The Distinction Between Grounded and Unrounded Cognition

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Cults participate in the construction of these sort of like parasitic loops in our thinking process, what we might call ruminative loops that don't actually ever resolve themselves because they're not connected to reality. And so there is this possibility of being ungrounded and lots of people can examine this for themselves by just sitting and still this for a moment and see what happens. And then there is also a possibility of being grounded, right? I'm working through all that of like releasing these confusions of really inquiring with earnest integrity about what is going on. So maybe you can extend that or nuance that or build that in a way that people can really see that distinction.

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