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AI isn’t outthinking mathematicians, it’s out-remembering them

davidepiffer.com

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Re: AI isn’t outthinking mathematicians, it’s out-remembering them

#231

Post by ipython »

grahamburger wrote: post #210
hibikir wrote: post #198

I suspect that a lot about what we call being very intelligent is ultimately out-remembering people around us. I think of all the times in my software career when I did something that others considered very high performance, it either came down to either having more energy than others at tackling a problem they thought was more trouble than it was worth, or just bringing back random knowledge from previous jobs or se…

People have told me I was smart since I was a kid, but I can't remember for shit. I had a thought when I was fairly young that the only reason I was (maybe, sometimes) outperforming others intellectually is that I was habitually compensating for my poor memory by working things out on the fly, while others could rely more on rote memorization. Anyway, takes all kinds I guess!

Agree. Plus the dimension of synthesizing new ideas from existing knowledge. Different skill set from rote memorization.

Re: AI isn’t outthinking mathematicians, it’s out-remembering them

#232

Post by estetlinus »

bragr wrote: post #220
grahamburger wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have told me I was smart since I was a kid, but I can't remember for shit. I had a thought when I was fairly young that the only reason I was (maybe, sometimes) outperforming others intellectually is that I was habitually compensating for my poor memory by working things out on the fly, while others could rely more on rote memorization. Anyway, takes all kinds I guess!

We sort kids into the smart and non-smart labels when they are young, and those labels tend to stick, even when what we're measuring isn't raw intelligence but just variance in childhood development that wash out in the long term. I don't think either group is well served by this.

A smart kid can be anything from not eating rocks anymore to multiplying numbers at an early age.

Most of us turn out like the rescued exotic bird which turns out to be a seagull covered in curry.

Re: AI isn’t outthinking mathematicians, it’s out-remembering them

#233

Post by rowanG077 »

ben_w wrote: post #166
AustinDev wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humanoid robots are obviously more than marketing. The entirety of human civilization is human shaped. Making robots that are human shaped is easier and more efficient than redesigning and rebuilding everything that exists.

> The entirety of human civilization is human shaped. That's the marketing pitch. A plumbing robot doesn't need to be humanoid, an octopus shape may well be better for all the awkward corners. A robot police officer could be the municipality itself for sensory nodes (essentially the sales pitch of Flock etc.), plus some drones or robot dogs to perform arrests*. The robot vacuum cleaners and lawnmowers we already have…

You are not understanding what humanoid robots are about. Those are specialist robots you are describing. The promise is of course one robot that can do the plumbing, clean your house, do the dishes, build a house, and basically every physical job a human can do. It's extreme lly likely that at least a somewhat humanoid shape is required for that.

Re: AI isn’t outthinking mathematicians, it’s out-remembering them

#234

Post by IAmGraydon »

hibikir wrote: post #198

I suspect that a lot about what we call being very intelligent is ultimately out-remembering people around us. I think of all the times in my software career when I did something that others considered very high performance, it either came down to either having more energy than others at tackling a problem they thought was more trouble than it was worth, or just bringing back random knowledge from previous jobs or se…

I've long held the belief that humans cannot truly create. We just remix and recombine. This is interesting - although I'm not religious, many religious texts call god the "Creator", perhaps because the ability to truly create original thought is above the ability of us humans. To truly create is divine. Maybe the writers of those old texts recognized this as well.

Re: AI isn’t outthinking mathematicians, it’s out-remembering them

#235

Post by light_hue_1 »

There is a certain amount of slack that we have. Things that are obvious consequences of what we've already discovered but that we haven't taken advantage of yet. AI is reaping that slack. It isn't adding brand new ideas at the moment. We will run out of this slack pretty quickly.

Re: AI isn’t outthinking mathematicians, it’s out-remembering them

#236

Post by LogicFailsMe »

meroes wrote: post #94
LogicFailsMe wrote: post #55

What I'm looking forward to amidst all the negativity, fear, and loathing is for some 20something mathematician to outdo both humanity and machines by leaning hard into centauring to expand the frontiers of mathematics. Pretty much what I think the future will play out to be as well, but I don't think people are ready for that yet.

Takes the rogue having access to the $$$$ models though.

That currently costs $20 a month, $200 per month if you need the premium extreme deluxe package subsidized by everyone else paying for it and not utilizing it. When I was in grad school I budgeted the equivalent of $3,000 per year to maintaining my compute hardware and that was a very long time ago. So I think it's doable.

Re: AI isn’t outthinking mathematicians, it’s out-remembering them

#237

Post by ejeje12 »

hibikir wrote: post #198

I suspect that a lot about what we call being very intelligent is ultimately out-remembering people around us. I think of all the times in my software career when I did something that others considered very high performance, it either came down to either having more energy than others at tackling a problem they thought was more trouble than it was worth, or just bringing back random knowledge from previous jobs or se…

It’s a false definition of intelligence - remembering stuff has never been what intelligence is.

Understanding especially in the context of unknowns is what intelligence is.

Re: AI isn’t outthinking mathematicians, it’s out-remembering them

#238

Post by segmondy »

anal_reactor wrote: post #144

As AI keeps improving, the definition of intelligence will keep changing in order to exclude it without explicitly saying so.

Well, some folks are going to keep trying to exclude it, but the reality is we are almost at the point even those folks would concede that they are not smarter than LLM. I suspect we will see then see more discourse about consciousness, morality, agency, emotions as being the most important part of intelligence.

Re: AI isn’t outthinking mathematicians, it’s out-remembering them

#239

Post by ejeje12 »

IAmGraydon wrote: post #234
hibikir wrote: post #198

I suspect that a lot about what we call being very intelligent is ultimately out-remembering people around us. I think of all the times in my software career when I did something that others considered very high performance, it either came down to either having more energy than others at tackling a problem they thought was more trouble than it was worth, or just bringing back random knowledge from previous jobs or se…

I've long held the belief that humans cannot truly create. We just remix and recombine. This is interesting - although I'm not religious, many religious texts call god the "Creator", perhaps because the ability to truly create original thought is above the ability of us humans. To truly create is divine. Maybe the writers of those old texts recognized this as well.

This is a ridiculous view.

Most humans cannot incrementally contribute since they don’t have many traits required to do so - extreme discipline, imagination etc.

We literally live off and benefit from the investments of the few, in relative terms.

Re: AI isn’t outthinking mathematicians, it’s out-remembering them

#240

Post by ScoobleDoodle »

vasco wrote: post #227
hibikir wrote: post #198

I suspect that a lot about what we call being very intelligent is ultimately out-remembering people around us. I think of all the times in my software career when I did something that others considered very high performance, it either came down to either having more energy than others at tackling a problem they thought was more trouble than it was worth, or just bringing back random knowledge from previous jobs or se…

Not only I agree with you that I don't think I've had an original idea, even when I try to do artistic stuff it seems like the things most praised were the ones where I was trying to do something else and the good part came from failing to do the thing I was trying to do.

That sounds like unintentional. Which still can be original. A happy accident.
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