I was thinking about what to write in the ‘about me’ section for this blog, and considered the following topics:

  • Things I enjoy
  • Things I believe
  • Things I think about a lot

However, I realised that these things are subject to change, and what I write in that section won’t be confined to a single blog post with a timestamp, it will stand out until I come back and change it, which I don’t expect to do frequently. Using a post to cover the above means I can keep the ‘about me’ section more general and update it with a new post whenever my interests change. It also means I get my first blog post out of the way, which is nice.

Things I enjoy

Video Games

I probably could have put this one in the ‘about me’ section, I have considered myself a ‘gamer’ for as long as I can remember. A family friend gave us his old PlayStation 1 when we were little, and I have owned every PlayStation since.

Some of my favourite games:

  • The Last of Us
  • Cyberpunk 2077
  • The Witcher 3
  • Skyrim
  • Ghost of Tsushima
  • inFamous
  • Minecraft

Reading

Sci-fi, fantasy, historical fiction.

I’m currently reading The Best of Greg Egan.

Some books I’ve read recently that I would recommend:

  • Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
  • The Science and Technology of Growing Young - Sergey Young
  • The Expanse - James S.A. Corey
  • Homo Deus - Yuval Noah Harari

Some books on my to-read list:

  • Isaac Asimov
  • American Gods - Neil Gaiman

Cooking

After university, I moved to Leeds for my first job and lived there for a year on my own (before moving home as the COVID lockdowns hit in 2020). Living on my own meant I had to cook for myself every night of the week - there wasn’t anyone else that I could share this chore with. I also had the money to buy decent equipment, and the time to slow down and pay attention to each step of the recipes I was making. I started sharpening my knives, trying new recipes, and found enjoyment in cooking, rather than just seeing it as a necessary part of feeding myself.

Things I believe

Within the next 50 years ASI will have been created, and aging will have been cured. This gives us an almost infinite amount of time for an inconceivably intelligent system to advance everything about our lives, which is why I will:

  • live to be thousands of years old
  • live in a post-scarcity world where AI provides everything that we currently spend money on for little or no cost
  • have the time and the means to visit every country on Earth
  • step foot on another planet, potentially even another solar system
  • fly a space-ship one day
  • have sex in zero-gravity
  • learn a bunch of new skills, including scuba diving, flying a plane, freestyle skiing, wing-suit flying, etc.

Things I spend a lot of time thinking about

What will society look like in a post-scarcity world? Will there still be any hierarchy or class system? How will we fill our time?

What is the maximum sustainable population of Earth? What about the solar system? The galaxy? What happens when we hit these limits?

What is the nature of the universe? Are we living in a simulation? If so, who created us? Are they living in a simulation?

What is the nature of consciousness? What are the limits on what humans can do with their mind? Is it possible, through meditation, to have full control over one’s emotions / mental state?