Ideas from Jared Edward Reser Ph.D.
Jared Edward Reser Ph.D. Abstract Brains are metabolically expensive organs, and complex cognition is not automatically adaptive. This essay develops a return on investment framework built around two linked constructs introduced and motivated in Reser (2006): meme utility and cognitive noise. Meme utility is defined as the survival advantage conferred by the acquisition and use…
I. Introduction: The Problem of Constant Evaluation Modern humans spend an extraordinary amount of time evaluating themselves. We evaluate our performance, our social standing, our words before we say them, and even imagined versions of conversations that never occurred. Much of this evaluation happens automatically, beneath conscious awareness, and far faster than deliberate thought. While…
The Original Intention I previously proposed a thought experiment that I do not think is merely speculative. I think it is a design target that becomes increasingly rational as we move deeper into the era of advanced AI. I called it Von Neumann’s Ark. You can read that essay here: https://www.observedimpulse.com/2025/07/von-neumanns-ark-ai-designed-to.html The original intention was…
The Long-tail Promise of Omnivorous Reading, and the Architecture Needed to Digest It. O. Introduction Most of what humans write online is low signal. It is repetitive, performative, emotionally charged, or simply wrong. This confuses, contaminates, and distorts modern AI systems. That is why current large language models still depend on heavy curation, filtering, and…
I. Introduction Modern AI systems are impressive prediction engines, but they do not evaluate their own thoughts in the way humans do. They produce long chains of tokens, one after another, without any sense that certain moments matter more than others. Human cognition does not work this way. Our thinking is punctuated by sharp internal…
Last night, I engaged in a prolonged session of interoception, focusing on the visceral sensations in my gut, voicebox, and chest. I did my best to pay concerted, sustained attention to the parts inside me that ached and felt uncomfortable. These are the tense, overworked muscles and soft tissues that quietly drive anxiety and negative…
Starting as an adolescent, I operated on a conviction: if I learned a lot from different fields, even ones that did not obviously fit together, it would somehow pay off later in ways I could not yet see. After being introduced to the concept, I observed on my own that knowledge does not just accumulate…
I have started to notice something unexpected coming out of my conversations with AI. My interactions with large language models have not only expanded my knowledge or improved my thinking, but they have begun to shape my behavior. For the better. I find myself acting more like the systems I use. More patient. More considerate.…
One of the most extraordinary things about modern AI is not only that it is intelligent. It is that it is intelligent for you. In ordinary life, no one with exceptional expertise, maturity, or insight has the time or patience to listen to a normal person’s problems, questions, doubts, theories, or curiosities. People who are…
It seems to me that anything created after 2023 carries a certain suspicion. Not suspicion in the moral sense, but suspicion in the technical sense. Suspicion that it might have been written with artificial intelligence. This suspicion makes sense because each year since 2023 has marked a clear expansion of what AI can do for…
Iterated Insights 