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Words are Worse than Weights
- turtleyacht 3y agoI'm still betting on words, because we can rebuild with those. At the same time, accepting weights doesn't have to mean surrendering attention, literacy, and critical thinking. Always invest (time) in first principles, at any rate.
- quantified 3y agoWords are our serialization protocol. It's always been the weights. We have other serialization protocols too (facial expressions, gestures/body language, and pheromones). Our world models are structures of weights. Brains (not just human) are built to optimize for certain kinds of weightings. But we can't just transmit weights. Each brain and each training set in the form of life experiences and inner conversation is unique. Words have the greatest dynamic range of expressiveness. So words (written in the form of sentences, paragraphs, etc, spoken in many ways) will still be key.
- CRConrad 3y agoWhat is it they put a “weight” to, if not (some machine-encoded version of) concepts, thoughts, ideas — i.e, words? So we measure the weight of words in whatever unit these “weights” are measured in, like we measure milk in gallons or litres, and bread, meat, or potatoes in pounds or hundredweights. But our bodies don't live on abstract units like gallons or pounds; they live on meat and potatoes. Just like our individual souls and common cultures live on thoughts, ideas, words — not “weights.”