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LLMs as a Cognitive Virus

arxiv.org

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Re: LLMs as a Cognitive Virus

#91

Post by j45 »

podgietaru wrote: post #11
j45 wrote: post #4

Have to take commentary by non tech folks speaking about tech with a grain of salt and perspective since the tech is changing so fast both in capability and application. Research can be more of a lagging indicator than a leading indicator with AI.

I can't disagree enough with this. Not everything needs to be understood in a technical context. Technology intersects with society, and understanding its impacts on that society is vital. Or in other words: the humanities are good.

I'll clarify in case it helps - need everyone at the table, not just only tech (or non-tech only) as you may be assuming.

Technology takes without a tech perspective present can greatly skew it.

I'm not referring to a technology context at all. Just like you shouldn't trust the IT department to run accounting... the opposite will also vary.

Not being able to track the possibilities and capabilities of a type of software that is unlike the software before it can really outdate things quickly.

Re: LLMs as a Cognitive Virus

#92

Post by j45 »

Avicebron wrote: post #8
tptacek wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're specifically not using the term "virus" pejoratively, but rather distinguishing the social mechanism LLMs seem to have from something as simple as a "meme".

Contagion probably is more accurate.

I would agree contangion is a much better word.

Social Contagions can be memes, plus doom scrolling or anything.

Re: LLMs as a Cognitive Virus

#93

Post by drdaeman »

Muromec wrote: post #46
Murfalo wrote: post #19

I love this line of thinking but the framing comes across to me as a bit inflammatory and uncharitable. Just about anything involved in the exchanged of ideas can be viewed as a virus! That is because, when viewed from an evolutionary biology perspective, ideas are the cognitive equivalent of genes (in fact, this is where the term meme comes from). There's a whole field, evolutionary memetics, dedicated to this. Cult…

Our enlightened ideas and their dangerously agitating propaganda (literally a virus). The framing of something as a disease is itself slightly into the fascist territory.

> The framing of something as a disease

Is a well-known cognitive quirk, Sapolsky covered that in “Behave” and “Determined”. As I get it, our morality piggybacks on the sense of disgust from insula activation, which lights up the same way as with pathogen avoidance. So comparing social groups to rodents, insects, or disease is a popular propaganda trick. Same here with viruses.

Re: LLMs as a Cognitive Virus

#94

Post by CityOfThrowaway »

kmeisthax wrote: post #43
CityOfThrowaway wrote: post #15

[flagged]

I am very confused as to why LLM proponents insist that I can be left behind by a technology that takes almost 0 seconds to adopt. In the event that I realize "Oh no, I got left behind!" I can just ask an LLM to catch me up.

Europe loves to regulate, which absolutely reduces your ability to adopt

Re: LLMs as a Cognitive Virus

#95

Post by unrented7977 »

jimbooonooo wrote: post #72
jjk166 wrote: post #64

"If men learn this [writing], it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks." -Socrates

offloading thinking is a little/lottle bit different than writing to preserve your thoughts versus memorization. it's more analogous to skipping the writing, plugging your ears, and closing your eyes, while you wait for the answer to be presented before you.

Yes, that's the point Socrates is making here

Re: LLMs as a Cognitive Virus

#96

Post by WJW »

E-Reverance wrote: post #30
Upvoter33 wrote: post #20

Not sure why this is interesting; it seems like anything that becomes "popular" could be cast as a "virus", including things like "having a fridge". Why does this give particular insight?

Smart fridges are a pathological virus, yes /jk

Even normal fridges are a memetic virus, fridges clearly live in a symbiotic relationship with humans. They make our lives better and in return we create more fridges. If they weren't useful to us, we'd stop making more fridges. Any medieval human who sees a fridge would instantly recognize why it's useful and valuable.

OP is right, anything popular is virus-like. Richard Dawkins invented the word meme for this all the way back in 1976.

Re: LLMs as a Cognitive Virus

#97

Post by cyclopeanutopia »

sbiru93 wrote: post #84

Unlike some other comments, I don't think there will be a dystopian future where humans will become cognitively switched off and everything will be delegated to machines. (More likely: extinction of the human race?) Anyway, I work as a programmer, and at work I see a lot of people massively overusing LLMs to generate user stories or basically write functional specifications. This honestly hurts a bit, because I can s…

Basing this on what, if you care to share?

Re: LLMs as a Cognitive Virus

#98

Post by 27183 »

simonklitj wrote: post #86
jjk166 wrote: post #64

"If men learn this [writing], it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks." -Socrates

I don’t suppose he was entirely wrong. I would probably be able to recall a lot more (verbatim) if it all had to be stored in me noggin. I think the trade off worthwhile, however.

> I think the trade off worthwhile, however.

But what if it isn't? Like, if you didn't have the written word to rely on as a crutch, what more could you have accomplished if you didn't have that? Maybe nothing, but maybe much, much more! Who can say in retrospect?

I've always wondered how we'd fare in battle against an extrasolar civilization which achieved technology without writing. They'd be a hell of a lot scarier than we are, in my view.

Re: LLMs as a Cognitive Virus

#99

Post by wcfrobert »

jjk166 wrote: post #64

"If men learn this [writing], it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks." -Socrates

The modern world has way too much content to commit to memory. Our brains would explode. Maybe 2500 years ago it was still possible to functioned as an adult without writing things down.

Re: LLMs as a Cognitive Virus

#100

Post by walt_grata »

simonklitj wrote: post #86
jjk166 wrote: post #64

"If men learn this [writing], it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks." -Socrates

I don’t suppose he was entirely wrong. I would probably be able to recall a lot more (verbatim) if it all had to be stored in me noggin. I think the trade off worthwhile, however.

Im 45, and i can tell you getting a cell phone absolutely destroyed my ability to memorize phone numbers. During the 90s when i was in highschool i has all my friends numbers, parents work numbers, etc... memorized, i only know my parents and wife now.

If you don't use a skill, that skill atrophies

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