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The creation of the system is deeply impressive, so are compilers but I don't raise a toast to it each time I build my code. Like generated art, people aren't g
by doginasuit 6mo ago
The creation of the system is deeply impressive, so are compilers but I don't raise a toast to it each time I build my code. Like generated art, people aren't going appreciate it on the same level.
- aspenmartin 6mo agoWow you consider this on the same level of impressiveness as a compiler?
- doginasuit 6mo agoI actually consider compilers more impressive, and a compiler was an important part of making this possible.
- aspenmartin 6mo agoTo each their own. I mean compilers didn’t produce trillions of dollars of investment, and produce serious and profound philosophical questions about the nature of consciousness but you’re right, thank god we have C
- doginasuit 6mo agoCompilers just made it all possible, but they are not new and shiny. LLMs did not produce the philosophical questions, but they do raise them. It's worth noting that computers have been changing the way we think about consciousness long before LLMs, largely thanks to compilers.
- aspenmartin 6mo agoYea there’s no logical stopping point when you use that logic. Why not say electricity or the element silicon?
- dag100 6mo agoI don't think the level of investment in an idea is equivalent to how impressive it may be. Most of the investment in AI is based on the idea that it will make professions and human labour obsolete, which means whoever has the reins at the moment it "solves" the "problem" of human labour will effectively reign over everyone else. The level of investment is then somewhat orthogonal to how technically impressive it is. Not to mention that the less easily-explainable a technical achievement is, the less investment it will attract simply because fewer people will grasp the ramifications. You can describe AI in two words ("machine human") while it would take a few more to describe compilers in an instantly understandable way.
- doginasuit 6mo agoThis may not go over well but I also find electricity more impressive.
- foobar10000 6mo agoI mean - I'd say electricity, agriculture, steam power, metallurgy, silicon computing (cmos), atomic power, the scientific method - these are _all_ very impressive - all lead to drastic changes for humanity. Not sure how I'd rank them. I personally think AI will end up sitting in the top 3 of these - but that is an opinion. I do think it is obvious it is at least _somewhere_ in that list.
- aspenmartin 6mo agoAbsolutely agree
- bee_rider 6mo agoCompilers were required for our whole tech ecosystem. They just didn’t require trillions of dollars of investment to become useful.
- jplusequalt 6mo agoWhat a weird fucking measuring stick. By your logic crypto is one of man's greatest achievements because it received oodles of investor cash, and kicked up tons of conversations online about the nature of finance and banking.
- aspenmartin 6mo agoIt’s not the measuring stick, what it can do is the measuring stick. Another person comparing a system that can do Erdos proofs to a compiler or even worse, crypto? Everyone has a right to be unimpressed i just find it incredible to be so dismissive with a straight face.
- butlike 5mo agoIt's a machine that's tricked you into thinking it's something greater. It's a calculator 2.0 with a smiley face sticker slapped on it, nothing more.
- brookst 6mo agoAre transistors more impressive than compilers then? And presumably accounting is more impressive than transistors? I’m not sure I can get behind the “foundations are necessarily more impressive than edifices” view..