The theories of "Galaxy Brain" that seem to explain everything are often the most dangerous universal excuses.

Written by: Zhixiong Pan

Vitalik's article published a few weeks ago, "Galaxy Brain Resistance," is actually quite obscure and difficult to understand, and I haven't seen a good interpretation, so I'll give it a try.

After all, I saw that Karpathy, the creator of the term Vibe Coding, also read this article and took notes, so there must be something special about it.

First, let's talk about what Galaxy Brain and Resistance mean in the title. Once you interpret this title, you'll have a general idea of what the article is about.

1️⃣ The Chinese translation of Galaxy Brain is "银河大脑," but it actually comes from an internet meme, similar to the image of (🌌🧠) merged together, which you must have seen.

Initially, it was a positive term used to praise someone's ideas as brilliant, meaning smart. However, as its usage became widespread, it gradually turned into a form of irony, roughly meaning "overthinking, logic is too convoluted."

Here, Vitalik refers to 🌌🧠 specifically as the behavior of "using high intelligence for mental gymnastics to force unreasonable things into seeming reasonable." For example:

• Clearly laying off employees to save money, yet insisting it's "to provide high-quality talent to society."
• Clearly issuing worthless tokens to exploit investors, yet claiming it's "empowering the global economy through decentralized governance."

These can all be considered "Galaxy Brain" thinking.

2️⃣ So what does Resistance mean? This concept can easily become confusing, but in popular terms, it can be likened to "the ability to avoid being led astray" or "the ability to avoid being deceived."

Thus, Galaxy Brain Resistance should be understood as Resistance to [becoming] Galaxy Brain, meaning "the ability to resist (evolving into) Galaxy Brain (nonsense)."

More accurately, it describes how difficult it is for a certain style of thinking/argumentation to be misused to "prove any conclusion you want."

So this "resistance" can be directed at a certain "theory," for example:

• Low Resistance theory: With just a little scrutiny, it can evolve into extremely absurd "Galaxy Brain" logic.
• High Resistance theory: No matter how you scrutinize it, it remains unchanged and is difficult to evolve into absurd logic.

For instance, Vitalik says that the ideal social law should have a red line: it can only be prohibited when it can be clearly explained how a certain behavior causes harm or risk to specific victims. This standard has high Galaxy Brain resistance because it does not accept vague or infinitely stretchable reasons like "I subjectively dislike it" or "it's morally corrupt."

3️⃣ Vitalik also provides many examples in the article, even using theories we often hear about, such as "long-termism" and "inevitabilism."

"Long-termism" is very difficult to resist the erosion of 🌌🧠 thinking because it has extremely low resistance; it's practically a "blank check." Because the "future" is too distant and too vague.

• A high-resistance statement: "This tree can grow 5 meters in 10 years." This is verifiable and not easy to fabricate.
• A low-resistance "long-termism": "Although I am about to do something extremely unethical (like eliminating a portion of people or starting a war), this is for humanity to live a utopian life 500 years from now. According to my calculations, the total happiness in the future is infinite, so the sacrifices made now are negligible."

You see, as long as you stretch the timeline long enough, you can justify any current wrongdoing. As Vitalik said, "If your argument can justify anything, then your argument justifies nothing."

However, Vitalik also acknowledges that "the long term is important." What he criticizes is "using overly vague, unverifiable long-term benefits to overshadow clear current harms."

Another major area of concern is "inevitabilism."

This is also a favorite defense mechanism in Silicon Valley and the tech circle.

The rhetoric goes like this: "AI replacing human jobs is an inevitability of history; even if I don't do it, others will. So my radical development of AI is not for profit, but to follow the historical trend."

Where is the low resistance? It perfectly dissolves a sense of personal responsibility. Since it's "inevitable," I don't need to be responsible for the damage I cause.

This is also a typical Galaxy Brain: packaging the desire of "I want to make money / I want to gain power" as "I am executing a historical task."

4️⃣ So what should we do in the face of these "traps of smart people"?

Vitalik offers a surprisingly simple, even somewhat "foolish," antidote. He believes that the smarter a person is, the more they need high-resistance rules to restrain themselves and prevent their mental gymnastics from going awry.

First, adhere to "deontological ethics," which are the moral ironclad rules at a kindergarten level.

Don't try to calculate complex math problems like "for the future of all humanity"; return to the most rigid principles:

• Do not steal
• Do not kill innocent people
• Do not commit fraud
• Respect the freedom of others

These rules have extremely high resistance. Because they are black and white, there is no room for negotiation. When you try to use the grand principles of "long-termism" to explain why you are misappropriating user funds, the rigid rule of "do not steal" will slap you in the face: stealing is stealing; don't talk about it being for a great financial revolution.

Second, hold the correct "position," even including physical location.

As the saying goes, "where you sit determines what you think." If you are constantly in that echo chamber in the San Francisco Bay Area, surrounded by people who are all about AI accelerationism, it will be hard to stay clear-headed. Vitalik even gives a physical high-resistance suggestion: do not live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

5️⃣ Summary

Vitalik's article is actually a warning to those exceptionally smart elites: just because you have a high IQ, don't think you can bypass simple moral bottom lines.

The theories of "Galaxy Brain" that seem to explain everything are often the most dangerous universal excuses. In contrast, those seemingly rigid, dogmatic "high-resistance" rules are the last line of defense against self-deception.

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。