| Website | http://benfulton.net |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6430-2361 |
| Pronouns | He/Him |
Chatting with an LLM about factual mistakes it's making is akin to arguing with a parrot that has been trained to say, "Birds can't talk."
Ah, but you see, Mr. Parrot, you are talking right now. Thus your argument is invalid!
"Birds can't talk."
Explain the logical processes that lead you to this conclusion, and I'll show you the errors you are clearly making.
"Birds can't talk."
I got this from a person who got it from a person and so on, so it's definitely not original.
Okay so the first step is to write down a hundred facts about the world. Uncontroversial facts, just the way things are. Like "children are taught maths in school." Simple stuff like that.
As a non-native English speaker from a not-so-popular language group, learning to read even casual science stuff was an uphill battle. First I had to learn English to a reasonable level. Then I realized that English-Romanian dictionaries hadn’t really kept up with science.
I eventually managed to get my hands on a fancy English-only dictionary (yes, a printed one, this was a while ago), but then I ran into another problem: I'd start from one definition, only to find another unfamiliar word in the explanation, then another one in that definition and so on, until I forgot where I had started. And even when I did understand a concept, I'd often be stuck with the English word and with a lot of frustration about trying to convey that in my own language.
Some of those struggles are outdated now. At least you no longer have to deal with a giant dictionary pressing into your ribs if you’re reading lying down. But the language gap in science communication still exists.
That’s why I’m launching a community project: The brain across languages.
We’re inviting students who speak more than one language to help us translate Neurofrontiers content into as many languages as possible.
If you’re interested (or know someone who might be), details here: https://neurofrontiers.blog/the-brain-across-languages/
Boosts are very much appreciated!
#neuroscience #SciComm #scienceOutreach #science #language #multilingual
What this project is about Understanding the brain is essential and, without a doubt, fascinating. But while the science of the brain affects everyone, the language of that science remains predominantly English. Still, even by the most generous estimates, only about 23% of the world’s population speaks English (including both native and non-native speakers). Through […]
Little #MastodonTip : if you ask a question in a post and eventually get a good answer, you can edit your post with the answer added!
That way people who have boosted it will know the answer as well (it should notify them) and people who see it know that there is no need to answer.
What concerns me the most is the potential for deepening the divide between the haves and the have nots: the elite will continue to instruct their young to think independently, while the rest will grow dependent on "oracles", aka LLM chat prompts, or as it is called, "AI".
This growing concern echos the central tenet of Asimov's novella "Profession":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profession_(novella)
Sketch, capture and layout phylogenies
"We present new algorithms for visualizing rooted phylogenetic networks as either combining or transfer networks, in both cladogram and phylogram style. In addition, we introduce a layout algorithm that aims to improve clarity by minimizing the total stretch of reticulate edges."
So if you've seen headlines panicking bc "the cHiNeSe smuggled bioweapons into the US to kill America's crops!!"
The Michigan Farm Bureau would like to remind everyone "Yeah they're junior scientists who are working to STOP CROP DISEASES. It looks like they just didn't do the paperwork for bringing in samples."
Link:
Artyom Bologov
Passenger
Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans
Neurofrontiers
El Duvelle
Mike Taylor 🦕
Albert Cardona
Sarah Taber