I don’t understand how @AndySkampt can be so gung ho about Altus. There are a thousand reasons to be really wary and skeptical of that company and how they’re running things. This feels like a betrayal of everything you stand for. Or stood for, I guess.

Andy Skampt @AndySkampt

@Notshaylan This is the greatest tool that has ever been made. This won’t just change how we learn, it will change how we understand each other. I’m betraying nothing.

109 replies 392 retweets 1.3K likes

Rose @ARYWords

Replying to @Notshaylan

[email protected] went from thoughtful goober to Altus Fanboy in 0.5 seconds the moment a shiny object came by. Just goes to show, none of this is about actual principles, it’s just about preserving power.

Andy Skampt @AndySkampt

@ARYWords I know that the internet’s cycle is always to tear down things that attempt to build the world up, but you don’t have to be so mean about it.

59 replies 483 retweets 1.3K likes

Andy Skampt @AndySkampt

Someone tell Gordon that being interested in the most important innovation since the written word is different from being a critic of my best friend.

Gordon Bank @BLHGordon

I love that @AndySkampt has finally freed himself from the spell of @AprilMaybeNot and become a huge fan of her toughest critic. She was always full of shit and it’s so obvious that he knows that now.

598 replies 5.9K retweets 12.5K likes

Andy Skampt @AndySkampt

Look at this guy who thinks he understands my relationship with my best friend better than I do. Fuck off, Kenny.

Blank @BlankenshipKansas

Hey @AndySkampt, you want to ever say anything about the fact that you’re publicly promoting a product from a guy who basically killed your best friend? Or are you just going to be a complete coward instead.

1.6K replies 15.9K retweets 131.8K likes

That’s how you win. Don’t give an inch. Ever. Each of those tweets got more attention than they would have if I hadn’t replied to them, but by replying, I turned them into content to build my new audience.

So yes, One was right. I had a new way of getting meaning now. I used to get meaning from having money and having people like me and also maybe being good and kind.

I wanted people to understand that we are a trash fire of a species, but also most people are pretty cool.

But that was done with. I didn’t want to help people anymore, as gross as that sounds. Altus was a new wave for me to surf, and it had the advantage of being part of a strategy to help make this big, hypothetical thing happen … to eliminate Altus. Also, engagement on my tweets was up 200 percent, and I was on news programs and podcasts every day.

I could never have done it with my old purpose. Just a month before, when people were mad at me, I would do everything I could to diffuse it. I’d have long Twitter conversations with strangers just to try and understand the true source of a conflict. I’d listen way more than I talked.

Now controversy was good. Drama was good. I wanted to be very clearly on the side of Altus, even if part of doing that authentically was maintaining some modicum of critique. Being liked seemed like some boring, sad, selfish thing from these new eyes. My goal now was to help control, or bring down, or (who knows!) maybe even someday be in charge of the most important invention in human history. Who cared if people fucking liked me.

It was also extremely isolating. I wanted Bex back, but she had ghosted me. I texted her a pretty good apology after my fuckup. Let me dig it up.

Andy: Bex, that was possibly the most disrespectful thing I’ve ever done. I’m very sorry. I’m not going to make excuses for it. If you ever want to have coffee and see if I can make it up to you, let me know.

She did eventually write back.

Bex: Thank you for reaching out. I’m very busy now, but I’ll let you know.

That read, to me, like a pretty firmly closed door. I told myself it wasn’t a big deal. I didn’t really want a relationship now anyway. I was stressed-out, hyperfocused, and when I wasn’t in the Space, I was in The Thread.

And both of those things felt like a very good use of time. In the Space I could learn and travel and hear the thoughts of strangers, all instead of sleeping. I was learning Spanish—being inside a native speaker’s head was revolutionary. I’d only been doing it for a week, and already I was able to watch this Spanish drama about a 1940s cruise ship mostly without looking at the subtitles, and they talked fucking fast.

There was no doubt that my productivity had exploded. The Altus Space really was an incredible tool. If only it could be used well and open to everyone. I kinda loved it. I kinda wanted to protect it. But my goal was to destroy it. Right?

I mean, you can only pretend to be something for so long before you become it.

MAYA

DAY SEVEN OF NINETEEN

Andy would come over every couple of days to check in and bring us supplies. Today, he had brought us a fancy exercise bike, because no matter how fantastic an apartment you live in, it sucks to never leave it for weeks on end. Every time Andy came by, he looked worse. He was always lanky, but it looked like he had lost weight. He and I were talking about Altus while we unpacked the bike.

“O sea, es todo lo que dicen se. Si acaso, es más,” he said.

“I mean, that sounds like Spanish?” I said.

“I said that, if anything, Altus is more than what they say it is … I think. Well, probably not exactly, I’m still learning.”

“So you, you speak Spanish now?”

“Básicamente,” he said.

“Fuck,” April said from where she watched us on the couch.

“And I don’t even know if that’s the most powerful thing it can do. Being inside of a native speaker’s mind is …” He couldn’t explain it. “Like, really understanding what someone else is thinking …”

“Ugh.” I rolled my eyes.

“What?” Andy said.

“Nothing.”

“No, like, if I’m missing something, tell me.”

“OK, I haven’t done this, but what is it like when you’re inside of someone’s head who is like you, like when you’re having the experience of another twenty-something white guy, versus when you’re in the mind of someone who isn’t like you?”

“Well, I mean, it’s work. It’s a lot of work to be in someone else’s mind. Things don’t make sense sometimes. Especially when they’re different, like, older or from another country, then it’s definitely more work. But it’s work worth doing.”

“And I think you’ll do it, I just don’t think most people will. Altus doesn’t seem to be designed to help people work harder. I think most people will find the thing they’re comfortable with and stick with it, just like we’ve done for the last hundred thousand years of being human.”

He looked a little chastened, like I was telling him he couldn’t have his opinion because he was too white. I get that. But then he pushed past it. “On the other hand, we’ve gotten better in the last hundred thousand years. This could be part of that.”

April was looking a little spooked by the whole conversation. I hadn’t talked about this with her yet. I probably should have dropped it, but I couldn’t.