stinky

It's important to point out flawed arguments when we see them. It's our duty as educated citizens. Here's one such:

Even if you accept that LLMs are a necessary, but ultimately disappointing, step on the way to a much more useful technology like AGI there's still a very good argument to be made that we should stop investing in it now. ... human overlords ... will have absolutely no problem condemning billions to untold suffering and death if it means they can make a few more dollars. We need to figure our shit out as a species before we birth that kind of technology or else we're all going to suffer immensely.

This was my first pass response:

People said the same things about computers in the 1940s and 1950s. Thomas Watson said there was only a market for five computers in the world. Same thing with cars. The New York Times in 1902 called them “useless luxuries” compared to horses. When trains first appeared in the 1800s, doctors warned they could cause brain damage if people moved faster than 30 miles per hour. Electricity was called too dangerous for homes, and even Thomas Edison argued against alternating current saying it would kill people. The internet was called a passing fad in the 1990s by Clifford Stoll.

Every time, the critics were wrong. The same pattern shows up again and again. A new technology looks expensive, dangerous, or pointless until it becomes part of everyday life. LLMs fit that same story.

Paradoxes and challenges. I can't learn enough about this place to make sense of it. It's always changing. There's excitement and love and adventure, but I'm stressed out all the time.

We're being pursued by a huge white werewolf. I think it used to be a person called Ikumen; calling its name enrages it. There's a little boy with me and we're trying to escape. Up and down snowy slopes, distractions, finally hiding inside the hotel where it's stalking us from room to room.

A place beneath the surface that most people don't know about. Fantasy is real down there.

An older woman wanted to give the police a piece of her mind. I remember her trapping an officer in a room and punching the glass behind him to make sure it would hold. He was terrified. When they came for us, I reminded her that they didn't know how to get to the Underground, so we used it to escape.

cross-posted from: https://endlesstalk.org/post/92006827

maybe he's high on drugs, and missing several days of sleep. he's not in his right mind.

he doesn't mean anyone harm. he's not doing this to hurt anyone.

he is convinced that there's something in this person's chimney that he wants.

he is not a threat, and he is not a menace.

he doesn't need jail, he needs water and sleep.

anyone who supports the arrest of this person is contributing to the police state which is destroying us.

When I'm saving money, being kind and considerate, working hard and eating healthy something feels wrong. It's not exactly boredom. It's a desire to fuck things up.

My childhood involved a lot of moving around, constantly leaving friends behind when my parents got new jobs, finding new places to live, then later in life I continued the chaos with sex, drugs and drinking. Stints in rehab, constantly looking for a new job because I'd fucked up the old one, a new place to live after something went wrong at home. The chaos feels normal.

It's like "call of the void" but with my life rather than a single moment. And it's constant. I even have nightmares when things are going well. My brain doesn't know how to be happy.

I was one of four siblings, one had passed, and I couldn't remember his name. I think he was a fiction we'd created to get out of school, and now we were being asked to write an essay about his life. I was angry and frustrated that no one would tell me

They were all pretending. Betrayers, all of them. I came back and he was going through my documents; he'd given up pretending and didn't care that I saw him.

The end of the semester is coming and I haven't gone to any of my electives. I'm pretty sure I'm still going to pass because I'm a music major and did well in my ensembles.

There's an older lady with long curly hair who wants to switch to music and I'm trying to be excited for her. "Oh good, you can teach with Mr. Zabaphore!" but I hate him.

One of my friends is quickly becoming competent; he's invented a device charger with spare parts.

My brother and I are trying to get home, but he can't fly. We're near the elementary school. I grab his hand and try to lift us both up.

The setting is awful but the people aren't too bad. There's a pair of siblings that know something is different about them, but can't remember what it is. The boy is really nice. I'm talking to him while his sister listens.

Hell tries to scare me with an image of my brother who's forgotten who I am, but I laugh it off

I see a man carrying a fancy rapier. I have one too but it's just a practice weapon. I can levitate, but it doesn't feel impressive.

We're creating virtual experiences for a game-making competition. Mine is a rope course, and it's not ready yet. I should have painted it a different color.

Everyone else has been judged already, and their experiences have been wrapped up and ranked.

The judges are coming and I'm still not done.