Overview of articles to date

Vectors of Mind has been around for two years now, and there’s quite a bit of content that builds on itself. Enjoy this 90 minute monologue where I describe each article chronologically, and give some meta-level commentary.

Show notes

1. The Big Five are Word Vectors

• Origin: Dissertation in electrical engineering on psychometrics and machine learning

• Used Facebook's My Personality Dataset with millions of users' personality tests and Facebook statuses

• Explored transfer learning to predict traits like IQ from limited data

• Dataset closed due to Cambridge Analytica connection

• Shifted focus to fundamental questions about language and personality constructs

• Discovered mathematical equivalence between Big Five derivation and word vectors from the 1930s

2. In the Beginning was the Word

• Argues for comparing psychological constructs in word space rather than psychometric space

• Proposes studying personality directly in linguistic space without creating new scales

• Example: Comparing altruism and openness to experience using word vectors

• Critiques traditional method of creating separate scales and correlating them

• Suggests possibility of doing personality science directly in word space without surveys

3. Guess the Factor

• Exercise in naming and interpreting factors derived from lexical studies

• Reflects on the process of identifying personality factors from data

• Compares to original Big Five researchers' process of naming factors

• Mentions people in comments did well at guessing factors

4. Primary Factor of Personality (part 1)

• Discusses the first unrotated factor in personality models

• Connects to evolutionary psychology and theory of mind

• Argues this factor is about considering others and modeling their desires

• Relates to the concept of living the golden rule

• Introduces idea of factor as map of societal pressure

5. Consequences of Conscience

• Explores how reciprocal altruism might have produced "voices of the gods"

• Introduces Julian Jaynes' ideas on bicameral mind

• Speculates on proto-language of superego before full language

• Connects to the concept of conscience evolving over time

6. The Eve Theory of Consciousness

• Proposes "I am" as the first recursive thought

• Suggests women were vanguard of consciousness development due to evolutionary roles

• Connects to Genesis and other creation myths

• Discusses potential timeline for development of self-awareness

• Explores role of psychedelics in precipitating self-awareness

7. The Snake Cult of Consciousness

• Explores snake symbolism in creation myths worldwide

• Hypothesizes snake venom as an entheogen in early consciousness rituals

• Discusses pharmacological properties of snake venom and potential psychoactive effects

• Connects snake myths to development of agriculture

• Mentions reception on Reddit and by Scott Alexander

8. Comments on Snake Venom

• Provides more evidence for people getting high on snake venom

• Discusses known effective antivenoms

9. The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Pronouns

• Investigates pronoun similarities across languages

• Argues for recent spread of self-awareness concepts

• Critiques theories proposing very ancient origins for pronouns

• Discusses work by linguist Merritt Ruhlen on global pronoun similarities

10. Personality Around the World

• Comparative study of personality factors across English, Spanish, French, Russian, Turkish, Persian

• Describes it as better than most papers in personality psychology

• Notes it received little attention on Substack

11. ChatGPT takes the Big Five Inventory

• Experiment asking ChatGPT to fill out personality inventories

• Conducted in chat window without using API

• Received more attention than the cross-cultural personality study

12. Deja-you, the recursive construction of self

    1. Explores the concept of recursion in relation to consciousness and self-awareness

    2. Discusses how often recursion comes up in theories of consciousness and language

    3. Mentions Douglas Hofstadter's "I Am a Strange Loop" and its focus on recursion

    4. Reflects on the paradox of consciousness and its connection to recursion

    5. Explores the idea of "I am" as potentially the first recursive thought

    6. Discusses how this connects to the broader Eve Theory of Consciousness

13. When did recursion evolve?

    1. Explores various theories about the timeline of recursion evolution

    2. Discusses early dates for recursion, going back as far as 2 million years ago

    3. Mentions the concept of the "Uncanny Valley" in human evolution

    4. Reflects on the challenges of pinpointing when recursive thinking emerged

14. When did recursion evolve? (part 2)

    1. Covers theories about recursion emergence from 200,000 years ago to present

    2. Discusses Noam Chomsky's theory of a single mutation enabling recursion

    3. Explores the concept of Behavioral Modernity and its timeline

    4. Mentions the Sapient Paradox and debates about when fully human behavior became widespread

15. Eve Theory of Consciousness v2

    1. Updated version focusing on gendered evolution of recursion

    2. Emphasizes sex dynamics and recursion more than previous version

16. The Y Chromosome Bottleneck

    1. Discusses genetic evidence potentially supporting the theory

    2. Mentions 17 times less variability in Y chromosome compared to X chromosome 6,000 years ago

    3. Reflects on how this fits with Eve Theory of Consciousness

17. The AI basis of the Eve Theory of Consciousness

    1. Similar exercise as the podcast, showing how questions about language and personality eventually led to the Eve Theory of Consciousness

18. The Immortality Key forgets that Jesus was Jewish

    1. Argues Brian Muraresku's book downplays the Jewish continuity between the Old and New Testament

19. Contra d'Huy on Snake Myths

    1. Argues against the idea that stories can last 100,000 years

20. EQ > IQ

    1. Argues that the mystery of recursion and sapience is related to selection on the primary factor of personality

    2. States that the primary factor or general factor of personality is correlated about 0.9 with emotional intelligence

    3. Suggests that emotional intelligence is at the heart of human intelligence

21. Evidence for global cultural diffusion

    1. Examines evidence for worldwide cultural spread

    2. Discusses snake myths, the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades, and bullroarers

    3. Uses dog domestication as an example of proven cultural diffusion

22. Why did male initiation rituals diffuse globally?

    1. Discusses research into male initiation rituals across cultures

    2. Suggests this could be related to the Y chromosome bottleneck

    3. Proposes that geneticists studying the Y chromosome bottleneck should consider these rituals

23. Eve Theory of Consciousness v3.0

    1. Comprehensive 100-page explanation of the fully developed theory

    2. Described as best work, setting up language to explain other directions

    3. Reflects on theory's consistency and development over time

24. Herakles, Adam, and Krishna were initiated in the snake cult at Göbekli Tepe

    1. Connects mythological figures to proposed snake cult rituals

    2. Discusses astronomical significance, particularly the constellation Hercules

    3. Speculates on ritual elements at Göbekli Tepe

25. Archeologists vs Ancient Aliens

    1. Critiques both archaeological conservatism and ancient alien theories

    2. Discusses potential connections between Australian Aboriginal and Near Eastern cultures

    3. Reflects on academic reluctance to consider diffusion theories

    4. Mentions bullroarer findings at Göbekli Tepe

26. Andreas Lommel and the Squatters

• Explores the "squatter" figure in ancient art across cultures

• Mentions finding this figure in various contexts, including Great Lakes rock art

18. Archeologists vs The Bible

• Examines potential connections between Genesis and the Symbolic Revolution

• Discusses professional risks for archaeologists in exploring these connections

• Mentions Göbekli Tepe's FAQ addressing biblical connections

19. Secrets of the Snake King

• Explores Armenian folklore connecting snakes to medicinal knowledge

• Questions why snakes are associated with medicinal knowledge in many cultures

20. The Snake Cult's LessWrong presentation

• Recap of presenting the Snake Cult theory at a LessWrong conference

• Mentions receiving negative questions, particularly about Australian connections

21. Memetic Eve Solves the Sapient Paradox

• Broader application of Eve Theory to explain the Sapient Paradox

• Discusses alternative explanations for the spread of human cognition

• Aims to make the theory more palatable without snake cult specifics

22. The Bullroarer: Much More Than You Wanted To Know

• Comprehensive history of the bullroarer in various cultures

• Argues for cultural diffusion based on bullroarer similarities

• Describes it as best resource on bullroarers available

• Reflects on academic neglect of bullroarer research

23. Supernatural Selection (book review)

• Critiques the book's timeline for the evolution of religion

• Discusses challenges in dating cognitive and cultural developments

• Notes the book's tendency to push important developments far into the past

24. When do geneticists believe the human brain evolved?

• Discusses recent genetic evidence for cognitive evolution

• Reflects on how this might support or challenge the Eve Theory

• Mentions David Reich's recent interview and preprint

25. Pygmy Eve Peeps God

• Explores Efe creation myths from the Congo

• Discusses similarities to Genesis and implications for consciousness theories

• Expresses surprise that Jaynesian researchers haven't found this myth