
the quaking mess
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the quaking mess
@ThisOneQuestion
not one, not two problems; empirical dadaist; discursive footnote


Actually a lot of Mahayana sutras optimize for self-propagation. Eg the Heart Sutra has this really dumb bit that goes "this is the great spiritual mantra the great brilliant mantra the unsurpassable mantra the unequaled mantra it eliminates all suffering this is true not a lie."

Let me say this clearly: LLMs cannot feel emotions. Emotions are evolutionary mechanisms. They push us to avoid danger or approach what is beneficial. We experience emotions because we are alive, and we want to stay alive. LLMs are not alive. Yes, emotional language may be encoded somewhere in the LLM. Yes, it may even be associated with some LLM output. But that is just a superficial property. There is nothing deeper behind it. For a very simple reason: LLMs do not have an intrinsic and inescapable drive to stay alive. This is what we call “motivation fault line” in our paper describing seven fault lines between human and artificial intelligence. * Paper in the first reply


Natalie thinks the left wants too much, and that they think she has a courage problem. Personally I would diagnose it as her having an optimism problem that prevents her from strongly advocating for bigger change, because she doesn't believe it can ever happen.

Hope isn’t blind optimism — it arises in the face of uncertainty. If you look at our history, we’ve gone through some rough patches. But we tend to come out on the other side of them stronger than before.





God the geometer, France, 13th century


When simulation becomes the norm, it weakens the human capacity for discernment. As a result, our social bonds close in upon themselves, forming self-referential circuits that no longer expose us to reality. We thus come to live within bubbles, impermeable to one another. Feeling threatened by anyone who is different, we grow unaccustomed to encounter and dialogue. In this way, polarization, conflict, fear and violence spread. What is at stake is not merely the risk of error, but a transformation in our very relationship with truth.








