Latest blog posts and notes by Chris Zombik.https://chriszombik.com/en-ushttps://chriszombik.com/posts/against-superintelligence/https://chriszombik.com/posts/against-superintelligence/Lmao I am so mad about this: [Embedded media: AI Futures 2025 Update Headline clip.png] This post is a sequel to the infamous AI 2027, which, if you weren't aware, seeks to simulate how AI will either bring about a utopia or destroy the world by 2027. I am not here to comment on whether AI is Bad.…Wed, 31 Dec 2025 18:38:32 GMThttps://chriszombik.com/posts/notes-on-the-elden-ring-dlc/https://chriszombik.com/posts/notes-on-the-elden-ring-dlc/Introduction I am a big fan of the 2022 video game Elden Ring. In addition to having beaten the game pretty comprehensively before, I have watched easily 500 hours of gameplay videos on YouTube (mostly speed runs and challenge runs). This game is an obsession so central to my life that I have not f…Sat, 29 Jun 2024 21:43:07 GMThttps://chriszombik.com/posts/too-much-generative-not-enough-ai/https://chriszombik.com/posts/too-much-generative-not-enough-ai/The AI Hype Is Real In the wake of the release of GPT-4, hype around “generative AI”—that is, AI that makes “stuff” (images, music, text, code, etc.)—has gone mainstream. Lots of non-technical people (including me!) are now rightfully excited about the prospect of AI writing blog posts or generatin…Tue, 18 Apr 2023 07:00:00 GMThttps://chriszombik.com/posts/can-ai-do-my-job-yet-a-fearless-investigation--part-2/https://chriszombik.com/posts/can-ai-do-my-job-yet-a-fearless-investigation--part-2/What is “my job”? I. Job Title If you look at my Tinder bio, it says I’m a “Writer.” If you ask me in person, I’ll tell you I’m a writer, too. And, now, that you’ve asked, we might talk about what I’m writing. I’m editing my first novel, I’ll tell you. But mainly right now I’m working on a memoir.…Mon, 03 Apr 2023 07:00:00 GMThttps://chriszombik.com/posts/can-ai-do-my-job-yet-a-fearless-investigation--part-1/https://chriszombik.com/posts/can-ai-do-my-job-yet-a-fearless-investigation--part-1/“AI is coming for our jobs”? When image-generating AI tools like Dall-E, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney started to attract attention last summer, many people bemoaned (or observed with wry irony) that “art”—once considered the single human activity robots would never be able to emulate—seemed sud…Fri, 31 Mar 2023 07:00:00 GMThttps://chriszombik.com/posts/boskone-60/https://chriszombik.com/posts/boskone-60/Like a lot of young people in the COVID-cautious states, my social life came to a near standstill. I had been living in Shanghai for almost five years before this point, and through an accident of timing found myself back together with two parents, an adult sister, two dogs, and a cat, in my parent…Thu, 16 Feb 2023 08:00:00 GMThttps://chriszombik.com/posts/frequently-asked-questions/https://chriszombik.com/posts/frequently-asked-questions/I frequently ask questions. Usually Google gives me an answer, but sometimes it doesn’t. I assume this happens not because my questions are groundbreaking, but because they are poorly worded due to my limited knowledge of the subjects involved. I’ve put a few of my questions below. If you happen to…Sun, 29 Jan 2023 05:00:00 GMThttps://chriszombik.com/posts/year-of-self-love-postscript/https://chriszombik.com/posts/year-of-self-love-postscript/I would say that the Year of Self Love was a resounding success. It would be difficult to succinctly describe why this was the case. You will have to take my word for it. Mainly, I made huge strides in improving my mental health thanks to dedicated therapists and effective medications. Also, I do y…Sun, 01 Jan 2023 05:00:00 GMThttps://chriszombik.com/posts/the-beatles-get-back/https://chriszombik.com/posts/the-beatles-get-back/This post contains substantial spoilers for Get Back on Disney+. As a person who rarely watches TV, it was very weird to observe myself being drawn irresistibly towards Get Back, the recent Disney+ documentary about the Beatles. I liked the Beatles fine but they held no truly special meaning for me…Fri, 28 Jan 2022 05:00:00 GMThttps://chriszombik.com/posts/year-of-self-love/https://chriszombik.com/posts/year-of-self-love/It is already January 11, but I don't feel like 2022 actually began for me until at least January 6. Now that the crunch time for college applications has passed and I've returned to something like the normal daily schedule that I intend to stick to for the foreseeable future, it seems like a good…Tue, 11 Jan 2022 05:00:00 GMThttps://chriszombik.com/posts/what-ive-learned-in-thirty-years-on-planet-earth/https://chriszombik.com/posts/what-ive-learned-in-thirty-years-on-planet-earth/INTRODUCTION I turned thirty today and decided to take my best friend's advice and write up some lessons I've learned. Most of these are responding to experience from my twenties. Some disclaimers before you dive in: - I have a bit to say about money but I am in no way a financial professional, so…Fri, 12 Nov 2021 05:00:00 GMThttps://chriszombik.com/posts/strategies-for-opposing-capital/https://chriszombik.com/posts/strategies-for-opposing-capital/I think a relatively small percentage of people worldwide are strongly ideologically committed to defending capital. That is, I believe in my heart that most people would agree we shouldn’t let corporations and rich people run roughshod over others and the environment with absolute impunity. This b…Mon, 26 Apr 2021 04:00:00 GMThttps://chriszombik.com/posts/taking-new-age-thinking-seriously/https://chriszombik.com/posts/taking-new-age-thinking-seriously/I am responding in large part to this article, the thesis of which is most clearly articulated in the conclusion way at the bottom (I skimmed the middle sections with all the math because I found them superfluous). You should skim it as well and get the gist before moving on. Contrast the thesis of…Tue, 30 Mar 2021 04:00:00 GMThttps://chriszombik.com/posts/what-can-we-learn-from-the-money-nerds/https://chriszombik.com/posts/what-can-we-learn-from-the-money-nerds/[Embedded block] Going to college, I expected to make friends with fellow nerds. That was pretty much the part of college I was most looking forward to. What I found, on arriving, however, was that there were entirely new (to me) kinds of nerds, beyond the ill-defined handful I had met in high scho…Wed, 06 Jan 2021 05:00:00 GMT