A story ...

 ( maybe 1.5 stories )

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"Some idiot has been messaging me to go to Singapore. Why would I do so now? Is someone paying me upfront? LOL"

"Hahahaaaaaaaa. Is it a scammer? 🤣🤣🤣"

"old friend - the type that might turn up at your home and take a nap naked, and scare your housemates type - I am a very tolerant person, but I am also capitalistic about entertainment"

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Before I discovered that my inbox had been assaulted by that last barrage of naivete, I was preparing to write down what I was thinking about during lifting today.

But now the memory is lossy. So, I will try to reconstruct it adequately.

I think, most of my life, I have been up to my eyeballs in stupid people. Even just in getting from thinking about it, to writing it down, I can get interrupted by some of the same. It's incredibly, bewilderingly, definitive of my lived experience. I wouldn't know how else to describe it to anyone.

And my sense, is that most people don't feel the same way about others. And, based on what I can tell about other people, most of them do not feel so because they do not in effect see how many people are scratching themselves while eating, fucking, and doing business with others ... just in a somewhat more sophisticated way, such as to be seen as well, adorable.

So we have strata of adorabobbles - broadly construed as virtue signalling, at different levels of society. Meanwhile, as a matter of laziness, I try to avoid most of it, while being careful enough to understand how it works.

So recently, I have been quite successful. I remember being 18 or 19 and lifting weights and thinking, I have better things to do with the limited time I have until my scholarship runs out, so I will do this later. And it was the same for studying maths. And now at 43, I have no more excuses, so I am doing both quite happily, as mundane as the activities are. I have done so many other things since, I started postponing the things I wanted to do. Now all I have is to do them, as I wait to find out when my capacity for these things evaporates with age. And then there will be choices to be made about how to die.

Perhaps. 

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"Some old friends has changed that they might not be the same person they were, and...you never know. Just saying hahahaha"

"it's true. there was another one, whom i loved. we didn't have a lot in common, but they, being an affectionate type, would occasionally accompany me in trivial settings. once after about ten years of not being in the same country, they were bored, and we fucked. and then they had work to do, and their affections were no longer communicated, and so we have become no longer friends, so so that is how children grow up, and older, into ordinary things that eventually disappear"

on the merits of denying intelligence

Thanks for the thoughtful comment, haha. Without getting too much into the weeds, I think : Each of our perspectives on what AGI / or "I" in general means is shaped by unique personal experience, a bound set for each of us. These sets may or may not be commensurable - we don't currently know if the categories or your experience, and the categories of mine are even comparable. This has political consequences, mainly related to how seriously we take each other's speech.

Some of the technological steps you mentioned however, I must say are "operational improvements" which improve cache hierarchy and introduce compression in some cases -without really changing the overall "architectural" approach employed by the currently trendy transformer gang. 

I think it remains useful to query both, other humans, and the results of what we can make machines do ... in improving not just "what we think intelligence is", but also how we can communicate what we think it is.

Misanthropy in cognitive sciences

Misanthropy ( maybe a good startup name ) in cognitive sciences.

1. Many humans celebrate the act of living. This coalesces into a treatment of the brain as a joyful machine - lovingly and wonderfully operational. So, there is this current of trying to make machines more like humans, because there is a prejudice that humans are the best template.

2. On the other hand, I think life is boring. And I'll be damned if my brain hasn't been the dumbest piece of shit machinery I've ever had the chance to work with. So my prejudices in cognitive sciences (and politics in general) tends to be about fixing all the things that human brains are bad at.

I think each camp finds the other superficially appalling :P 

Islam's nopope problem

From chat with an influence:

3. About the world's PAST AND PRESENT interaction with Islam, I think we're generally stuck at the nopope problem. Which is, ( not sure if you or someone else reiterated it lately ) that there is no central governance for Islam, so any Tom, Dick, and Chin Lee can wake up tomorrow and start doing things in the name of Islam, without any formal body for everyone to complain to or measure them against. This is pretty much the bottleneck for progress on global attitudes towards Islam, both good and bad, Islamophilic-phobic whatnot.

mukallaf

Konsep mukallaf mungkin menggagaskan suatu lokus bimbingan bagi rakan-rakan saya yang berkepercayaan bahawa tuhan menginsankan manusia.

Saya, yang berkepercayaan bahawa manusia telahpun mencipta gagasan tuhan, meminati isu ini dari segi antropologi kebudayaan.

Kini ahli falsafah, iaitu pengurus risiko, amat menumpukan perhatian terhadap keselamatan pengunaan AI, dan tahap pengiktifrafan personaliti undang-undang AI.

Islamophobia : ambiguities in Europe

I live in Malaysia ( and related socmed ) so I spend more time discussing with Muslims how Islamophobia works, than I do in European circles.

• Premise 1 : West : the individual has first, an allegiance to state, and within it some freedoms of faith. 
• Premise 2 : Islam : the individual has first, an allegiance to faith, and within it some freedoms of state.

Subsequently the shortest path to peaceful co-existence, is to make these premises EXPLICIT, in legislation. Western states should recruit citizens with *explicit* frameworks for how [ individuals coming from Premise 2, "Muslims" ] will be treated.

Correspondingly, GLOBAL-scale Islamic authorities should provide explicit frameworks for how [ Muslims ] should engage with [ states asserting Premise 1 ].

All of this sets up PUBLIC protocols for engagement, shifting from high-context ambiguity, fraught with fear, to low-context confidence, and hopes for civilisational progress on a heterogeneous Earth.

misallocation of attention

I often make the mistake, of empathising with people who get emotional about the sorts of jobs they can or cannot get. First of all, it's not my problem ... I resigned myself to nonchalance about the job market in 2001. But I suppose it is when we are discussing other things, that their pyramid of concern apparently sits on top of some foundation of being appreciated by other people, aha ... then I have to decide if I stop caring about their entire pyramid, or if I emulate concern for their employability, in order to support their pyramid. 

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Discussion:

• on whether the pay matters more than the opinions
• 1. pain is going to come from hunger, loneliness, shelter, etc. at the bottom of the pyramid
• 2. above that sits the industrial framework of employment ... so this is a means to the ends of the lower layer
• 3. because social credit is the primary means to solve hunger for the unenlightened pleb : the two things you raise are basically the same concern

reducing HOI, and mapping commerce

2001-2004 : I guess college was an amusing exercise, because the body of input data "EACH SUBJECT AND HOW IT RELATES TO EVERY OTHER", was pre-indexed, and I could just focus on "REDUCE" operations. 

2005-2026 : In contrast, my study of commerce has been more oriented about "MAP" operations, simply because I have been trying to account for the individual mental models of people I interact with, so there is the matter of constant indexing for a majority of the time. Perhaps I also began prejudiced against there being anything truly original to learn here, so I have made a point to be meticulous in collecting observations, postponing judgment of most observations till a future time.

portfolio of work

Sprint day 12 of 21. I reflect upon my portfolio. Most of my struggles in life are learning how to talk to machines **. Humans are too easy.

Figuring out how to talk to :

• - Malaysians in English : 1983-1989
• - Americans in English : 1991-1992
• - Malaysians in Chinese : 1990-1995
• - Abrahamic folks in English : 1983-1997
• -
• - STEM folks in English : 1992-2003
• - Academicians in English : 199x-2003
• - Commercial folks in English : 1997-2008
• - Foodies in English : 2008-2013
• -
• - Computers in (various) : 1994-_ **
• - Malaysians in Malay : 2024-_
• - Geopolitics folks in English : 2025-
• - Neuroanatomy folks in English : 2026-

I find the simplest way to organise my portfolio of work, is along the vector of counterparties which I want to communicate with. These counterparties are not objects of humanistic empathy, as it is not necessary to agree on a state of common empathy in order to have ( mechanistically ) meaningful conversations. Or they are tautologically objects of empathy, if empathy is broadly defined as having a model of your communication counterparty's own cognitive model.

Computing Education, and Social Participation

Made my second Github PR today. Account created 2011. Chalk it up to a poor education and laziness. It is never too late to start. You only need a browser - not even an offline code editor. I recommend they teach this in primary school.

The future of AI governance

I see friends looking for non-technical trainings "on AI" for the board, and management separately. Good initiative. 

Hope they cover the root economic ontology. The mass media narrative on the fundamental nature of AI remain cluttered. It reminds me of many other "trendy X" domains, where ( arm-wavvy )

• - 70% do not concern themselves daily with X
• - 29% identify as X hipsters but don't have STEM fundamentals
• - 0.8% have STEM fundamentals in X but have no interest in trends
• - 0.2% of the pool that remains, not all have political / commercial interest 

So ... on the buy-side for talent, you are lucky if you are 

• (a) hiring with the right job-spec ( asking the right question ),
• (b) able to find the relevant hires.

Ancient situation : the 29% want to monetise the 70%, before society can develop a guardianship structure.

• - is this solved for war? finance? pharma? healthcare? food? education? nope
• - AI? not hopeful it will ever be solved fully :)

gamification of the art of law

Why does it seem like [ the legal system ] lacks [ a pedagogical computer game ] ... which simply shows

•  - every entity and their possible states
• - the state-transitions, timeouts, and sufficient triggers
• - the logistics of triggers ( "events" ) ?

If I had a kid, I'd probably try to write a simply game for them to play about this. Probably would make for an interesting open-world MMORPG.

Cybernetic Offensives : grooming, impressionability, personal vulnerabilities, political influence, foreign intelligence, terrorism

I touched on this a quarter ago. I am expanding that note today, due to the trending news cycle on Claude Mythos' capabilities for cybersecurity. 

1. "Rhetoric is Violence", as a theoretical context. So, the virality of opinion, is the reproductive mechanism of politics. Rhetoric, by any means, is cybernetics, is governance. As a reminder, control and communication are not two things, but two names for the same thing - a self-referential example of "optics". 

Now moving beyond theory.

2. "Death by AI". There already exists good data on the influence of AI personalities upon humans, who have been led to self-harm.

3. "Recruitment to a Cause". There is also good data on how social movements throughout history recruit members, typically recruiting more easily among persons who are more impressionable.

4. "Agency of destruction, or surveillance". There is plenty of good data on how impressionable individuals are remotely recruited by organisations, to deliver remote violence, or surveillance.

5. "Exploding capability, for remote agent recruitment, towards destruction or surveillance". It is timely to note that the cost of executing wide-spread campaigns across entire populations, to discover and exploit vulnerabilities in human personality, towards the ends of foreign causes ( whether benevolent, benign, or belligerent ), continues to drop closer to zero.

Let us all advance with care. 

Related links : 

• remote meat execution / 2025-12-18
• LLOL - how an AI will view its ethical obligations / 2026-04-08

undoing authoritarianism in public governance

Why Malaysians keep ridiculing their government ( from banter on Threads, about how Badawi was heckled for suggesting growth in agriculture ).

The MAIN PROBLEM is Malaysian politicians even until PMX take an authoritarian approach to leadership. This is not efficient. They should, for all major policies :

• 1. Announce problem statement, present data, and present channels for preliminary Q&A
• 2. Period of public consultation covered in great detail in the press ( NOT closed doors, NOT absent of journalism, they should be paying for EXTRA coverage )
• 3. Iterative process showing how decisions are made
• 4. decision, accountability, execution

social life is social work

I reserve limited empathy for folks who focus their lives on consumables, family, friends, and religion. But I make a point to stay engaged with plebs as a matter of being informed, and participating in society. Sometimes the more I talk to them, the more I wonder why I bother - but, the discomfort, is the point. If they were already like me, I wouldn't have to talk to them, we would simply understand each other. Social life is social work. On we go ...

an insufferable conflict in the Gulf

The US has seven hostages on the world stage : Ukraine and the GCC.

Ukraine, the whipping boy, shields Europe from Russia. Grunts of indignation are heard, but annoyance with the US hasn't yet risen to a level resulting in its defenestration. It will take some time for the EU to bring itself to arms.

Having tired of playthings in East and South-East Asia, the US has been on a romp in West Asia for the past 35 years. The GCC are old friends, so they still have their phones, and are expecting to pay their regular installments for protection.

Back home, trouble is brewing. It would be remarkably theatrical to have regime change happen, Trump scapegoated, having been fed healthily by the GOP for a term and a half, and causation projected upon Iran's thirst for vengeance, with cabinet officials taking minor rebuffs for incompetence. The valley's puppet masters would have their chosen king, at least for a little while.

In all of this, the only party with obvious material capability to deter the US from causing more loss of human life is the GCC.

I've many friends and some family in the US, and I'm probably more culturally American than Malaysian. But in in objective terms, the moderate way forward for the world is with the GCC taking the initiative to realign the global axis of conflict, by discarding American influence, or at least tempering it down by 50-80% from the norms of the last fifty years. It's a snowball's chance in hell, of course.

What shall we see, this April? Stay tuned!

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21 hours after posting this, I'm contemplating the hilarity of Europe cosying up to Iran in an attempt to woo the latter away from Russian influence. Situationships remain unfolding.

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2026-04-01 : The FT headline says the EU has no strategy about the Iran war.

• 1. The US deleverages NATO in favour of POTATO ( Pretaliation of Trump All-in Treaty Organisation )
• 2. RU threatens the EU, but UA is the whipping boy. UA wants to join the EU/NATO, but (1.) so the charade is UA must help all US allies against all RU allies
• 3. IL and the US are now the firmest axis on the map. But USIL has now disenfranchised the GCC 
•  4. The GCC is the only party with material leverage to end regional conflict with IR. In concert with the EU, they can weaken the RUIR axis

temporary inconveniences & maleducation

We the majority, living and working outside of geopolitical professions, usually dwell on trade, civil justice, and daily life technologies, conveniently ignoring the greatest scope of force projections. The cope is understandable. Most of us barely have time to think beyond family and friends, about city and state, let alone regional and global politics.

Every few years we are reminded by a few niggling inconveniences, such as the halving of purchasing power, that a few dozen men and their few hundred lackeys work - without pause, over decades - subjecting millions to disease, famine, physical pain, and their subsequent cognitive effects.

But as soon as our inconveniences subside, say next year, or in five, we the majority will once more forget about life beyond the next Netflix'n'chill, family dinner, business deal, or rave.

Such is the state of education in this point in history. Incomprehensive.

Varieties of emotional fragility

I was talking to a friend of mine ( a self-identified bleeding heart ), about their work, in the care of other emotional wrecks. It made me think about the nature of emotional triggers, and the skew which is commonly observed. Here are some common ones. Each of these is expressed differently in women and men.

• 1. Loss of physiological security ( "does my body feel safe?" )
• 1a. Loss of verbal security ( "does my body feel safe, based on the words in my environment?" )
• 1a1. Loss of reputation ( "in a social network, will speech about me, reduce my security in any way?" )
• 1b. Loss of physical intimacy ( "do people want to touch me?" )
• 1b1. Loss of fuckability ( "do people want to have sex with me?" )
• 1b2. Loss of care ( "if I am hurt, will people work to reduce my hurt?" )

etc.

This is a good launchpad for a broader study, later.

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There is an element of culture which I find most amusing. 

Many people are getting into relationships because they are fearful of caring for themselves or being absent of care in the future. I think those of us who are not oriented about this, are in the minority. 

I suppose ... it takes a bunch of training to be ok with living and dying alone, while still maintaining the flexibility to interact with other humans for fun, only.

How to Befriend a Child in Need

How to Befriend a Child in Need : a Guide for Adults

-

I had a friend, who was concerned for the well-being of a minor, that was not under their guardianship.

-

1. Minor is not your kid, so you can't do anything authoritative about minor. Guardian has jurisdiction unless you want to call social services on them, there is a law and protocol etc. 

2. You CAN be a friend. This is complicated as you basically have to juggle the following :

• 2.1. Communicate that you "see" minor and are willing to be an available resource, whenever they want to reach out. 
• 2.2. Explicitly note, with minor, that you mutually acknowledge that minor is under their guardian's jurisdiction. So there is only so much either of you can do, if guardian orders minor to not do/do anything. 
• 2.2.1. Anticipate worst case scenarios where guardian may block access, within legal limits. Preemptively establish methods for minor to communicate in an emergency. 
• 2.3. Be aware of risk to yourself, that by creating relationship with minor you are potentially liable for grooming accusations. So all goodwill extended has to be preemptively planned, and risk managed on your side, to the limit of your ability. There is no way to guarantee that you can be deemed harmless in court. You just have to decide what you believe is right for the (lawful) welfare of the minor now, and bet on your integrity in choosing actions. You may later be required to testify about this, to defend yourself. So you may need to seek legal counsel, if you wish to fully understand where you stand, in establishing such relationships. 

3. Guardian's behaviour distasteful? That's just personal offense until someone gets terribly hurt. Basically nothing you can sue for. I don't recommend you think too much about it, but many people attach themselves frequently to such things. Unless you want technical coaching in learning to delete your own feelings, I have no further useful advice.

abstract human classes

 Malaysians are not important. Because, humans are broadly not important - we just happen to be here. Social psychology shows us, that when people think HUMANS are important, then they think their INDIVIDUAL selves to be important.  There is a bit of chicken and egg about, how one's self-perception affects one's species-perception, but we'll conveniently gloss over that, here.

I was probably about 2 or 3 (-years-old) when I learnt how to consciously negotiate social situations by testing hypotheses of causality. About 8 when I was formally introduced to hypothesis testing. About 14 when I understood that working a room was formulaic. About 20 when I realised that human consciousness can be completely mapped to quantifiable data structures.

So I think of individual people, and the species in general, with maybe 30% difference in complexity. I basically have a general concept of how people work, and for each individual I am aware of, including myself, I have maybe 20-30% more information to add to that underlying concept. 

Often I am reminded that most people do not have such a vast concept of humanity. So each individual they meet requires some 70-300% new data on top of their underlying notion of how humans behave. 

It's kinda cool to watch these things. I try not to pay too much attention to the world, but I am not yet dead so I just keep watching and taking notes.