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Magnifica Humanitas

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Re: Magnifica Humanitas

#361

Post by logicchains »

gchamonlive wrote: post #252
mentalgear wrote: post #241

> “Disarming AI means freeing it from the mentality of ‘armed’ competition, which today is not limited simply to the military context, but is also an economic and cognitive phenomenon” This is very on-point: capitalism-driven AI development as we have it today will always turn against the common good due to it's singular profit-motive. What a time: the pope having a much clearer picture of the risks & dangers of 'AI'…

I think while it's a very lucid comment, it's still too much reconciliatory for the position that the pope occupies. He should be advocating from a sustainable transition from the current capitalist/consumerist economic doctrine to one more centered on welfare and the care for the other, following his religious doctrine's moral values.

The pope, as a Christian, is well aware that human nature is fundamentally sinful. If you take away the ability for people to profit themselves from their work, they just stop working and you get mass starvation like China and Russia post communist revolution.

Re: Magnifica Humanitas

#362

Post by michaelsbradley »

devilbunny wrote: post #326
sethbannon wrote: post #22

The overarching message is that builders should deeply consider the impact of what they're building on civilization. "Technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate and use it." Therefore builders "bear a particular ethical and spiritual responsibility" because "every design choice reflects a vision of humanity." The questions shouldn't just be 'can we buil…

The Roman Catholic Church has a lot of things wrong with it, now and in the past, but it’s a human institution older than almost any other, and it’s composed of a lot of very intelligent people. Agree or disagree with them, but a papal encyclical is almost always worth reading and understanding.

There are so many encyclicals, apostolic letters, etc. One could spend years reading just a fraction of them, depending on reading and comprehension speed, of course, which varies by person.

Two I recommend, from the last 40 years:

Veritatis splendor, John Paul II, 1993

Argues that Christian freedom is fulfilled, not limited, by objective moral truth: some acts are intrinsically evil regardless of intention or circumstance, conscience must be formed by divine law rather than self-authorization, and the Church must faithfully teach this moral truth as the path to authentic human flourishing in Christ.

https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/d...

Fides et Ratio, John Paul II, 1998

Argues that faith and reason are complementary paths to truth: reason needs faith to avoid skepticism, relativism, and reductionism, while faith needs reason to express, defend, and deepen its understanding of divine revelation and the human search for meaning.

https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/d...

Re: Magnifica Humanitas

#363

Post by missedthecue »

LLMs are some of the most fairly distributed technology in history. It's actual insane how equitable global access is, especially compared to the previous evolutions of the computer industry (mainframes, then desktop, and eventually mobile phones). People are just saying stuff to say stuff at this point.

Re: Magnifica Humanitas

#364

Post by hnthrow0287345 »

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #188
sethbannon wrote: post #22

The overarching message is that builders should deeply consider the impact of what they're building on civilization. "Technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate and use it." Therefore builders "bear a particular ethical and spiritual responsibility" because "every design choice reflects a vision of humanity." The questions shouldn't just be 'can we buil…

Not new for software and hardware industry though, practitioners have just chosen to ignore it. From the Association for Computing Machinery, which encompasses all forms of software development, the very first principle is the public good: " Software engineers shall act consistently with the public interest. In particular, software engineers shall, as appropriate: 1.01. Accept full responsibility for their own work.…

This would be more meaningful if, perhaps, we had to swear an oath to it before being able to practice. And practitioners would be treated more seriously if everyone knew we swore that oath. And the legal utility as accountability and defense would also be useful.

Of course people are going to ignore it if there's no force behind it.

Re: Magnifica Humanitas

#365

Post by tharmas »

booleandilemma wrote: post #324

I like how the pope is emerging as a sort of champion of human rights in the face of AI, when the messaging coming from our politicians and corporate overlords is "you're all going to be replaced, make way for the data centers, peons". I stand with the pope.

I stand with the Pope, also.

Sadly, the politicians are all bought off by the powerful and rich elite. And the ones who aren't are soon hounded out.

What does the "The West" stand for? They (the Elites and the politicians) said human rights etc. But Gaza proved that a lie. Gaza happened in "broad daylight" and the Western leaders did nothing at best, and at worst demonized those who spoke out, as supporters of terrorists.

Re: Magnifica Humanitas

#366

Post by sdenton4 »

tom2026hn wrote: post #280
Xenoamorphous wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Scientists are actually preoccupied with accomplishment. So they are focused on whether they can do something. They never stop to ask if they should do something. From Crichton's book Jurassic Park, which like most of his books is about the perils of technological advancements. They used the quote in the movie, slightly tweaked.

I worry that companies like Anthropic, which are moving toward RSI, may prioritize speed over the timely identification of irreversible risks.

Every time I prioritize speed over risks, I, too, end up with repetitive strain injuries.

Re: Magnifica Humanitas

#367

Post by pheaded_while9 »

GoToRO wrote: post #153
sethbannon wrote: post #22

The overarching message is that builders should deeply consider the impact of what they're building on civilization. "Technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate and use it." Therefore builders "bear a particular ethical and spiritual responsibility" because "every design choice reflects a vision of humanity." The questions shouldn't just be 'can we buil…

hard disagree. No matter what gets built, it will be used for bad things if the society is not properly constructed. We need to fix our government and then you can build anything you want. I don't like putting the blame on the builders, building is already difficult as it is. Also you can't built something in isolation, word will get out anyway. That's why this speech is either naive or he just wanted to tick a todo…

Consciousness is the causal factor, not government. You are putting the cart before the horse to insist on any political solution.

Re: Magnifica Humanitas

#368

Post by MagicMoonlight »

Why would we listen to him? Even he doesn’t believe in God.

Jesus let the Romans take him. The pope drives around in an armoured car with hundreds of soldiers. Why? After all, he’s the official spokesperson of God. He’s either untouchable, or would be endlessly rewarded with sainthood for being a martyr.

But he obviously doesn’t believe that.

Re: Magnifica Humanitas

#369

Post by 3form »

pj_mukh wrote: post #285
PantaloonFlames wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's too simplistic to imagine the tension is between robot patrol dogs vs automating drudgery. If automating drudgery suddenly puts 30% of people out of work, it has huge broad negative impact on people who are currently alive and working in the current system. Innovate, but do it with awareness.

Than an even better question for the pope is: If a technology existed that reduced the cost of producing a critical thing (think food, housing, medical care) down to near zero, however, it made the humans currently building the thing redundant, should we build it? Would it be okay to use the hyper-optimization power of Capitalism to build such a technology faster?

Likely the answer would be: yes, we should build it, and take appropriate care of the people being made redundant.

These two are not mutually exclusive, it's just that no one wants to pay for it.

Re: Magnifica Humanitas

#370

Post by steveklabnik »

theletterf wrote: post #224
vermilingua wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Votes (particularly on submissions over comments) do not directly translate to karma. I'm not sure if it's documented anywhere what the algorithm is, but it's something proportionate to the logarithm of post votes becomes profile karma. It's similar with comments, but I believe (anecdata and observation) the positive effect of votes on karma is also logarithmic, but the negative effects of downvotes is linear; so if…

Thanks! That makes sense. This was just genuine curiosity on how HN works, I couldn't care less about kharma.

There is no downvoting on posts, only flags.
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