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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

OK, well good luck with all that. If you want a serious discussion, a good start would be reading, say Mustafa Suleyman (an expert insider) & Yuval Noah Harari (a well-informed generalist outsider) on the rather urgent issue of AI agency & its threat. @eoinhiggins.bsky.social

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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

No. And it's not an EITHER/OR. The tech-corps PR can be as self-servingly evil as you like *AND* the fact remains that AI has functional agency (which is one of the reasons for urgent preventative regulation). Eoin et al seem oblivious to this & misinformed on the question of agency (not sentience).

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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

"Functional agency" - a good concept to understand, if you don't want to get stuck in an EITHER/OR on AI. Folks tend to lump "agency" with sentience. So if they reject the notion of sentient AI, they also reject the notion of AI's "agency" or "independent action" - a mistake.

RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

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I liked Eoin's book on GG/Taibbi, but I think he gets this wrong. Yes, we need regs & corp accountability & we don't need scary sci-fi hyperbole. I dislike the term "rogue", but it refers to something real - functional agency (no sentience). Not just "industry narrative". bsky.app/profile/eoin....

RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Well, it's not credulous to note the "functional agency" of AI (which doesn't require sentience or anything spooky), and that Eoin gets it factually wrong when he asserts "nor can it take independent actions". By denying this well-documented agency one removes an urgent reason to regulate.

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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

He's wrong to say "nor can it take independent actions". AI has "functional agency", which doesn't imply sentience. It's capable of "functionally independent actions", which doesn't imply sentience, consciousness or anything spooky. By denying this agency one removes an urgent reason to regulate.

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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

AI is capable of functionally intelligent (non-sentient) actions, like, say, a digestive system. It has functional agency (no sentience required). Read Yuval Noah Harari or Mustafa Suleyman (neither are clowns!) on the issue of AI intelligence & agency.

RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Sigh. Functional agency doesn't imply sentience. AI has functional agency, not sentience. AI is capable of "functionally independent actions" but not "conscious actions". Semantics. Please get it right.

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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

It's important that while we don't assign sentience or humanise it, we DO recognize functional agency (independent decision-taking without sentience). We shouldn't be downplaying its capabilities if we wish to push for greater regulation.

RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

He's wrong to assert: "nor can it take independent actions". Anthropomorphic terms are a problem, of course, but independent decision-taking (functional "agency") without sentience is a fact. We shouldn't downplay its functional capabilities while we get rid of the humanizing terms.

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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I agree on anthropomorphic terms, but be careful when you assert: "nor can it take independent actions". Independent of what? Independent decision-making without sentience is a fact, as is functional "agency" without sentience. In pushing for regulation: not to downplay its functional capabilities.

RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Free speech warriors united in censoring? Nothing new from Musk, who surely now rates as one of the world's biggest wannabe censors (I say wannabe because Internet censorship doesn't really work, despite his many & various attempts). www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/dig...

hollywoodreporter.com

The Major Social Media Platforms Are All Rejecting Paid Ads for Alex Gibney’s ‘Musk’ (Exclusive)

YouTube, TikTok and Meta have all turned down the trailer for the Oct. 9 doc, citing “political” content. X won't even take Bleecker Street's calls. The distributor is appealing.

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Steve Fly @flyagaric23.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Some of the clearest thinking on the subject matter I've read. A sheer delight. Wow, whattan' opener. Thank you @rawsemantics.bsky.social

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Bobby Campbell @bobbycampbell.net · 23/09/2026

Tales of Illuminatus! - The Kether Trip TPB and the Illuminatus! Skeleton Key #1 Zine PDFs now available to KS backers :))) www.kickstarter.com/projects/bob...

Cover art for Tales of Illuminatus! - The Kether Trip & Illuminatus! Skeleton Key #1

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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

'Another schmuck’s views on AI' - new blog piece. The schmuck in question is me, of course. I also hazard a few guesses over "What would RAW have thought?"... and more. #RobertAntonWilson Go to link: rawsemantics.home.blog/2026/09/22/a...

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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Super piece, on which I've left a few comments. We can appreciate the skills of, say, nurses, without elevating them to the status of Super-Important All-Around Geniuses. So why do many folks elevate idiots with successful money-making skills to that Top Dog status? bsky.app/profile/r-mi...

RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Reposted by RAW semantics

Another (related) difference between 80s/90s RAW/Leary futurism & 2026 Silicon Valley - the latter bets on societal COLLAPSE & need for secure elite zones. Leary & RAW tended to gamble optimistically on societal SUCCESS. Two potentially self-fulfilling prophecies: dystopia & utopia. Not the same.

Timothy Leary quote: "The challenge and glory of cybernetic democracy is this: society can no longer allow one person to feel abused, persecuted, ignored.” (Neuropolitique, 1991 ed. p47"). Illustrated by the comic-book style comparison of a guarded private elite zone with an open, well-functioning futurist society.

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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Difference between 80s/90s RAW/Leary futurism & 2026 Silicon Valley - latter revolves around billionaires ideologically ready to sacrifice most of humanity. RAW & Bucky Fuller, in contrast, interested in what works for all humanity. (I won't mention estimates of 700K deaths already caused by Musk).

Quote from Robert Anton Wilson, The New Inquisition, 1987. Ch7:

"In my reality-tunnel, a world in which no child ever again starved to death would be a greater accomplishment than chaps from NASA playing golf on the moon."

Background of the image is a comic-book depiction contrasting earth-bound poverty with the ultra-rich escaping in their space rockets.

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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Thanks for that. As I said, SV as shorthand for a prominent, dominant ideology (made clear in post prior to the one you responded to & in all my previous writings on the topic). I agree on overgeneralised group demonisations (one of the recurring themes of my writing). Here's Google AI:

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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

New book from George Lakoff (now in his 80s) co-written by Srini Narayanan (scientist & AI research director at Google DeepMind, Zurich). Epic, pioneering work combining multiple fields, on neural systems, thought, language & more. Not for lightweights or lazy reviewers.

Cover of 2025 book, The Neural Mind, by George Lakoff and Srini Narayanan.

RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

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Of course. "Silicon Valley" in these short-form posts refers to the most prominent billionaires pushing a certain ideology. Shorthand, as I've said before. Which prominent voices would you list as pushing back against this dominant, grim elitist SV ideology? rawsemantics.home.blog/2024/08/06/t...

rawsemantics.home.blog

TSOG 2025 – & other scenarios

RAW’s Guns & Dope Party advocated “an end to Tsarism and a return to constitutional democracy”. Does a new Tech Tsarism seem on the cards?…

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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

rawsemantics.home.blog

TSOG 2025 – & other scenarios

RAW’s Guns & Dope Party advocated “an end to Tsarism and a return to constitutional democracy”. Does a new Tech Tsarism seem on the cards?…

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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Guilt by association logic & overly conspiratorial framing I'd frown upon. But after reading Jane Mayer's book on the Kochs (also listed in FAI's funding), I see that one can *accurately* present it as networks of ideological affinity groups with unlimited funds - which *should* be highlighted.

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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

BBC reports "Russian strikes destroy 12 million books", targeting Ukraine's publishing houses, printing presses, second-hand book markets, etc. More than 35 publishing facilities hit - latest fuckery in Putin's twisted mass-murderous crusade against Ukrainian existence. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Russian strikes destroy 12 million books in Ukraine ahead of new school year

Ukraine says Russia is deliberately attacking its culture, after strikes on publishers and churches.

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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Some folks may've got the wrong end of the stick on this. RAW occasionally *referenced* the topics in question (ESP, "mental telepathy") in his books. But you wouldn't begin a short summary of what his books are "on" with those topics (which is what his Wiki currently does). bsky.app/profile/rawi...

RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

FAKE! (as you say, too accurate, and too up-to-date, for a 1981 gov doc). ALT-text was the only way I could fit my tentative description of RAW's books into a single post, and I got creative while doing it. The ALT-text notes it's fake. Main thing: I hope the WIKI gets corrected.

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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Gil Duran says the apocalyptic views popular in Silicon Valley look like Christian eschatology + tech. And that a billionaire cult "is chasing a self-fulfilling prophecy of societal collapse" (RAW warned in similar terms of the power of such "self-fulfilling prophecies"). youtu.be/lMM6LgeIbfc?...

youtu.be

Gil Durán and Wajahat Ali: The Rise of "The Nerd Reich”

YouTube video by Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California

RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Anyone with a Wiki editing sign-in (perhaps someone less biased than me?) want to correct the RAW Wiki, as previously indicated? Content of replacement paragraph? Well, all of the subjects listed in this document would seem more accurate (wrt what RAW's books focus on) than "mental telepathy"!

Fake old document listing possible subjects you could include in a correction to Wilson's Wikipedia. The text reads: "In addition to writing subversive metafiction (not limited to sci-fi themes), Wilson writes non-fiction books that combine perspectives from psychology, post-Nietzschean philosophy, modern science (esp. quantum physics), General Semantics, esoteric brain-change, various strands of modern art, literature & pop culture, critiques of Aristotelian & Platonic metaphysics, critical satires of Natural Law & Fundamentalist Materialism, ridicule of Conservative Christianity and Puritanical censorship, radical counterculture awareness, social conscience, social futurism and progressive techno-utopian projections, etc."

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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Top-drawer top draw! Hugely enjoyed here in N. Wales.

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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

If a sociologist wrote books on sociology that had a few chapters dealing with 'alien abduction' and 'satanic panic', etc, you wouldn't summarize her oeuvre by saying she wrote books "on space aliens & Devil worship"!

RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

And while I'm momentarily online, I want to say I think this paragraph in RAW's wikipedia entry does him a disservice. The idea he wrote books "on ESP, mental telepathy" etc comes from a poorly informed NYT obituary. (He *referenced* many things in his books of course). I hope someone corrects this.

Paragraph in RAW's wikipedia entry, which reads: "In addition to writing several science-fiction novels, Wilson also wrote non-fiction books on extrasensory perception, mental telepathy, metaphysics, paranormal experiences, conspiracy theory, sex, drugs, and what Wilson called "quantum psychology"."

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RAW semantics @rawsemantics.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Unputdownable read, and a positive sign (& no small achievement) that a book on these 'uncomfortable' but urgent matters by a debut author (@gilduran.com) makes it straight to NYT Bestseller status. (Btw, Musk's X *permanently* banned the author for his views)

The Nerd Reich, a New York Times Bestseller. B&W image of book cover.