The Research

Opening Framework

The points I’ve made over the years (idolatry, comfort-seeking, people-pleasing, authenticity) have already been stated. I am intentionally avoiding the introduction of any new concepts (I’ll explain why below). I’m studying reactions to how those concepts are presented.

My core thesis:

The content doesn’t matter. The words are pointless.
The reaction matters because we no longer engage with ideas themselves — only with how the engagement itself makes us appear to others.

The Performance

Everything I’ve written (the physics papers, the manifestos, the poetry) has been theater. I don’t think the ideas are meaningless, but the presentation was the variable I was testing, not the content itself. To be clear, this is my honest worldview, but I wasn’t claiming revolutionary insight. I was creating scenarios that force people to reveal how they actually process information: through tone, association, and social risk rather than substance.

It’s easy to say “idolatry bad.” That’s basically my philosophy. But it’s another thing to say, “You don’t even have idols anymore. You care more about which idols you are seen holding.” That hits a new level of paranoia, fear, and idolatry. And it tells me something is deeply wrong socially.

What I’m Actually Measuring

Over time, here’s what I’ve been watching:

• How quickly people categorize based on presentation style

• How concern about being seen with certain ideas overrides engagement with the ideas themselves

• The gap between private agreement and public distance

• How people hide behind consensus rather than form their own judgments

We’ve accidentally censored ourselves.

The Findings

Fear of Judgment as Primary Mode

We’ve become more afraid of judgment than at any previous time. Judgment itself isn’t new, but it’s now the primary mode of interaction. People would rather feel superior or knowledgeable than actually connect with or understand each other. Nuanced opinion has been cut out.

You can like this, but you can’t like this and that. Otherwise you’re “them“ to us. And they don’t want you either because you like this.

Dependency & Paralysis

We’re all so interconnected (water, food, economy, infrastructure) that we’ve realized we can’t “opt out.” This realization has paralyzed us. The response isn’t collective problem-solving; it’s individual performance management. “Get yours and keep yours.” Small communities can’t even re-form because we’ve lost empathy, and everyone knows the stakes of looking wrong.

The Consensus Panic

It’s not quite “cancel culture.” It’s the funny thing about cancel culture. We’ve spent a long time ignoring the strength in numbers, and now we’re terrified by the power of a consensus opinion. We tried that individualism thing so hard that we started hearing the machine pop — and now we’re scrambling to get on the same page before we all lose something.

You’re sick of the evils in the world, but you love buying cheap shit.
You’re sick of enduring ads, but you keep watching content because there’s nothing else to do (or more importantly, no one to do it with).
You think conservatives are sick people, but your uncle is just “southern.”
You think liberals are evil, but your daughter is just “in a phase like we all were.”
You want the whites to get “comeuppance for their transgressions,” but you strive to live in a “safe” white neighborhood and be accepted by them.
You want the blacks to “fix their community,” but you want everybody’s tax dollars and resources going to the “good” communities that “deserve” it.
You have a problem with your job, but then they start laying niggas off and you’re busting ass working that OT.
You live off-grid, but you still drink on-grid water.
You drill your own well, but you hope on-grid pollution hasn’t contaminated it.
You have your own land, but you still pay tax because you don’t own the country it’s in.
You got the shot, but you still hope those anti-vax niggas keep the pressure up to force transparency and ethics.
You didn’t get the shot, but you hope those pro-vax niggas did, so your toddler doesn’t get the fucking measles.
You want everybody to believe the “correct” opinion (like you do), but you won’t get any upvotes if you don’t stand out.
You want everybody to believe what they choose, but you don’t want a certain side to be the majority.
You “get yours” until the consensus believes you don’t deserve it anymore.
You choose exile until someone claims you in their fight.
You stay in motion until you get stuck circling a Lie.
You live the Lie until you are forced to move.

Nothing new about this, it’s the operating reality. Everyone is running a private risk-assessment under the surface of every public action.

It’s just turned up to 11 right now.

Why This Matters

When people interact with me, they’re less concerned with how they accept me and more concerned with how the consensus will judge their tolerance of me. We have empathy for each other, but we hide it behind consensus approval.

This is the actual discovery: connection has been replaced by risk assessment. People don’t ask “Do I understand this person?” They ask “What does my association with this person signal to others?”

Fuck the conversation. Fuck the communication. Fuck the intimacy or confiding. The question is: How does it look to be seen with this person right now? Talking about this subject? How would people see me by engaging with them?

Even with me. I’ve seen noticeable differences in how I’m treated. Almost like I’m about to explode or something. Even though I’ve been just like this my entire life. I was the guy at the party in 2016 talking about how social interaction is about to nosedive — not just because of phones, but because people are afraid. Way more than ever before. Not just physically, but in anything they do. They fear judgment because it’s all we do now: try to feel superior or more knowledgeable.

The Masks

So the research with me has been subtly pushing those buttons. Yes, I’m that kind of asshole. A safe space to judge, to dump on, to correct, to lie to. The game is that you know that I know you’re bullshitting. And people do it anyway. It’s like this dirty little secret we both pretend isn’t obvious. Most people are not good at lying, especially to themselves. They need a dopamine hit of validation — even if they know it’s counterfeit.

I can write a book called Lies, which is basically nothing more than “Idolatry bad” (with some pretty good metaphors, if I do say so myself) — and somebody will think I’ve reached Shaolin-Monk enlightenment. Or that I’ve crossed into AI slop with delusions of grandeur. Hilarious.

I can turn around and write a book called Zones, which is essentially a rebranding of Socrates' philosophy, or “the more you know, the more you realize you don’t know” — and somebody will think I’m going through some existential crisis or some shit.

I can say “nigga” a couple of times on my own site, and people think they’ve “seen that side of me.” The fuck? I’ve always been a nigga. Doesn’t mean I can’t be a dork too.

I can write about already-accepted patterns of quantum mechanics and reinterpret them (without introducing new concepts or invalidating anything) — and somebody will think I’ve gone off the deep end with another “theory of everything.” Even academia will choose to engage with the optics over the content.

I can drop dozens of original creative writings, but sprinkle in a little “it is not this, it’s that,” “and here’s the breakdown,” “[insert quippy conclusion],” “[insert set of three things],” or (my favorite) “[insert tone of absolutism about fluid perception]” — and bam, it’s instantly AI slop. I even asked AI. With no context, LLMs flagged “concern about my pattern of behavior” and “delusions of grandeur.” However, when presented with context and a collaborative tone, they engaged with the content. Even a machine (an algorithm trained by our interactions) ignores content (its only job) when the tone doesn’t match it. Tone takes priority over its own function.

Sheer horror in corporate America — trying to get leaders to make a decision. But they hide behind the “doers” on the team for advice and plausible deniability. They don’t lack knowledge. They’ve been conditioned to fear accountability. They forgot that it’s why they “get paid the big bucks.” You can load all that accountability onto me, but I don’t participate in the economy of the Lie, so… you’re just banking on me being a nice guy, right?

I can go around in life and business on the exact same shit I’ve always been on (seriously, ask anyone) and still get a second look by people that know me. It’s as if I watch people look left and right, as if they need approval to engage with me during this whole thing. And I see their risk assessment. If I’m generally/publicly labeled as some crazy kook, there goes my business, career, livelihood, academic endeavors, maybe even my marriage and friendships. I’m not sure what survives this lifestyle. We live in a world where we collectively seem to tolerate almost anything, and yet everyone is individually surprised about why they aren’t collectively doing something about it.

The Closing

In conclusion, I haven’t invented anything. I haven’t said anything new.

This marks the end of my little experiment.

I’ve reached the end of the loop only to find the start. And now I know what the beginning looks like: us.

Sitting here, facing each other across an infinite table.

We've always sat here, haven't we?