Conor MahoodDec 28, 2022

Teach me something useful about a subject you know very well.

Doesn't have to be a detailed lesson, in fact ideally just a few words or a single post.

Boosts appreciated, 2023 is coming and I'd like to get smarter. Maybe we can all get a bit smarter.

I'll start:

My job is voiceovers and I can tell you with absolute confidence that reading your writing out loud is like a magic trick for better proofreading.

The mouth stumbles on mistakes the eyes glide over.

Show threadEstarianneDec 29, 2022
@ConorMahood Your brain doesn't work the way you think it does. A lot of the choices you make are done with models that are run by specialized neurons that predict outcomes based on past experience. Then, when someone asks why you made that choice, your brain pulls reasons that are unrelated to how those models work.
Show threadBannedalotDec 29, 2022
@Estarianne @ConorMahood my dad was a psychologist and was fond of telling people that 90% plus of human rationality is used only to rationalise decisions they've already made on an irrational basis.
Show threadsmells of bikes
@bannedalot @Estarianne @ConorMahood There's a cool book called "what I believe but cannot prove" that's a collection of essays by experts on their fields. Several neurobiologists had essays about this, that they don't think rational thought is common or possibly exists at all. It's all subconscious/intuition type decisions that we rationalize afterwards. However, side question of well what's intuition if not rationality at a subconscious level?
Dec 29, 2022 at 10:56pmWeb
Show threadEstarianneDec 29, 2022

@smellsofbikes @bannedalot @ConorMahood there are people who believe that! But I think most believe that there are two systems interacting, but that which system is doing the work isn't always transparent.

In cognitive psychology these are called system 1 and system 2, there's quite a bt of work out there. Kahneman is a key developer of the concept. https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555

Show threadEstarianneDec 29, 2022
@smellsofbikes @bannedalot @ConorMahood And linking intuition and emotions to your brain models is pretty key to understanding how your brain works! When your danger models predict danger you feel fear - when those models are malfunctioning you feel anxiety. When you feel something isn't right, all coming from your modeling neurons doing their jobs.
Show threadEstarianneDec 29, 2022
@smellsofbikes @bannedalot @ConorMahood incendentally the existence of modeling neurons is well established, we don't always know exactly how they work but even mice have them, so we can study them. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-34021-1
Brainstem networks construct threat probability and prediction error from neuronal building blocks - Nature Communications

The prevailing view of threat computation is a division of labor in which the forebrain signals threat and the brainstem organizes behavior. Using neuropixels, the authors show that brainstem neurons organize into a functional network to signal threat.

Nature
Show threadBannedalotDec 29, 2022
@Estarianne @smellsofbikes @ConorMahood this is why martial arts work...
Show threadEstarianneDec 29, 2022
@bannedalot @smellsofbikes @ConorMahood yep, and why you can drive. Or walk for that matter. Analytical systems aren't good at those tasks!
Show threadBannedalotDec 30, 2022

@Estarianne @smellsofbikes @ConorMahood

My concern is that only *general* artificial intelligence can effectively perform these tasks and that it is probably immoral to use it to do so.

Driving might be specialized enough to be solvable without conscious thought, but by the time you've got an artificial intelligence useful enough to be a personal assistant I think there is an argument that you have enslaved another thinking being.