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Human Routers of Machine Words

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Re: Human Routers of Machine Words

#21

Post by altcognito »

NateEag wrote: post #18
cadamsdotcom wrote: post #5

> ... I feel contempt for the author, because if you use AI to write, you are a waste of biomass. Let’s not mince words here. Someone who is so eager to replace themselves, that they would have a machine write in their stead, when the machine can’t even write good yet: what do you call that, if not contemptible? It’s like making yourself into a eunuch so Claude can fuck your wife. Unfortunately due to how tasteless t…

I agree that it was a rude, tasteless metaphor. Alas, for rude, tasteless behavior, such as replacing your own authentic self-expression with the mellifluous spew of verbal diarrhea that bullshit machines slather across all surfaces they touch, rude, tasteless metaphors are the only fitting ones.

If only everyones authentic self-expression were so important to hear, to say nothing of unique and inciteful.

I'm not against authentic self-expression, but this is more about being wrapped up in ones own self-importance.

Re: Human Routers of Machine Words

#22

Post by zetalyrae »

drdaeman wrote: post #20
cadamsdotcom wrote: post #5

> ... I feel contempt for the author, because if you use AI to write, you are a waste of biomass. Let’s not mince words here. Someone who is so eager to replace themselves, that they would have a machine write in their stead, when the machine can’t even write good yet: what do you call that, if not contemptible? It’s like making yourself into a eunuch so Claude can fuck your wife. Unfortunately due to how tasteless t…

Tastelessness aside, it also shows that author doesn’t (or refuses to) understand why someone may decide to delegate a documentation task to a subpar agent. Laziness. Yes, conceptually it’s something about surrendering one’s voice and agency to a subpar machine. Or something like that. (Though that persistence-suggestive neutering metaphor is probably a unwarranted exaggeration.) In practice though it’s more like “I…

But the problem is people are not just delegating formulaic procedural prose to AI. They're using AI to write entire scientific papers, so now reviewers have to use Pangram[0] to screen submissions. Literary magazines have the same problem[1]. Maybe those people should know that their behaviour is bad.

[0]: https://blog.neurips.cc/2026/06/02/ai-generated-papers-in-th...

[1]: https://neil-clarke.com/a-concerning-trend/

Re: Human Routers of Machine Words

#23

Post by throwaboat »

zetalyrae wrote: post #9
lawgimenez wrote: post #7

> because if you use AI to write, you are a waste of biomass Damn, that is so hurtful. I'm sorry if English is my third language. But for my project documents I would love to read it like a proper documentation so I'm thankful for AI.

Translation is fine.

Is it, though? The post author is railing against it.

Re: Human Routers of Machine Words

#24

Post by drdaeman »

zetalyrae wrote: post #22
drdaeman wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tastelessness aside, it also shows that author doesn’t (or refuses to) understand why someone may decide to delegate a documentation task to a subpar agent. Laziness. Yes, conceptually it’s something about surrendering one’s voice and agency to a subpar machine. Or something like that. (Though that persistence-suggestive neutering metaphor is probably a unwarranted exaggeration.) In practice though it’s more like “I…

But the problem is people are not just delegating formulaic procedural prose to AI. They're using AI to write entire scientific papers, so now reviewers have to use Pangram[0] to screen submissions. Literary magazines have the same problem[1]. Maybe those people should know that their behaviour is bad. [0]: https://blog.neurips.cc/2026/06/02/ai-generated-papers-in-th... [1]: https://neil-clarke.com/a-concerning-trend…

Ah, yes, although that’s a different situation from the linked post, more disrespectful (and potentially nefarious) than a sloppy readme. In those cases, most likely, more than just laziness is involved.

Re: Human Routers of Machine Words

#25

Post by fwlr »

drdaeman wrote: post #20
cadamsdotcom wrote: post #5

> ... I feel contempt for the author, because if you use AI to write, you are a waste of biomass. Let’s not mince words here. Someone who is so eager to replace themselves, that they would have a machine write in their stead, when the machine can’t even write good yet: what do you call that, if not contemptible? It’s like making yourself into a eunuch so Claude can fuck your wife. Unfortunately due to how tasteless t…

Tastelessness aside, it also shows that author doesn’t (or refuses to) understand why someone may decide to delegate a documentation task to a subpar agent. Laziness. Yes, conceptually it’s something about surrendering one’s voice and agency to a subpar machine. Or something like that. (Though that persistence-suggestive neutering metaphor is probably a unwarranted exaggeration.) In practice though it’s more like “I…

Arguably, someone who has chosen to replace their own human expression with machine words has already dehumanized themselves - although this is perhaps a too-literal reading the word “dehumanized”?

Re: Human Routers of Machine Words

#26

Post by NewsaHackO »

zetalyrae wrote: post #13
Foxhuls wrote: post #4

This just seems weirdly similar to Plato's comments on writing: "And so it is that you by reason of your tender regard for the writing that is your offspring have declared the very opposite of its true effect. If men learn this, 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, bu…

But writing, calculators, search engines etc. are specific tools, you drop a skill to gain effectiveness in another. While AI is a general tool whose builders intend it to be able to perform all cognitive work. Past a certain point, what is left of the human?

I do not agree that the concept of writing can be considered a specific tool at all. Maybe a pencil, but writing opposed to remembering everything is a more substantial level of a paradigm shift than AI use is.

Re: Human Routers of Machine Words

#27

Post by altmanaltman »

jrmg wrote: post #14

This is a very good essay when you get past the arrogant tone evident especially at the beginning (is that a form of engagement bait?…) The argument that communicating an idea is a necessary part of shaping it feels counterintuitive, but it’s really true. Whether it’s debugging, ‘big’ writing, or even down to the scale of a tweet (RIP Twitter) or an HN comment, I’ve often had the experience of starting to explain a p…

Yeah I don't know. I mean the author says only smart people can write good. And then says anyone who uses AI to write is basically giving up their genetalia so that Anthropic's AI model could make love to your wife (apparently without her consent because you can obviously just decide who has sex with your wife).

The author should learn how to write properly and communicate ideas in a less sexist and disgusting way if he wants to make a point about writing well.

The blog post has terrible writing sorry.

Re: Human Routers of Machine Words

#28

Post by ekelsen »

recursive-call wrote: post #15
jrmg wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason why people use AI to manifest their ideas is probably because they have no other way communicate otherwise. What?! This is nonsense. You’re really making the argument that most people getting LLMs to write for them just couldn’t communicate in any way five years ago?

The five-years-ago internet was certainly full of incoherently expressed ideas (and still is now). For some people AI is just spellcheck on the sentence/paragraph level.

As a reader, I appreciate reading writing that lacks large amounts of spelling mistakes. Everyone agreeing on spelling seems like a useful monoculture, like driving on the same side of the road.

But I don't feel the same way about AI writing. It feels totally different in a way that good spelling does not.

Even if I liked the style, I would object strongly to that style quickly becoming a monoculture.

We're on a path to a style optimized for shallow attention maximization becoming the majority of text we read.

Re: Human Routers of Machine Words

#29

Post by zetalyrae »

jrmg wrote: post #19
zetalyrae wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a very good essay when you get past the arrogant tone evident especially at the beginning (is that a form of engagement bait?…) We have reached the point where you have college professors who defend[0] using AI to write scientific papers (in a seemingly AI-written tweet). Everywhere I go online, I see spam written with the exact same voice. Scientific journals and literary magazines are inundated with AI-wr…

Perhaps I meant ‘crude’ rather than ‘arrogant’. Or another word that a blend of the two. I mean, I think there’s a middle ground between defending all uses of AI writing and saying “It’s like making yourself into a eunuch so Claude can fuck your wife.” Edit: or “if you use AI to write, you are a waste of biomass”

Maybe you're right.

Re: Human Routers of Machine Words

#30

Post by sig-11 »

jrmg wrote: post #14

This is a very good essay when you get past the arrogant tone evident especially at the beginning (is that a form of engagement bait?…) The argument that communicating an idea is a necessary part of shaping it feels counterintuitive, but it’s really true. Whether it’s debugging, ‘big’ writing, or even down to the scale of a tweet (RIP Twitter) or an HN comment, I’ve often had the experience of starting to explain a p…

I could not get past "waste of biomass".
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