4 ms·
> a genuinely good tool that enriches your thinking A smartphone is also a genuinely good all-around tool. Even social media is a genuinely good tool for conne
by mark_and_sweep 3mo ago
> a genuinely good tool that enriches your thinking
A smartphone is also a genuinely good all-around tool. Even social media is a genuinely good tool for connecting people.
Yet, I feel like we've been overly optimistic about the impact of said tools on us and our societies in the past two decades.
Smartphones are so good, in fact, in some societies, half of us are addicted to them. Billions of people world-wide.
I ask myself: Will LLMs enrich my thinking in the long run, or will they ruin it?
And what about most people? Will half of us outsource most of our thinking in a decade from now?
Given the speed and global scale that we're running these experiments with, it's fair, I think, to be a bit sceptical of the conclusion that, in the long run, LLMs will enrich our thinking.
- mekdoonggi 3mo agoI agree with this. Tools are good, betting the farm on a single tool is bad. Example, cars are good. Betting the farm on cars to the detriment of bikes, buses, and trains is clearly bad. The tool of an llm is clearly handy. Betting trillions of dollars and linking the future of the nation and globe to this tool is clearly bad.
- dominicrose 3mo agoYes instead of investing everything in AI the USA should invest in electric versions of their vehicles and in trains that can safely carry them because of their lack of range.
- mekdoonggi 3mo agoYou're being sarcastic, but literally every other developed country invests in trains and tens of millions of people drive EV's daily with no issues. If you want to argue that LLMs are 100x more useful than a functioning railroad system I've a bridge for you to subscribe to.
- threethirtytwo 3mo agoThere's a saying that the intelligence of an average prehistoric cave man should be, in general, higher than a modern day human simply because the lack of technology required stone age humans to be far more intelligent then we are today. Now you can survive by working as a clerk in McDs, but in the stone age you needed to be on your toes and smart af. LLMs are just continuing the trend humanity has long been traveling down.
- throw4847285 3mo agoHow do you know that? What do you know about prehistory? Nothing. You might as well be picturing the Flintstones in your head. You're using broadly shared but totally unsubstantiated about past humans just to argue that things are good right now.
- threethirtytwo 3mo agoSo you're claim is prehistoric humans are stupider? Also unsubstantiated. And insulting to prehistoric humans. That kind of behavior isn't allowed on HN. Don't disparage a group.
- pjc50 3mo ago"Flynn effect" claimed that intelligence has been increasing over time. At least we can sort of measure things in the modern era, while objectively assessing the intelligence of the long-dead is turning into skull-measuring territory.
- threethirtytwo 3mo agohttps://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2023/03/americans-iq-scores-are-lower-in-some-areas-higher-in-one https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2023/03/americans-iq-s...
- nicce 3mo ago> Now you can survive by working as a clerk in McDs, but in the stone age you needed to be on your toes and smart af. In stone age, you had to focus on other things than thinking to have enough food for the next day. And to survive otherwise.