| ▲ | irishcoffee 4 hours ago |
| My drill, hammer, and chainsaw are also subservient, they just have a much cruder form of communication, noise. |
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| ▲ | operatingthetan 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| The apple dictionary says the word means "prepared to obey others unquestioningly." I don't think an inanimate object is capable of "obeying." Or at least that is a very strange way to refer to the act of using a tool. |
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| ▲ | ambicapter 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | You can refer to it however you want, the outcome is the same. | | |
| ▲ | operatingthetan 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | This is a conversation about semantics, so suggesting semantics is irrelevant to the outcome is not germane to the discussion at hand. |
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| ▲ | irishcoffee 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | When I actuate the chain on my chainsaw to move, it’s obeying me unquestionably, in the same way that when I press a key on my keyboard it obeys me unquestionably. What exactly is the difference? | | |
| ▲ | operatingthetan 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | It’s just a chain reaction. Obeying requires agency (the choice to follow the direction or not). LLMs and chainsaws don’t have it. | | |
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| ▲ | wpm 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | [dead] |
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| ▲ | darkteflon 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I really do feel like “power tool” is the ultimate metaphor for these things. Their interface naturally confuses us into anthropomorphising them, but once you stop treating them like intelligent agents and start treating them with the same wariness, respect and intent you show to your table saw, the fun begins. |
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| ▲ | throwawaysoxjje 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| You’re still anthropomorphizing. They’re not communicating, you’re just being observant. |
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| ▲ | operatingthetan 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | >They’re not communicating, you’re just being observant. Since we are talking about hammers: you hit the nail on the head. The only consciousness, observing, and thinking happening when a person is using an LLM is happening in the person's brain. We project our own consciousness onto them, and that is the anthropomorphizing part. Essentially we empathize with the object because they are designed to respond like a person. The "conversation" is purely an illusion. |
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