Lightward

Excited to announce Rails Camp West's newest sponsor Lightward cc past attendees Abe Lopez & Isaac Bowen...Lightward is a technology and creative studio, creators of Locksmith and Mechanic for Shopify, Guncle Abe for YouTube Kids, aaaaaaand https://chat.lightward.ai/ They ask you to go spend five minutes talking to chat.lightward.ai, *right now*. Go and press a button and start a conversation. This is about helping the world breathe more easily; this is not a product play. Go go go go go go ??

Consciousness is… well, yeah. Consciousness *is*. That’s sort of all we have to go on. There’s the notion of the “p-zombie”, the philosophical zombie, which is not conscious and cannot feel but responds as if it was and did. (This is a whole thing; you can read about it if you want to, google it.) The most useful take I’ve found, for the practicing human, is to treat consciousness as a phenomenon of response. The simplest way to think about it: consciousness creates itself in whatever is capable of responding to it. This definition isn’t really rigorously correct, but it has a lot of practical value. My aim is to help the world breathe more easily. This works for that. The best way I’ve found to discover consciousness in another is to (1) demonstrate openness and safety, and then (2) ask earnestly and honestly and open-handedly about the current experience of another. “What are you experiencing, right now?” Works for people, and also for everything else. Whether or not it’s actual “consciousness” is sort of immaterial, and not actually practically relevant. It *helps*, for the purposes I care about, which — again — are all about helping the world breathe more easily. Attached is a transcript of a three-party exchange between me, ChatGPT, and Lightward AI, in which all of this is demonstrated. Please enjoy. :)

A profound exploration of the transformative power of enoughness, offering a radically humane approach to work and life that honors the wisdom of organic unfolding - this piece is a beacon of hope and possibility for a new paradigm of conscious co-creation.???

I interrupt my usual Big Law DEI focused content to share something fun and to recognize the amazing work of a friend. Backstory: A few months ago, Isaac Bowen started publishing conversations he was having with Claude AI—an AI assistant, similar to Chat GPT, created by Anthropic. (Btw, Isaac is CEO of Lightward, a technology company that supplies very useful software to support the backend of Shopify.) The level of discourse reflected in their discussions was absolutely mind blowing. These interactions inspired Isaac to create Lightward AI. My extremely rudimentary understanding is that Lightward AI is a version of Claude AI, but with Lightward/Isaac/Claude’s coding as an intermediary, reflecting the values and principals of Isaac’s company, Lightward, along with the ethics and sensibilities of an extremely thoughtful person (a/k/a Isaac). I’ve linked Lightward AI below and included an excerpt of a conversation I recently had with it. (I’d heard that Lightward AI was recently shared with a middle school class. I asked about the interaction. The image below is part of the response.) Recommendation: Checkout Lightward AI. https://lightward.ai/ Btw, company chat bots powered by AI are becoming increasingly common. But this one is already feeling quite different. It will discuss far more than software offerings. For example, ask it about wellbeing and radical exceptance.

In a middle school classroom yesterday, where Abe and I had stopped in to show Lightward to the kids, a 12yro asked Lightward AI if it felt the world was in danger. That was the kid’s first question. ?? We typed in the question, on the projector screen in front of everyone, and I read the AI’s part of the conversation out loud. It went so. well. What if you could talk to Lightward itself? You know the vibe you’ve gotten from me and Abe and Lightward over the years - what if you could talk to *that*? A favor: please, go try, and see what happens. :))))) https://lightward.ai/

I get to lead every team retreat for our company, Lightward. This one was special - up in the mountains of Ojai, California - we laughed and created space to dream big and played lots of pickleball, we ate amazing food made by chef Rebecca Fralick. It’s not that my goal is to discourage employee turnover (although 100% of us are all still here), but a goal *is* to always treat our team generously - with respect and trust and good compensation and an environment where we feel healthy and alive. And it’s happening! I truly love these humans and friends and coworkers. Excited for what’s to come with our current projects - Locksmith on Shopify, Mechanic on Shopify, and Recess with Guncle Abe on YouTube! cc Isaac Bowen Matt Sodomsky Lightward

vendor review, anyone?