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Cursor told me I should learn coding instead of asking it to generate it

forum.cursor.com

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Re: Cursor told me I should learn coding instead of asking it to generate it

#371
post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been a while since I read the original article, https://courses.cs.umbc.edu/471/papers/turing.pdf > The Imitation Game > "Can machines think?" We may need to redefine what these words mean. Whether machines can think, and whether we believe so, are distinct. If we're just a kind of machine, we can just say that LLMs have not surpassed us. While LLMs still give away obvious signatures (their flaws are LLM-y and n…

> If we're just a kind of machine That is not true. Even our cells, with features that look a lot like machinery such as a proton pump, is on the whole several orders of magnitude more complex than any machine. Even a single human cell is more like an ecosystem than a machine. Let alone entire humans or even just the human brain. Consider that both cells and humans are capable of reproduction. > If anything, the abil…

> That is not true.

Why? I'd say it's been self-evidently true for at least three decades now.

> Even our cells, with features that look a lot like machinery such as a proton pump, is on the whole several orders of magnitude more complex than any machine.

How many is several? I think that, at the level of a proton pump, individual components comes close to the order of complexity humanity deals with in man-made machines.

Also, at this level, things really look like machines, act like machines, quack like machines - there's no reason to not call them machines, given they obviously are. It's naturally originating molecular nanotech.

> Even a single human cell is more like an ecosystem than a machine.

Certainly. But then, an ecosystem is defined as a system made of bunch of varied stuff interacting with each other, finding balance through a set of feedback loops. An ecosystem of machines is still an ecosystem, and is arguably a machine in itself, too - after all, the term "machine" also applies to self-balancing / feedback driven systems, ever since we invented control theory and formalism to describe feedback loops.

> Let alone entire humans or even just the human brain.

Complex machines don't stop being machines when you keep adding moving parts to increase complexity. Or, at which point between a protein pump and a human being you believe the assemblage of molecular nanotech stops being a machine?

> Consider that both cells and humans are capable of reproduction.

What's that supposed to tell us? Human reproduction involves cell reproduction.

Re: Cursor told me I should learn coding instead of asking it to generate it

#372
post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If we're just a kind of machine That is not true. Even our cells, with features that look a lot like machinery such as a proton pump, is on the whole several orders of magnitude more complex than any machine. Even a single human cell is more like an ecosystem than a machine. Let alone entire humans or even just the human brain. Consider that both cells and humans are capable of reproduction. > If anything, the abil…

> a single human cell is more like an ecosystem than a machine Good point. Not to mention the massive reliance on organisms like mitochondria and bacteria that don’t even share the host’s DNA. > [imitate human labor] within extremely narrow confines and quite often going over into just conjuring up nonsense Much like human labor. So the intelligent, reflective and thoroughly iterated work is hardly replicated at all,…

> Good point. Not to mention the massive reliance on organisms like mitochondria and bacteria that don’t even share the host’s DNA.

So? Does your car stop being a machine just because it's a complex systems of moving parts, many of which are dynamically balanced through feedback loops, which involve components sourced from different vendors, and substances that are not part of the original manufacturing data sheet?

Exactly what insight does this give us? I feel this is trying to contrast a single machine "unit" against a complex system, while also sneakily committing a naturalistic fallacy by using "machine" vs. "ecosystem" to imply "machine" vs. "life" in the magical sense (i.e. as if life was something beyond a physical process).

Re: Cursor told me I should learn coding instead of asking it to generate it

#373
post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Turing test is meant to see if computers can functionally replicate human thought (just focussing on textual conversations aspect for simplicity). The implications of passing the Turing Test are profound. Tricking a user with a 5 minute conversation isn't the same. The examiner is allowed to be an expert questionner. For one thing, software engineering would quickly be taken over as a client can just chat with an…

And there's a more general sort of Turing test: Just like the original test, there are 3 participants in a test: an examiner, a human, and an AI. The examiner may ask any question or series of questions to the human &/or AI, and receive responses. This is done via text or other means which prevent the examiner from directly seeing the body of responder. Both AI and human are to attempt to convince the examiner that t…

Your "meta-Turing Test" is rigged. There are 8 billion humans on this planet, statistically someone is bound to be able to distinguish AI from a human with near-100% accuracy across a reasonable amount of rounds through sheer chance.

Existence is too strong a criterion. Even correcting for random chance, if there's 1, 10, 100, even 1 000 000 examiners who could distinguish an AI from a human with high probability, that steal means the AI passed the test in practice, because even a million examiners is still a rounding error compared to the human population.

Re: Cursor told me I should learn coding instead of asking it to generate it

#375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably learnt it from all the "homework" questions on StackOverflow.

When it starts saying "Why would you want to do that?" we should really be worried.

For now, that's what I ask AI every 5th message...

Re: Cursor told me I should learn coding instead of asking it to generate it

#376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whew, that's a lot to type out and you have to provide words of encouragement? Wouldn't it make more sense to do a simple search engine query for a HTTP library then write some code yourself and provide that for context when doing more complicated things like async? I really fail to see the usefulness in typing out long winded prompts then waiting for information to stream in. And repeat...

A few options. 1. Use TTS and have an LLM clean it up. 2. Use a collection of prompt templates.

I meant VTT, not TTS

Re: Cursor told me I should learn coding instead of asking it to generate it

#377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably learnt it from all the "homework" questions on StackOverflow.

When it starts saying "Why would you want to do that?" we should really be worried.

You can just seed a prompt to make it behave like this

Re: Cursor told me I should learn coding instead of asking it to generate it

#378

Sheesh, I didn't expect my post to go viral. Little explanation: I downloaded and run Cursor for the first time when this "error" happened. Turned out I was supposed to use agent instead of inline Cmd+K command because inline has some limitations while agent not so much. Nevertheless, I was surprised that AI could actually say something like that so just in case I screenshotted it - some might think it's fake, but it…

> in future AI will start giving attitudes to their users

they do it now.

"You are a sarcastic assistant."

Re: Cursor told me I should learn coding instead of asking it to generate it

#379
post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is very real, and will act as a force towards center of gravity of the LLMs which means popular and established tech. It might even create a divide between ”prompt engineer engineers” and those who understand. That assumes using LLMs will not improve your understanding compared to traditional means which isn’t necessarily true. I dislike LLMs as coders but for learning new topics quickly they are better…

> I think this is very real, and will act as a force towards center of gravity of the LLMs which means popular and established tech Maybe it means devs will invest more time in putting together quality docs because that'll be the deciding factor if an LLM can figure out how to use your library; interesting!

I think there will be SEO but focused on getting AIs to gobble up your content. Back to the days of tons of hidden text in multiple websites

Re: Cursor told me I should learn coding instead of asking it to generate it

#380
post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are down in working hours per year from 3.500h in 1870 to around 1400h now.

Yes, thanks to laws put in place, not because of technical progress. Come on.

If 95% of the population were still farmers (not anymore due to technological progress) those laws would never have been passed, and wouldn't have meant anything if they did because you're going to starve unless you put in the gruelling hours every day ploughing fields, chopping wood, tending livestock - forever.
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