What’s the story here? The who and the why and the ‘huh?’ of The Big Answer
Note: if you’re not the kind of person that likes to read and learn, this whole website and model isn’t for you. I’m well aware there’s more text on this website than people are used to. Thanks!
The Who: I go by Somebody On The Internet. I don’t like arguments from or against authority. I don’t have a background in philosophy. I know that if I did I would have approached this topic like everyone else and wouldn’t have come up with something unique, so that’s a good thing. Going forward, I might be seen as an authority on this model, but I don’t want to be. So my ‘pen name’ was chosen to reinforce that I’m no one special now, nor do I want to be in the future. The Big Answer (TBA) stands solely on its own merits, which is what every such model should do IMHO. Unfortunately, the topics covered on this website tend to attract a lot of big egos, so I just want to make sure I’m not associated with that. Because TBA is totally based on logic and reason and evidence, as opposed to someone’s assertions which stand solely on their ability to project authority, I hope for it to become something that belongs to humanity as a whole and can be collaborated on to refine the model, its definitions, application, etc to better and better match reality. So the answer to ‘who’s this dude behind TBA?’ is - it doesn’t matter. I’m just somebody on the internet. I’ve grabbed that domain as well, where I’ll have some more of my thoughts that go outside of topics related to The Big Answer. This is not a website where I push my own agenda or share my own thoughts and feelings, everything talked about will strictly be viewed from the standpoint of TBA
What’s with the logo and all the lightbulbs?
The logo is an “answer mark”. It’s basically a completed question mark, which then looks kinda like a lighbulb, which is cool because the lightbulb is a general symbol of having an epiphany, so it totally works. It's also big, so,ya know...The Big Answer Mark. Hence the design for the logo and also the reason for using lightbulbs as images everywhere. I also couldn't think of what else to use as images, I'm not creative that way.
What’s the goal and who is the target audience?
Normally this kind of topic is aimed at helping people solve all the problems of their life - get rich, lose weight, find the partner of your dreams, etc. My target audience is more academics, especially those working in fields that affect many people's lives - government, law, education, environment, business, economics, farming, etc. My goal isn't to write best-selling books, though I will be writing some books and if they're popular, great. My bigger goal is to have the model of TBA tought in college and university programs as just something humans know and is generally useful. Of particular, personal interest is artificial general intelligence, which gets its own special block of text next. Before we get there, though, I believe people are pretty good at acheiving the qualities of TBA in their lives already, within the limits of their circumstances - its the circumstances that I'm hoping to change through better application of this model in crafting society. Right now, it's hard to find time for spiritual pursuits, friends and family, exercise, it's hard to find good, healthy products and food etc. By focusing on the people working on the framework of society, I'm hoping that we can change our system to one where all these things become the norm, the baseline, the easiest thing to do. That's a reality I would love to help create.
Artificial General Intelligence
It's a well-known problem in the field of artificial intelligence that we don't know how to make an AI that is safe and benevolent. An AI trained on TBA would achieve that goal. Critically, it could actually come up with solutions and ways of living and modeling society etc that might be far outside of what humans have come up with, but which humans would almost unanimously be happier with than anything we've come up with (with no coercion or brainwashing or whatever). It's my belief that humans carry a lot of evolutionary baggage - insincts and reactions and preferences that served our ancestors well, but which prevent us from acheiving higher levels of existence and cooperation. If all we did was try to instill our own subjective preferences into an AI, it would have all the same limitations and biases we have. It may be happy to continue destroying the planet to service our collective greed for example. Whereas an AI programmed with TBA would look for ways where people could thrive as a species, as individuals, and as part of our ecosystem in a way that benefits other life as well. I would be very interested to collaborate with those in the field of AGI to see how an AGI could be trained on TBA.