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It's hard, and many of us (myself included) and not great at it. That makes it seem easier to reach for the simulacrum. But at what cost? Homo sapiens's supe

It's hard, and many of us (myself included) and not great at it. That makes it seem easier to reach for the simulacrum. But at what cost? Homo sapiens's superpower is social cooperation. My concern is that these systems will abet the existing social forces which seem to be causing unprecendented levels of isolation of adults, which will continue to drive smart people away from collaboration and towards solitude, at a level far beyond simple prefences would suggest. We already have enough trouble hearing each other through the noise, and understanding what each other has to say. I don't have the answers but I'm looking for them and I do hope other humans will, too.

ativzzz 3y ago
I think people tend to cooperate only when there are tangible benefits such as: - survival - making money - sex - enjoyment via social interactions (like parties, hangouts, etc) It just so happens that for the majority of our civilization, to get those things, we've had to cooperate, but as we develop technology, our ability to get those things increases and our reliance on others decrease (though in a weird way it increases since technology is complexity so society becomes larger, more complex, and more inter-dependent) We are still in an unprecedented technological boom of computing so we are adjusting on the fly to it. Like the OP says, AI can greatly accelerate independent learning, but eventually that learning plateaus. Once it does, we have to go back to collaboration, but until we find that limit, I think it's human nature to push on.
- mistrial9 3y ago
  no - predatory behavior in groups is completely missing from this list. To extend that ides, IMHO much of "business" and some government, falls into this category easily. This is true for all large language groups world wide, irrespective of politics details.
  - ativzzz 3y ago
    Those fall under making money and surival (and honestly sex and enjoyment as well)
ilaksh 3y ago
You said yourself. They are "social forces". In other words, problems that people created. Not technology problems. I think there is an incorrect worldview that tries to blame human problems on technology. It's quite true that isolation is an increasing problem. But the idea that instead of using an AI that can spit out a comprehensive answer in seconds, we should all pretend that such tools don't exist, and start constantly asking for help with every idea or request instead, while waiting 3-100 times longer for a less thorough response, is ludicrous. It's a great idea to collaborate more and try to avoid isolation. But those are societal problems. They are not caused by the latest tools. Also, as far as humanity's "super-power" as being collaboration, this is quite a shortsighted comment. I believe that well before AI achieves "super" level IQ, it will vastly outperform humans due to other advantages. One of those advantages is speed. Another is the ability to communicate and collaborate much, much more rapidly and effectively than humans. One type of digital life that may take over control of the planet (possibly within decades rather than centuries) would be a type of swarm intelligence with the ability to actually "rsync" mental models to directly transfer knowledge.

ativzzz 3y ago

I think people tend to cooperate only when there are tangible benefits such as: - survival - making money - sex - enjoyment via social interactions (like parties, hangouts, etc) It just so happens that for the majority of our civilization, to get those things, we've had to cooperate, but as we develop technology, our ability to get those things increases and our reliance on others decrease (though in a weird way it increases since technology is complexity so society becomes larger, more complex, and more inter-dependent) We are still in an unprecedented technological boom of computing so we are adjusting on the fly to it. Like the OP says, AI can greatly accelerate independent learning, but eventually that learning plateaus. Once it does, we have to go back to collaboration, but until we find that limit, I think it's human nature to push on.

mistrial9 3y ago
no - predatory behavior in groups is completely missing from this list. To extend that ides, IMHO much of "business" and some government, falls into this category easily. This is true for all large language groups world wide, irrespective of politics details.
- ativzzz 3y ago
  Those fall under making money and surival (and honestly sex and enjoyment as well)

ilaksh 3y ago

You said yourself. They are "social forces". In other words, problems that people created. Not technology problems. I think there is an incorrect worldview that tries to blame human problems on technology. It's quite true that isolation is an increasing problem. But the idea that instead of using an AI that can spit out a comprehensive answer in seconds, we should all pretend that such tools don't exist, and start constantly asking for help with every idea or request instead, while waiting 3-100 times longer for a less thorough response, is ludicrous. It's a great idea to collaborate more and try to avoid isolation. But those are societal problems. They are not caused by the latest tools. Also, as far as humanity's "super-power" as being collaboration, this is quite a shortsighted comment. I believe that well before AI achieves "super" level IQ, it will vastly outperform humans due to other advantages. One of those advantages is speed. Another is the ability to communicate and collaborate much, much more rapidly and effectively than humans. One type of digital life that may take over control of the planet (possibly within decades rather than centuries) would be a type of swarm intelligence with the ability to actually "rsync" mental models to directly transfer knowledge.