Riley S. FaelanMar 11

The notion of a broken clock being sometimes right is based on a gross misunderstanding of what information is.

A clock that always shows the same time is never right, even in the moments of the day when the time happens to be what it shows, because you don't gain any information about what time it is by looking at the clock.

This reasoning also applies to chatbots. If you can't tell whether what you have been given is useful information unless you alreay know the information, then you haven't been given useful information.

Show threadMissConstrueMar 11
@riley That is such a brilliantly clear analogy.
Show threadRiley S. FaelanMar 11

@MissConstrue Are you a chatbot sycophanting me up?  

These days, one can never be too cautious.

Show threadMissConstrueMar 11

@riley Thats a very good question and you are so clever to think of it, I’d be happy to drill down on this topic for you.

Heh, sorry. Not a chatbot. Old philosopher, so...like a chatbot, only caffeine powered, argumentative and capable of consciousness. (Or at least, I would argue I’m conscious.) I honestly did believe it was a very illustrative analogy. Most people will parrot the clock paradigm; ie right twice a day, when you are correct that the underlying logic of the premise is faulty, and therefore any attempt to treat it as true will fail.

Show threadAndii אַנדִֽי
@MissConstrue @riley
There is a sense in which it is right bidiurnally, the issue is that without an independent corroboration, a viewer has no way to know when is one of those two times. And why would you bother?
Interesting to consider also the case of my watch which gains time over a month or so. It is never right but is more useful because it is close enough for most purposes and I can make allowance for its growing inaccuracy.
Mar 16 at 6:19amWeb
Show threadMissConstrue5d ago
@Andii Mostly unrelated, and definitely anecdotal; I love watches. Adore them. Analog, filled with gears and things that go around, watches. I'm common, so most of my watches have been inexpensive tat, but I inherited a very good one. And I've discovered that no matter the quality of the timepiece, they will react oddly when I wear them. They will randomly speed up or go backwards. Literally backwards. I've not worn a digital one, so I can't speak to them, but something about me makes watches go haywire. Strangest damn thing.