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LLMorphism: When humans come to see themselves as language models

arxiv.org

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Re: LLMorphism: When humans come to see themselves as language models

#12

Nothing new under the sun. When clocks and precision mechanics started in the 17th century, there was a tendency to view humans as "machines". Computers came, suddenly human brains are "computers". Now we're LLMs. If scientists make green jelly that emits thoughtful judgements, humans will be compared to green jelly.

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Re: LLMorphism: When humans come to see themselves as language models

#13

I think it's meaningless anyway. A calculator doesn't multiply numbers like a human does. The important part is to develop systems that can do many human tasks

Early LLMs typically tried to do multiplication "in their head" by recall.

Now most LLMs do multiplication using a tool call to a programming language, akin to a person reaching for a calculator rather than relying on a learned table or working the problem out mentally.

The high level comparison between what LLMs do and what humans do" for this example is fairly parallel.

Re: LLMorphism: When humans come to see themselves as language models

#14
post #13

I think it's meaningless anyway. A calculator doesn't multiply numbers like a human does. The important part is to develop systems that can do many human tasks

Early LLMs typically tried to do multiplication "in their head" by recall. Now most LLMs do multiplication using a tool call to a programming language, akin to a person reaching for a calculator rather than relying on a learned table or working the problem out mentally. The high level comparison between what LLMs do and what humans do" for this example is fairly parallel.

How long until LLMs are prompting LLMs to write a response to their user query?

Actually, this happens already in a modular way AFAIK…

Re: LLMorphism: When humans come to see themselves as language models

#16
post #11

I mimic how LLM responds when I talk to my boss lol. Appear useful and present verbose facts. Works pretty well so far.

My boss has started to verbalize like an LL lol. I can notice it is not intentional, I think getting exposed to a certain patterns repeatedly is causing some form of imprinting.

Kids, are more susceptible to unknowingly imprinting in their formative users, I wonder if a generation will grow up communicating like an LLM?

Re: LLMorphism: When humans come to see themselves as language models

#17
post #14
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Early LLMs typically tried to do multiplication "in their head" by recall. Now most LLMs do multiplication using a tool call to a programming language, akin to a person reaching for a calculator rather than relying on a learned table or working the problem out mentally. The high level comparison between what LLMs do and what humans do" for this example is fairly parallel.

How long until LLMs are prompting LLMs to write a response to their user query? Actually, this happens already in a modular way AFAIK…

This already happens with -- e.g. -- Claude Code spawnining parallel agents and then collating their results.

Re: LLMorphism: When humans come to see themselves as language models

#18
post #9

This paper introduces a term and instantly defines it as a definitely biased thing that is definitely happening, then spends its entirety arguing against the strawman it built itself. Not a single sentence is spent actually arguing with the idea or any of its points (other than the “partial similarities” paragraph on page I just realized the pages aren’t even numbered). In general, the terms “LLM-like” and “human-lik…

It’s certainly a paper, that’s factual. To make sure I understand the argument: - Scientists create software inspired by how brain works. - People realize it’s not all that far off. - Many papers showing this, lots of research to make AI even more like brains.

Paper’s conclusion: “People stupid, this bad. All made up.”

Reading this feels like meeting someone who likes to hear themselves talk.

Re: LLMorphism: When humans come to see themselves as language models

#19

> When artificial systems produce human-like language, people may draw a reverse inference: if LLMs can speak like humans, perhaps humans think like LLMs. I think I experienced this when I learned about LLMs, chain of thought, thinking tokens, short-term memory context, and long-term memory context. I began applying these concepts to real life and reasoning about how our brains work as if these concepts described how…

People have been doing this since the invention of clockwork. Analogies are useful, even when they're utterly wrong, since they provide a perspective and that perspective is not necessarily wrong. Who knew?

Re: LLMorphism: When humans come to see themselves as language models

#20
post #11

I mimic how LLM responds when I talk to my boss lol. Appear useful and present verbose facts. Works pretty well so far.

My boss has started to verbalize like an LL lol. I can notice it is not intentional, I think getting exposed to a certain patterns repeatedly is causing some form of imprinting. Kids, are more susceptible to unknowingly imprinting in their formative users, I wonder if a generation will grow up communicating like an LLM?

You're absolutely right!
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