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simulation capture

What

Simulate a bunch of folks (myself, friends, acquaintances, writers like Scott Alexander), and be able to talk with them. Then let them talk to each other.

Aka: Simulation capture; LLM echo chamber;

Why

  • Unlock the inherent bottleneck in individual humans only having 24h a day (like Amarallys clones from Worth the Candle)
  • Reduce communication costs. E.g. Before drafting a message to Scott, can talk with his clone first
  • Formalize the nature of internet text communications/Manifest invite pathway where you get to know your idols via what they write
  • Help myself remember folks, stay in touch, outsource relationships to a network

How

  • Collect data
    • Ideally: Point a website/blog/corpus/Twitter/LW into the thing and it pulls out a bunch of text examples
    • Or: Starting point of personal notes? (like, my Notion?)
  • Turn into LLM: finetuned model (or a giant prompt to start)
  • Let people chat with them, Character.AI style
  • Let them intermingle

Consider

  • Essential nature of a person is more than just what they write?
    • Relationships to others
    • Interests, tastes, what they read
  • Where will an LLM fall short? How to augment/fix that?
    • Initiative
    • Long term planning
    • Or: How to lean into strengths of LLM (eg always available)
  • Difference contexts between private notetaking, public comments, DMs

Inspirations

Personal, LLM-augmented sites

Freely mixing

Concepts

  • Worth the Candle: Nachless (formed from writings)
  • “The Jesus that you simulate in your head is real”, from Emmett Shear

Other notes