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Bored of It

paulrobertlloyd.com

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Re: Bored of It

#121

Post by terhechte »

lm28469 wrote: post #87
terhechte wrote: post #71

I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies: 1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. 2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. 3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the na…

> Someone said something cool once hence it's valid ad vitam aeternam and can be used as an argument in a discussion. Mass automatised eugenics robots ? Well if you don't like it you must be a boomer. Brain implants that are controlled by your employer and can literally kill you on the push of a button if you don't follow the rules ? What ? you don't like it ? You dumb luddite Between that and the "TeChNoLoGy iS JuSt…

How is the moral dilemma of employer-controlled brain implants or eugenics equal to AI? The reason the quote can be applied is because it is a genuinely useful technology to lots of people. That's not the case for eugenics robots.

Did you grow up watching Data (Star Trek), C3PO (Star Wars), KITT (Knight Rider) thinking "Who comes up with these violent sadistic ideas"?

Re: Bored of It

#122

Post by diggan »

TimorousBestie wrote: post #55
jsheard wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Normally I would agree that you can just choose not to engage with the [current thing], but AI is so pervasive that you will be confronted by the consequences of this technology whether you like it or not. These annoying hype cycles don't usually raise the internets noise floor permanently, or DDoS random sites while trying to strip mine their data, or break core assumptions about being able to trust what you see and…

My software working group has spent much of the quarter discussing whether or not it’s made us more productive. They still can’t decide, but I bet we’ve racked up 1000 coder-hours debating it. I don’t use it because our products have the potential to harm other people and I’m not personally comfortable assuming that risk. Nobody else seems particularly moved by that argument, however.

> They still can’t decide, but I bet we’ve racked up 1000 coder-hours debating it.

That sounds... Good?

Lots of people run into using whatever is vogue without even thinking twice about it. See the massive move to using cloud for absolutely everything, money be damned, and you'll see what I mean. Cargo culting is a huge issue in the industry.

At least they're actually considering if it's making them more or less productive, compared to the vast majority of the ecosystem.

Re: Bored of It

#123

Post by zwnow »

mdp2021 wrote: post #118
zwnow wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because empathy isn't useful to society. One only lives once so you better make sure you'll be successful. Having empathy will actively hurt your own life

> useful to society On the contrary, the "respect" towards others is a condition to societies. Otherwise, all you'd had would be "accomplices". And also since Edward Bunker told us that actually, "dog eat dog", > will actively hurt your own life in a pool of free rogues you'll be at severe disadvantage as opposed to a society. > One only lives once so you better make sure you will achieve what you should. That includ…

Society already is full of rogues and guess who is winning in this game? The super rich already buying themselves out of society, punishment usually only hurts the ones who already barely own anything. Whats the benefit of a "society"?

Re: Bored of It

#124

Post by bumby »

zwnow wrote: post #63
latexr wrote: post #17

> The best minds of my generation I’m tired of that line. I remember first seeing it on “the best minds of our generation being employed to sell you ads”. Making a computer go brrr doesn’t qualify anyone for a “best mind”. I’d hope a “best mind” would be, above all, empathetic. Concerned about the well being of their fellow humans. Philosophical about the state of the world. Patient. Curious. Wise and not just smart.…

Why is being empathetic a trait of a "great mind"? Wouldn't it also be possible that "great minds" don't consider things like empathy as useful? Looking back at human history, its usually people that aren't empathetic who end up being successful. At least in a way that people consider "successful". Humanity has long outlived the usefulness of empathy.

Because we are inherently social creatures. It’s arguably what allowed us to move to the top of the animal hierarchy.

Consider this: if you were to ask a parent “would you rather your child grow up to be wildly intelligent but have sociopathy to the point of being utterly alone, or frankly average (or even dull) intellectually but have a rich social life with meaningful relationships, which would you choose?” I think you’d be hard pressed to find someone willing to take the former.

Re: Bored of It

#125

Post by InsideOutSanta »

zwnow wrote: post #78
InsideOutSanta wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you go from "successful" to "useful"? There seems to be no logical connection from "shitty people are successful" to "empathy is not useful to society."

Because empathy isn't useful to society. One only lives once so you better make sure you'll be successful. Having empathy will actively hurt your own life

Studies show that the primary predictor for happiness is personal relationships. Make of that what you will.

Re: Bored of It

#126

Post by diggan »

daliusd wrote: post #56
eimrine wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has been called refusing to use proprietary software. People who use FOSS. Users, not useds.

AI is very open source and very commercialized at the same time. I don't understand your comment.

> AI is very open source

ML ecosystem tends to be very open source, true, LLMs a bit less so.

So far there are only a few useful open source models (mostly courtesy of Chinese companies), otherwise a lot of the models are either hidden behind paid APIs or falsely marketed as open source but come attached with terms and conditions, use policies, forbidden uses, requires signing agreements upfront and so on.

Re: Bored of It

#127

Post by lm28469 »

bufferoverflow wrote: post #109
joewhale wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aging isn’t a problem. It’s normal.

It's a problem for me. When you're 60 or 70, you will wish to have a body of a 25 year old. Dying early from rotting teeth is normal in nature, yet you probably brush, floss, and go to dentist.

That puts you way deep in the wishful thinking territory, again there is 0 rational connection between LLMs and immortality, especially if you're already on the way out

Re: Bored of It

#129

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

zwnow wrote: post #101
lolinder wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> empathy isn't useful to society ... Having empathy will actively hurt your own life Even if I accepted the second statement (which to be clear, I absolutely do not), it doesn't follow that empathy isn't useful to society. Society is not benefited by everyone running about chasing their own personal success to the exclusion of all others: that kind of world isn't even called a society. We have other names for that a…

I am aware people have trouble building this mental model of an unempathetic society. I am old enough to have witnessed that in 99% of situations people are directly responsible for their own situation. There is no reason to have empathy.

You think that's what you've witnessed, but perhaps you're confirming a distorted prejudice and not a reality - because that's exactly what someone who lacks empathy would see.

People who can't see green are evidence of a genetic defect, not evidence that green doesn't exist.

Re: Bored of It

#130

Post by nirse »

luc4sdreyer wrote: post #113
joewhale wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aging isn’t a problem. It’s normal.

Animals eat their disabled children. Humans should also do it then, since it's normal or natural. Around 100k people die from age-related disease every day. I'd be careful to dismiss that as not a problem.

I believe it would be a far greater problem if those people didn't die. Aging populations are a huge problem around the globe and unless we'd improve the quality of life to such a margin that octo- and nonagenarians are able to care for each other, I think we're all better off with people dying of old age.
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