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Please Use AI

shawnsmucker.substack.com

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Re: Please Use AI

#341

Post by runarberg »

btilly wrote: post #332
runarberg wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was what I was thinking when the conversation went to Derek of Veritasium. This poem was centered around humanity and our shared experiences as humans. Derek is consistently obsessed with technology, and will center every conversation around how technology will enhance the human experience (by which he probably means capitalism to be honest). Taking the conversation to Derek of Veritasium feels like after having…

If that is what you think of Derek, then you really don't understand Derek. The video that I linked to is over an hour on why new technologies never transform education. He has a number of videos that critique what capitalism has lead big industries to. For example he has one on Monsanto's war on farming, another on how forever chemicals are poisoning us, and a third on how short-sightedness on protecting the health…

James Burke would also criticize technology. But compared to Koyaanisqatsi James Burke’s critiques feel very tame indeed. While James Burke would critique bad implementations of technology, or point at a place where technology was detrimental, Koyaanisqatsi would say: “humanity has lost its way in pursuit of technology”.

Reading this poem I saw a similar critique of AI as Koyaanisqatsi critiqued technology. And any advocate of this technology for whichever purpose, even the ones who occupationally critique some aspect of it, feel very tame in comparison, and off the mark.

I put my views of Derik in parentheses on purpose. I wanted to share my bias towards him, while also saying: “This is besides the point”.

Re: Please Use AI

#342

Post by SpaceNoodled »

number6 wrote: post #199
culopatin wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AI is like cheap void calories. Writing by hand is calories from a good home cooked meal with all the nutrients and love, AI code (unless maybe you worked on putting together an AI system and the harness is your build), feels like calories from a Sprite. Also I’ve been thinking that ai code is like cheap amazon furniture and hand crafted is well… hand crafted.

Will there be a point where hand crafted does end you somewhere like the Toaster Project [1] [1] https://www.thomasthwaites.com/the-toaster-project/

The idea of having all of those steps generated so unreliably is haunting.

Re: Please Use AI

#343

Post by btilly »

lanfeust6 wrote: post #339
btilly wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone did. But many now talk less. Why? AI psychosis is real. People who talk to LLMs too much, get used to them sucking up. Real humans feel jarring after that. (Just like people who get used to being in echo chambers, stop wanting to interact outside of those echo chambers.) After someone has an answer from an LLM, often that replaces reasons we would have talked to others. (See the OP for examples.)

I've yet to see anything substantiating these anecdotes.

If this does not fit your personal experience, then I have no percentage in trying to convince you.

It does fit the personal experiences of a wide variety of people that I've talked to about it. Including therapists who are having to deal with the fallout within families of these dynamics.

If you wait a few years, I'm sure that peer reviewed research will catch up with the current social phenomena. But by then there will be some other fairly new social phenomena where common experience is ahead of the research.

Re: Please Use AI

#344

Post by btilly »

runarberg wrote: post #341
btilly wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that is what you think of Derek, then you really don't understand Derek. The video that I linked to is over an hour on why new technologies never transform education. He has a number of videos that critique what capitalism has lead big industries to. For example he has one on Monsanto's war on farming, another on how forever chemicals are poisoning us, and a third on how short-sightedness on protecting the health…

James Burke would also criticize technology. But compared to Koyaanisqatsi James Burke’s critiques feel very tame indeed. While James Burke would critique bad implementations of technology, or point at a place where technology was detrimental, Koyaanisqatsi would say: “humanity has lost its way in pursuit of technology”. Reading this poem I saw a similar critique of AI as Koyaanisqatsi critiqued technology. And any a…

It's clear that you're discussing this from an ideological bias that I do not share.

I see no reason to engage further in your assertions about what content is worthwhile.

Re: Please Use AI

#345

Post by the_af »

btilly wrote: post #340
the_af wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So do not let AI write your speeches. But do use it to push yourself harder. Isn't the point of the poem that you should, instead, ask a human? You'll get sidetracked and drawn into unrelated conversations, sure, but that's what it means to be human. Trying to optimize these distractions away means you deprive yourself from human interactions. And why optimize anyway, what's the end goal? That's my take from the po…

The AI is available when humans aren't. We should not reduce how much we talk to humans. But we should not avoid using AI where it makes sense. As for why optimize, we should each decide what we care about, then optimize for that. I have personal reasons why I want to be a better speaker. Why I want to be able to stand in front of people, and have them connect with things that I care about. So it likely makes more se…

> The AI is available when humans aren't

Why do you need it to be available now (for varying values of "now")? Why the urgency? What did you do before AI existed?

And why did you decide the AI makes you a better speaker than talking and getting feedback from your fellow humans?

I think this is also what TFP (The Fine Poem) is about. Why the rush? I get wanting to become a better speaker, that's also part of being human, but why do you need to rush it with AI? Where are you going that you need to get there so fast, and taking shortcuts? This is what I meant by "optimizing".

It seems to me a sort of "productivity death cult". Productivity for what?

Re: Please Use AI

#346

Post by runarberg »

btilly wrote: post #344
runarberg wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

James Burke would also criticize technology. But compared to Koyaanisqatsi James Burke’s critiques feel very tame indeed. While James Burke would critique bad implementations of technology, or point at a place where technology was detrimental, Koyaanisqatsi would say: “humanity has lost its way in pursuit of technology”. Reading this poem I saw a similar critique of AI as Koyaanisqatsi critiqued technology. And any a…

It's clear that you're discussing this from an ideological bias that I do not share. I see no reason to engage further in your assertions about what content is worthwhile.

We are debating a piece of art, having different interpretation is perfectly normal.

Re: Please Use AI

#347

Post by randy909 »

runarberg wrote: post #278
mapontosevenths wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, English is just another programming language. Some of us will always be better at it than others, and the ones that know other programming languages well will always have an advantage over those who do not. When you are good at it there can be craft in it still.

English is not a programming language though. I don’t understand how such an obviously false sentence can be so persistent.

This. Just because an llm can translate any language into a programming language doesn’t suddenly make all languages programming languages. Until I can ‘brew install englishc’ and so on, it’s not a f**ing programming language.

Re: Please Use AI

#348

Post by dominotw »

sushshshhs wrote: post #129
ryandrake wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ever since I started experimenting with AI coding, I've totally lost that feeling of accomplishment. For projects I actually developed by typing in the code, it feels like I actually did something--like here's something I built and am responsible for bringing into the world. When I finish an AI-built project, I feel...nothing. Just that empty: "Code now exists where it didn't exist before, but I didn't really do anyt…

If your project contained original thought does it matter if the IFs and the ELSEs were generated? I sometimes wonder if people get into this to create an actual working something or they just enjoy sorting colored blocks for the heck of it. I am on the other extreme end: I don’t give a rat’s ass about the code itself. The spec, the intent, the architecture, the contracts are what I find interesting. All the “file ha…

"original thoughts" are not accessible to 99 percent of ppl. doenst mean they have to live a life of zero fulfillment.

Re: Please Use AI

#349

Post by dominotw »

TakeItToTen wrote: post #170
sushshshhs wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your project contained original thought does it matter if the IFs and the ELSEs were generated? I sometimes wonder if people get into this to create an actual working something or they just enjoy sorting colored blocks for the heck of it. I am on the other extreme end: I don’t give a rat’s ass about the code itself. The spec, the intent, the architecture, the contracts are what I find interesting. All the “file ha…

I have landed here myself. I have always enjoyed writing code, but I find lately that I am getting so much more satisfaction from the process of exploring and designing systems more, and code is simply the substrate. I am becoming a better architect with AI, because I am spending more mental energy in that lane, getting less embroiled in the nitty-gritty of the code.

ai can do architecture too.

Re: Please Use AI

#350

Post by patates »

timmytokyo wrote: post #337
patates wrote: post #69

If AI is not that special, just a tool, then treat it as such. If AI is special, unlike any other tool, why aren't you using it that much? I personally don't think it's anything special, and if I knew I'll die soon and were planning my last trip with my child, I'd use AI, just like I'd use a credit card, or my phone. It allows me to spend more time with other people, getting boring tasks done much quicker.

And will you use AI to write the wedding speech you give at your child's wedding? People aren't reading what they're responding to.

> And will you use AI to write the wedding speech you give at your child's wedding?

You aren't reading what you are responding to.

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