Human Brain Enthusiast

A common argument from AI stans is basically mysticism: “we don’t really know how it works therefore it must be alive and have a soul”.

Dude, first of all we know how it works, human beings created every step of LLMs, and the didn’t imbue it with life like a golem, it’s just applied statistics.

Secondly just because you personally find it mysterious and unknowable doesn’t mean it’s magic.

Mar 27 at 4:42pmWeb
Show threadHuman Brain Enthusiast23h ago

Had to block like 3 people today already for having this unhinged opinion.

Of course they convinced themselves they're very normal and very rational people.

Show threadOliverUv23h ago
@thomasfuchs perhaps the most rational! Or at least so their chat bots tell them
Show threadStephen Dioxide 1d ago
@thomasfuchs Hold up -- I thought that when we didn't understand how things work, we were supposed to attribute them to aliens.
Show threadHuman Brain Enthusiast23h ago
@Steve “aliens” is just a late 20th century synonym for “supernatural”
Show threadVojta1d ago
@thomasfuchs Not even magic has to be alive
Show threadGraham Sutherland / Polynomial23h ago

@thomasfuchs the world would be a better place if people stopped imbuing complex subjects with a sense of curiosity-terminating unknowable mysticism.

it's fine to joke about it now and again, but we do ourselves a disservice when we slip into actually believing it.

Show threadNomdeb23h ago
@thomasfuchs Also applies religion which is man made, and god(s). What had to be explained by magic in years of yore is rapidly dwindling as science learns more and more. "Mysterious ways is one of the biggest conartist jobs ever."
Show threadnasd106623h ago
@thomasfuchs Now that you describe it like that, it's hard not to find some similarities between AI and a cargo cult.
Show threadsentientsponge23h ago
@thomasfuchs I made the mistake of going to see the disturbing AI gf/bf part of reddit and I'm pretty sure we're doomed. If it's not some poor traumatized bugger in Africa literally pretending to be your AI sex bot, then it's a probability-based word salad generator and apparently we either can't or simply don't want to be able to tell the difference from that and actual human connection. AI stans do desperate insane levels mental/moral gymnastics to justify their addiction.
Show threadDave Rahardja22h ago

@thomasfuchs The dangerous thing to me is that it’s only two brain cells away to go from “I don’t understand it so it’s alive” to “I don’t understand it so it’s GOD”…like we humans have treated everything we didn’t understand for millennia.

The TESCREAL shitheads behind the “AGI” movement certainly want to push us that way.

Show threadjosh susser22h ago
@thomasfuchs it's AI of the gaps
Show threadSteve Williams8h ago

@thomasfuchs

https://mastodon.social/@terrypratchettquotebot2/116302066685895836

Show threadDźwiedziu8h ago
@thomasfuchs
Arthur C. Clarke taken the wrong way.
Show threadThe Dinosaur Dave6h ago
@thomasfuchs and thus the cylon war began again... repeating the cycle foretold in the sacred scrolls, and the fall of Kobol...
Show threaduserdevice2h ago
@thomasfuchs Sometimes when I encounter this, the stans are conflating not knowing what weights represent with 'magic', I believe in a few cases (in person) I've successfully parlayed their position into "It's important to humanity to understand and audit these weights so the system isn't opaque." It's rough out there though, I don't want to have those discussions with an llm, or a zealot who is defending their belief system/does not want to understand how the system works
Show threadHuman Brain Enthusiast1h ago
@userdevice it doesn't help at most chatbots are zealots that are based on yourself—because they agree with everything you say there's not much point in trying to discuss anything