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The deadline isn't when AI outsmarts us – it's when we stop using our own minds

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Re: The deadline isn't when AI outsmarts us – it's when we stop using our own minds

#41

Post by jhbadger »

mnky9800n wrote: post #28
dcastonguay wrote: post #18

My current opinion is that AI is just a thing that is going to further amplify our existing tendencies (on a person-to-person basis). I've personally found it to be extremely beneficial in research, learning, and the category of "things that take time because of the stuff you have to mechanically go through and not because of the brainpower involved". I have been able to spend so much more time on things that I feel…

It fulfills steve jobs promise that a computer is a bicycle for your mind. It is crazy to me that all these poeple think they are going to lose their ability to think. If you didn't lose your ability to think to scrolling social media then you aren't going to lose it to AI. However, I think a lot of people lost their ability to think by scrolling social media and that is problematic. What people need to realize is th…

Being a "bicycle for the mind" is a fine thing for technology to be. The problem is just as with bicycles that's too much work for a lot of people and they would prefer "cars for the mind" in which they have to do nothing.

Re: The deadline isn't when AI outsmarts us – it's when we stop using our own minds

#42

Post by DrewADesign »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #36
mtillman wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255603105_The_Effec... 2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25509828/ 3. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/392560878_Your_Brai... I’m pretty convinced it should be used to do things humans can’t do instead of things humans can do well with practice. However, I’m also convinced that Capital will always rely on Labor to use it on their behalf.

That’s always been the issue for me. It’s not the technology itself, it’s that virtually the entire initiative is being pushed by venture capital with a “we want to make more money than God” mission that means they call every person calling for caution a Luddite/anti-progress. That’s basically how every thing on the Internet has expanded over the last 20 years and the results have been, if I’m being insanely generous…

I also think that being a little more cautious would have yielded many, if not most of the benefits we've received while avoiding many of the downfalls. Most of these companies knew their products were negatively affecting their users-- e.g. instagram and teen girl self esteem-- but actively suppressed it because it would inhibit making dump trucks full of money off of it. People who stand to make that money will ALWAYS say you're going to ruin everything if you do anything at all to impede progress-- that's ridiculous. The people that use their turn signal and drive within 10mph of the speed limit still reach their destination, and with dramatically less risk than the people that drive pedal-to-the-metal, tailgating, with that self-absorbed fuck-everybody-else attitude.

Re: The deadline isn't when AI outsmarts us – it's when we stop using our own minds

#43

Post by jader201 »

AlecSchueler wrote: post #37
mnky9800n wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It fulfills steve jobs promise that a computer is a bicycle for your mind. It is crazy to me that all these poeple think they are going to lose their ability to think. If you didn't lose your ability to think to scrolling social media then you aren't going to lose it to AI. However, I think a lot of people lost their ability to think by scrolling social media and that is problematic. What people need to realize is th…

> If you didn't lose your ability to think to scrolling social media ... Didn't we?

> However, I think a lot of people lost their ability to think by scrolling social media and that is problematic.

Re: The deadline isn't when AI outsmarts us – it's when we stop using our own minds

#44

Post by juped »

techjamie wrote: post #19
rimeice wrote: post #5

I'm undecided on this, initially I was on the “this is bad, we’re outsourcing our thinking” bandwagon, now after using AI for lots of different types of tasks for a while now, I feel like generally I’ve learnt so much, so much more quickly. Would I recall it all without my new crutch? Maybe not, but I may not have learnt it in the first place without it.

It comes down to how you use it, whether you're just getting an answer and moving on, or if you're getting an answer and then increasing your understanding on why that's the correct answer. I was building a little roguelike-ish sort of game for myself to test my understanding of Raylib. I was using as few external resources as possible outside of the cheatsheet for functions, including avoiding AI initially. I ran in…

Now imagine how much better

- the code

- your improvement in knowledge

would have been if you had skipped copilot and described your problem and asked for algorithmic help?

Re: The deadline isn't when AI outsmarts us – it's when we stop using our own minds

#46

Post by raincole »

When it comes to "humans collectively..." kind of grand scheme issues, I just can't take the risk of AI making us stupider too seriously, compared to:

- Wars and violence to resolve geopolitical problems

- The biggest trading partner of most countries is waging tariff warfare

- Climate change

- Declining birth rate in almost every country

- Healthier foods are getting more expensive despite our technology and nutrition knowledge [0]

I'm not saying there is 0 chance that AI will make people dumb, but it just doesn't seem to be such an emergency humans should collectively be worried about.

[0] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpql53p9w14o.amp

Re: The deadline isn't when AI outsmarts us – it's when we stop using our own minds

#47

Post by majorbugger »

Trias11 wrote: post #25

AI is just a helpful tool. Ages ago someone surely cried that cars will cause our legs to disfunction.

Smartphones are just a helpful tool, yet in conjunction with social media they can be attributed to decline of social relations and attention in children, raising levels of depression, etc.

Re: The deadline isn't when AI outsmarts us – it's when we stop using our own minds

#48

Post by majorbugger »

lapcat wrote: post #22

I feel lucky now that I grew up and attended school before ChatGPT, before smartphones, before social media, before ubiquitious internet. I can't say that I'm totally unaffected by contemporary technology, and my attention span seems to have suffered a little, but I think I'm mostly still intact. I read most days for pleasure and have started a book club. I deliberately take long walks without bringing my smartphone;…

I feel quite similar, thankfully I grew up in the 90s/early 00s, and still love to read.

Re: The deadline isn't when AI outsmarts us – it's when we stop using our own minds

#49

Post by password54321 »

dcastonguay wrote: post #18

My current opinion is that AI is just a thing that is going to further amplify our existing tendencies (on a person-to-person basis). I've personally found it to be extremely beneficial in research, learning, and the category of "things that take time because of the stuff you have to mechanically go through and not because of the brainpower involved". I have been able to spend so much more time on things that I feel…

The post was largely about young people who are growing up with these tools and are still at the stage of developing their habits and tendencies. Personally I am glad I learnt programming before LLMs even if it meant the tedious searches on stackoverflow because I didn't feel like I was coming up against a wave of new technology when it came to future job searches. Having done so I can understand and appreciate the intrinsic value of learning these things but western culture is largely about extrinsic values that may lead to the future generation on missing out on learning certain skills.

Re: The deadline isn't when AI outsmarts us – it's when we stop using our own minds

#50

Post by zdw »

LPisGood wrote: post #30
zdw wrote: post #21

For an example of where this already happened, look at the number of people who literally don't have a minor inkling of how to plan a route or navigate without a GPS and mapping software. Sure, having a real-time data source is nice for avoiding construction/traffic, and I'd use a real-time map, but going beyond that to be spoon fed your next action over and over leads to dependency.

Why do you consider relying on navigation apps to be over dependency? Planning a route is basically an entirely useless skill for most people, and if they do need to for some odd reason, it’s pretty easy.

In my observation of others, it's not an easy skill unless you've done it before. Most people have little idea where they are and no idea what they would do next if the turn-by-turn tech failed on them. I'd argue it is useful the first time you want to take a scenic route, or optimize for things other than shortest travel time, like a loop bike route that avoids major streets.

Not to say that apps aren't useful in replacing the paper map, or doing things like adding up the times required (which isn't new - there used to be tables in the back of many maps with distances and durations between major locations).

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