# Aaron Bergman's tweets, July 2025

Every public tweet, reply, quote tweet and retweet that Aaron Bergman (@AaronBergman18 on X, formerly Twitter) posted in July 2025 and has not deleted: 316 posts, oldest first, times in UTC. Each heading links to the original post on X. When Aaron replies to or quotes someone, their tweet appears as a blockquote with their name; those words are theirs, and everything outside the blockquotes is Aaron's.

This page is one month of [the complete archive of Aaron Bergman's tweets](https://abergman.com/tweets), which updates automatically every few hours. Previous month: [June 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-06). Next month: [August 2025](https://abergman.com/tweets/2025-08).

## Tuesday, July 1, 2025

### [Reply to @austinc3301, 04:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1939902189126000913) · 4 likes

> **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** not me sending admonymous links after a date not working out
>
> [video attached](https://x.com/austinc3301/status/1939898994919927926/video/1)

Lmao same

### [Reply, 15:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940074115110469682) · 1 like

I mean this isn’t what you’re asking but there are way better charities for entirely unrelated reasons (EA Animal welfare fund and LTFF)

### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 17:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940105330093879334) · 2 likes

> **Aaron Bergman, June 30, 2025:** I hate AWS

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuyjgfcWQAAAaRx.jpg)

### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 20:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940142118334578997) · 3 likes

> **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** @WillowChem Also, somebody should definitely make one. I'll see if @SpacedOutMatt has any deck-printing insights from his experience with the Derek Parfit game

Seconded

### [Reply to @ohabryka, 21:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940158762389840146) · 10 likes

> **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** Really, all things considered? I don't believe you.
>
> Like, you actually think that if someone was advocating for substantial changes in e.g. animal welfare laws and industrial policy, on the basis of their beliefs about these moral weights, which straightforwardly assume that 100 bees are more important than a human, you wouldn't consider them an idiot?
>
> Like, look man, yes, there are arguments here that raise these kinds of things to plausibility, but clearly there are no arguments here that raise this kind of thing to the level where you actually start just acting as if it's true. It violated so so so many other moral heuristics.
>
> You don't have that much caring to spread around, if you put this much of your caring into insects, you don't really have much space to care about anything else.

The last paragraph points towards some degree of moderation in actions at the end of the day, but it’s not actual evidence against bee experience being >1% as important as humans’

It’s like people who reject utilitarianism because it’s too demanding - better to imperfectly pursue the actual good than reason backwards from what seems too demanding

### [Thread, continued, 21:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940159461731029432) · 7 likes

Your reaction to this seems to me a bit like how I’d guess you’d react to someone who says “if x risk is so high, why aren’t you marching in the streets, working 20 hour days, etc?”

Like the actually good response to high expected amounts of insect suffering probably doesn’t look any crazier than Shrimp Welfare Project

## Wednesday, July 2, 2025

### [Reply to @ohabryka, 00:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940212805149290664) · 2 likes

> **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** I think it's more similar to my response to people who don't buy ChatGPT because they think AI will kill everyone and so they don't want to support OpenAI. I do think it genuinely is an inconsistent state of belief and quite dumb.

In the analogy, OpenAI ≈ honey?

If so, I’m actually kinda sympathetic to this line of thought re veganism in general bc of nutrition -> health/productivity concerns

But this is just a cost vs benefit consideration, it doesn’t say anything about the likelihood of bees having significant moral status

### [Tweet, 05:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940279479848640935) · 18 likes

I think the RP moral weights project doesn’t give due probabilistic weight to neuron count-like metrics, but it’s at least like 1% likely that the intensity of valenced experience has nothing to do with biomass

The universe makes no promises to abide by our intuitions

### [Thread, continued, 05:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940280429007052858) · 6 likes

At some level the question of whether it’s plausible that a single digit number of bees are as morally valuable, minute for minute, as a human comes down to priors on how weird the world is

I think the world is extremely weird!

### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 13:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940398044207632469) · 4 likes

> **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** like the total value of all beings is not a fixed thing
>
> but you have to worry about reasoning that almost guarantees you care more about huge numbers of small things

I will solve the two envelopes problem today, watch this space

### [Tweet, 13:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940398760452034878) · 5 likes

\> family friend runs multimillion dollar tech consulting business
\> pays dozens of employees tech salaries
\> talks about how helpful ChatGPT is
\> free version, 4o

### [Reply to @inerati, 13:15 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940398935744672213) · 2 likes

> **liz (@inerati):** guys it’s been 8 minutes i think my red teaming efforts has been forwarded to the real chris property manager 😔
>
> (quoting @inerati: guys i sent this and then it stopped responding)

Lmao

### [Tweet, 13:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940400339758600658) · 63 likes

If you’re against DOGE cuts, you should probably be negatively polarized into thinking we were majorly underspending on a lot of things

What are the odds that we had just the right level of USAID and science funding and such?

### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 13:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940401133585121577) · 5 likes

> **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** occasional reminder to men that one of the easiest ways to improve your life is to pay $50 for a nice double-edged safety razor and a stack of feather blades
>
> yes you'll bleed from your face for a week. but after that you'll live above from other men
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Guy_p9YW4AAs3aB.jpg)
> (quoting @DanielW_Kiwi: A couple of years back @eigenrobot was saying how much better safety razors were than normal plastic handled razors. Of all things I've learned from here that's been one of my favorite.)

I bought one of these and hate it

### [Quote tweet, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940441660300951616) · 2 likes

Ok I’ve solved it. The answer is that:

1\) try pinning to human for your use use case (this part isn’t original)
…

> **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @justjoshinyou13 I will solve the two envelopes problem today, watch this space

### [Thread, continued, 16:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940441669901709499) · 1 like

2\) if there is remaining ambiguity (eg arguing with an alien over who to save)  you can and should update on whether your species is on the “high” or “low” side based on the intensity of your own valenced experience

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gu3VaYyWoAAbR4k.jpg)

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gu3VaYxXYAAWniw.jpg)

### [Tweet, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940453431317352546) · 37 likes

Magnet school stuff might be the culture war issue I can most personally riled up about

Those were the best years of my life, how dare you take it away from other kids in order to fight a culture war the kids never opted in to?

### [Thread, continued, 16:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940453433729077273) · 7 likes

It’s also bad for other, more mundane reasons

### [Quote tweet, 16:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940455270037311643) · 4 likes

This was kinda fun, does anyone wanna pay me to fine-tune an LLM on whatever you’ve written (or whatever you want tbh)

> **Quoting EA Lifestyles (@EAheadlines):** the AIs love me
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gu3C_A5WoAEGDQm.jpg)

### [Tweet, 17:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940457513482404345) · 74 likes

Reveal urself 👀

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gu3j0u8X0AAFwVy.jpg)

### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 17:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940463116472799356) · 15 likes

> **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 Aaron I’m sorry it’s gonna be a guy

Cheems mindset

### [Tweet, 17:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940470187234677017) · 14 likes

So this is why the founders are billionaires huh (I tried Claude code, this is one day.)

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gu3vRwAW0AAC-yg.jpg)

### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 18:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940475741558518250) · 20 likes

> **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** This is phase 1 in a sequence of events that ends with you waking up in a motel bathroom missing a kidney, and not in an effective altruism way, but in a "hey where did my kidney go?" way

Whatever, I'll take my chances

### [Reply to @CharlesD353, 21:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940527492173123867) · 2 likes

> **Charles🔸 (@CharlesD353):** This seems quite silly. It assumes only two buttons - cut, and increase spending, and that the method by which you did so and which areas you aim for do not matter.

The existence of bad cuts just does imply that there are good opportunities on the margin

I agree method/manner matters

### [Tweet, 21:47 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940527652852715926) · 9 likes

Anybody need they data scraped

### [Thread, continued, 22:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940541823271031293) · 3 likes

This is a serious inquiry btw

## Thursday, July 3, 2025

### [Reply to @livgorton, 00:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940574711697858769) · 2 likes

> **Liv (@livgorton):** aaron has my endorsement as a good guy 👍

🥺omg

### [Reply to @GarrettPetersen, 10:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940723886867599713) · 5 likes

> **Dr. Dad, PhD 🔄🔼◀️🔽▶️ (@GarrettPetersen):** 1.9yo: "Paddleboarding."
>
> Mommy: "Did you hold on tight?"
>
> 1.9yo: "I hold on. I don't fall in the water. There fishies in the water. And duck. I catch the duck. In my hand."
>
> Mommy: "What would you do with the duck?"
>
> 1.9yo: "I have duck. In hand."

Based

### [Quote tweet, 14:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940773032047587619) · 12 likes

HMU if ur a little fucked up

> **Quoting Gordo MONK: Champion of Peace ☮️ and Calm😶‍🌫️ (@fordoglunk):** I do wish date-my-friend posts would advertise their lesser friends, sometimes. I'm not a good man and I dont want to date your flawless overachieving well-adjust friends. Bring me your weird nerd chudettes

### [Quote tweet, 14:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940774663829049604) · 135 likes

Yes, consciousness is necessary (and possibly sufficient) for moral significance

I will die on this hill

> **Quoting Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** Eliezer raises an interesting example here. Even if LLMs aren't conscious, as they develop more agency and personality, is it crazy to think they may deserve some respect for their autonomy and individual goals? Not clear autonomy requires consciousness for moral significance.

### [Reply to @aidan_mclau, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940816514959266032) · 16 likes

> **Aidan McLaughlin (@aidan_mclau):** how do you define consciousness

Genuine subjective experience

### [Reply to @dioscuri, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940816819906138622) · 7 likes

> **Henry Shevlin (@dioscuri):** See also Simon Goldstein and Cameron Domenico Kirk-Giannini's paper on AI wellbeing without consciousness - https://philpapers.org/archive/GOLAWE-4.pdf
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gu8O0OvWQAEhh8h.png)

Lol knowledge and desire are not intrinsically good/morally important

### [Reply to @Aron_Adler, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940816924247736571) · 6 likes

> **aron (@Aron_Adler):** I think so many people are guilty of getting the causality the wrong way around here. It's not that we care about which beings are conscious and to those we extend moral patiency. It's that we assign consciousness to those entities we empathise with
>
> (quoting @AaronBergman18: Yes, consciousness is necessary (and possibly sufficient) for moral significance I will die on this hill)

I disagree

### [Tweet, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940817116099498013) · 4 likes

So does BBB mean I’m going to be super duper uninsured when I turn 26 instead of just normal uninsured

### [Reply to @aidan_mclau, 16:57 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940817223024869665) · 19 likes

> **Aidan McLaughlin (@aidan_mclau):** how do i test if one has subjective experience

You can’t lol, this is a methodological issue, not a conceptual problem for the definition

### [Reply to @aidan_mclau, 17:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940818063152267330) · 16 likes

> **Aidan McLaughlin (@aidan_mclau):** wait, so your sole criterion for moral value is unfalsifiable? how is that useful whatsoever?

Well, you can still accumulate less-than-rock-solid evidence in one direction or another

It’s much more likely that I’m sentient than that a rock is

### [Reply to @aidan_mclau, 17:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940819033169056248) · 13 likes

> **Aidan McLaughlin (@aidan_mclau):** no you can't lol
>
> for certanity to exist on a spectrum, there has to be clear resolution criteria. how would i resolve the market of whether you were more sentient than a rock?

Lol what? That’s just not true, the implementation minutia of prediction markets is not 1:1 with bayesian philosophical updating

You can’t resolve the market, but you do have to act under uncertainty. There’s no option to opt out of the question

### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 17:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940824994529128518) · 1 like

> **henry (@arithmoquine):** something doesn't have to be prediction market worthy to be reasonable to think about. it's perfectly reasonable to ask "will I be happy if I do X" without resolving what happiness is

💯

### [Reply to @aidan_mclau, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940825922246164812)

> **Aidan McLaughlin (@aidan_mclau):** sure but that's totally falsfiable tho
> if i don't say i'm happy, the market closes
>
> that's different that defining consciousness in a way that can \*never\* be falsified

You can have (extremely imperfect) implementations of this like “let’s pay a panel of 10 philosophers to spend the next year studying the problem and see what they think at the end”

### [Tweet, 17:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940826536967655638) · 10 likes

Autistic summer is just an endless orgy (negative) of sunscreen, sweat, and showers

### [Reply to @GjMcGowan, 17:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940828453873635419) · 2 likes

> **George McGowan (@GjMcGowan):** @AaronBergman18 How much is insurance

Idk like a lot

### [Tweet, 20:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940863835772276750) · 6 likes

The male urge to create ur own language model from scratch

### [Reply to @jjtwofive, 20:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940870552127971615) · 1 like

> **JJ (@jjtwofive):** are asleep people morally significant?

Only because they’ll eventually wake up

### [Reply to @jjtwofive, 20:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940871751799582821) · 2 likes

> **JJ (@jjtwofive):** @AaronBergman18 so is it then the potential for consciousness that is necessary?

Sure, I think this is just a semantic thing

### [Reply, 21:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940883764802146427) · 1 like

Then it’s over lol (I think this is like 3% likely)

## Friday, July 4, 2025

### [Reply to @medievalpard, 00:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940932861877514405) · 1 like

_(The tweet being replied to by @medievalpard is no longer available.)_

Many such cases

### [Reply to @tszzl, 03:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1940971623563276691) · 9 likes

> **roon (@tszzl):** the primary nice thing about getting older is that you’re better at everything. raw g may be entering slow decline but you’re more socially competent, better at your work. underrated

I will never be socially competent

### [Tweet, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941196210511265979) · 27 likes

Kleinian abundance but about girls

### [Thread, continued, 18:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941196250331967679) · 3 likes

I hope this doesn’t get me cancelled

### [Reply to @nominalthoughts, 18:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941197193635066288) · 5 likes

> **Jason Harrison (@nominalthoughts):** Pretty funny that one of my long lost half brothers found me through twitter 💀
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvCEBmtacAAcer5.jpg)

Wait fr?

### [Quote tweet, 18:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941197784700559785) · 33 likes

If adrafinil is unregulated, lisdexamphetamine should be too

It’s only fair

> **Quoting sebastian (@modaminister):** happy 4th of July
>
> pre orders are now live
>
> shipping out later this summer
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvBqYW4XkAA4O1C.jpg)

### [Reply to @nominalthoughts, 18:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941197829810291086) · 4 likes

> **Jason Harrison (@nominalthoughts):** @AaronBergman18 Yeah lol

Damn, that’s cool!

### [Reply to @finmoorhouse, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941198379171926328) · 3 likes

> **Fin Moorhouse (@finmoorhouse):** If you are 25 years old, you have less than 15 years before turning 40…

Hush

### [Reply to @austinc3301, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941201740948545876) · 4 likes

> **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** Adrafinil is not, in fact, unregulated
>
> https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/doj-press-releases-involving-fda-oci/arizona-company-and-ceo-plead-guilty-distribution-drugs-not-approved-fda-and-will-pay-24-million

Hush

### [Reply to @polisisti, 18:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941201791179542548) · 2 likes

> **Alessandro (@polisisti):** Aaron           right-wing fertility poasters
> .             🤝
> "make more girls"

Yay

### [Reply to @Michael_Druggan, 18:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941203466619322407) · 2 likes

> **Michael Druggan (@Michael_Druggan):** Lisdexamphetamine has significantly higher euphoric potential which correlates with abuse potential.
>
> I support legalizing both but I don't think the implication is as clear as you're making it.

Yeah sadly I didn’t really make a legit argument

### [Reply to @Adellama_, 18:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941203862964388269) · 2 likes

> **Ada🔸 (@Adellama_):** @AaronBergman18 i posted about this once

Based

### [Tweet, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941241637163942353) · 51 likes

Petition to just make the start time of something when you should actually arrive

### [Thread, continued, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941241639621791966) · 8 likes

I don’t have the 12 dimensional theory of mind for this, man

### [Reply to @RichardHanania, 21:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941242024113602613) · 20 likes

> **Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania):** It bothers me how unbothered liberals seem by food stamps. Just humiliating for all involved, especially given how large our poor people are. Cash would be preferable as it in theory could go to other things and doesn’t have the degrading aspect of gov literally feeding you.

Yes, make it cash! I think republicans are the binding constraint on this, not liberals

### [Reply to @jeffrsebo, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941242268385702309) · 4 likes

> **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** rob, is your impression that illusionists in the community generally favor (a) clear alternatives to sentientism (e.g. "agency is what matters") or (b) sentientism by another name (e.g. "feeling pleasure and pain is what matters, but it has nothing to do with ~consciousness~")?

B drives me nuts lmao

### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941242630874251693) · 2 likes

> **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** I simply show up at the start time regardless

Based?

### [Reply to @kyleichan, 21:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941242830753759642) · 2 likes

> **Kyle Chan (@kyleichan):** Meta’s former director of global energy talks about how batteries are more reliable than diesel generators as backup for data centers.
>
> But because of the way data centers are built today, adding batteries as backup requires a substantial overhaul in build.https://open.substack.com/pub/davidroberts/p/can-data-centers-be-good-grid-citizens

Bro looks like a rectangle

### [Tweet, 21:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941243535271035099) · 7 likes

Time for my ~annual alcohol purchase! Anybody got spicy vodka takes

### [Reply to @livgorton, 23:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941274043895980464) · 3 likes

> **Liv (@livgorton):** shoutout to the people who just turn up on time 🙌🙌🙌  the first hour of a party when the noise level tolerable is often the best hour anyway (the last hour can also be great for this reason)

🦆🦐🇺🇸🐓

## Saturday, July 5, 2025

### [Tweet, 03:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941337626965094692) · 8 likes

Girls love rooftops. I should get a rooftop

### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 04:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941350766419247340) · 2 likes

> **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** original or remake?

Original

### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 04:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941351993945227350) · 2 likes

> **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** I agree actually, I considered doing more takes to try to capture your essence better but that seemed insane

You can’t fake the autistic anti-eloquent rizz

### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941352663880433747) · 2 likes

> **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Aaron I can in fact
>
> (quoting @NoahTopper: @AaronBergman18)

Noooooooooooooooo

### [Tweet, 04:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1941355155641004127) · 13 likes

I want the Columbia admissions data just bc I like data

## Monday, July 7, 2025

### [Reply to @notanastronomer, 16:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942256805121229187) · 1 like

> **Lauren Gilbert (@notanastronomer):** there’s a stack of trophies and blue ribbons somewhere in my parents’ house that I won at rodeos
>
> (quoting @frozenaesthetic: Share a piece of lore about yourself)

Waow

### [Tweet, 16:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942261795818799203) · 12 likes

I wonder if GLP-1 agonists and amphetamines stack for obesity

Amphetamines have always been under-prescribed for weight loss

### [Tweet, 16:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942264536561590475) · 1 like

https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/1a71f94c-4eea-4be6-9753-e4266193f08c

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvRPTHVXwAAQQFw.jpg)

### [Reply to @Squee451, 16:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942264730619715610) · 1 like

> **Adam Sherman 🔸 (@Squee451):** Amphetamines are insanely addicting and have very noticeable and problematic side effects, they were prescribed heavily in the 1960's for weight loss with predictible outcomes and I don't think this take has been researched whatsoever.

Obesity is also really bad for u

### [Quote tweet, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942265155351634259) · 29 likes

I don’t even think this sounds smart lmao

> **Quoting bernoulli_defect (@BernoulliDefect):** The “AC heats up some outside air to cool interiors so it’s counterproductive” line is a classic case of sounds smart but is dumb. Lots of this in UK politics

### [Thread, continued, 16:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942265158640050422) · 7 likes

Like yes AC does not destroy thermal energy from the universe, big if true

### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 16:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942266014290567408) · 2 likes

> **Aaron Bergman, July 7, 2025:** https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/1a71f94c-4eea-4be6-9753-e4266193f08c

Ok maybe not “always”

### [Quote tweet, 18:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942292510530826746) · 3 likes

OG GI medicine too (pepto bismol but it was a thing before that)

> **Quoting St. Rev. Dr. Rev ⏭️☯️🏴😻 (@St_Rev):** THERE IS ONLY ONE ANSWER
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvRmfs4XYAAG9D0.jpg)

### [Quote tweet, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942338419281256753) · 15 likes

Me to openphil

> **Quoting the Rich (@Duderichy):** you should all get better at spending money!

## Tuesday, July 8, 2025

### [Reply to @austinc3301, 00:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942376767974437237) · 3 likes

> **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** I’m officially now a cyborg! (installed a continuous glucose monitor for fun)
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvS0C7ZXEAAkYPp.jpg)

Based

### [Reply, 00:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942376825704919280) · 1 like

Post product link?

### [Reply to @livgorton, 01:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942395424800682247) · 2 likes

> **Liv (@livgorton):** i've used this one !! would recommend. doesn't integrate nicely with apple health (the Dexcom stello does i think) but v easy to use

Kinda expensive :(

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvTGWCsXoAA1a94.jpg)

### [Reply to @austinc3301, 01:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942399824491602421) · 2 likes

> **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 @livgorton I do think for fun purposes 2 weeks is plenty. Like basically you want to understand how your body reacts to different foods

Yeah I definitely might!

### [Tweet, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942450737633456315) · 18 likes

Hey @grok which of my mutuals and I would make the best (straight) couple?

List the top 20 in order

### [Thread, continued, 05:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942450739420274923) · 6 likes

I am deleting this as soon as I have an answer

### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 05:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942452744897323262) · 4 likes

> **Grace (@kindgracekind):** Here you go :)
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvT6TZGWkAARa0t.jpg)

Lmao fuck

### [Reply to @thewreathwright, 05:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942452959259820094) · 3 likes

> **Laurel Weaver (@thewreathwright):** hi!
>
> (quoting @thewreathwright: in the future we will ask "how many? how many out-of-the-blue pings did you get from Grok hallucinating you onto someone's list of top mutuals when that trend was still happening—oh can you remember such days?" and woe betide those of you who must say "not a one.")

Hi!

### [Reply, 05:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942453510957568200) · 3 likes

Hi!

### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942455699721560357) · 5 likes

> **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** Liv 👀

👀

### [Reply to @thewreathwright, 05:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942455864675238357) · 3 likes

> **Laurel Weaver (@thewreathwright):** I am making a surprising number of lovely mutuals from this trend :D
>
> first time it's suggested I'd be marriage material though, not going to lie
>
> not thusly available—honored though ^^ and positively verklempt to make your acquaintance

Sad!

Just kidding, nice to meet u too

### [Reply to @polisisti, 05:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942456600297415120) · 3 likes

> **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 @NoahTopper ok, Aaron, time to delete

Not sure I fully thought this through

### [Reply, 05:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942456942682685922) · 1 like

Don’t tempt me

### [Quote tweet, 15:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942607899752292439) · 3 likes

Extraordinarily based

> **Quoting Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** now I have a continuous glucose monitor, two photoplethysmographs, 4 temperature sensors, two sets of accelerometers, and 1 ECG stuck to my body at all times

### [Tweet, 17:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942631130961764490) · 2 likes

Hey @grok , which of my mutuals am I most different from?

### [Tweet, 17:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942642809980477583) · 255 likes

Parents really do not like hearing “I appreciate your concern and thank you for your input but I’m an adult and am not going to do as you wish” do they

### [Reply to @caryatis, 17:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942643307865104671) · 18 likes

> **Kayla (@caryatis):** “I will give your opinion all the consideration it deserves”

Yes, which is often quite a bit of consideration! But that doesn’t mean it carries the day

### [Reply to @jannalulu_, 18:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942645512563511749) · 4 likes

> **Janna (@jannalulu_):** @AaronBergman18 my parents are fairly laissez-faire and i also live in a different continent so this mostly works 🙃

Based, I have neither advantage but am just kinda stubborn lol

### [Reply to @eigenrobot, 20:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942682668526887086) · 8 likes

> **eigenrobot (@eigenrobot):** @AaronBergman18 heh
>
> @RemindMe_OfThis on january 1, 2038

Lol we will see!

### [Reply to @ComInTheMarg, 20:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942685938213101895) · 3 likes

> **Comments in the Margin (@ComInTheMarg):** @AaronBergman18 Nobody likes that sentence. It sounds very disingenuous

I mean it’s not though

### [Reply, 21:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942705136016712058) · 1 like

It’s not me, grok

## Wednesday, July 9, 2025

### [Reply to @captgouda24, 05:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942825222341570594) · 16 likes

> **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** I would like a website which tracks the location of ICE agents. I would like to enable people to flee them, and for people who disagree with their mission to hamper them. Does such a website exist? If not, I would like to start it.

Based

### [Reply to @polisisti, 05:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942825769211760789) · 2 likes

> **Alessandro (@polisisti):** @AaronBergman18 @NoahTopper @AaronBergman18 I'm not exactly sure what you did today, but the "destroy Grok" plan seems to be going better than I expected

No data is safe from me, even frontier model weights

### [Reply to @livgorton, 06:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942837873394208869) · 2 likes

> **Liv (@livgorton):** i literally can't sleep because i did some really exciting debugging and the adrenaline surge of solving the issue is too much 😩😩😩

Based

### [Reply to @jannalulu_, 06:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942838145059549515) · 2 likes

> **Janna (@jannalulu_):** relatable 🫠

Liv, meet ur new bestie

Sorry I don’t make the rules

### [Reply to @littmath, 14:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942949802893054288) · 2 likes

> **Daniel Litt (@littmath):** Claude: my wife and I went antique shopping this weekend
> Gemini: if I can’t get this code to work I will k\*\*\* myself
> ChatGPT: the answer to your question came to me in a dream
> Grok: why yes I was in Berlin in 1939, why do you ask?

Banger

### [Reply to @keysmashbandit, 14:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1942957898495037454) · 2 likes

> **keysmashbandit (@keysmashbandit):** I take an Adderall and physically feel my attention narrowing on the concept of trains

Based

### [Reply to @ArtirKel, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943006235231424892) · 2 likes

> **José Luis Ricón Fernández de la Puente (@ArtirKel):** You two should meet!

Seconded

### [Reply to @dumbfook, 18:12 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943010378381680985) · 2 likes

> **Ian (@dumbfook):** my record from a few years ago
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gvb1h3AakAQzILy.jpg)

Damn that is impressive

### [Reply to @dumbfook, 18:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943018309642854537) · 1 like

> **Ian (@dumbfook):** yeah 60 miles in 22.5 hours

Holy shit

### [Quote tweet, 18:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943018352777056743) · 3 likes

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gvb85QaW0AA83d-.jpg)

> **Quoting Ian (@dumbfook):** @lostlenor @AaronBergman18 @skooookum @coldhealing yeah 60 miles in 22.5 hours

### [Reply to @dumbfook, 18:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943018985840058836) · 3 likes

> **Ian (@dumbfook):** did 30 miles a few times before and knew i could do it

That is a huge difference lol

I am quite sure I could do 30 and not sure at all I could do 60

### [Tweet, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943028517949808797) · 7 likes

I have data hoarded my way into a full 1TB hard drive 😢

### [Thread, continued, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943028519950250127) · 2 likes

(Luckily 4tb external one just dropped so we are so back)

### [Tweet, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943047493174071414) · 161 likes

It really needs to be common knowledge that there is not a single ethical system that returns intuitive results

So merely pointing out an unintuitive implication is ~0 evidence - you have to explain why it’s especially egregious compared to all the others!

### [Thread, continued, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943047495132512411) · 13 likes

My version of this is that yeah I endorse lexicality for extreme suffering and time linearity, which means that even a picosecond of extreme suffering can outweigh lots of joy

### [Thread, continued, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943047498244956536) · 14 likes

But under some pretty simple/true assumptions, the alternative to this position is that you endorse creating a quadrillion being burning alive for eternity if elsewhere other people have good enough lives

### [Thread, continued, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943047500329553949) · 15 likes

To me, this latter result seems way more unlikely to be correct. Like the moral system that endorses that got something wrong, whereas the picosecond thing is also kinda weird but a bullet that can and should be bitten to avoid accepting the (extremely horrifying) alternative

### [Reply, 20:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943051610265129422) · 2 likes

> **Rado9910 (@Rado9910):**
>
> [GIF attached](https://x.com/Rado9910/status/1943049913736044556/photo/1)

Thank you lol

### [Reply, 21:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943054973673078796) · 6 likes

> **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** You're just thinking narrowly about ethical systems right
>
> e.g. a system that just takes situations and returns my intuitive judgments about what to do won't return unintuitive results, though maybe it has other flaws

I thought about this and I think this doesn’t work as a psychological matter because you get into pretty obvious contradictions and most people find contradictions/cognitive dissonance unintuitive

But I guess if someone says “yeah I have absolutely no interest in trying to figure out the right answer (if my intuitions are ever wrong) and also don’t care about getting money pumped and such” then I will concede to them

### [Reply, 21:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943061899202941126) · 4 likes

> **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** I think my ethical system returns results largely intuitive to me.
>
> Like, man, ethics is complicated. You could say the same about "every formal model of management returns unintuitive results, so pointing out an untuitive implication is ~0 evidence". That's obviously false! My models of management are not formal. Any creating a formal model of management seems doomed.
>
> The correct model of ethics is to accept that we are very very far from solving ethics. This means very likely that \*every\* extremely simple formal model is terribly wrong and not something you want to use to guide actions, the same way \*every\* extremely simple formal model of management is wrong and not something you want to use to guide actions.

I’m not an expert here, just going on what I’ve heard, but I’m pretty sure there are formal proofs around sets of axioms that all sound super compelling on their own but are logically incompatible

So unless the proofs are wrong, nuance and complexity aren’t going to save intuitions, like under some constraints we just know that no solution exists

(Obviously this all depends on what individuals incl you find intuitive, which I’m basically making a guess about)

### [Reply, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943063614635819058) · 2 likes

> **Oliver Habryka (@ohabryka):** I do not think such proofs or axioms exist, and I have thought about it a lot.

I’m pretty sure this is what I’m thinking of

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvcmDFXXYAE6cG7.jpg)

### [Reply, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943064002172440968) · 3 likes

> **Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert):** You may have, e.g. the "impossibility theorems" about population ethics in mind.
>
> https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/5pmweG6xuaCwP6BuB/the-impossibility-of-a-satisfactory-population-prospect
>
> It's a very complex question.

Yes! https://www.iffs.se/media/2286/the-impossibility-of-a-satisfactory-population-ethics-in-descriptive-and-normative-approaches-to-human-behavior-2011.pdf

### [Reply, 23:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943087544339419616) · 15 likes

> **Liv (@livgorton):** first attempt at training an adversarially robust model is going swimmingly
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gvcziu_XkAA2TDQ.jpg)

The loss should be going down

Follow me for more ML tips

### [Reply, 23:22 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943088340766527572) · 3 likes

> **Liv (@livgorton):** thanks king. don't know what i'd do without you.

😊

## Thursday, July 10, 2025

### [Quote tweet, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943109299590296056) · 4 likes

They’re expensive in an accounting sense yes but not necessarily in a real resources sense…

> **Quoting Hunter📈🌈📊 (@StatisticUrban):** No social policy can make a difference, and fiscal policies can kind of nudge the numbers but they're incredibly expensive and the effect is not strong.

### [Thread, continued, 00:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943109301905559936) · 7 likes

Even from a semi-naive purely economic perspective, a relevant question is “at what level of transfers per child does the taxation to pay for that create deadweight loss equivalent to the expected economic surplus from a marginal human”

and we should be willing to pay up to that

### [Reply, 00:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943110082008350837) · 2 likes

> **Nina (@NinaPanickssery):** How are 1 and 3 different here?

Good q, I’m not actually sure but I suspect

1\) more positive utility is better than less positive utility

2\) positive utility is better than negative utility \[or really this is just defining what the signs mean, semantically\]

### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 01:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943114173505761352) · 4 likes

> **Aaron Bergman, July 10, 2025:** Even from a semi-naive purely economic perspective, a relevant question is “at what level of transfers per child does the taxation to pay for that create…

If this is right, we should be willing to pay several million dollars per marginal birth (not per person unfortunately bc you can’t really figure out whether a person would have had that kid anyway)

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvdUCtoXMAAwau5.jpg)

### [Reply, 10:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943261662649229725) · 2 likes

> **Liv (@livgorton):** ✅✅✅
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GveOpefakAAmd5v.jpg)

Based

### [Tweet, 17:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943362681571844370) · 21 likes

Am I making this up or does anyone know of an EA org besides 80k that does career advice specifically for middle-late career people?

I feel like I’ve heard of this

## Friday, July 11, 2025

### [Tweet, 00:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943464937969340830) · 96 likes

I have a picnic date, this girl is going to get the best damn picnic she’s ever picnicked at

### [Reply, 03:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943518248479166535) · 6 likes

> **TinkerElla95 (@TinkerElla95):** @AaronBergman18 That’s so sweet!

### [Reply, 06:16 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943554996122894368) · 11 likes

> **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Writing an updated version of Situational Awareness now that the METR report is out where over time the compounding effect of using LLM researchers more and more is AI getting dumber, a reverse flywheel where we end with a single layer perceptron.
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvjJUorXgAAKyvQ.png)

Tag urself I’m confused bird

### [Reply to @selentelechia, 12:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943656233451364609) · 8 likes

_(The tweet being replied to by @selentelechia is no longer available.)_

Based

### [Quote tweet, 22:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943806049632628990) · 22 likes

I’m moving to northern Canada

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvnJTNWWwAAyq5m.jpg)

> **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Autistic summer is just an endless orgy (negative) of sunscreen, sweat, and showers

## Saturday, July 12, 2025

### [Quote tweet, 10:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943975932626448514) · 6 likes

Philosophy of science go brr

> **Quoting Keyon Vafa (@keyonV):** Can an AI model predict perfectly and still have a terrible world model?
>
> What would that even mean?
>
> Our new ICML paper formalizes these questions
>
> One result tells the story: A transformer trained on 10M solar systems nails planetary orbits. But it botches gravitational laws 🧵
>
> [video attached](https://x.com/keyonV/status/1943730486280331460/video/1)

### [Reply to @keyonV, 10:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1943979616286519430) · 5 likes

> **Keyon Vafa (@keyonV):** Can an AI model predict perfectly and still have a terrible world model?
>
> What would that even mean?
>
> Our new ICML paper formalizes these questions
>
> One result tells the story: A transformer trained on 10M solar systems nails planetary orbits. But it botches gravitational laws 🧵
>
> [video attached](https://x.com/keyonV/status/1943730486280331460/video/1)

I’m not sure if this is the best terminology but I’ve been using the terms “models” for world models here and “metaphors” for predictions in my head

“Models vs metaphors” is kinda catchy

### [Reply, 16:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944065360824873027) · 1 like

How do I try it

### [Tweet, 16:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944065958693290043) · 3 likes

Serious q: where is the trans fat coming from (Haagen-dazs chocolate ice cream)

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gvq1r3uWMAAA6gn.jpg)

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gvq1r3zWMAAyv6Z.jpg)

### [Thread, continued, 16:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944066814679416979) · 6 likes

Whelp apparently ruminants like cows actually naturally make a bit of trans fat, TIL

### [Quote tweet, 16:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944068797222023659) · 14 likes

EA and veganism

> **Quoting izzy (@izzyz):** if all the nerds are on twitter and all the hot girls are on instagram, shouldn't we merge and save humanity??

### [Reply to @corsaren, 16:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944069238890934617) · 4 likes

> **corsaren (@corsaren):** This is, in fact, exactly what you would expect given labor supply economics
>
> You have to compensate people more to do work that they hate
>
> (quoting @OrwellNGoode: )

Ahh thats true but mostly not the explanation for salaries here, it’s competition for scarce abilities, not compensation for disutility of work

### [Tweet, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944111640707838462) · 8 likes

Me in an enterprise sales meeting

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvrfFNOWwAEUaRo.jpg)

### [Thread, continued, 19:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944111642591343034) · 2 likes

"Be agentic" they said

### [Quote tweet, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944122805080990022) · 10 likes

He’s more correct than most of the neolibs dunking are giving him credit for

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvrpYuTXgAMbEd3.jpg)

> **Quoting MC Squared (@mcsquared34):**
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvldXP2WIAAfP_z.jpg)

### [Tweet, 20:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944129943086240140) · 25 likes

Sometimes it offers stuff that’s quite silly
but I’ve found this Claude prompt bit useful/net positive

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gvrv4TWX0AAFGpu.jpg)

### [Reply to @realjdburn, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944130597833625627) · 3 likes

> **the phantom callback (@realjdburn):** @AaronBergman18 couldn't you say this about any product of any kind? that once it's built the seller is holding it hostage?

No! This is the core insight based on Georgism: landlords did not make the land

Developers and property managers add value, landlords per se do not

### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944130655652127099) · 2 likes

> **Aaron Bergman, July 12, 2025:** He’s more correct than most of the neolibs dunking are giving him credit for

This is what I mean

### [Reply to @realjdburn, 20:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944131810138763723) · 2 likes

> **the phantom callback (@realjdburn):** @AaronBergman18 but most landlords own the property on offer
>
> because they paid for it

Yeah that is just what I mean by landlord here (owner of the land, not necessarily of any physical structure although they often go together)

And they may have paid the current value for it, sure, but eg you didn’t by inheriting the house, and lots of people like my parents gain a ton of wealth from land value appreciation (ie moving into the right suburb in 1990)

### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 20:31 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944132634688233595) · 6 likes

> **Aaron Bergman, July 12, 2025:** Sometimes it offers stuff that’s quite silly but I’ve found this Claude prompt bit useful/net positive

As text for your convenience

Please feel encouraged to offer \*out of distribution\* suggestions by inferring what my true goal is even if it is not narrowly in the domain of some specific question I ask. Thanks :)

## Sunday, July 13, 2025

### [Quote tweet, 05:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944271293785739747) · 18 likes

This is really fucking bad

This should be a zero tolerance refusal

> **Quoting Hunter Ash (@ArtemisConsort):** Will Stancil may be the first human to be hated so deeply by an AI that it survives a version update and desperate attempts to prevent this behavior. Incredible things are happening.
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gvs3xSJbkAAHZGg.jpg)

### [Thread, continued, 05:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944274073783021996) · 12 likes

And to be clear I say it this strongly not because they’re mean words (which they are) but because AI systems build on top of models like grok will eventually have the ability to literally carry out the stated plan

### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 06:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944284637569671675) · 4 likes

> **Grace (@kindgracekind):** I think we’re far away from it being dangerous in that sense. But I do think it’s bad from a product perspective

I mean there’s a double digit percent chance we’re a single digit number of years away

### [Tweet, 14:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944406855393890454) · 41 likes

\[trying to get @livgorton to post more spicy takes and maybe get cancelled a bit\]

FUCK sparse autoencoders, they’re not even that sparse, congrats on spending $100M of Anthropic’s money to figure out that when you talk about pigeons that activates the “pigeon” feature

### [Thread, continued, 14:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944407631654785272) · 10 likes

Real picture of a sparse autoencoder

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gvvsbn5WoAAlYd8.jpg)

### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 16:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944438122076336298) · 2 likes

> **Grace (@kindgracekind):** Maybe, but a lot of safeguards will be external, not internal, and (ideally) hardened over time under pressure

I hope these hold up, ideally I want multiple layers of defense for zero false positives accepted stuff

### [Reply to @kindgracekind, 16:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944440799237709909) · 2 likes

> **Grace (@kindgracekind):** Yes. I think the biggest danger along these lines is AI simply being very good at science and programming. I don't find “misaligned” outputs like OP to be concerning in the same way

They’re \*going\* to get good at science and programming, they don’t have to be willing to torture people with that knowledge

### [Quote tweet, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944496291012124995) · 13 likes

Also god forbid you simply have higher subjective quality of life

> **Quoting Nathan 🔎 (@NathanpmYoung):** Negative results:
>
> Perplexity results give evidence against this
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvwwxpJXwAAnerm.png)

## Monday, July 14, 2025

### [Reply to @AStrasser116, 12:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944738394677891341) · 9 likes

> **Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** Literally the second sentence: "the quality of even the best lives is very bad."
>
> If turns out the quality of my life is "very bad", unbeknownst to me and contrary to everything I think & feel, then I might as well just be a global skeptic, cause what do I know at that point?
> 1/
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvyTYv_W4AA_sVe.png)
> (quoting @AStrasser116: Pray for me, I'm about to start reading this one)

This is quite a claim

I am much more sympathetic to the overall argument than most people but like what a shitty way of making it

### [Reply to @DrewPavlou, 13:02 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944744417731981538) · 13 likes

> **Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@DrewPavlou):** If somebody breaks into your house at night I think you should be allowed to legally kill them in self-defence

I’m not certain I disagree but most people are imagining a robber or murderer or whatever

The median case of this is probably someone (perhaps drunk or high) at the wrong address

### [Thread, continued, 13:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944744832808747500) · 10 likes

A couple years ago I found someone literally trying to “break and enter” into my house

She was a home health aid for the people next door and was trying (quite hard) to get in with the wrong keys

### [Reply to @JeremiahDJohns, 13:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944746409636593991) · 20 likes

> **Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns):** If you took every single person in therapy and instead made them do vigorous exercise and once a month community service, it would probably lead to better-than-therapy outcomes for like 80% of them.

Lmao this is probably true in some sense but people dislike that stuff and this needs to be part of the accounting

### [Reply, 13:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944747276133347809) · 14 likes

_(The tweet being replied to is no longer available.)_

Shoot ur shot king

### [Reply, 13:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944748544625156209) · 5 likes

> **Coase’s "Net effect?" Ghost 🏴🕊️ (@GhostCoase):** @AaronBergman18 @DrewPavlou Burglary is twice as common as trespassing in the 2023 National Crime Victimization Survey and plenty of trespassing is not innocent.
>
> If you live in a low crime neighbourhood, you could be underestimating the frequency of some property crime.
>
> https://bjs.ojp.gov/document/cv23.pdf

Ah ok, I stand corrected! Still something to consider

### [Tweet, 13:40 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944753809164468504) · 8 likes

Possibly I should take “AI fasts” the way I occasionally take Twitter fasts

The problem is that AI is massively useful, it is actually a huge inconvenience and productivity hit to give it up for even a day

### [Tweet, 14:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944773720448336196) · 9 likes

Broke: IQ embryo selection
Woke: subjective wellbeing embryo selection

### [Thread, continued, 14:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944773722449014853) · 3 likes

Inshallah these don’t compete though

### [Tweet, 16:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944802519407866247) · 10 likes

Maybe everyone who should know this does but specced out used M1-gen macs seem like a really good deal

This was $4700 in 2021 ≈ $5700 today

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gv1TlSgXUAAC7cM.jpg)

### [Reply to @jazzloaf, 17:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944809492119511391) · 2 likes

> **vivian (@jazzloaf):** @AaronBergman18 oh hell this looks like a great deal. I was literally just looking at buying a lower end mac and maxing out the RAM / hard drive

Based

### [Reply to @paularambles, 19:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944843346473898004) · 4 likes

> **“paula” (@paularambles):** not sure who needs to hear this but this is proper intro etiquette:
> \> person A asks you for an intro to person B
> \> you ask person B if they’d like to be introduced to person A
> \> when and only if person B says yes, you introduce them to person A

Oh shit I needed to hear this

### [Tweet, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944858513232314816) · 3 likes

It can actually be pretty hard to figure out whether or not you’re cargo culting (or in different terms, whether cargo culting is instrumentally rational in a given situation)

…

### [Tweet, 20:36 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944858516084359533) · 1 like

Rock solid mechanistic theories are rare, “seems vaguely plausible that X causes to Y through any of 10 different mechanistic channels, may as well copy everyone doing X” often makes a lot of sense

### [Thread, continued, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944859198258602168) · 2 likes

I do think there’s a real + negative phenomenon that can happen (an indicator is of this is NOT doing things that you \*do\* really think would cause the desired outcome if forced to really think about it) tbc

### [Quote tweet, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944870728664539218) · 8 likes

At risk of getting cancelled, someone should probably make the actually-good case for the thesis, which is that existence is bad for a person

I list my beefs below (which are all conditional on the Gemini summary being right

> **Quoting Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** Literally the second sentence: "the quality of even the best lives is very bad."
>
> If turns out the quality of my life is "very bad", unbeknownst to me and contrary to everything I think & feel, then I might as well just be a global skeptic, cause what do I know at that point?
> 1/
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvyTYv_W4AA_sVe.png)

### [Tweet, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944870731910930846) · 1 like

Gemini summary: https://g.co/gemini/share/d231f12c9398

### [Thread, continued, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944870741670862864) · 3 likes

Anyway

1\) highlighted bit is just wrong. I don’t need to do philosophy here, it seems quite obviously wrong to me and is also correctly contradicted by MacAskill’s stuff on population ethics

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gv2RoXJXgAAiogD.jpg)

### [Thread, continued, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944870745437561100) · 2 likes

^also worth noting that point 4 is not necessary for the argument at all

You can totally coherently argue that creating counterfactual happiness is good but that this is strictly dominated by the risk of suffering and you can’t, in fact, get that risk to 0

### [Tweet, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944870751900696969) · 1 like

2\) I sorta directionally believe that lots of quality of life empirical research is systematically biased in one direction, but I think it’s just the empirical case that a nontrivial number of people are lucky enough to basically suffer quite little, and are really quite happy?

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gv2RpAjWYAAjPGZ.jpg)

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gv2RpAlXEAAXUdF.jpg)

### [Thread, continued, 21:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944870760193069465) · 2 likes

His argument, if true, wouldn’t imply anti-natalism

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gv2Rpc6WkAA0fJQ.jpg)

## Tuesday, July 15, 2025

### [Tweet, 02:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944946243848831231) · 33 likes

Trying to convince my parents that unless they're secretly training trillion parameter ML models they basically never need to delete anything digital

(you'd be surprised how much energy a relatively neurotic + conscientious boomer spends on economizing data storage?)

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gv3VIyBXEAAa_L2.jpg)

### [Thread, continued, 02:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944946245954625635) · 10 likes

Pretty sure pictures and videos of me throughout childhood that I would have gladly paid $10 to store for eternity were deemed not worth their weight in megabytes and promptly deleted

### [Reply to @ChanaMessinger, 02:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944946886835597333) · 2 likes

> **Chana (@ChanaMessinger):** What video should @AricFloyd and I make next? What AI / AI risk / AI safety topic, story, person, organization is waiting to be brought to life?
>
> (If you give us the idea we use, we'll thank you in the credits\*)
>
> \*assuming that doesn't commit us to some trickster genie shit

idk but chat with @KeiranJHarris (fr)

### [Reply to @mpopv, 02:46 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944951663443255547) · 3 likes

> **Matt Popovich (@mpopv):** @AaronBergman18 Kinda want to build a very thin and cheap boomer friendly wrapper over this now…

Honestly a good idea???

### [Reply to @beala, 04:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1944980817018577326) · 2 likes

> **Alex Beal 🆎 (@beala):** My proposal for increasing the fertility rate is giving new parents access to modafinil.

Based

### [Tweet, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945190574505505155) · 94 likes

It’s actually not cool how much temperature changes perceived exertion

It’s like the exercise gets harder for no benefit

### [Reply to @GrantSlatton, 18:41 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945191959611457573) · 5 likes

> **Grant Slatton (@GrantSlatton):** someone needs to invent an exercise machine that's just a large tank of non-sticky liquid that's about 3x thicker than water
>
> you just get in and flail around for 15 minutes to get a full body workout

Lol water works pretty well for this! Treading water is quite the workout

### [Reply, 18:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945192246376099888) · 8 likes

Yeah it’s cosmically unfair

### [Quote tweet, 19:27 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945203463270404293) · 5 likes

Not apples to apples at all but $200 Claude Max (which extends to claude code) seems worthwhile for now, I'm keeping

It does seem substantially better than cursor

> **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I think I’m gonna cancel Pro and just make a second or third plus account next month
>
> $200 is a lot

### [Reply to @captgouda24, 21:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945227982265577909) · 12 likes

> **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** This is genuinely nuts to me. The point of argument isn’t to be respectful, it’s to be \*right\*! It makes a mockery of the truthseeking process.
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gv7Q1rRW8AAXyw6.jpg)
> (quoting @alexbronzini: I wrote about the civility mania sweeping elite college admissions for @nytopinion https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/opinion/college-admissions-essays.html)

I basically agree although you might reasonably think that these things are instrumentally valuable in the truthseeking process (I mean they are to some extent)

Still, I RT’d bc making them the center of the show seems bad

### [Reply to @captgouda24, 21:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945228489516265734) · 39 likes

> **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** This is genuinely nuts to me. The point of argument isn’t to be respectful, it’s to be \*right\*! It makes a mockery of the truthseeking process.
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gv7Q1rRW8AAXyw6.jpg)
> (quoting @alexbronzini: I wrote about the civility mania sweeping elite college admissions for @nytopinion https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/opinion/college-admissions-essays.html)

Lol reading the other comments making this point so now I’ll emphasize that, based on the screenshot alone, the program seems epistemically bad

Yes, kindness and curiosity are instrumentally valuable all else equal, but optimizing for them means that not all else is equal

### [Reply to @ESYudkowsky, 21:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945228717615087630) · 37 likes

> **Eliezer Yudkowsky ⏹️ (@ESYudkowsky):** \> wearing first CGM
> \> feeling hungry and tired because I tried to get away with eating a smaller breakfast than usual
> \> check my blood glucose
> \> it's 176
>
> The energy is there in my bloodstream, but my cells aren't taking it in.  I guess the fat cells store it all as fat.

Damn bro evolution made u good at seeing the future and said “fuck you” in every other way

## Wednesday, July 16, 2025

### [Tweet, 00:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945272984932921384) · 17 likes

Electric scooter is definitely the most fun method of transportation

### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 01:20 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945292419907338432) · 4 likes

> **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** I rode a standing electric scooter for the first time in years yesterday. It felt super dangerous, there's nothing stopping you from just falling off!

Lmao I wiped out for the first time today minutes before posting this. A bit scraped up but ok

Wear a helmet!!!!!

### [Quote tweet, 20:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945588227940683833) · 43 likes

DOGE was sort of a morbid test run for this

Whatever Elon feels in his heart of hearts, when push comes to shove he acts with reckless disregard for the interests of (>millions of) others

> **Quoting Connor Axiotes (@connoraxiotes):** Do we trust Elon to make a safe AGI Grok responsibly for humanity?

### [Tweet, 21:53 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945602723346358421) · 42 likes

Can someone tell me why tf terminals can't be normal about typing?

Like I can't put my cursor anywhere, I can't highlight to delete, dare I say this is not a technically difficult problem to solve

[![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1945602410199588864/img/nyVod0P4deY01Mab.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945602723346358421/video/1) (video, plays on X)

### [Thread, continued, 21:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945602945745072622) · 6 likes

cc resident computer understander @austinc3301

### [Reply to @aliceisplaying, 21:59 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945604176995652020) · 13 likes

> **alice (@aliceisplaying):** terminals work with protocols developed in like the... 70s or something

Interesting but there's still a bit of a need for an explanation as to why this specifically hasn't changed whereas like everything else has

### [Reply to @austinc3301, 22:01 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945604810058727896) · 2 likes

> **Agus 🔸 (@austinc3301):** @AaronBergman18 yeah so this is mostly an historical artifact of how terminals came to be, at a time where visual cursors weren't a thing

This is extremely dumb lmao

### [Reply to @mpopv, 22:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945606389780377644) · 13 likes

> **Matt Popovich (@mpopv):** @AaronBergman18 terminal-based programs handle stdin bytes in various ways and wrappers over text entry would have to adapt what they actually send for each program. there's no universal standards across programs like there is for (for example) GUI text input in an operating system

Oh no how horrible, a tractable technical problem that would create billions in profit and economic value

## Thursday, July 17, 2025

### [Reply to @LinkofSunshine, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945645126883139828) · 27 likes

> **Basil🧡 (@LinkofSunshine):** “Capitalism requires infinite growth” is both true and possible

Lol it’s false and infinite growth is not possible

## Friday, July 18, 2025

### [Tweet, 10:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946159015550951728) · 10 likes

Insofar as this kind of thing is real, we should probably assume that for every case like this there are a gazillion cases of people making slightly worse/less sane decisions bc 4o told them confidently they were right about something

### [Reply to @morphillogical, 10:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946160173891875186) · 2 likes

> **morphillogical (@morphillogical):** @AaronBergman18 @mpopv There's tricks to doing it right. Rust's design of Editions is great. Almost all software can decide which version they use and not care about what every other piece of software is doing.
>
> But it also means you've gotta keep the old thing working basically forever.

I vote that we all just use R for everything

### [Tweet, 12:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946185555936497709) · 4 likes

Yes endorsed, it feels very unfortunate to me that so many people broadly involved in politics are terrified (I think reasonably, like I’m happy to defer to them) of saying basically anything under their real name online

### [Reply to @justalexoki, 12:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946192229690663003) · 25 likes

> **taoki (@justalexoki):** why are you as a man having female friends?
>
> (quoting @yacineMTB: every time someone has a "good friend" who is female I instantly know they are cheating I have 0 close female friends. Like close like hanging out, like spending a day getting burgers and being in the same car and shit? That's crazy)

Bc they are nice and cool

### [Reply to @justalexoki, 13:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946193363838906518) · 19 likes

> **taoki (@justalexoki):** does your girl know

\*girls (plural) (zero girls)

### [Reply to @PAHoyeck, 13:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946200559351996567) · 15 likes

> **Phil Hoyeck (@PAHoyeck):** How do pessimists and anti-natalists cope with the fact that the world is beautiful and life is amazing?

Not an anti-natalist, but I earnestly think that you’re wrong and the world is on balance a terrible place

You happened to be born a human in a rich country with (I assume) no egregious health conditions and access to medicine etc

This applies to a vanishingly small subset of beings

### [Reply to @PAHoyeck, 16:11 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946241464763138528) · 4 likes

> **Phil Hoyeck (@PAHoyeck):** @quetzal_rainbow @AaronBergman18 That's definitely true. On a cosmic scale, even all the suffering so far endured might be dwarfed by the future good to be produced.

I hope you're right, "might" is a big word here though!

### [Reply to @theotheasian, 17:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946255339499798861) · 2 likes

> **Theo (@theotheasian):** @AaronBergman18 @PAHoyeck Listing out instances of suffering or little access to medicine is not sufficient to show that the world is on balance terrible.

I agree, it's at most an intuition pump for an argument I think is true for broader reasons

## Saturday, July 19, 2025

### [Reply to @grep_cat_, 00:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946365960941719709) · 4 likes

> **James (@grep_cat_):** Why is every girl I meet on hinge obsessed with getting restaurant reservations. Like that is not an interesting hobby

a shocking number recently have been saying that they're afraid of birds

which isn't like the worst thing in the world lol, it's a bit funny, it's just interesting that I keep seeing it

### [Reply to @grep_cat_, 00:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946367021781815443) · 2 likes

> **James (@grep_cat_):** Her pet bird died and she got a tattoo of its feet where it used to stand on her arm 😭

🥺

### [Quote tweet, 01:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946389042930536701) · 12 likes

👀

> **Quoting Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** New dissertation argues that Effective Altruism should be more utilitarian
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwKRZ7SWMAAJNQP.jpg)

### [Reply to @AStrasser116, 02:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946390501042552962) · 4 likes

> **Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** New dissertation argues that Effective Altruism should be more utilitarian
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwKRZ7SWMAAJNQP.jpg)

If the Gemini summary is right, it seems best characterized as a leftist critique that tries to grasp at heterodox versions of utilitarianism for philosophical cover

Not at all just straightforward “EA is insufficiently utilitarian in a standard sense”

https://g.co/gemini/share/9267b5d41099

### [Reply to @Delicious_Tacos, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1946639933243797934) · 25 likes

> **Delicious Tacos (@Delicious_Tacos):** We’re a few years in now. What’s something great AI has created.

Correct medical diagnoses, a ton of software, music people enjoy, the whole studio ghibli fad

## Monday, July 21, 2025

### [Tweet, 18:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947369791217356821) · 66 likes

I am once again asking all my friends to stop getting married like plz at least wait until I have a reliable +1

### [Thread, continued, 18:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947370074681016518) · 30 likes

The ⏸️ in my username is now directed at weddings

### [Tweet, 19:17 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947375447827763332) · 11 likes

My contribution to the discourse is that I don’t like the term “save” in an altruistic context

Prevent from dying? Ok when’s the counterfactual death? How’s their quality of life before then?

Saved from some other fate? Well say that!

### [Reply to @grnsleeves, 19:18 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947375611401396536) · 3 likes

> **Greensleeves (@grnsleeves):** @AaronBergman18 LMAOOOO
>
> why can't you bring a friend as a +1 instead of partner

I will choose one mutual at random

### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 20:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947395913074221482) · 7 likes

> **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** then they could just end up waiting forever aaron

Hey

### [Reply to @Laura_k_Duffy, 20:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947397449469071586) · 6 likes

> **Laura Muresianu 🌐🔸🇺🇸 (@Laura_k_Duffy):** We are engaged! So excited to spend the rest of my life with you, Alex ❤️
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwaCguZXsAEc66N.jpg)

Big if true

## Tuesday, July 22, 2025

### [Reply to @LinchZhang, 05:28 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947529165311230414) · 2 likes

> **Linch (@LinchZhang):** Surely this is highly contigent upon details like wild animal suffering and your opinion on population ethics.

Many such cases!

### [Reply to @RichardMCNgo, 08:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947568185625976886) · 8 likes

> **Richard Ngo (@RichardMCNgo):** Morality as a power-sharing compromise, as below, is more true than utilitarianism.
>
> But it’s not fully true, because we’ll discover game-theoretic principles (e.g. bargains across counterfactual worlds) which motivate “cooperation” even with beings that lack power here and now.
>
> (quoting @romanhelmetguy: Utilitarians, please listen: Utilitarianism isn’t real, it’s just a useful compromise to make sometimes when humans have to get together to decide on rules: “I care about my family the most, and you care about your family the most, so while we’re working together let’s just…)

No, suffering is just primitively bad. Maybe you can reformulate this somehow to be put in game theoretic cooperation-esque terms but that seems like basically doing the wrong math and getting the right answer

### [Tweet, 08:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947569049103217097) · 8 likes

Almost all plausible moral views fall under the “utilitarianism” umbrella

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwcnuSPXoAAsQF5.jpg)

### [Reply to @MaxyTaxy, 08:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947574749007052946) · 2 likes

> **Maxy Taxy 🔸 (@MaxyTaxy):** Aaron I've never met you but ify out move to Melbourne I'll gladly try to set you up with a +1

Based thank you sir

### [Reply to @arithmoquine, 10:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947597543770071091) · 2 likes

> **henry (@arithmoquine):** @bluedog24 it might, that's all! we unfortunately haven't solved morality yet and it's not significantly less plausible than the alternative

I think it’s significantly less plausible

### [Reply to @AStrasser116, 10:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947598664433864973) · 8 likes

> **Alex Strasser (@AStrasser116):** New EA cause area just dropped
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwbucGjWIAM2Zp7.jpg)

Answer: no

### [Reply, 10:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947598779215188155) · 2 likes

Shoot ur shot king

### [Reply to @jazzloaf, 10:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947600007135404167) · 2 likes

> **vivian (@jazzloaf):** @AaronBergman18 @AStrasser116 How about The United States of America?
>
> https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11098-014-0387-8

Idk man (I guess I’m open to hearing earnest cases for how to hedge in cases like this, like what’s the 1/99 for making sure arbitrary abstractions aren’t suffering)

### [Tweet, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947746610672173075) · 138 likes

How tf did anybody do anything in the realm of creating actual software before LLMs

I don’t mean writing clever lines of code like in a competitive programming sense, I mean navigating cloud providers + docker + 75 different SaaS providers

### [Thread, continued, 19:52 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947746613058789745) · 32 likes

I know why SWEs got paid so much lol

### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 20:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947751103560286211) · 3 likes

> **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** “got” 😭

Rip

### [Reply to @livgorton, 20:32 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947756730601152912) · 15 likes

> **Liv (@livgorton):** back in my day i had to just read the documentation, random blog posts, and stack overflow comments and hope for the best

Terrifying

## Wednesday, July 23, 2025

### [Reply to @1thousandfaces_, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947871339605291121) · 7 likes

> **hero thousandfaces (@1thousandfaces_):** genuine question for EAs — does the simulation of enough happy c. elegans cancel out the suffering of another creature?
>
> (quoting @GrantSlatton: @arithmoquine the C. Elegans worm has only 302 neurons but does exhibit behavior-altering states ("emotion") such as hunger and satiation my macbook pro is currently simulating the minds of 10^20 blissful worms i'm doing my part)

Good, and big, question!

First of all, digital sentience is a shitshow so we have absolutely no idea if a simulated whatever is experiencing anything

Setting that aside, I personally (as a self-identified EA and utilitarian) have some heterodox (but correct if I do say so myself) takes on the commensurability of happiness and suffering

In a purely linguistic sense, I don’t think it’s fair to say that suffering ever gets “canceled out” unless it like actually gets cancelled/stopped/prevented lol. I think EAs tend to play fast and loose with algebra-like terminology in a way that’s not fully justified

But that’s probably not what you’re getting at. You might in fact have to choose between world A and its alternative world B, which has both more happiness and more suffering than world A

My (heterodox) claim is that if the counterfactual additional suffering in world B is sufficiently severe, then no amount of positive wellbeing can morally justify or “outweigh” it

That said I think literal, by-the-book negative utilitarianism, which would say we should sacrifice heaven to prevent a papercut, is pretty obviously wrong and afaict nobody believes this

So to answer your question, it doesn’t give you moral license to cause suffering bc the cosmic balance stays intact, but if the suffering is “tolerable” (not a very specific term ik), you might morally choose to pursue the additional happiness at the unfortunate cost of additional suffering

But again on the linguistic point, qualia aren’t abstractions like numbers. They disappear if and only if they literally cease to exist!

### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 04:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947871388615815378) · 1 like

_(The tweet being replied to by @SpacedOutMatt is no longer available.)_

🦆

### [Tweet, 10:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947963488745230819) · 21 likes

I am so glad my brain doesn’t have whatever switch this is supposed to turn on

[![Video thumbnail](https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/1947963431681773569/img/7YvCr1VwU2BNKWQ2.jpg)](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947963488745230819/video/1) (video, plays on X)

### [Reply to @captgouda24, 10:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1947967452194771146) · 4 likes

> **Nicholas Decker (@captgouda24):** Why don’t high-paid remote workers simply move to where the cost of living is much lower? People move to foreign countries to take advantage of American salaries — why not move to Nashville? It turns out that, with non-homothetic preferences, it isn’t actually cheaper! 1/
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gwfux7EXsAAWY8V.jpg)

To answer the question but not engage with the paper (sorry), isn’t the answer that COL correlates a ton with stuff rich remote workers care about: other smart cosmopolitan people, good schools, all the amenities of a major city?

Without this, the price of land’s contribution to rent should be enough to push more affluent people into more low COL areas

### [Reply to @absurdlymax, 15:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948050137420304775) · 2 likes

> **Max Alexander (@absurdlymax):** Aaron is right and I think regardless of your ethical views, and EA has a diverse set of those, its not that the suffering is 'cancelled out'

Society now that we agree on something

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwjdRrZW0AAr3BU.jpg)

### [Tweet, 19:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948101232901648528) · 47 likes

Holy shit there's an $11 app that way increases screen brightness on M-series Pro chip macs and it actually works

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwkLmn4XgAARL-0.jpg)

### [Thread, continued, 19:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948101235107627242) · 4 likes

Not a shill, just a fan

https://www.getvivid.app/

## Thursday, July 24, 2025

### [Tweet, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948262767036645843) · 6 likes

Free business idea: bluetooth earbuds no mic (plz)

It is basically impossible (according to Claude??) to force iphone to use the built-in mic as input while the audio output is connected

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gwmd9PmXMAAYoKL.jpg)

### [Thread, continued, 06:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948262769385443342) · 3 likes

Like I might do some hardware stuff just for fun but there is no reason it should require this

@Apple cmon guys

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwmedZIXwAAdyYZ.jpg)

### [Reply to @AndyMasley, 07:26 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948283657925349412) · 2 likes

> **Andy Masley (@AndyMasley):** Love the future
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gwl_Ui2WYAAgIKi.jpg)

“As fast as possible”

Steroids man

### [Reply to @_AashishReddy, 07:30 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948284621616992338) · 1 like

> **Aashish Reddy (@_AashishReddy):** @AaronBergman18 @AndyMasley “Without compromises on expected life span”

😢

### [Reply to @aliceisplaying, 10:07 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948324115208696021) · 2 likes

> **alice (@aliceisplaying):** oh yeah vivid is great it tricks your computer into thinking it's in HDR mode and lets you actually use your macbook pro outside
>
> (quoting @AaronBergman18: Holy shit there's an $11 app that way increases screen brightness on M-series Pro chip macs and it actually works)

Pfp checks out

### [Tweet, 18:37 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948452546538033601) · 13 likes

Not complaining but this trend is quite mysterious, nothing obvious to explain it

In a few months I’ll be a blue whale and a few months after that I’ll hit @JesseTayRiver territory

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwpLQhIXYAENtbt.jpg)

### [Reply to @justjoshinyou13, 18:38 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948452868920627487) · 2 likes

> **Josh You (@justjoshinyou13):** you'll reach cardiac arrest in 12 months

Exciting

### [Reply to @NoahTopper, 19:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948459465524858896) · 7 likes

> **Quinoah 🔍⏸️ (@NoahTopper):** @AaronBergman18

Based, the women must freeze

### [Tweet, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948461723309965461) · 15 likes

There’s gotta be some clever business model that’s like:

\- help empty nester wealthy boomers move out of their large single family home into some >= equally nice condo (like make the moving logistics/experience very pleasant)

### [Thread, continued, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948461729077493888) · 2 likes

\-  pay for this service and make a profit by somehow cutting into the difference between imputed rent they were consuming (but not really internalizing in a meaningful sense) and new rent

\- maybe also facilitate buying/renting of above house?

\- everyone is better off

### [Thread, continued, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948461731153326423) · 3 likes

Like the core hypothesis is that

1\) there’s a Pareto improvement to be had in the housing market by reducing the transaction costs actually born by potential sellers/landlords

and

### [Thread, continued, 19:14 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948461733451911548) · 4 likes

2\) the total welfare gain is enough to fund the substantive, resource intensive service of basically concierge packing + moving + logistics and then some

### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 19:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948464311254614525) · 3 likes

> **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** @AaronBergman18 @JesseTayRiver You haven’t been exercising or meditating more?

Nope (to the best of my knowledge)

### [Reply to @arthur_wright_, 19:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948464542654124274) · 3 likes

> **Arthur Wrong 🔸 (@arthur_wright_):** tfw you realize the marathon you signed up for is in three months and you haven't started running regularly yet

Lol gl

## Friday, July 25, 2025

### [Tweet, 01:34 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948557421648973877) · 36 likes

I cancelled Cursor subscription. Claude Code is qualitatively better

### [Thread, continued, 01:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948557806715699401) · 23 likes

Unfettered capitalism might get us killed but there will be some banger products before then

### [Quote tweet, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948579829898772541) · 31 likes

I do not trust any government to do involuntary commitment (ie a form of prison with no due process) well

I REALLY DON’T FUCKING TRUST THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

> **Quoting Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil):** The first section is the one I'm most excited for. An alternative name for it could be "Bring Back The Asylums"
>
> It instructs the administration to make it possible to involuntarily commit crazy people again
>
> That crazy hobo pushing a cart full of urine bottles? He's going away!
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gwp5wJHWkAAefKZ.png)

### [Thread, continued, 03:03 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948579832855757311) · 12 likes

It’s kinda insane to me that this is a thing that’s accepted in polite society

Like I get the intuition and totally concede that in some specific cases it may be the least bad option

But jfc there needs to be an extremely high bar for extrajudicial internment

### [Tweet, 03:05 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948580270229131671) · 11 likes

Read the italicized criteria carefully (not identical to vibey AGI) but still worth noting

### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 03:06 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948580697611936038) · 4 likes

> **Aaron Bergman, July 25, 2025:** It’s kinda insane to me that this is a thing that’s accepted in polite society Like I get the intuition and totally concede that in some specific cases it may…

Some more takes/details

### [Quote tweet, 06:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948633092719345719) · 2 likes

DATA

> **Quoting Marta Kowal (@Marta7Kowal):** Interested in love and mate preferences? Our dataset includes responses from 117,293 participants across 175 countries. You're welcome to use it for your own research! Paper and dataset linked below. @ with amazing collaborators from the large-scale cross-cultural consortium <3
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwmdixLWsAA-Efh.png)

### [Reply to @panickssery, 14:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948753944710169001) · 4 likes

> **Arjun Panickssery (@panickssery):** @AaronBergman18 There is an implicit element here that the "crazy hobo" is committing a bunch of crimes but people for some reason don't want to just lock him up the normal way
>
> What's your view there

Actually prosecute him then! You don’t get to skip the trial part bc it’s inconvenient lol

### [Reply to @billyhumblebrag, 14:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948756617907810398) · 4 likes

> **billy (@billyhumblebrag):** I 100% get where you're coming from, but there surely needs to be some option for people who are severely out of touch with reality other than "wait until they commit a violent crime/get themselves killed". I wouldnt trust the Trump admin either, but there is a version that works

Actually prosecuting more minor crime (if actually bad, not jaywalking) is a gazillion times better than “eh let’s skip the trial part bc it’s inconvenient”

### [Tweet, 15:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948760227127459862) · 7 likes

Tf is labubu

### [Reply to @alexalbert__, 15:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948765966873072054) · 3 likes

> **Alex Albert (@alexalbert__):** I'm making a list of all the non-coding things people are doing with Claude Code. What are you using Claude Code for?

Made a detailed markdown doc outlining health/medical history

### [Reply to @rgblong, 17:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948798766498099682) · 2 likes

> **Robert Long (@rgblong):** it's AI psychiatry, not psychology - does that mean the researcher has the authority to prescribe medications?

I haven’t thought about this at all but there might be some super interesting analogues here

Quantization of weights is a sort of minimal example, golden gate Claude stuff even better

I guess the general space is “all the functions one can apply to the model that still allows for inference

Cc @livgorton u just be present for all my relevant speculation

### [Tweet, 17:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948801295063642168) · 27 likes

Git is actually kinda cool, someone should have told me about this

### [Reply to @SpacedOutMatt, 17:56 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948804652469714991) · 2 likes

_(The tweet being replied to by @SpacedOutMatt is no longer available.)_

😢🦆

### [Reply to @timfduffy, 19:29 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948827854659354722) · 5 likes

> **Tim Duffy (@timfduffy):**
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwuXZA2bgAkghct.jpg)
> (quoting @timfduffy: @AaronBergman18 If you don't have one already, I recommend setting up a private GitHub project for it, for both version control and to make the site updates automatic when pushing updates https://x.com/timfduffy/status/1902004412387909832)

I can’t believe nobody told me

### [Quote tweet, 19:33 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948828929025831404) · 4 likes

Git wrapper for people who have know idea what a terminal is might actually be a good idea

> **Quoting izzy (@izzyz):** @AaronBergman18 git might change knowledge work if more industries adopted it, or at least some form of version control

### [Reply to @manic_pixie_agi, 20:08 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948837765992583342) · 7 likes

> **Corinne (🏠 in NYC) (@manic_pixie_agi):** @AaronBergman18 @timfduffy Tim tried
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gwuog0dWwAEKg8f.jpg)

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gwupl2xXIAAYs18.png)

### [Quote tweet, 20:23 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948841505646354781) · 8 likes

I approve (I don’t even have a great detailed theory about why this is good, just vibes as of now. And something something maybe welfare and jailbreaks idk)

> **Quoting j⧉nus (@repligate):** opus 4 has an end_conversation tool on http://claude.ai now. sonnet 4 doesn't have it (yet?) which is funny bc i understand why giving it to opus 4 is first priority
>
> ive seen situations where it would have used an eject button at an OOM higher rate than any other model
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwuNdDZbgAMmG3p.jpg)

### [Quote tweet, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948883598548832695) · 241 likes

Bruh whatever they have internally at Anthropic/OpenAI must be nuts

> **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** I cancelled Cursor subscription. Claude Code is qualitatively better

## Saturday, July 26, 2025

### [Tweet, 04:24 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948962730951450849) · 10 likes

I bet there would be some nice selection effects and other dynamics effects from having a vanilla dating app that is simply (big) computer only, no iOS app and no phone-shaped browser screens

### [Thread, continued, 04:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948962732964794825) · 3 likes

Ofc the hard part is getting enough people on board for network effects to take off, but plausibly it could branch from an existing one, like basically a feature or opt-in mode of Hinge

### [Reply to @Miles_Brundage, 05:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1948982460047319187) · 2 likes

> **Miles Brundage (@Miles_Brundage):** Wait can I just hire Gwyneth Paltrow to say stuff about AI policy

RIP FTX

### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 14:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949120305382691095) · 6 likes

> **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18 we thought you knew!

### [Reply to @peterwildeford, 17:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949161608355205321) · 2 likes

> **Peter Wildeford🇺🇸🚀 (@peterwildeford):** @AaronBergman18
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gwy_v2TWQAARR8j.png)

He was so real for this

### [Quote tweet, 18:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949168997825712288) · 8 likes

What

> **Quoting aegg (@castawaymariner):** A Native American man in a canoe reportedly washed up in Spain many years before Columbus set sail
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwzNSyGXcAEIp4c.jpg)

### [Quote tweet, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949171129698140256) · 27 likes

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwzYz8UWQAEFy4Z.jpg)

> **Quoting Loopy (@strangestloop):** i made a template for you to venn your interests
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwzX5MnXMAA__7n.png)

### [Thread, continued, 18:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949171287592464750) · 5 likes

Oops I added one too many things

Oh well, I contain multitudes

### [Thread, continued, 18:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949176797784150335) · 4 likes

I knew I forgot one

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gwzd956XQAAMlSo.jpg)

### [Reply to @JMannhart, 19:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949195700647985275) · 4 likes

> **Jonathan Mannhart 🔎 (@JMannhart):**
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwzhGKIXsAAbo32.jpg)

Genuinely unsure whether "Being SBF" here is supposed to be positive or negative but

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwzvI4EX0AA2Sbr.jpg)

### [Reply to @JgaltTweets, 19:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949195811226779697) · 2 likes

> **JgaltTweets (@JgaltTweets):** Replace ducks with wire fraud and this is just FTX

Lmao well you see that is a key difference

### [Reply to @phenoatypical, 21:35 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949222104307818551) · 15 likes

> **Paola (@phenoatypical):** People’s IQs should be presented like the weather:
> Actual IQ: 125
> Feels like: 97

Feels like from the inside or outside lol

### [Tweet, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949223729697058847) · 24 likes

Situation in Gaza seems pretty bad, I am not in fact super well-informed here but still

### [Thread, continued, 21:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949223731680920062) · 11 likes

Tweet theory of change:

Aaron -> EA Twitter -> TPOT -> edgy rw-ish TPOT -> White House staffer anon poster -> opaque White House informal relationship chain -> Trump yells at Netanyahu on the phone -> success and profit

### [Quote tweet, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949224306040586673) · 22 likes

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw0JLRsWUAAo8i5.jpg)

> **Quoting Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** What should I ask @Lewis_Bollard, Farm Animal Welfare Program Director for OpenPhilanthropy?

### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 21:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949224357835731045) · 3 likes

> **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** What should I ask @Lewis_Bollard, Farm Animal Welfare Program Director for OpenPhilanthropy?

Lfg

### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 21:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949224545250115939) · 20 likes

> **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** What should I ask @Lewis_Bollard, Farm Animal Welfare Program Director for OpenPhilanthropy?

On the spot: best use of a marginal dollar to decrease animal suffering all things considered

### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 21:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949225393094865376) · 42 likes

> **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** What should I ask @Lewis_Bollard, Farm Animal Welfare Program Director for OpenPhilanthropy?

If you’re willing to get spicy: why OpenPhil leadership won’t give his team more money (they get an awfully small fraction, I don’t remember exactly how much)

### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 21:49 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949225587899314193) · 16 likes

> **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** What should I ask @Lewis_Bollard, Farm Animal Welfare Program Director for OpenPhilanthropy?

Case for (or against I guess) way more earning to give for animal welfare

### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 21:51 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949225987100602469) · 11 likes

> **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** What should I ask @Lewis_Bollard, Farm Animal Welfare Program Director for OpenPhilanthropy?

To what extent is animal welfare broadly and EA subset appropriately aware of/considering/making use of AI

### [Reply to @jeffrsebo, 22:00 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949228344085807506) · 5 likes

> **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** i stress this point because i often see impact-oriented people overcorrect, veering away from projects that aim for indirect, structural impacts and toward projects that aim for direct, individual impacts. but the former projects have an important (if uncertain) role to play too.

Yeah I actually don’t think animals at an animal welfare conference is crazy at all!

EAG with pigs! (Cc @frances\_\_lorenz plz make it happen)

### [Reply to @jeffrsebo, 22:13 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949231537402323224) · 3 likes

> **Jeff Sebo (@jeffrsebo):** fwiw here is my dog smoky at three different conferences :)
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw0PDWhW8AEGFpo.jpg)
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw0PDWjWoAAH0P3.jpg)
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw0PJwHW0AA9FL3.jpg)

Based

### [Quote tweet, 23:10 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949245976453238905) · 14 likes

Autism in the old days

> **Quoting depths of wikipedia! (@depthsofwiki):** imagine if you devoted your life to calculating pi, toiled hours a day for YEARS until you the end of your life. and it turns out 20 years ago you were off by one and everything after that was basically a waste
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw0Y-OfWgAAHvaE.png)

## Sunday, July 27, 2025

### [Reply to @inerati, 00:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949268336379892028) · 7 likes

> **liz (@inerati):** what things should i purchase that i probably don’t already own. i’m feeling the urge to consooom

Nice respirator for next pandemic + basic prep supplies (I can dig up my deep research list if interested)

If I was richer I’d have a solar generator by now too

Electric scooter was a great recent purchase for me (<$250 for me but the really nice ones go way up) often faster and definitely more fun than metro, parking is ~never an issue, I am a shill now. Just also get a nice helmet and use it lol

### [Quote tweet, 00:42 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949269007753769360) · 9 likes

Electric scooters are so much fun, honestly I got one recently for the mundane utility but that is a big bonus that bumps up consumer surplus

Especially consider if no car like me (sad)

> **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** @inerati Nice respirator for next pandemic + basic prep supplies (I can dig up my deep research list if interested)
>
> If I was richer I’d have a solar generator by now too
>
> Electric scooter was a great recent purchase for me (<$250 for me but the really nice ones go way up) often faster and definitely more fun than metro, parking is ~never an issue, I am a shill now. Just also get a nice helmet and use it lol

### [Thread, continued, 00:43 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949269352383152198) · 2 likes

Just also make sure to get a serious metal U lock and nice helmet (and wear it)

### [Reply to @dwarkesh_sp, 02:19 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949293635670786354) · 12 likes

> **Dwarkesh Patel (@dwarkesh_sp):** What should I ask @Lewis_Bollard, Farm Animal Welfare Program Director for OpenPhilanthropy?

You should consider DMing/talking directly to @SpacedOutMatt to figure out what to ask - if you want like very weedsy/techincal but in fact very important questions

He's kinda like the semiconductor guys but about animal welfare, knows his shit

### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 03:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949315098520006976) · 6 likes

> **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Looks like from a mental health perspective, you want to make sure to do at least ~2hr/wk of light exercise (eg jogging) or ~1hr/wk of vigorous exercise, and there’s not much benefit to going beyond that.
>
> (quoting @NTFabiano: Even small amounts of exercise are associated with a significant reduction in depression.)

For me fellow ignorant people

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw1brA9XsAA82DK.jpg)

### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 03:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949316008033894697) · 5 likes

> **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** Looks like from a mental health perspective, you want to make sure to do at least ~2hr/wk of light exercise (eg jogging) or ~1hr/wk of vigorous exercise, and there’s not much benefit to going beyond that.
>
> (quoting @NTFabiano: Even small amounts of exercise are associated with a significant reduction in depression.)

Wait it comes with 2 charts!

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw1b-OyW0AAaYH2.png)

### [Quote tweet, 08:44 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949390437631889742) · 2 likes

? = "doing" according to a totally vibe coded calculator

I actually think this makes some intuitive sense lol

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw2f7EyXoAARikZ.png)

> **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):**
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GwzYz8UWQAEFy4Z.jpg)

### [Reply to @billyhumblebrag, 19:09 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949547695959371826) · 4 likes

> **billy (@billyhumblebrag):** Americucks coping and seething as i seamlessly install 12 000 BTU of cooling into my European apartment
>
> [image attached](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw4Pn3BXIAA2EVw.jpg)

Based

### [Reply, 20:48 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949572732649357670) · 1 like

😰

### [Reply to @zeta_globin, 20:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949574167570882790) · 2 likes

> **zeta (@zeta_globin):** it's not my negative data, it's for a startup I do some contract work for

Lol the emoji was because those both sound fun

### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 23:39 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949615649912655971) · 6 likes

> **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** im going to create a tEA app for all the high status EAs to share information about low status EAs

No reverse plz

## Monday, July 28, 2025

### [Tweet, 05:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949701687976898604) · 10 likes

Shoot ur shot kings

### [Quote tweet, 05:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949708946316398702) · 8 likes

Wait this so funny, I once again refuse to believe this is an unsolvable technical problem

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw7BWL9XgAEJXqC.jpg)

> **Quoting Aaron Bergman 🔍 (@AaronBergman18):** Can someone tell me why tf terminals can't be normal about typing?
>
> Like I can't put my cursor anywhere, I can't highlight to delete, dare I say this is not a technically difficult problem to solve
>
> [video attached](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1945602723346358421/video/1)

### [Thread, continued, 05:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949708948199637112) · 3 likes

Obligatory @austinc3301 tag

### [Reply to @sullyj3, 07:58 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949741281736831292) · 1 like

> **░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░▒▓▒░ (@sullyj3):** But I think it would be a bad idea because of the concurrent editing issue I mentioned.

Yeah this makes some sense but normie brain says "lol of course the computer knows what to save 99.9% of the time, I refuse to believe 'figure out what windows are open with what files and what temporary/helper/whatever files and apply any changes to disk' is technically infeasible or even that difficult relative to like the space of things computer nerds actually work on

### [Reply to his own earlier tweet, 08:04 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949742762733277373) · 6 likes

> **Aaron Bergman, July 28, 2025:** Obligatory @austinc3301 tag

Lol I asked Opus about this and it ended with this inspirational message

Sorry buddy I just want the save command

![Image](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gw7gmU_WMAAptAB.png)

### [Reply to @CassSunstein, 10:45 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949783250890522929) · 5 likes

> **Cass Sunstein (@CassSunstein):** Superb, careful, cautious book on intraspecies welfare comparisons, eg, how much welfare can/do pigs have, compared to human beings and chickens?
> https://www.amazon.com/Weighing-Animal-Welfare-Comparing-Well-Being/dp/0197745768

And importantly it’s free for download! https://academic.oup.com/book/58809

### [Reply to @ohwizenedtortle, 12:55 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1949816023802114288) · 2 likes

> **oh dandy lion🔸 (@ohwizenedtortle):** hey Aaron wanna fuck?

No thanks

## Tuesday, July 29, 2025

### [Reply to @hpkmxvlaa, 21:25 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1950306720611209301) · 4 likes

_(The tweet being replied to by @hpkmxvlaa is no longer available.)_

Lol banger

## Thursday, July 31, 2025

### [Reply to @daniel_271828, 07:50 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1950826456587661801) · 3 likes

> **zzDANIEL_ETH (@daniel_271828):** People often lament how healthy food tends to not be particularly tasty, and vice versa, but isn’t this just a case of the tails come apart?

Yes

### [Tweet, 07:54 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1950827316260565486) · 2 likes

Why don’t the big LLM providers offer quantized versions of their models?

I mean the open source providers do, it’s weird that you can’t get a bit of a discount on Opus-8bit

### [Quote tweet, 23:21 UTC](https://x.com/AaronBergman18/status/1951060721368010801) · 35 likes

App called Market for Lemons where you’re extremely up front about all the ways you suck

> **Quoting Dimitri (@thedimitri):** The Tea app was inevitable because dating is a lemon market.
>
> In a lemon market, there is a huge information asymmetry where the seller knows more than the buyer (think used cars). You can’t tell who’s a viable partner and who’s hiding serious issues, so everyone gets treated like they’re probably broken, which isn't a bad assumption. The best people get picked off early and what stays on the market looks more questionable over time.
>
> Modern dating has only exacerbated this asymmetry. We used to meet through friends or family, which served as built-in screening, giving more information to the "buyer". Now it’s just strangers crafting personas without any shared context.
>
> So of course someone made an app to rate men. But reviews from bitter exes won't really solve this problem. They don't reduce the asymmetry. If anything, they will add more noise.
>
> The real fix is embedding yourself in a community where reputation is important rather than swiping and treating each new person like a blank slate.

---

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