4 ms·
Unscientific implies there is no reasonable experiment to be able to evaluate a hypothesis. Generally, it is very much possible to conduct scientific experiment
by paddw 4y ago
Unscientific implies there is no reasonable experiment to be able to evaluate a hypothesis. Generally, it is very much possible to conduct scientific experiments on innovations, and even LLMs can be tested to a degree by comparative evaluation and other techniques which OpenAI has used. What can not be tested, and therefore is not scientific as I see it, is a broad and analogical train of argument which tries to understand the development of AI through something like natural selection. There may be some value in trying to think of things this way, but to my mind, that kind of argument should not be made in an academic paper.
- blackbear_ 4y agoI certainly agree that the arguments in that paper are unscientific and not testable. But dismissing all of it simply because it does not present any data is unfair. Thoughts experiments [1] have been a very important catalyst of human thought and yes, of scientific progress itself. If the opinion in the paper is based on sound reasoning and logic, I would argue it deserves to be considered seriously, even if it does not contain any empirical data. [1] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thought-experiment/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thought-experiment/
- paddw 4y agoI think we essentially agree here. My main qualm is that the way the paper is presented implies a false degree of rigor (not "rigor" exactly but more so the idea that the arguments are based on some incontrovertible formal reasoning).