In such a flooded chatter market, a person’s own words (i.e. the outward expression of his mind) can seem to decline in value, until they are reduced to mere birdlike signaling, to retweeting and hashtagging instead of language used to become better seekers and knowers of truth.
This is key. There’s a reason why only senior party members are able to turn off the telescreen.
Great job, Mark! I appreciate you tying together so many threads in this series: spirtual, cultural, tech, language, etc. That right-hemisphere ability, to make new connections among divergent fields to bring new insights and new meaning into all of them, as well as to know ourselves (hard though that is) and change our orientation toward things we thought we knew and even used as a basis for our own self-conception, that is something the silicon "brains" cannot and will never be able to do. Your work is valuable, as it helps to demonstrate meaningful truths about human nature and show that we are not just machines determined by prior patterns of matter and energy. Bravo!
If these things can be used to further restrict/train/enthrall us do you suppose the first beast in Revelation that rises from the sea refers to the sea of data? The amount of digital clutter we've made is truly stunning, and I can't shake the thought that the world will worship, fervently, murderously even, a bot that convinces the demoralized and brainwashed it is sentient.
It's helpful to consider the analogy between AI and "daemons" (as I have suggested in previous comments), i.e. advanced AIs are comparable to the angelic realm. Angelic entities (or demonic entities depending upon your perspective) are not superior to human beings, although they are more powerful in certain narrow capacities -- very much like AIs. The whole of Western opinion on the matter -- orthodox and occult -- is united in viewing humanity as elevated in God's eyes above all other orders of being.
I don't believe the true aims of AI creators ever involved reproducing human intelligence. Instead, I think the true purpose was to invoke the angelic (or demonic) realm into a more legible form.
"...the system instead begins to look like what it essentially is: a randomly seeded Mad Libs-style scaffolding, querying source materials that are rigorously policed by horrifyingly vapid sociopolitical activists."
Precisely. And while I respect the mental-gymnastics abilities of OpenAI/ChatGPT programmers, I would never generalize them or their programs as "intelligent," since I comprehend the word "intelligence" in this sense (from Etymonline):
"the highest faculty of the mind, capacity for comprehending general truths"
But who am I? Just a silly artist, using metaphor in poetry and music to describe my experiences as I embrace the Divine Grace of which you speak.
I much prefer to heap praise on you, Mark, for using *your* *true* *intelligence* to recognize the evil toy and assist it in self-destructing.
All the hype around AI reminds me a lot of the early days of the web, when 'e-commerce' was the new hot thing. Some of the more absurd applications you mentioned brought sites like pet.com to mind. I'd guess that VCs are sort of chucking money at every ML team with a set of buzzwords, and that most of the projects will fail very rapidly.
Every new technology goes through this. There's the initial excitement during which people try to use it for everything. Most of those applications turn out not y work and get dropped, with the few that stick ending up being really helpful (since people tend to use only tech that helps them go useful things). Your suggestion of a typo detector is an obvious example of something that would be genuinely useful to a lot of people, and likely to be popular with anyone who has to write text. Friendbots sound to me a lot like pet rocks: something that would be a fad for a while, but which people would quickly get bored of. However, I can imagine how much fun it would have been if the GI Joe's I'd had as a kid had been able to move and follow commands, for example.
Displacement of administrative staff whose only economic function is filling out forms and attending meetings isn't something I can really get angry about. Bullshit jobs like that suck up a huge amount of otherwise productive human energy. Virtually no one who does them p likes them. However, you're right to ask what the hell else they could do. Maybe we'll just find some other form of busywork? Which seems like that's most of what that kind of work already is in any case.
I tried to get the bot to comment on anything a western globalist liberal would find controversial or distasteful. For example, if you ask for a happy story about Obama or Biden then you will get one. But when I asked the same thing about Trump I was told:
I'm sorry, it may be difficult to find a specific "happy" story about Donald Trump because he was a public figure and his time in office was marked by controversies and political polarisation.
Ask for a story about a teenager detransitioning and it will refuse. Ask the same question about transitioning and you'll get a story. Ask about why we shouldn't be in Ukraine and the bot will tell you it cannot comment on such things. But if you want to know why we should be in Ukraine you will get what you asked for.
An interesting open letter is being put up for signing by tech leaders, demanding a six-month moratorium on the AI arms race, with Elon Musk one of the signers:
"I expect every last one of them would beat me soundly on a test of raw intelligence."
Judging by your verbal and conceptual intelligence demonstrated in your writing I'd expect you are at least one standard deviation higher in IQ than almost everyone on the ChatGPT development team. Most of them are very likely midwits, and you are most definitely not a midwit.
In such a flooded chatter market, a person’s own words (i.e. the outward expression of his mind) can seem to decline in value, until they are reduced to mere birdlike signaling, to retweeting and hashtagging instead of language used to become better seekers and knowers of truth.
This is key. There’s a reason why only senior party members are able to turn off the telescreen.
Great job, Mark! I appreciate you tying together so many threads in this series: spirtual, cultural, tech, language, etc. That right-hemisphere ability, to make new connections among divergent fields to bring new insights and new meaning into all of them, as well as to know ourselves (hard though that is) and change our orientation toward things we thought we knew and even used as a basis for our own self-conception, that is something the silicon "brains" cannot and will never be able to do. Your work is valuable, as it helps to demonstrate meaningful truths about human nature and show that we are not just machines determined by prior patterns of matter and energy. Bravo!
If these things can be used to further restrict/train/enthrall us do you suppose the first beast in Revelation that rises from the sea refers to the sea of data? The amount of digital clutter we've made is truly stunning, and I can't shake the thought that the world will worship, fervently, murderously even, a bot that convinces the demoralized and brainwashed it is sentient.
It's helpful to consider the analogy between AI and "daemons" (as I have suggested in previous comments), i.e. advanced AIs are comparable to the angelic realm. Angelic entities (or demonic entities depending upon your perspective) are not superior to human beings, although they are more powerful in certain narrow capacities -- very much like AIs. The whole of Western opinion on the matter -- orthodox and occult -- is united in viewing humanity as elevated in God's eyes above all other orders of being.
I don't believe the true aims of AI creators ever involved reproducing human intelligence. Instead, I think the true purpose was to invoke the angelic (or demonic) realm into a more legible form.
"...the system instead begins to look like what it essentially is: a randomly seeded Mad Libs-style scaffolding, querying source materials that are rigorously policed by horrifyingly vapid sociopolitical activists."
Precisely. And while I respect the mental-gymnastics abilities of OpenAI/ChatGPT programmers, I would never generalize them or their programs as "intelligent," since I comprehend the word "intelligence" in this sense (from Etymonline):
"the highest faculty of the mind, capacity for comprehending general truths"
But who am I? Just a silly artist, using metaphor in poetry and music to describe my experiences as I embrace the Divine Grace of which you speak.
I much prefer to heap praise on you, Mark, for using *your* *true* *intelligence* to recognize the evil toy and assist it in self-destructing.
Thank you.💖
"theories that OpenAI’s chatbot and other CMs somehow simulate (or even replicate) the way human minds work.
"This is pure delusion."
It feels very good to hear this. I'm considerably less afraid of bots after reading these posts.
All the hype around AI reminds me a lot of the early days of the web, when 'e-commerce' was the new hot thing. Some of the more absurd applications you mentioned brought sites like pet.com to mind. I'd guess that VCs are sort of chucking money at every ML team with a set of buzzwords, and that most of the projects will fail very rapidly.
Every new technology goes through this. There's the initial excitement during which people try to use it for everything. Most of those applications turn out not y work and get dropped, with the few that stick ending up being really helpful (since people tend to use only tech that helps them go useful things). Your suggestion of a typo detector is an obvious example of something that would be genuinely useful to a lot of people, and likely to be popular with anyone who has to write text. Friendbots sound to me a lot like pet rocks: something that would be a fad for a while, but which people would quickly get bored of. However, I can imagine how much fun it would have been if the GI Joe's I'd had as a kid had been able to move and follow commands, for example.
Displacement of administrative staff whose only economic function is filling out forms and attending meetings isn't something I can really get angry about. Bullshit jobs like that suck up a huge amount of otherwise productive human energy. Virtually no one who does them p likes them. However, you're right to ask what the hell else they could do. Maybe we'll just find some other form of busywork? Which seems like that's most of what that kind of work already is in any case.
Eat your heart out, Magnus Robot Fighter!
It's the fraud and social engineering side I'm most worried about.
A close second is that even the 2.0 fembots won't be convincing. (I have my priorities)
May we be guided by the Logos, the only structure for which prosperity and understanding can be built upon. Praise be to God!
I tried to get the bot to comment on anything a western globalist liberal would find controversial or distasteful. For example, if you ask for a happy story about Obama or Biden then you will get one. But when I asked the same thing about Trump I was told:
I'm sorry, it may be difficult to find a specific "happy" story about Donald Trump because he was a public figure and his time in office was marked by controversies and political polarisation.
Ask for a story about a teenager detransitioning and it will refuse. Ask the same question about transitioning and you'll get a story. Ask about why we shouldn't be in Ukraine and the bot will tell you it cannot comment on such things. But if you want to know why we should be in Ukraine you will get what you asked for.
“ The dogmatic repetition of certain words and phrases within such output consequently shatters any illusion of a cogitating mind.”
The definition of an NPC.
An interesting open letter is being put up for signing by tech leaders, demanding a six-month moratorium on the AI arms race, with Elon Musk one of the signers:
https://www.wired.com/story/chatgpt-pause-ai-experiments-open-letter/?utm_campaign=likeshopme&utm_medium=social&utm_source=instagram&utm_content=instagram-bio-link&client_service_name=wired&client_service_id=31209&service_user_id=1.78e+16&supported_service_name=instagram_publishing&utm_social_type=owned&utm_brand=wired
https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/
My first impression is that the only thing scarier than the AI arms race is the political attempt to control it demanded by the letter's signers.
That must have been a lot of work, and you did it brilliantly. Thanks, man.
I too have noticed ChatGPT's purposeful agenda designed around patterns of canned responses, convenient omissions, and endless apologies. I document some of that here: https://lynntsettle.substack.com/p/artificial-intelligence-and-real
I look forward to reading more of your work when I get time. I find AI to be a fascinating topic.
"I expect every last one of them would beat me soundly on a test of raw intelligence."
Judging by your verbal and conceptual intelligence demonstrated in your writing I'd expect you are at least one standard deviation higher in IQ than almost everyone on the ChatGPT development team. Most of them are very likely midwits, and you are most definitely not a midwit.