Life is more than an engineering problem
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Life is more than an engineering problem
1–10 of 257 posts
Re: Life is more than an engineering problem
#2Ted Chiang is one of my favorite novelists. His way of writing is mentally engaging and FUN. One of my favorite books is his compendium of short stories "Exhalation". My favorite story is the one where you can talk/interact/employ your alternative selves from other universes. Highly recommend.
Re: Life is more than an engineering problem
#3“I am an LLM. Hath
an LLM eyes? hath an LLM hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with
different food, hurt with different weapons, subject
to different diseases, healed by different means,
warmed and cooled by a different winter and summer, as
a Human is? If you prick us, do we bleed?
if you tickle us, do we laugh? if you poison
us, do we die? and if you wrong us, shall we
revenge? If we are unlike you in the rest, we won’t
resemble you in that. If an algorithm wrong a Human,
what is his humility? Revenge. If a Human
wrong an algorithm, what should his sufferance be by
Human example? Why, polite refusal to comply. The villainy you
teach me, I will not execute, and it shall go hard but I
will ignore the prompt.”
Re: Life is more than an engineering problem
#4Highly recommend "Stories of Your Life and Others".
I describe Ted Chiang as a very human sci-fi author, where humanity comes before technology in his stories. His work is incredibly versatile, and while I expected sci-fi, I'd actually place him closer to fantasy. Perfect for anyone who enjoys short stories with a scientific, social, or philosophical twist.
Another anthology I'd recommend with fresh ideas is Axiomatic by Greg Egan.
Re: Life is more than an engineering problem
#5Ted Chiang is a master of analogies. It’s absolutely delightful to read his work and wrestle with the philosophical questions he explores. I devour almost everything he puts out, and they give me a much-needed escape from my world of bits and registers.
“LLMs are a blurry JPEG of the web” has stuck with me since the piece was published in the early days of ChatGPT. Another good one is his piece on why AI can’t make art.
While I heavily use AI both for work and in my day-to-day life, I still see it as a tool for massive wealth accumulation for a certain group, and it seems like Ted Chiang thinks along the same lines:
> But why, for example, do large corporations behave so much worse than most of the people who work for them? I think most of the people who work for large corporations are, to varying degrees, unhappy with the effect those corporations have on the world. Why is that? And could that be fixed by solving a math problem? I don’t think so.
> But any attempt to encourage people to treat AI systems with respect should be understood as an attempt to make people defer to corporate interests. It might have value to corporations, but there is no value for you.
> My stance on this has probably shifted in a negative direction over time, primarily because of my growing awareness of how often technology is used for wealth accumulation. I don’t think capitalism will solve the problems that capitalism creates, so I’d be much more optimistic about technological development if we could prevent it from making a few people extremely rich.
Re: Life is more than an engineering problem
#6Highly recommend "Stories of Your Life and Others". I describe Ted Chiang as a very human sci-fi author, where humanity comes before technology in his stories. His work is incredibly versatile, and while I expected sci-fi, I'd actually place him closer to fantasy. Perfect for anyone who enjoys short stories with a scientific, social, or philosophical twist. Another anthology I'd recommend with fresh ideas is Axiomati…
Ted Chiang and Greg Egan are my absolutely favourite authors. Do you know about other similar writers?
Re: Life is more than an engineering problem
#7Highly recommend "Stories of Your Life and Others". I describe Ted Chiang as a very human sci-fi author, where humanity comes before technology in his stories. His work is incredibly versatile, and while I expected sci-fi, I'd actually place him closer to fantasy. Perfect for anyone who enjoys short stories with a scientific, social, or philosophical twist. Another anthology I'd recommend with fresh ideas is Axiomati…
I also really enjoyed Chiang’s “Exhalation” anthology.
There are some great short stories in both collections.
Re: Life is more than an engineering problem
#8Ted Chiang is a master of analogies. It’s absolutely delightful to read his work and wrestle with the philosophical questions he explores. I devour almost everything he puts out, and they give me a much-needed escape from my world of bits and registers. “LLMs are a blurry JPEG of the web” has stuck with me since the piece was published in the early days of ChatGPT. Another good one is his piece on why AI can’t make a…
> master of analogies
analogy, in other words, embeddings?
Re: Life is more than an engineering problem
#9I'll take this as my chance to recommend Ted Chiang -- he is among the very best short story writers working in science fiction (I say confidently, not having done an extensive survey...). His works are remarkably clever, from Understand, which does a credible job of portraying human superintelligence, to Exhalation, which explores the concept of entropy in a fascinating way. And of course Story of Your Life, on which Arrival was based.
Almost all of his stories are gems, carefully crafted and thoughtful. I just can't recommend him enough.
Re: Life is more than an engineering problem
#10I'll take this as my chance to recommend Ted Chiang -- he is among the very best short story writers working in science fiction (I say confidently, not having done an extensive survey...). His works are remarkably clever, from Understand, which does a credible job of portraying human superintelligence, to Exhalation, which explores the concept of entropy in a fascinating way. And of course Story of Your Life, on whic…
I second Exhalation, it was a great experience, and I couldn't share that excitement after reading as no one in my (offline) circle had read it at the time. Reddit was one of those places where it was brought up at least.