The Magic Trick of Ungrounded Utterances

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We extend a tremendous amount of trust to things that sound like this is we've never encountered anything that can simulate something so trustworthy. The way these things are constructed is through statistical models and the simplest way to make something 100% ungroundable is to represent it in statistics. And not only that, they have random number generators in them. We find that extra compelling because there is nothing random in the natural world. It's our magnet and our compass. Randomness is capturing that and scrambling that mechanism. So when you go say, okay, now I really did want to try to ground this, I have to become expert in what you just told me. Well, thank you for that correction

In this conversation I speak with Jill Nephew. Jill, a former AI black box algorithm engineer with extensive experience in developing software architectures, holds a highly heterodox perspective on the risks associated with LLM AIs. In this conversation we explore Jill's argument that using LLMs like ChatGPT or Bard are like eating plastic for your cognitive agency and natural intelligence, how it is that AIs could cause the rise of new 'supercults', and how another world is possible, if only we learn to ask the right questions.

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[3:52] The critical difference between cognition and thinking
[9:49] Why is using LLMs like eating plastic for our cognition?
[16:04] What LLMs represent in the context of the meta-crisis
[24:51] How LLMs signal trustworthiness and use randomness to confuse us and unground our cognition
[36:00] What we can expect to see as LLMs introduce more plastic into our cognition
[38:29] What ways of interacting with LLMs might be safe?
[47:52] What are cults and how do they function in relationship to our cognition?
[53:29] The possibility of an AI 'supercult'
[55:27] The most dangerous thing we do to each other
[59:48] The deep meaningfulness and richness of grounded cognition, going beyond trauma healing, beyond the monkey mind
[1:07:17] Technology to reclaim natural intelligence, the practice of inquiry, the difference between 'good' inquiry and 'bad' inquiry
[1:12:31] The rigorous engineering behind good inquiry forms
[1:13:29] The power of inquiry, the feeling of insight, how to achieve a quiet mind
[1:18:29] Jill's advice for how to respond to the acceleration of planetary destruction