@MolemanPeter @elduvelle

This argument ignores the fact that evolutionary processes (things that are better at pushing genes to further generations are more likely to do so than things that aren't) actually lead to systems that process information in such a way as to achieve teleological goals. Within the fields of robotics, neuroscience, psychology, and decision-making studies, these are called "intrinsic goal functions" and are well-established as existing within biological systems. They are closely related to older constructs such as "instinctual" behaviors.

Those intrinsic goal functions are phenomena such as "hunger", "thirst", "parental caring", etc. These act as if they are teleological goals within an individual organism (at the individual organism level). Furthermore, we know that part of the process is that other, more complex "goals", can become associated with those intrinsic goal functions, building up a complex hierarchy of teleological goals, which absolutely create a process of "motor selection".

BTW, the reason that intrinsic goal functions arise is that the actual "how to optimally push genes forward" is an impossible calculation, so goals that are correlated with that tend to get evolutionarily selected for.

So, with all due respect to the philosopher who doesn't seem to understand science, these are not even remotely "conceptual nonsense", but are important to our understanding of the brain and behavior.

The idea that the brain is trying to settle into a stable state is totally wrong The most stable state is being dead.

#MindWithinTheBrain

@UlrikeHahn @sarahafisher @ct_bergstrom

The other advantage of the term "bullshit" over "hallucination" is that it addresses the issue of how we (the general public) are mis-using these #LLMs. If they are providing bullshit (good-sounding but unrelated to truth) language, then they are not appropriate to use for news reports, essays, or search engines.

And, also, hallucination has a very specific meaning in #neuroscience and #psychology (based on, once again, process), which is nothing at all like what these #LLMs are doing.

For anyone interesting in understanding these issues of process, I would point you to my 2013 book __The Mind within the Brain__ (Oxford Univ Press), which details the intersection of neuroscience and psychology and how what we know about process explains a lot of these issues.

Basic process definitions aligned to neuroscience and psychology:

hallucination = activation of sensory system neurons without external incoming signals and without top-down "imagination" markers. (A good example is migraine aura, which is activation of the neurons in the visual cortex by migraine processes.)

imagination = activation of sensory system neurons with some (currently unknown, but almost certainly frontal cortex) activation indicating that it is "simulation". (BTW, this is a good description of the "activate output neurons, work it backwards, see what shows up in input neurons" in these #connectionist models - again, it's an issue of process.)

#MindWithinTheBrain

https://www.amazon.com/Mind-within-Brain-Decisions-those/dp/0190263172