quickly, so completely, in favor of this new paradigm?

But after revisiting the Joe Rogan podcast with Elon Musk—specifically, the segments on AI—I think I understand what’s going on here.

We are becoming something else.

The next step in evolution is not some linear, organic, and biological addition to the human body.

To illustrate this point, consider the human brain. You can literally trace human evolution through the layers of the brain; in fact, the central—and oldest—portion of our brains is the amygdala, which we share with reptiles.

300 million years ago, we were reptiles. But the addition of the cortex and other components is what changed us into mammals and, ultimately, primates.

Because of this, you could argue that the primary driver of evolution is the brain and how it functions.

And that brings us to today: We have reached a point of technological innovation that makes artificial intelligence (AI) a reality. AI is an incredibly accurate, incredibly fast extension of the human brain.

Among other things, this affords us the opportunity to offload basic cognitive functions so we can focus on higher-level functions like synthesis and crystallization.

Because of this, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the next step in evolution is a synthesis of technology with biology.

We are literally going to strap on an AI-driven super cortex that will elevate our cognitive function in an exponential way.

And in the same way that a lizard brain plus a cortex equals a mammal…

A mammalian brain plus a super cortex equals…something completely different from the homo sapiens of today.

On some level, whether conscious or subconscious, we know this is the path we’re on.

And as a result, we know we are never going back home.

Hence the shift toward impermanence as we prepare for a journey that quite literally transcends our species.

One of the more compelling insights to come from the Joe Rogan interview with Elon Musk is this idea that humanity is actively creating “giant cybernetic collectives.”

Through our participation in social media platforms and on the internet in general, we are assimilating knowledge and building connections at a rate that vastly exceeds everything that has ever happened in human history.

But there’s an ominous underbelly to all this novel construction.

We grow these giant cybernetic collectives by feeding them information, and this is creating massive, centralized cyborgs—vast networks of people, technology, and content. Examples of these centralized cyborgs include:

• Google
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter

Because we feed and access these cyborgs directly, they have grown to become destinations rather than simply serving as highways of information. As such, these cyborgs now enjoy incredible leverage and power over their participatory nodes—you and me!

In other words, they have become centralized platforms we must visit in order to produce and consume whatever information is relevant to a particular platform.

They own the means of production and distribution. They effectively own all the content. They decide what happens—who’s in, who’s out, what you can see, what you can do, you name it. They are in charge.

If you play this timeline out 10, 20, even 50 years into the future, the situation just looks more and more bleak for endpoint nodes (again, that’s us!).

The centralized borgs grow bigger and more powerful—thanks to our input, no less—while our freedom and influence decline relative to them.

It doesn’t take genius-level insight to see this road is leading us to a dubious destination. And it makes one wonder: Is there something we can do to change this course?

I’ll be honest—it looks as though we are on this inexorable path of building these giant cybernetic collectives.

But before they swallow us whole, we can at least entertain the idea of decentralization and what it looks like if we are responsible for our own means of production.

Watch this video and discover the key difference between centralization and decentralization.

The Joe Rogan podcast with Elon Musk was one of the most important events of 2018, and no—I’m not being hyperbolic.

If you thought this interview was all about Elon hitting a spliff, you…may have been misled slightly.

In reality, Elon helps us peek behind the curtain to get a glimpse of the future:

• Can we dig underground tunnels to alleviate traffic?
• What does your brain look like on artificial intelligence?
• Can you control AI with your thoughts?
• Can you live forever with AI?
• Can social media and happiness co-exist?
• Are we living in a simulation?
• Flying cars? Electric planes? Cars with robot eyes?

Invigorating topics, but here’s the thing—Elon often speaks in a guarded, almost cryptic manner, and Joe doesn’t really know enough about these topics to press him for critical details.

This is precisely why I produced a supplemental, 13-part video series on the Joe Rogan interview with Elon Musk.

So many of the topics they touch on require massive illumination, and there’s so much additional value to uncover here. Fortunately, that’s where I come in!

I’ve included all the segments below, but I’ve highlighted the really good ones in yellow. If you want to maximize your time, start with those videos and then branch out to any others that interest you.

Segment 1: A Boring Intro — Flamethrowers, tunnels, and what’s really happening inside the mind of a genius?

Segment 2, Part 1: AI and Giant Cybernetic Collectives — Is AI going to kill us all? Are we already cyborgs? If we can solve the bandwidth problem, will we merge with AI and become something else?

Segment 2, Part 2: Neurolink — How do we “talk” to AI? How will AI shape the future of human evolution? What’s the near-term future for AI?

Segment 3: Social Media and Happiness — “Happiness is reality minus expectations.”

Segment 4: The Simulation — Are we living in a simulation? Is our creation of Giant Cybernetic Collectives a response to universal entropy? If your sense of “where you are” is simply a product of your perceptions, then what is reality?

Segment 5: Teslas and Easter Eggs — Elon talking about Teslas is the best possible advertisement for Teslas.

Segment 6: Tunnels, a 3D Solution to a 2D Problem — Why don’t we have flying cars? Why bother when you can have mag-lev in a vacuum tunnel?

Segment 7: Just Plane Sad about Carbon — Elon has designed an electric airplane, but he says electric cars, solar energy, and batteries are “more important” right now. And how does he feel about carbon and climate change?

Segment 8: The Tesla Subsidy — Elon falls flat in his defense of the economic subsidy Tesla has leveraged to accelerate sales and gain market share.

Segment 9: Teslas, AI, and Robot Eyes — Auto-pilot and traction control are examples of AI already built into production Teslas. The incredibly quick response time of electric motors makes this possible.

Segment 10: Topical Soup — Lawsuits, the 1% dominating the 99%, Elon wishes politicians were better at science, Tesla is making solar panels, and is Elon gonna take on air conditioning?

Segment 11: Spark of Genius — Elon hits a spliff, but did he inhale? A weird anecdote about dead horses in Manhattan suggests he got his mind right. Joe brings the cringe with more “you’re a special genius snowflake” talk, but this leads to an interesting consideration: What is the nature of genius? Elon calls it a “never-ending explosion.”

Segment 12: Are We There Yet? — Elon offers up his vision of an exciting future.

Watch my video on how I’m changing my approach with Thesis to include a lot more Focus.

When I launched Thesis 2 in October of 2012, my goal was to create something that could serve as the foundation for any WordPress design.

That’s why I spent the next 2 years working on Skins, which are simply different designs that run on top of Thesis.

And lemme tell ya—Thesis Skins are just awesome:

• They’re incredibly efficient;
• They share functionality that makes them easy to learn and use; and
• They provide users with lots of non-destructive customization options.

There’s just one little problem, though—almost nobody uses them the right way.

Too many Skins…

The issue with Thesis Skins is the same issue that plagues WordPress Themes—there are too damn many of ’em!

Over the last 6 years, DIYthemes has released 6 official Skins and also maintained two others that have never seen the light of day.

Because of this, I’ve mostly had to spend my time on routine maintenance and compatibility updates instead of “going deep” into any one Skin and creating something truly remarkable.

I had always thought I wanted to lead a burgeoning Thesis ecosystem that would be flush with Skins, Boxes, and anything else you might need to crush it online.

It took me 6 years to realize the end result of that approach would simply turn Thesis into WordPress-lite.

It also took me 6 years to realize I simply don’t have any passion for a quantitative approach to product development.

I only want to Focus on quality!

For the last 8 years, every bit of my work besides Thesis has been qualitative in nature.

The Golden Ratio Typography Calculator, for example, is all about perfect typesetting in any environment (digital or print!). It is a highly focused project with infinite applicability. Quality.

But because of the nature of Skins, my work with Thesis has morphed into this quantitative drudgery that feels a lot more like running a marathon than exploring the wonders of the universe.

No more.

From now on, I’m only going to Focus on the remarkable leverage I can provide for your website.

Watch my video about the incremental approach—the cheapest, smartest, and easiest way to build a website (and a business!)

One thing that’s always annoyed me about contract web design and development is this idea that you can actually pay for a finished product to be delivered within a particular time frame.

Nothing actually works this way. Fact is, there is no “I built this thing and now it’s done” scenario with a website (and especially a business site).

Real progress is incremental. For any significant project, there is no quantum leap from zero to done.

Failure to understand this is the number one source of frustration and angst for people trying to build business websites.

Here’s the deal:

Unlike other big projects such as houses, which are pretty much immutable once constructed, websites are dynamic, adaptable things. Hell, that’s what makes them so appealing and useful!

But people simply aren’t accustomed to thinking in these terms. We tend to think in terms of “done” or “not done,” as opposed to a specific point on some evolutionary arc.

This evolutionary quality is precisely why people struggle to work with developers and designers. Especially with business websites, there’s no point where you can really say, “Ok, we’re done here.”

The implications are huge. The natural evolution of websites means:

• Everything must be viewed through a long term lens because adjustments will be necessary over time.
• Therefore, it makes no sense to hire someone for a set fee to build a website. You’ll expect a finished product, and there’s no such thing!
• Stop trying to “finish” your site. There is no “finished” state—you’re either in a state of continuous adaptation or apathetic abandonment.

Bottom line: When building a business website, you can only do what you can do right now.

Because of this, it’s vitally important to understand the process and only commit to what you can achieve with the resources you have right now.

I’ll leave you with a quote from my video on the incremental approach:

You can’t cheat the process. You can’t go from zero to hero unless you’ve got massive resources. You can’t do it. And even if you do it then, I’d say it’s stupid to do it…

The knowledge, and the experience, and the context, and all the information that comes along with taking an incremental process to your goal is critical to actually achieving that goal in the end.