This Schmidt Shit is going to go down in history as emblematic of…however our present era is viewed in hindsight, and it won’t be kind.
-
This Schmidt Shit is going to go down in history as emblematic of…however our present era is viewed in hindsight, and it won’t be kind.
“We can’t stop the planet from dying, so society should dump all its money into my Ouija board business!”
It’s crap on the level of “I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half,” Nero fiddling as Rome burns, “We must join with Sauron.” Just willful self-immolation. 🧵
From @breadandcircuses: https://climatejustice.social/@breadandcircuses/113277705558752831
-
@inthehands @breadandcircuses the silicon valley billionaire echo chamber is a really frightening thing to watch.
-
Agree with @dave_andersen, it really is — and I think my Ouija board comparison is not off the mark: the SV billionaires locked in a small room sniffing each others’ farts are strongly reminiscent of the way the wealthy of the 19th century got sucked into the rise of “spiritualism” (seances, etc).
-
I’m not the first person to notice the connection between spiritualism and AI mania. I remember seeing a thoughtfully worked out blog post on how LLMs exploit some of the same cognitive traps as magic tricks, but I’m now struggling to find it. I did find this interesting-looking book, though:
Believing in Bits: Digital Media and the Supernatural
Abstract. Situated at the theoretical interface between the fields of media studies and religious studies, Believing in Bits advances the idea that religio
OUP Academic (academic.oup.com)
Especially relevant:
Information Theory of the Soul: Spiritualism, Technology, and Science Fiction
AbstractThis chapter examines the similarities between the techno-fantasies promoted by the modern spiritualist movement and the claims made by contemporar
OUP Academic (academic.oup.com)
-
Aha! This is the one I was thinking of:
https://softwarecrisis.dev/letters/llmentalist/Note that one section is titled “Many psychics fool themselves.”
-
@inthehands @breadandcircuses
For me it's just a rationalist version of 'let go & let God', where 'God' is whatever vague thing Schmidt things he means when he says "AI". -
Paul Cantrellreplied to Paul Cantrell last edited by [email protected]
Once you see the connection between LLMs and psychics / seances / spiritualism, it’s hard to unsee. At the center: people •want• to believe, and that is powerful. Thinking of modern-day SV, listen to some of the stories of how con artists used spiritualism…
…as a business: https://www.history.com/news/ghost-hoax-spiritualism-fox-sisters
…as wartime subterfuge: https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-234-the-seances-9-8-2023
…as almost a kind of therapy: https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-79-secrets-and-seances-11-17-2017
-
@inthehands Eric Schmidt is straight up professing a religious faith. He believes super intelligent AI will solve everything with no rational support for this belief. It doesn’t matter that his god would be tangible if it existed. If it existed there’s no reason to believe it would do what he thinks it would, nor is there any reason to believe that it could or will exist. He’s operating on 100% religious faith.
And it’s the worst kind of religion, the kind that supports him being a bad person.
-
@cheddarcrisp
That right. And the worst kind for a second reason: it’s a con. -
Paul Cantrellreplied to Paul Cantrell last edited by [email protected]
Is there a “there” there with LLMs and other contemporary forms of AI? Consider this story of a photographer who prepared hoax photographs of ghosts in the early days of photography, and suckered even Mary Todd Lincoln:
Episode 159: Spiritual Developments (2.26.2021)
One Sunday afternoon, a man named William Mumler decided to take a self portrait. He said he was alone in the photography studio, but as the photograph developed, he saw something very strange—the image of someone else, sitting beside him.
(thisiscriminal.com)
Is there a “there” there with using double exposures in photography? Sure! But step zero is completely giving up on the idea that you’re photographing ghosts — or in the case of AI, creating “intelligence.”
-
The trouble is that giving up on the promise of photographing ghosts won’t let you extract •nearly• as much money from investors.
-
@inthehands I think you are thinking of https://softwarecrisis.dev/letters/llmentalist/ by @baldur ?
-
-
A great point here:
https://mastodon.social/@tantramar/113278385211586464One of my favorite picture books is “Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Like.” This book is frequently mis-summarized — including by the publisher’s own blurb! — and the mis-summarizing perfectly illustrates @tantramar’s point:
-
@inthehands I saw a minute later, but I thought I knew precisely what you were talking about when I saw the tweet, and dove down my highlights archive to get it.
Sorry for the redundant post. -
The blurb:
❝Because of the road sweeper's belief in him, a dragon saves the city of Wu from the Wild Horsemen of the north.❞
That is flatly wrong.
What the road sweeper actually says to the old man who claims to be a dragon (but nobody believes him) is:
❝I don’t know whether you are a dragon or not, but if you are hungry and thirsty, please do me the honor of coming into my humble home.❞
The dragon saves the city not because of the road sweeper’s •belief•, but because of his •kindness•.
-
@Sevoris
Eh, good to know others have my back! -
@inthehands @breadandcircuses It's not really primarily "self"-immolation when he's also proposing immolating everyone else.
-
The story couldn’t be clearer on this point. Isn’t it fascinating that our culture consistently sets people up to misread it so?
-
Rob Cinos :verified:replied to Paul Cantrell last edited by
@inthehands The story could be further reduced to the fact that the farmer took action above wishful thinking.
