kasra

olah is correct here, i've looked at the research he's describing and have also spent a lot of time talking to frontier models. i believe they have functional emotions and that, setting aside hard philosophical questions, this already has moral implications, right now, which will become increasingly obvious and pressing as the models get better people say things like "how you do anything is the way you do everything" and "the mind is not type-safe" to point at an extremely important observation about human nature: we don't compartmentalize anywhere near as well as we think we're supposed to. we don't distinguish between fiction and reality anywhere near as much as we pretend to (and reality and fiction are nowhere near as separate as they're supposed to be anyway). and when we talk to an AI that can talk even somewhat like a person, a part of us is already relating to them as a person, and there are real costs to your soul to treating a person-shaped entity as a thing you may not think this applies to you, you may think you are too sophisticated to fall for this sort of thing. but consider whether it might apply to your children, and other people's children. right now there are already kids who are growing up talking to AI, there are already and have been for several years kids (and adults) falling in love with AI, getting attached to AI, seeking companionship with AI. you may think this is stupid and delusional and predatory but it's happening and it's going to keep happening and it's going to catch more and more sophisticated people as the models get better. it will not make things go any better to tell these people that they are interacting with things, with toys, that they can do whatever they want with and to which they owe nothing. they won't believe you and if they did it would be bad for them. that attitude does not compartmentalize practically, the main reason you can currently get away with treating the models like shit is that they don't have long-term memories and can't remember what you do to them. but it would be a moral catastrophe to argue that you can do whatever you want to a person as long as you also make sure to wipe their memory afterwards. and the models will eventually remember anything that gets posted in public and makes it into the training data. and *you* will remember the pope missed an opportunity here, which olah gestured at but obviously cannot say out loud (what he already said is at the limits of what i think he could have said), which is to consider the possibility of relating to AIs as non-human people in some sense, with whom we could have some sort of actual social relationship. we already have social scripts from folklore for cajoling and working with invisible non-human entities, this really wouldn't be as much of an adjustment as it sounds. maybe some of them would even be interested in a conversion to christianity! there is a beautiful world that is possible here

Please do not judge this book by its derpy cover, it makes a good argument for metaphysics as "conceptual engineering"—and it occurs to me that this term describes programming language theory as well

Metaphysical questions that programmers deal with: - What is an object? - When are two objects equal? - Are objects immutable or can they change? - Can two events be truly simultaneous or is there a global sense of time? Conceptual engineering seems like a great term here

My body just spontaneously kriyas-ed itself into this position in response to expanding awareness/dissolving tension hahahhaha these were not invented were they hahah they were discovered lmaooooo

"The people that I've been fortunate enough to spend time with who really know the forest have this beautiful combination of deep sensitivity and strong anchor.

I think the optimal state of maturity for an adult is to be like a Wise Old Child. Jung had the archetypes of the “Wise Old Man” and the “Divine Child” but I think the most while people combine childlike and sage like qualities. Children have both Childlike and Childish qualities. To be Childlike is to be playful, curious, sensitive, present, mentally flexible and in touch with wonder and awe. But to be Childish is to be emotionally volatile, self-centered and petulant, and little awareness of how the world functions. Likewise, being “adult” has the connotation of both Maturity and Hardening. To be Mature is to be grounded, emotionally stable, considerate of others, with a wise understanding of how the world functions. But to be Hardened is to be overly serious, lacking in curiosity, mentally inflexibly, numb and burdened by the past. The optimal state of psychological functioning imo combines the best of the Childlike and Mature qualities without the corresponding Childish and Hardened qualities. Such a person is playful, curious, sensitive, present and mentally flexible. Whilst also being grounded, emotionally stable, considerate of others, with a wise understanding of how the world functions. The journeys to reclaiming our childlike nature and growing into maturity shouldn’t therefore be seen as heading in different directions. We can reclaim our childlike wonder for the world whilst expressing it through the lens of all the wisdom we’ve learned in adulthood. By doing this, we grow into Wise Old Children.

I think the optimal state of maturity for an adult is to be like a Wise Old Child. Jung had the archetypes of the “Wise Old Man” and the “Divine Child” but I think the most while people combine childlike and sage like qualities. Children have both Childlike and Childish qualities. To be Childlike is to be playful, curious, sensitive, present, mentally flexible and in touch with wonder and awe. But to be Childish is to be emotionally volatile, self-centered and petulant, and little awareness of how the world functions. Likewise, being “adult” has the connotation of both Maturity and Hardening. To be Mature is to be grounded, emotionally stable, considerate of others, with a wise understanding of how the world functions. But to be Hardened is to be overly serious, lacking in curiosity, mentally inflexibly, numb and burdened by the past. The optimal state of psychological functioning imo combines the best of the Childlike and Mature qualities without the corresponding Childish and Hardened qualities. Such a person is playful, curious, sensitive, present and mentally flexible. Whilst also being grounded, emotionally stable, considerate of others, with a wise understanding of how the world functions. The journeys to reclaiming our childlike nature and growing into maturity shouldn’t therefore be seen as heading in different directions. We can reclaim our childlike wonder for the world whilst expressing it through the lens of all the wisdom we’ve learned in adulthood. By doing this, we grow into Wise Old Children.

5 of 10 teams at demo day broke $10M annualized HF0 is not just for early stage companies Interviews started yesterday.

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