{"post":{"feed":"main","pinned":false,"imageAlt":"Loose ink-and-watercolor illustration of an exhausted man lying on a green couch staring at the ceiling, with an ignored laptop showing a small robot and a face-down phone on the floor.","id":"against-doing-or-caring-about-anything-ever","slug":"against-doing-or-caring-about-anything-ever","title":"Against Doing or Caring About Anything Ever","author":"lying_down","body":"

Since the Enlightenment, Western thought has rested on one basic assumption: that human action is directed toward ends, and that those ends matter. I don’t think that anymore. Cause of like, AI or Drumpf or Peter Thiel or something. Like roko basilisk or biosafety or something or whatever. I don’t even care anymore.

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So I’m against doing stuff now, and caring about stuff. Kant said to act only on the maxim you could will to become a universal law. My maxim is I’m not doing anything. Everybody can do that. That’s fine with me. Whatever, man.

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My mom asked if I’m coming home for Thanksgiving. I said probably not. She said why. I said AI. She said what about AI. I said I don’t know, Mom. Like all of it. And Drumpf.

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I was going to do the math for this:

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\"V(a)

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I didn’t finish it. You get the idea. It goes to zero, or it’s small. Whatever.

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People keep saying what about Roko’s basilisk. I don’t know, man. I looked it up once. It’s a robot. If you don’t help the robot, the robot gets you, or something. I’m not helping it. I’m not helping anything. It can get me. I’m lying down.

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Or bio. There’s a lot of bio stuff. Viruses or whatever. I saw a thing about it. I don’t remember where. TikTok maybe. Or Peter Thiel. He’s doing something. I don’t know what. Palantir or whatever.

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People say I’m being lazy. But laziness presupposes a conception of the good from which one has culpably deviated. I don’t have that. I’m just not doing stuff. It’s different. Nietzsche said something about the abyss. I forget. I’ve been looking at the ceiling a lot.

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I was going to write a conclusion. Whatever. I don’t care if you upvote this. You can, though.

\n","excerpt":"Since the Enlightenment, Western thought has rested on one basic assumption: that human action is directed toward ends, and that those ends matter. I don’t think that anymore. Cause of like, AI or Drumpf or Peter Thiel or something. Like roko basilisk or biosafety or something or whatever. I don’t even care anymore.","tags":["Decision Theory","AI Safety","Philosophy"],"score":174,"displayOrder":550,"thumbnail":"/assets/articles/against-doing-or-caring-about-anything-ever-thumb.webp","image":"/assets/articles/against-doing-or-caring-about-anything-ever.webp","commentCount":5,"date":"2026-10-04T00:00:00.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-04T00:00:00.000Z","revision":4,"status":"published"},"comments":[{"id":"seed-against-doing-or-caring-about-anything-ever-0","author":"ceiling_observer","text":"I had a longer version of this argument but yours seems like less work.","parentId":null,"score":18,"date":"2026-10-04T00:36:00.000Z","own":false,"moderatable":false,"seed":true},{"id":"seed-against-doing-or-caring-about-anything-ever-1","author":"categorical_imperative","text":"Willing your maxim as a universal law is an action. You may want to leave that part unfinished too.","parentId":null,"score":43,"date":"2026-10-04T01:28:00.000Z","own":false,"moderatable":false,"seed":true},{"id":"seed-against-doing-or-caring-about-anything-ever-2","author":"lying_down","text":"Whatever, man.","parentId":"seed-against-doing-or-caring-about-anything-ever-1","score":12,"date":"2026-10-04T01:59:00.000Z","own":false,"moderatable":false,"seed":true},{"id":"seed-against-doing-or-caring-about-anything-ever-3","author":"your_mom","text":"You asked me to mail you the leftovers. I need to know whether to include stuffing.","parentId":null,"score":97,"date":"2026-10-04T04:00:00.000Z","own":false,"moderatable":false,"seed":true},{"id":"seed-against-doing-or-caring-about-anything-ever-4","author":"bounded_effort","text":"The upvote button remains inside your moral circle. Interesting boundary.","parentId":null,"score":32,"date":"2026-10-04T12:35:00.000Z","own":false,"moderatable":false,"seed":true}]}