Hi, I'm Chase. I run Grove, the fellowship for early-stage startup founders at Leaders in Tech. I also angel invest with Joe and Rachel at Very Serious Ventures.
In a past life I cofounded Watsi, the first nonprofit funded by YC (W13), and Meso, a startup that built open source software for national health systems.
I'm into surfing, snowboarding, mountain biking, Daoism, and decentralization. I live in Capitola, California with my wife and son and occasionally write nonsense at chaseadam.com
we're at the stage of the cycle where we know things are wrong but we don't care enough to do anything about them. unfortunately, it might not be until we live through the consequences that we can muster the energy to care enough again.
This article would be more convincing if it focused on debunking the conspiracy instead of spending all but one hand wavy paragraph presenting a new conspiracy.
The single debunking claim says there are 700k "US top secret-cleared aerospace and nuclear workforce" so normal mortality rates should be higher.
Were these people all part of the normal workforce or a smaller category? Are those death rates total deaths or deaths under suspicious circumstances?
Anecdotally, Amy Eskridge went on a podcast and texted friends saying she was at risk and had no intention of killing herself before supposedly killing herself. Will McCasland and others disappeared under strange circumstances and Will was clearly not just part of a 700k person workforce, he was a general who directed a largely classified $4B annual research budget.
I'm not saying there is a broad conspiracy here but it's worth exploring. I miss real journalism. What a waste of an opportunity to write a good story.
A lot of nonprofits could benefit from someone helping them implement AI and most are 1) competent enough to ensure the fellow hands off their projects before they leave, and 2) to decide if it’s worth continuing to pay for Claude or not.
It’s great the fellows are paid so they are at least somewhat accountable vs volunteers who are often unreliable.
All that said, I bet 80% of what these fellows end up doing is automating fundraising emails…
Haha yeah, we're in "who knows" territory. It could just be a foundational truth that all life has an innate unconscious will to survive.
However, it makes more sense to me that consciousness precedes the will to survive. And that doesn't mean the way a microbe experiences life is the same as us. E.g. the fact that we have so much control over our environment might mean we have a much more sensitive and reactive way of engaging with consciousness, whereas maybe a microbe is like an enlightened monk, just chillin because it can't do much about what it experiences anyways.
I'd argue we don't even know what "intelligence" or "self-awareness" mean.
Humans are conscious which means we experience things, then we develop preferences for certain experiences, then we develop skills for achieving those preferences.
Without consciousness, what is there to be aware of? And why would intelligence emerge and/or what end would it serve?
My guess is that you need consciousness in order to develop preferences for certain experiences, then that pushes us to develop skills to achieve those preferences. AI has something that looks like intelligence but not consciousness or agency.
Great point. I was originally in favor of the fax barrage because I've also been frustrated navigating bureaucracy but you made me reconsider.
These types of problems usually persist because it's hard to know who is responsible. It's not just the customer support person or the president/governor - I assume the invisible senior leaders in-between hold a lot of power.
I'd happily support an investigative journalist who exposed exactly why these problems exist and which individual humans are responsible.
I’m a fan of DAFs and agree they are underutilized. Getting ppl to donate stock might be hard but I’ll chat with Mackinnon, Watsi’s ED, about it and let you know if we have any questions. Appreciate the offer to help share research!
In a past life I cofounded Watsi, the first nonprofit funded by YC (W13), and Meso, a startup that built open source software for national health systems.
I'm into surfing, snowboarding, mountain biking, Daoism, and decentralization. I live in Capitola, California with my wife and son and occasionally write nonsense at chaseadam.com