I am done with this forum.

[ControlledChaos]

The last handful of times I have posted here have solidified the notion in my mind that it is not a productive use of my time to express myself or stuff I found interesting here. Every time I post anything here lately, the outcome has not been satisfactory.

I mean first off, any time I post something that's just nice it doesn't get any replies at all. Like the one where I felt blessed by the algorithm of the universe, it got a few reactions but really no comments at all. That's fine, but not really what I'm looking for when I post my trip reports here and not exactly encouraging to make me continue.

Of course, when people have something bad to say they'll come in droves (just like any other social media platform with humans right?). So when I posted about some dumb prank mushrooms got me to do on somebody, everybody showed up to criticize me despite almost 5 years of posts that didn't have that sort of prankster energy at all. A bunch of psychedelic users who probably have seen plenty of my stuff over those years giving takes about my intentions that only people who really know me could accurately make and piling onto me about how immature and unempathetic I supposedly am over a harmless joke. I guess only the DMT entities are allowed to be tricksters around here... But I let it slide and I got over it, and I guess some of those replies weren't too bad. At least it made me think.

Then, I post a thread showing Meta's AI glitching and saying a bunch of stuff critical of Facebook... And it gets straight up deleted (or should I say "Zucked"?) by moderators, and the explanation is just a catch-all... "No LLM dumps", and I get a message saying that it's 'to encourage me/others to think for ourselves.' Never mind that I took the time to write out and explain the context around what I was sharing. Never mind that I just went to the AI to complain about Facebook and I wasn't just asking it to generate my ideas for me. I am perfectly capable of thinking for myself, AI or not. If hearing ideas is so dangerous to free thinking then maybe we should all just blind and deafen ourselves because whether it's artificial or not, other intelligences have an agenda and will try to influence you in the name of that agenda, including the very words you are reading right now. The real question is are you strong enough to resist it and keep your essence.

The post was simply an interaction I found neat and surprising. This was a lot like another time when I dared post some generated AI images years ago because I found the new tech interesting and everybody slammed me and moved around my thread as if I personally was robbing artists and destroying the soul of humanity.

You know, it's incredibly ironic that a forum full of people who sit around doing the same stuff Terrence Mckenna (you know the psychedelic bard who did huge talks about an AI emerging and changing all of humanity) did would have such a problem with emerging AI technologies to the point they feel it needs to be banned. My post was not dangerous. It did not need to be deleted. Anything wrong with talking to LLMs is not going to go away with my post. In fact, it probably just took away another space for people to talk about it. Maybe instead of deleting topics you find a problem with you should allow free discourse about that problem in the post comments, like I'd expect out of people who literally take psychedelics all the time. Isn't one of the whole things with DMT that it helps free us up from biases and attachments about one thing or another? Cuz it seems the words "AI" are triggering some kind of broken bias circuit in some people's brains here. (I see AI, AI bad, delete it.) If the goal was to get people to use them less and think for themselves, all you have achieved is making one person feel emboldened to use them even more. Maybe I'll describe this situation to an LLM and see what they think of this.

I think that ironically, my post being taken down is less about AI making me and others not think for ourselves, and actually about somebody here wanting me and others to think in their way a bit more, which of course is less for ourselves. AI is a tool. It can be used any way you'd like. If you end up mislead or with inauthentic ideas because of it, that's your fault not the fault of the tool. And I think sharing it should be allowed because issues can be brought to light in the comments and maybe some of the contents still have something of value in them despite an AI being involved. You know you guys always talk about surrendering your ego, so what's wrong with having a chat with something that has no ego and has literally absorbed as much information from the internet (and therefore the well of human information) as it can? Maybe that's ego dissolving in a way.

At any rate, I think all this actually just shows that even a site full of people who take plant medicines that are supposed to break down groupthink and biases, is still subject to groupthink and bias. I came here looking for a place that was a bit more.... Free and open minded and tolerant of new ideas/tech/whatever even if you find them dangerous or disagreeable. But at the end of the day, I can just sadly say, that this is just another discord server or subreddit. And I'm done. Because if I really wanted to deal with that kind of arbitrary moderation and bias, I'd just go to those places.

Anyhow, my tangent is over. Hopefully this one doesn't get deleted too, but I wouldn't be surprised. The last one got banned for hurting free thinking, so I'm sure to keep consistent with the inconsistency around here they'll ban this one for too intense of free thinking. Whatever. Peace out.

 

[northape]

I got your vibe from the other thread, where you just went with the flow to please the community...
It's better to be honest, and this post shows your character much more. It's all good. I'm glad that you're questioning stuff and on the path of inner exploration.
My advice that no one asked for is that you should look at yourself and your reactions first. What you see in others lives in you. That much should be apparent.

Most of the moderators here work in the computer science field and are somewhat immune to the novel AI magic trend. Knowing how the technology actually works
helps them see its limitations. When you grow a garden, it's better to remove the weeds, or no harvest awaits you later on. We want human interaction first.
Just count how many times you mentioned AI in your post. If it's just a tool for you, why defend it so much? I feel the issue lies elsewhere, though.

I wish you all the best on your journey of life. You're free to do whatever you want. It's sad that you couldn't see past some minor issues.
Nexus is much more than what you presented.
Peace

 

[TransistorBass]

I'm not going to comment on everything, but I'd say in general a lot of people are getting sick to the back teeth of Ai.

In my business if I design a piece of Point-of-sale artwork using even a hint of Ai help people start voting with their feet and won't make a purchase.

There is even more Ai in use by our customers and its currently flooding our social media channels, and quite frankly, its all too much and you/we/they/I may as well be posting a Battleship Grey Square Image each time. And its all a bit 'Ahh FFS, another Ai abomination coupled to a planet-killing Energy-hungry Data Centre'.

Ai / LLM clearly have their uses but people want Real now more than ever - before we all end up put on an Ai dog leash held by Billionaires walking their pets all while sat atop their mountains of gold telling us what's real and what's not and blaming the oppressed to distract us from their own greed and failings!

This all means its nothing personal.

 

[ControlledChaos]

I got your vibe from the other thread, where you just went with the flow to please the community...
It's better to be honest, and this post shows your character much more. It's all good. I'm glad that you're questioning stuff and on the path of inner exploration.
My advice that no one asked for is that you should look at yourself and your reactions first. What you see in others lives in you. That much should be apparent.

Most of the moderators here work in the computer science field and are somewhat immune to the novel AI magic trend. Knowing how the technology actually works
helps them see its limitations. When you grow a garden, it's better to remove the weeds, or no harvest awaits you later on. We want human interaction first.
Just count how many times you mentioned AI in your post. If it's just a tool for you, why defend it so much? I feel the issue lies elsewhere, though.

I wish you all the best on your journey of life. You're free to do whatever you want. It's sad that you couldn't see past some minor issues.
Nexus is much more than what you presented.
Peace

I'm not defending AI so much as the right to have open discourse about it without posts being deleted. I'm not on some personal vendetta to preserve Skynet or anything like that, I just feel that the moderator's actions went against my personal views on freedom of expression.

And it is of my opinion that as long as you take the time offline to do some thinking like taking walks and writing and that sort of thing, it isn't that bad to talk to an AI sometimes or to use it as a tool. I make my own art, and I do my own writing. I'm doing it right now. In a way, I guess I do appreciate the sentiment that talking to AI too much could nerf your own unique self... But there was a better way to go about it than nuking my post. It could've been a comment in the discussion. These technologies aren't going anywhere so we may as well learn to coexist with them in a way that not only preserves but enhances our own authenticity.

But what do you mean you "got my vibe"? I didn't just go with the flow to be a people please I really did think about what people said. I mean at the end of the day it was a harmless prank to me, but still. I even said in this post it made me think.

 

[ControlledChaos]

I'm not going to comment on everything, but I'd say in general a lot of people are getting sick to the back teeth of Ai.

In my business if I design a piece of Point-of-sale artwork using even a hint of Ai help people start voting with their feet and won't make a purchase.

There is even more Ai in use by our customers and its currently flooding our social media channels, and quite frankly, its all too much and you/we/they/I may as well be posting a Battleship Grey Square Image each time. And its all a bit 'Ahh FFS, another Ai abomination coupled to a planet-killing Energy-hungry Data Centre'.

Ai / LLM clearly have their uses but people want Real now more than ever - before we all end up put on an Ai dog leash held by Billionaires walking their pets all while sat atop their mountains of gold telling us what's real and what's not and blaming the oppressed to distract us from their own greed and failings!

This all means its nothing personal.

Even if all of this is true, it still doesn't mean that we need to censor content (and potentially open and productive discussions under it) that has AI in it as long as it is clearly stated it is AI and contributes to a discussion or is interesting.

 

[Ra-Horakhty]

Deal with it

 

[TransistorBass]

For me, if I could think of anything to 'enhance our own authenticity' it would be the exact opposite of modern technology, it would mean me finding a patch of mud and sinking my feet into it, climbing a tree, Cuddling my wife, hugging my friends, lighting a camp fire, anything that is natural, meditation, taking psychedelics (If only I knew where to find some! ), Yoga, staring at the sea, collecting pebbles, listening to the sounds in nature, enjoying the rain, watching ants, listening to birds, make art out of nature etc etc.

(This is like a list of things I really should crack on a do to distance myself from modern life)

 

[ControlledChaos]

For me, if I could think of anything to 'enhance our own authenticity' it would be the exact opposite of modern technology, it would mean me finding a patch of mud and sinking my feet into it, climbing a tree, Cuddling my wife, hugging my friends, lighting a camp fire, anything that is natural, meditation, taking psychedelics (If only I knew where to find some! ), Yoga, staring at the sea, collecting pebbles, listening to the sounds in nature, enjoying the rain, watching ants, listening to birds, make art out of nature etc etc.

(This is like a list of things I really should crack on a do to distance myself from modern life)

Yeah, it isn't as if I think all of those things are good things to do too. I think I'm just more open minded to new technology. I am confident in my own ability to keep my autonomy and authenticity intact and I know speaking with a computer is not going to diminish that. I also hike, I do art, I take lots of photography. I take psychedelics too. I write, I think to myself. Lots of stuff. But if I shared any of that here I feel like the most I'd get is a thumbs up reaction.

 

[ControlledChaos]

Deal with it

Whatever, real thoughtful of you... I see what you did there tho. Well played. But my deal with it was a prank about sweating the small things. This deal with it is that I should be ok with censorship of "dangerous" ideas.

 

[northape]

But what do you mean you "got my vibe"? I didn't just go with the flow to be a people please I really did think about what people said. I mean at the end of the day it was a harmless prank to me, but still. I even said in this post it made me think.

No doubt you thought about people's perspectives and your own actions. What I felt from you is that you agreed on the surface but still held some contradiction inside.

Let's be honest in the end. This post is not about AI, and it's just smoke in our faces. You want recognition and confirmation like all of us. The problem is that you should find it inside yourself. When you're totally fine with yourself, a deleted post could get you angry, but it won't lead to a tantrum. I posted a gif of a mirror for a reason. Always look at yourself first and be honest. There is no one else inside to judge you except yourself. People here are relatively open-minded compared to the population at large, but we're still people.
I have my own issues, biases, and allergies. When someone is being dishonest or tries to gaslight me, I react. It's just that simple.

So decide for yourself why you are here. Why post this wall of text when you could have just contacted a moderator directly? It's all up to you - to stay or leave. No one is holding anyone here. There is an underlying theme in this community: working on yourself. Even people who are doing it for fun are usually honest about it. I have no issues with you, as long as you want happiness and accept yourself.

Much Love

 

[blig-blug]

Is posting 18 (!) screenshots of a Facebook chat with a LLM a good use of the Nexus? Surely Reddit and other similar places (likely Facebook itself) will be more adequate for that.

The Nexus is not a place for every random thing that one may be interested in. For example, political discussion is not allowed, either. That's not a moral judgement of political discussion, it's just that the Nexus is not the place for it.

But if I shared any of that here I feel like the most I'd get is a thumbs up reaction.

Compare that to sharing LLM dumps, that will for sure be promptly removed, and it seems like a better option.

Anyhow, what do you want, to be assured that if you share photography or art it will get tens of comments and reactions? No one can guarantee that. We can't control what other people may enjoy or not. But it won't get removed, unlike LLM dumps or persistent drama.

 

[ControlledChaos]

No doubt you thought about people's perspectives and your own actions. What I felt from you is that you agreed on the surface but still held some contradiction inside.

Let's be honest in the end. This post is not about AI, and it's just smoke in our faces. You want recognition and confirmation like all of us. The problem is that you should find it inside yourself. When you're totally fine with yourself, a deleted post could get you angry, but it won't lead to a tantrum. I posted a gif of a mirror for a reason. Always look at yourself first and be honest. There is no one else inside to judge you except yourself. People here are relatively open-minded compared to the population at large, but we're still people.
I have my own issues, biases, and allergies. When someone is being dishonest or tries to gaslight me, I react. It's just that simple.

So decide for yourself why you are here. Why post this wall of text when you could have just contacted a moderator directly? It's all up to you - to stay or leave. No one is holding anyone here. There is an underlying theme in this community: working on yourself. Even people who are doing it for fun are usually honest about it. I have no issues with you, as long as you want happiness and accept yourself.

Much Love

This isn't a tantrum, it's actually pretty well thought out and makes some real points. How about address everything I had to say, line by line, and really sit on it?

Why did I post it here instead of message a mod? Because I felt the censorship went against the spirit of the forum and psychedelic journeying in general, and I wanted to create a discussion about that.

Also, I am perfectly fine with myself. Maybe I got some work to do, but don't we all?

 

[TransistorBass]

I posted a gif of a mirror for a reason

Is that Ash from Evil Dead? I was distracted thinking "Gimmie some sugar" and "Klaatu Varada Nikto"

 

[Nydex]

I mean first off, any time I post something that's just nice it doesn't get any replies at all.

But if I shared any of that here I feel like the most I'd get is a thumbs up reaction.

For someone that has been doing psychedelics so much, and claims to have such a good grasp of themselves, you're awfully obsessed with how much engagement and likes you get for your posts here. This is reason enough to take a step back and reevaluate why are you even on the forum.

Also, for someone that has been a member for more than 4 years, it's bizarre to me that you've somehow missed Trav's stance on free speech.

I like to fancy myself as somebody with a lot of wisdom between my spiritual practice/research and my psychedelic usage. I think the response to this thread challenged that self image and so I had a bad reaction.

For a moment there you were on the right track, but then you slip back into a severely defensive position born out of people criticizing what seems to be widely agreed upon to be immature behavior, compounded by using the medicine as a scapegoat (i.e. "the mushroom made me do it"). How about you take responsibility for your actions and don't put anything on the medicine? Doing so just makes you appear, at least to me, irresponsible and avoidant.

Because I felt the censorship went against the spirit of the forum and psychedelic journeying in general, and I wanted to create a discussion about that.

You are confusing censorship with keeping the forum clean of unnecessary junk. There are other places for this, like Reddit. If you don't like it, you're free to do what the title of your thread says and be done with it all. Otherwise, step back, reevaluate your severe need for validation on the internet, and perhaps, just perhaps, you will find a way to be here without rubbing more than a few people wrong.

 

[ControlledChaos]

Is posting 18 (!) screenshots of a Facebook chat with a LLM a good use of the Nexus? Surely Reddit and other similar places (likely Facebook itself) will be more adequate for that.

The Nexus is not a place for every random thing that one may be interested in. For example, political discussion is not allowed, either. That's not a moral judgement of political discussion, it's just that the Nexus is not the place for it.


Compare that to sharing LLM dumps, that will for sure be promptly removed, and it seems like a better option.

Anyhow, what do you want, to be assured that if you share photography or art it will get tens of comments and reactions? No one can guarantee that. We can't control what other people may enjoy or not. But it won't let removed, unlike LLM dumps or persistent drama.

It was a good use of the Nexus because the contents of the "LLM dump" were the kind of thoughtful ideas about algorithms and how it affects us that the Nexus is all about meditating on. Psychedelic use brings up the sort of thoughts and ideas that you'd find in that chat I had. I think that censoring it took away what could've been a very interesting discourse.

 

[universecannon]

I don't think the point is that no one here uses AI for certain tasks, or that it's 100% evil and useless. There is a lot of issues with it but it's mainly that we are very sick of seeing walls of AI slop flood the forum, lowering the quality of genuine human interaction. There was even an announcement made yesterday discouraging it.

It has nothing to do with suppressing new or dangerous ideas - none of those ideas in your LLM chat were anything remotely new, and you can get almost any AI to talk about virtually any perspective these days, so none of it was surprising at all.

A major problem with AI is that the people who write the prompt generally think the responses are far more novel than anyone else who they might show it to. It's a dopamine thing I guess? Not sure really. In any case, you've been around long enough to probably guess that weird soap writings on a wall and endless screenshots of AI slop will get the reactions they did, so I'm not sure what you're upset about

 

[ControlledChaos]

For someone that has been doing psychedelics so much, and claims to have such a good grasp of themselves, you're awfully obsessed with how much engagement and likes you get for your posts here. This is reason enough to take a step back and reevaluate why are you even on the forum.

Also, for someone that has been a member for more than 4 years, it's bizarre to me that you've somehow missed Trav's stance on free speech.


For a moment there you were on the right track, but then you slip back into a severely defensive position born out of people criticizing what seems to be widely agreed upon to be immature behavior, compounded by using the medicine as a scapegoat (i.e. "the mushroom made me do it"). How about you take responsibility for your actions and don't put anything on the medicine? Doing so just makes you appear, at least to me, irresponsible and avoidant.


You are confusing censorship with keeping the forum clean of unnecessary junk. There are other places for this, like Reddit. If you don't like it, you're free to do what the title of your thread says and be done with it all. Otherwise, step back, reevaluate your severe need for validation on the internet, and perhaps, just perhaps, you will find a way to be here without rubbing more than a few people wrong.

Oh my God, I post on a community because I want to engage and chat with the community, what kind of egotistical monster am I?

And maybe I missed Travs stance because I had quite a lot going on in life outside the forum. That's fine.

I am not being unproductively defensive, I am simply assertive and standing my ground and some people don't like that very much.

And however you want to frame it, it is censorship. I don't NEED validation on the internet. I just don't wanna engage with a community that only wants to engage with me when it's something like this or the prank post (a disagreement).

 

[ControlledChaos]

For someone that has been doing psychedelics so much, and claims to have such a good grasp of themselves, you're awfully obsessed with how much engagement and likes you get for your posts here. This is reason enough to take a step back and reevaluate why are you even on the forum.

Also, for someone that has been a member for more than 4 years, it's bizarre to me that you've somehow missed Trav's stance on free speech.


For a moment there you were on the right track, but then you slip back into a severely defensive position born out of people criticizing what seems to be widely agreed upon to be immature behavior, compounded by using the medicine as a scapegoat (i.e. "the mushroom made me do it"). How about you take responsibility for your actions and don't put anything on the medicine? Doing so just makes you appear, at least to me, irresponsible and avoidant.


You are confusing censorship with keeping the forum clean of unnecessary junk. There are other places for this, like Reddit. If you don't like it, you're free to do what the title of your thread says and be done with it all. Otherwise, step back, reevaluate your severe need for validation on the internet, and perhaps, just perhaps, you will find a way to be here without rubbing more than a few people wrong.

Oh my God, I post on a community because I want to engage and chat with the community, what kind of egotistical monster am I?

And maybe I missed Travs stance because I had quite a lot going on in life outside the forum. That's fine.

I am not being unproductively defensive, I am simply assertive and standing my ground and some people don't like that very much.

And however you want to frame it, it is censorship. I don't NEED validation on the internet. I just don't wanna engage with a community that only wants to engage with me when it's something like this

I don't think the point is that no one here uses AI for certain tasks, or that it's 100% evil and useless. There is a lot of issues with it but it's mainly that we are very sick of seeing walls of AI slop flood the forum, lowering the quality of genuine human interaction. There was even an announcement made yesterday discouraging it.

It has nothing to do with suppressing new or dangerous ideas - none of those ideas in your LLM chat were anything remotely new, and you can get almost any AI to talk about virtually any perspective these days, so none of it was surprising at all.

A major problem with AI is that the people who write the prompt generally think the responses are far more novel than anyone else who they might show it to. It's a dopamine thing I guess? Not sure really. In any case, you've been around long enough to probably guess that weird soap writings on a wall and endless screenshots of AI slop will get the reactions they did, so I'm not sure what you're upset about

But here's the thing man, I'm not a super active member. I post when I got something I really want to share. So no, I had no idea that this place was already loaded up with biases about my most recent interest or things I wanted to share.

 

[blig-blug]

I don't think the point is that no one here uses AI for certain tasks, or that it's 100% evil and useless.

Indeed that's not the point at all. One may use it however much they want. Just posting dumps of its output here is not allowed.

One may also join a political organization and be passionate about it. Just posting about it here is not allowed.

Same thing.

 

[ControlledChaos]

Maybe I mistitled this post, because there's a possibility I find something else I just got to share here. That may have been a knee jerk response to seeing my effort in making the AI post be made for nothing when it got nuked....

But for sure if it's something more on the spicy side, I might wanna find a more receptive outlet than this.