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Hacker News gets a lot less creepy/sad/interesting when you ignore the first-person pronouns and remember they're just biomolecular machines. It's a scaled up v
by in-silico 9mo ago
Hacker News gets a lot less creepy/sad/interesting when you ignore the first-person pronouns and remember they're just biomolecular machines. It's a scaled up version of E. coli. Useful, sure, but there's no reason to ascribe emotions to it. It's just chemical chain reactions.
- illiac786 9mo agoMakes zero sense. “Emotion” is a property of these “biomolecular machines”, by its definition.
- in-silico 9mo agoBut if you weren't one of them, would you be able to tell that they had emotions (and not just simulations of emotions) by looking at them from the outside?
- illiac786 9mo agoIf I wasn’t one of them I wouldn’t care. It’s like caring about trees having branches. They just do. The trees probably care a great deal about their branches though, like I care a great deal about my emotions.
- in-silico 9mo agoWell some people appreciate the world around them, and would care about it just as they care about trees having branches.
- illiac786 9mo agoSome people definitely, but you made a point that you don’t. People are “biomolecular machines” and they are “useful, sure”. I wouldn’t call that “appreciating the world around oneself”. Want that your whole point, that people aren’t better than machines?
- in-silico 9mo agoYes, my point was that people aren't better than machines, but just because I don't exceptionalize humanity doesn't mean I don't appreciate it for what it is (in fact I would argue that the lack of exceptionality makes us more profound).
- throwaway555590 9mo agoI wouldn't proclaim a lack of exceptionality until we get human level AI. There could still be some secrets left in these squishy brains we carry around.
- xyzsparetimexyz 9mo agoThe only thing I know for sure is that I exist. Given that I exist, it makes sense to me that others of the same rough form as me also exist. My parents, friends, etc. Extrapolating further, it also makes sense to assume (pre-ai, bots) that most comments have a human consciousness behind them. Yes, humans are machines, but we're not just machines. So kindly sod off with that kind of comment.
- DiogenesKynikos 9mo ago"Yes, LLMs are machines, but we're not just machines. So kindly sod off with that kind of comment."