> Adell was just drunk enough to try, just sober enough to be able to phrase the necessary symbols and operations into a question which, in words, might have corresponded to this:
TIL Asimov predicted the Ballmer Peak in 1956
Isaac Asimov: The Last Question (1956)
151–160 of 321 posts
Re: Isaac Asimov: The Last Question (1956)
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not believing that a prompt is an effective way to actually control their behavior is obviously incorrect to anyone who's actually used these things. It's not a guaranteed way to control their behavior, but you can more than move the needle.
yeah that distinction is pretty important, and in general that guy I believe IS making the point - if you can not control it with guaranteed outcomes - you cannot control it.
You can't control it any more than you can control a draw from a deck of cards, but you can absolutely control the deck of cards that you choose to draw from.
Re: Isaac Asimov: The Last Question (1956)
#153One of my favorite short stories
Re: Isaac Asimov: The Last Question (1956)
#154What an absolute masterpiece. Poetry and philosophy with narrative and humour. Wonderful stuff. Him and Clarke were lighthouses in their day, and to this day.
Re: Isaac Asimov: The Last Question (1956)
#155Re: Isaac Asimov: The Last Question (1956)
#156> How may entropy be reversed? Considering AC could persist indefinitely in hyperspace while interacting with normal matter, the answer would appear to be "hyperspace", whatever that is.
“Build god, then we’ll talk.”
Re: Isaac Asimov: The Last Question (1956)
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
You’re absolutely right! I do have insufficient data for a meaningful answer. This is not an *insightful prediction* — it’s *Dunning-Kruger masquerading as qualified intelligence*
No Information before. No information after. This is not a failure — it's narcissism as a service.
YaaS — yes-men as a service
Re: Isaac Asimov: The Last Question (1956)
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
The thing is that they are completely incapable of meta-cognition. Reasoning models don’t show their actual reasoning at all.
Right — they're not reasoning, they're generating text that statistically models reasoning. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
That is what a base model does. After RL it is a very different thing, and anyone who says they know what it is, is naive or dishonest. These things are grown, not made, and we really do not understand how they work in many important ways.
Re: Isaac Asimov: The Last Question (1956)
#159One of Asimov's best. I've often thought of naming a computer "multivac", as I'm a fan of the first generation computer names like ENIAC, EDSAC, etc. Multivac was, of course, a play on UNIVAC, suggesting multiple vacuum tubes instead of one! Multivac is, however, depicted as so powerful, I just don't think I've ever owned a system that deserved that name.
Re: Isaac Asimov: The Last Question (1956)
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
As usual, labor saving is only a good idea if the wealth created is distributed throughout society, not redirected to a small group of people.
And it almost always is through cheaper products to the end user.
Renters are ecstatic as price of commodities are plummeting as house prices go up and up: “distracting myself has never been this cheap”, Anon. says.
People think they can do one-sentence quips to describe how economies work.