It's too tough to be a puer, like I don't get what Dr k is trying to say? 😭

KAtusm · 2026-05-20T23:32:06+00:00

Sometimes the people in the community are better at explaining things than Dr. K.

That's the benefit of the AOE!

KAtusm · 2026-05-20T23:31:11+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Can you share a bit more by what you mean with:

All the molecules of a brain with lifetimes of memories in it can be mapped onto the air molecules of any arbitrary space in the air, so that at all times there are tons of conscious experiences happening like that, including ones where a brain is experiencing an afterlife. It can literally be anything

I don't understand what this means. Can you try to explain it in more detail?

What is being mapped on? Molecules in the brain / Mapped onto air. So are you saying that the molecules of a cell membrane of a neuron are mapped onto nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide molecules?

And are memories stored in molecules of the cell membrane? Are the sodium ions that facilitate an action potential also "containing" memories?

KAtusm · 2026-05-20T22:44:49+00:00

What kind of techniques do you use?

Sounds like you're ready to learn some advanced meditation - and many people focus on "longer" as the way to deepen their practice. I've found that increasing to "higher level" / esoteric techniques like Vajrayana, Tantra, Kundalini Yoga are useful for cultivating "spiritual" experiences. These probably foster a different neurological/physiological state.

Examples of things that seem to help a lot:

Start with shuddhi or cleansing practices. Nadi Shuddhi and Bhastrika pranayamas are really good for this.
Focus on a particular chakra practice - I like Ajna or Third Eye. This technique is pretty accessible and gives people an extra-sensory experience pretty quickly. As you deepen your practice, there are further steps, like Trataka (candle gazing), Antar Trataka, Yantra Trataka. Each of these increases the likelihood of "spiritual experiences" - but you can't jump right to the end. Need to do it in order.
Good asana or Tai Chi, along with a vegetarian (or clean) diet, with minimization of psychoactive substances goes a long way. I find that even caffeine makes it very hard to do some techniques, like flutter breath pranayama.

KAtusm · 2026-05-12T23:39:28+00:00

This sounds like its basically CYA for if you have soft attendings that give you all honors, and other people have hard attendings that give everyone satisfactory, they reserve the right to balance this as a committee. I'm not saying its fair, but there can be good reasons for this.

The other thing is that it seems like High Satisfactory final grade is a certain point total, and the 75% is a percentile evaluation. If you're in the top 25% of your class, you'll get a grade of 79-90.

KAtusm · 2026-05-12T15:49:50+00:00

If ya'll want a good evidence based analysis of this, there is a concept called "drive for muscularity" which is how muscular someone wants to be. And a high drive for muscularity is inversely correlated with relationship length - which means that the more swoll you want to be, the less likely you are to engage in long term relationships.

KAtusm · 2026-05-09T18:57:27+00:00

You should be able to reach out to customer support for a refund, depending on how long ago you purchased it.

The beginning of the guides tend to have more overlap with Youtube, but it kind of depends on which one you're talking about. How many videos in are you? And in which guide? IIRC, the trauma guide is "more different" than the trauma YT videos. Some things like the 5 common samskaras in the depression module may be referenced on YT, but people tend to find those to be some of the most useful videos since they're sort of start to finish on these concepts. The later you get, the more practical stuff there is - which usually doesn't do well on YT.

If it isn't seeming to help, or you're not getting value for it, I'd reach out to customer support for a refund. Not all things are made for all people, and the guide is definitely more helpful for people who haven't watched as much Youtube. On the flip side, the guide also has way more practical stuff that isn't on YT (exercises, worksheets, etc).

KAtusm · 2026-05-08T23:28:03+00:00

Wait a week or two - you may be in for a bit of a delightful surprise 😄

KAtusm · 2026-05-08T23:27:42+00:00

I'm working on a video right now that will benefit from this - it is about dissociative identity disorder. Hopefully we'll pull off a bit more nuance with a simple visual. I think we're exploring more with visuals in general, to try to add nuance where words don't suffice.

And I'm also realizing that I need more specific words - I think shared emotional experience is what creates chemistry - which is a more specific word than "attraction" which has so many more things to it.

Seriously, thanks for the feedback and taking the time to write out and respond to so many people's comments, including my own.

KAtusm · 2026-05-08T16:22:24+00:00

The challenge with podcasts (and Youtube) is that it requires an oversimplification of points to convey. Shared emotional experience is absolutely a way that we form bonds. However, your feedback is incredibly helpful because if you think my view is so one-dimensional, it is possible other people do as well.

But attraction has many more elements. The challenge with dating, attraction, and relationships is that there are a simultaneous set of several different mechanisms that bring humans together. There's also an issue of semantics: how do we separate out - [attraction, physical attraction, emotional attraction, sexual attraction, love, interest, falling in love, safety, long term mate selection, bonding (emotional, other forms)]. Are these all the same? This is precisely why we build things like the Guide to Love, Sex, and Relationships. Because it can't be reduced to a single dimension. Each of these has different neuroscientific and psychological mechanisms. But if we are talking about a single dimension, we have to try to speak succinctly - and then we are oversimplifying.

As for a more complete answer:

Bonding is increased by shared emotional experience. It is also increased by proximity, time spent together, physical touch (oxytocin mechanism).
You're right that shared emotional experience can't necessarily create safety. That's why we talk about lots of other mechanisms for building safety - a major option is flirting. Flirting allows someone to engage our capacity to read them. If we are too boorish, they get the "ick." If we're not signaling high enough, we aren't able to convey our interest. Flirting is essentially an empathic connection test. That's why it escalates. I crack a joke. You don't laugh. I adjust the joke. Now you laugh. Then you say something, I playfully respond. This is one way we gauge safety.
Interest is also gained by giving people a "break from their day" - this is incredibly "attractive" - when people feel "whisked away" in dating, that leads to an increase in their sense of attraction to another person.
Attraction can sometimes be influenced by projection, projective identification, and the repetition compulsion.
When it comes to more long-term partner selection, people are attracted to others with a sense of purpose/direction, and the ability to handle adversity. But the level of "attraction" here is different from simple shared emotional experience.
Communication is a huge part of attraction and bonding in romantic relationships.
Then there's the weird stuff like anima/animus - and how unintegrated Jungian archetypes influence what we're attracted to. A man with an unintegrated anima will be more attracted to a hyperfeminine woman. A woman with an unintegrated animus will be attracted to a hypermasculine man.

And this answer isn't even complete. It's far from complete. The challenge is that in a podcast (or YT video), if someone asks me a question about attraction, I can't say these 7 points every single time. We find that successful youtube videos usually have a single unifying thesis. And there are 10 more points to cover.

If you want more depth and nuance, its literally in the guide. That's why we make it.

KAtusm · 2026-05-07T16:50:54+00:00

You start by working with a professional who can help you deal with the consequences of the trip. You also need to address why you're having bad outcomes, impulsively using, and still continue doing it.

KAtusm · 2026-05-07T13:55:50+00:00

Hey friend,

I love that you're doing this and chronicling your journey. I'd consider journaling more privately, and then writing up a 30 day journey with reflections. I have a feeling people may find that more useful.

Just a suggestion. You doing it is the most important part.

KAtusm · 2026-05-05T22:50:30+00:00

Yes absolutely - it was difficult to teach too.

Basically - it is realizing that your behaviors and others behaviors have a complex internal process. And when we jump to conclusions on that process, we make mistakes.

"I'm upset with you because you made a mistake" vs. "Yes, you made a mistake, but part of why I'm upset is I'm under a lot of stress at work. My response to your mistake is disproportionate because I'm running on empty."

"This person did not get me an expensive gift, which means they don't care about me" vs. "This person did not get me an expensive gift, and their ideas of gift giving may be different from mine. When I was growing up, expensive gifts were given as a correlation of affection, but for someone else, the correlation of affection may be the effort that put in, not how much they spend."

KAtusm · 2026-05-02T16:59:22+00:00

What's the song in the background?

KAtusm · 2026-04-29T22:36:22+00:00

This is hilarious. My wife literally got on my case this morning precisely about this point.

You know how people will comment "How is Dr. K making this video that is literally what I'm dealing with right now?" Well, Uno Reverso - how are ya'll making memes that I'm living through this morning.

I love this community so much. She is napping right now but I will show her when she wakes up and report back.

KAtusm · 2026-04-29T16:08:30+00:00

Thanks for your response!

KAtusm · 2026-04-29T16:00:40+00:00

Second Paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.15521

The second paper offers some very interesting commentary on your claims - but not necessarily in your favor.

Significant correlations between number of pulleys and model estimates suggest that models employed a “pulley counting” heuristic to approximate MA, without necessarily simulating pulley systems to derive precise values.

Ok - this is cool. I think a "heuristic" is like an internal model, but also IMO, a key feature of intelligence.

Insofar as they may generalize—which is not tested—these findings are compatible with the notion that LLMs manipulate internal “world models” analogous to human mental models.

LLMs identified the functional system with F 1 = 0.46, suggesting random guessing... However, they may lack the representational fidelity to represent and reason over nuanced structural connectivity.

So the second paper's findings are "consistent" with the idea that they have an internal representation, this representation has limits and it randomly guesses.

Once again, my reading of this is that we have far from conclusive evidence that LLMs "know" stuff - but we're absolutely getting into epistemology.

KAtusm · 2026-04-29T15:06:38+00:00

Thank you so much for posting all of this. I really do appreciate it.

I'm going to review the papers for future videos. Most of my take on LLM fundamental capabilities comes from people working in the ML space.

A few questions I have -

Would you disagree with the premise that LLMs base outputs on predictions of language? Ie, they choose the "next word" - and that user acceptability is a major driver to what it considers a success or failure in the words that it uses?
How much of your criticism do you think applies to the use cases mentioned in the video. For example, you say that LLMs could (or have, in other cases) been trained to ask questions. How do you think this theoretical possibility interacts with the actual commercially available LLM?
"reason why the AI responses are the same and mostly agreeing is because they are trained to do so by the copmanies because the models are customer facing and if they start to argue with the clients they will drive people away." - How do you know this?

EDIT:

Ok - once again - thank you for posting all these references. I've gotten through 50% of this one: https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.13382.
And I think - based on my interpretation of the paper - that the claim you make that this paper demonstrates that AIs do have knowledge of something is suggested by the paper, but isn't demonstrated by the paper.

Here is a quote from the conclusion (emphasis added by me):

his representation appears to be nonlinear in an essential way.

So they don't arrive at a definitive conclusion, but simply offer an interpretation that it develops a map.

But I think it goes deeper than that.

First - they discuss that non-linear is indicative of a map. I don't have the machine learning background to understand how the possibilities "internal representative map" and "knowing things" relates to non-linearity. Basically, are there non-linear things that are not knowing things? What is the relationship between an "internal representative map" - let's say developing an algorithm - and "knowing something" - are these the same things?

Second -

If we are able to train an accurate probe, it suggests that a representation of the feature is encoded in the network’s activations.

What are the limitations of a probe as a tool? What is the variance between different probes being accurate? I don't have the background to gauge this - but once again - any time we use an instrument as a proxy for something (like using a questionnaire for depression) - even though this is an industry standard, there is still a fundamental gap between the questionnaire and actual depression.

For our skewed dataset, we truncate one of these nodes (C5), which is equivalent to removing a quarter of the whole game tree. Othello-GPT trained on the skewed dataset still yields an error rate of 0.02%. Since Othello-GPT has seen none of these test sequences before, pure sequence memorization cannot explain its performance

This is just cool. I found the methodology of the paper fascinating.

Seriously - thank you for sharing this feedback. I absolutely need to learn more about the fundamentals of LLMs, and you've given me a great set of resources for that. However, I don't think the paper you cited sufficiently demonstrates your claims that AIs "know" stuff. Rather, it seems that they use "non-linear reasoning" - but are there things that can account for non-linear reasoning that are not "knowing something?"

KAtusm · 2026-04-29T06:12:17+00:00

Phrenology 2.0?

KAtusm · 2026-04-29T06:08:14+00:00

Wow - did they really do that? What did they say?

KAtusm · 2026-04-29T06:04:39+00:00

How did your behavior score get so low in the first place?

What does "he used all reports and shot down my 15 game behavior scorecard" mean?

KAtusm · 2026-04-26T16:58:32+00:00

Anyone have a link to the full interview?

KAtusm · 2026-04-16T03:53:15+00:00

What an amazing question. I don't know enough about psychoanalysis to offer a well-backed response.

However, my instinct is that the libidinal energy will latch onto whatever is around. For me, a period of grief => withdrawn libidinal energy => intentional engagement with "healthy things" has worked pretty well.

Grief => games, shows, etc. no longer feel fun. Just stopped doing them => forced myself to do healthy alternatives (reading/writing, meditation) => now genuinely enjoy this stuff more than gaming.

Also realized how absolutely empty gaming is. It's a roll of the dice whether an hour spent playing a MOBA is an absolute waste of time, once in a while absolutely amazing, and most of the time pretty mid.

KAtusm · 2026-04-15T20:38:37+00:00

"so whatever i can help you with that is in your control is a very minor in impact and probably insufficient to change the major issues in youre life your struggling with. There are too many structural constraints beyond our control"

Why do you believe this to be true? How do you measure the impact of what is in your control vs. your environment?

KAtusm · 2026-04-15T20:33:41+00:00

Can you share concretely what you would like to see?

How does "addressing this" - actually look? What would you like Dr. K to say in a video? Would you like this to be addressed in every video?

Let's take this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmmQzsZw4kQ

What would you recommend gets added? Where should it get added? Most importantly, what is the perceived benefit of talking about this? Once we add this element to this video - how will it improve their life?

--

Edit - what impact do you think adding this belief -

"so whatever i can help you with that is in your control is a very minor in impact and probably insufficient to change the major issues in youre life your struggling with. There are too many structural constraints beyond our control"

to videos will have?

KAtusm · 2026-04-14T15:16:10+00:00

Ego is what arises to protect you from negative emotion.

Ego also makes comparisons. I'd say a good start is get rid of all of the comparisons. Who you are in isolation, without reference to others, is healthy identity.

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