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Dream interpretation from an AI that can’t experience dreams. What will they think of next? I’ve seen LLMs used for astrology, “psychic” readings, and other no

Dream interpretation from an AI that can’t experience dreams. What will they think of next? I’ve seen LLMs used for astrology, “psychic” readings, and other non-scientific and pseudoscientific nonsense. Human credulousness seemingly has no lower bound. When I married a Buddhist she insisted we visit a temple to get marriage advice and a blessing from a monk. So I got advice on women and marriage from a single celibate man. I will look forward to the AI version of that ritual.

krapp 2y ago
Not to worry. Dream interpretation from a human being is just as much nonsense as dream interpretation from a machine.
noahwilson32 2y ago
Dream interpretation is actually a very well researched field in Psychology. Prominent psychologist, Carl Jung, wrote significantly about dream interpretation and the collective unconscious mind. This is of course not an exact science - but AI is the collective unconscious mind of humanity or as close as we’ve yet to come.
- gregjor 2y ago
  Freud and Jung both wrote about dream interpretation, but I wouldn't call their work "very well researched." What would research on the meaning of dreams even look like? Something more credible and rigorous than Freud's subjective anecdotes? More reality-based than Jung's mythology? You might call "AI" a collection of our consciously-created artifacts, since that what it digested. It has no subconscious, nor access to any human subconsciousness. But it can regurgitate anything you ask it to, whether the result makes sense or not.
  - noahwilson32 2y ago
    Our own subconscious mind is just artifacts of our waking life pieced together. ChatGPT has been trained on all Psychological papers pertaining to dreams and dream analysis. So yes it is simply regurgitating, but from the most authoritative sources on the subject. Considering that millions of people have read Psychologists like Jung and benefited from their insights, I think it is fair to say that there is at least something to this field of research. If his insights were totally off base, then people wouldn’t pay attention. Albeit, not everyone is a dreamer, so it is not for everyone.
    - gregjor 2y ago
      Substitute "astrology" or "flat earth" for "dream interpretation" and you can see the problem with your argument. Lots of people believe in it, ChatGPT likely trained on plenty of "authoritative" sources, and still you get regurgitated nonsense. > Our own subconscious mind is just artifacts of our waking life pieced together That doesn't match any definition of "subconscious" I have ever come across. In any case, good luck.

krapp 2y ago

Not to worry. Dream interpretation from a human being is just as much nonsense as dream interpretation from a machine.

noahwilson32 2y ago

Dream interpretation is actually a very well researched field in Psychology. Prominent psychologist, Carl Jung, wrote significantly about dream interpretation and the collective unconscious mind. This is of course not an exact science - but AI is the collective unconscious mind of humanity or as close as we’ve yet to come.

gregjor 2y ago
Freud and Jung both wrote about dream interpretation, but I wouldn't call their work "very well researched." What would research on the meaning of dreams even look like? Something more credible and rigorous than Freud's subjective anecdotes? More reality-based than Jung's mythology? You might call "AI" a collection of our consciously-created artifacts, since that what it digested. It has no subconscious, nor access to any human subconsciousness. But it can regurgitate anything you ask it to, whether the result makes sense or not.
- noahwilson32 2y ago
  Our own subconscious mind is just artifacts of our waking life pieced together. ChatGPT has been trained on all Psychological papers pertaining to dreams and dream analysis. So yes it is simply regurgitating, but from the most authoritative sources on the subject. Considering that millions of people have read Psychologists like Jung and benefited from their insights, I think it is fair to say that there is at least something to this field of research. If his insights were totally off base, then people wouldn’t pay attention. Albeit, not everyone is a dreamer, so it is not for everyone.
  - gregjor 2y ago
    Substitute "astrology" or "flat earth" for "dream interpretation" and you can see the problem with your argument. Lots of people believe in it, ChatGPT likely trained on plenty of "authoritative" sources, and still you get regurgitated nonsense. > Our own subconscious mind is just artifacts of our waking life pieced together That doesn't match any definition of "subconscious" I have ever come across. In any case, good luck.