#mindedness

[rhube]

Not reblogging it because I don't want to spread it, but just read a science fiction author (treated as an expert) saying the reason that LLMs aren't artificial intelligence is because they learn by a system of training connections to weight some results more than others and that's not how we learn.

Except it is. It really is.

Look, his explanation was a little garbled (I don't know if he was confused or trying to dumb it down for his readers), but what he's talking about is the structure of a neural net computer. They mirror and are inspired by neurons in our brains.

In cognitive science we call this the connectivist model.

Rather than the classic Computational Theory of Mind picture of an idealised Universal Turing Machine* (where we imagine the mind as a computer that has an input, a library of answers, and a processor that matches the input to something in the library of answers to produce an appropriate output) neural nets don't have a library of stock answers. Instead they have a vast net of connections that can be set to either on or off. This is equivalent to neurons that either fire (emit an electrical impulse) in response to a stimulus, or don't.

The connections start out randomised and produce results that are nonsense (like a baby burbling) but you then 'teach' the computer by telling it when it produces something more like the right answer. Like when parents get excited that the baby said something closer to 'Dada'. This amounts to telling it to keep the connection node in its current on or off position. If you tell it it got it wrong, it switches the connection to the other position.

This can be done by a human 'teacher' manually looking at the result and saying... yeah, that sort of looks like a cat (or whatever), or an algorithm. You may have played with a program that was learning to create cats and laughed at the terrible results. If you told it 'no, that is not a cat', you were being the teacher. You made it very slightly less likely to produce an eldritch abomination next time.

This is exactly how our brains work when we learn. Computer scientists were inspired by the brain because they weren't gonna get the results they wanted using classic Turing Machines. And it pisses me off that I'm seeing a lot of science fiction authors declaim that this isn't 'learning'.

It's true that it's not *artificial intelligence* because this method of learning is not all our brains are doing that differentiates us from LLMs.

First up, the processing power of a brain is ENORMOUS. Nothing like it exists in modern computing. Quantum computers are looking interesting, though.

Secondly, LLMs are trained to do just One Thing. Create something that looks like art. Produce something that fits the pattern of a story, or advertising copy. You can't ask an art LLM to write a story that goes with the picture it draws. By contrast, our brains have different modules devoted to processing different parts of the world. We know this because of how people's behaviour changes when different parts of the brain get damaged.

(Fun fact: we also know from how people can manage to function perfectly normally with certain kinds of brain damage or genetic abnormalities that the brain can often repurpose these dedicated areas to do different things. This reflects the flexibility of being founded on a connectivist structure. Why this happens with certain kinds of brain damage and not others is a whole other complex story.)

But it's not just that the brain is made up of a bunch of independent neural nets taped together. They overlap in some ways, and brains have evolved in really cool ways to maximise what they can do with what they have, reusing portions of the nerual net to save space. The same neuron, or set of neurons, may be used in multiple different processes. Which enables us to do stuff like not just say recognisable words in response to certain prompts, but associate them with a complex array of images (or other sensory stimulous) and behaviours. 'Dada' doesn't just get delivered as the right response in a bunch of sentences about dads, or even your specific dad, it's associated with what your dad looks like, with a bunch of events (memories) you experiences with him, maybe with some punishments for being naughty and some rewards for being nice. But these aren't just yes/no rewards that reset or affirmed your neural connections. These memories are connected to complex behaviours you had, maybe pain receptors firing, maybe the taste of vanilla ice cream. The number of connections that use and reuse the neural settings for a single word are so huge I couldn't begin to create a complete description.

What's more there may be a lot about being embodied that is required in order to achieve consciousness. It's not just producing the right response to the right stimuli, but going out into the world and giving stimulus to other things, and receiving their response as further input in return.

You'll have heard me mention that Donald Davidson argues that self-consciousness requires successful interactions with other minded beings about a shared external world about which you both hold largely correct beliefs. I think that's broadly right.

MEANING is created intersubjectively by agreeing and disagreeing about shared/publicly available stimuli.

I think this is the source of the confusion.

When most people think of learning, they envision a parent and child or a child and teacher - embodied, complex creatures. And that the child doesn't merely learn to make the right responses, but to 'understand' the meaning of what they say.

The connectivist model BY ITSELF cannot account for everything involved in learning that involves meaning and understanding. But that doesn't mean it's not what's going on in a child's brain as they learn. It's just that the child is fantastically more complicated. They're composed of overlapping neural nets and genetic algorithms and evolutionary shortcuts. AND WE HAVE THINGS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE THAT MIRROR A LOT OF THIS. INSPIRED BY THIS. Genetic algorithms and feedback loops and 'evolutionary' learning.

What we don't have right now is the processing power, the complexity of overlapping neural nets, the memory space, and maybe embodiment.

If you say 'artificial intelligence does not exist', that's technically true right now. The output from these machines isn't meaningful right now. They are LLMs, not AIs. Calling it AI is a marketing tool. It's machine learning. But we're working on it.

And the *learning* portion... we have the mechanics of it. Neural nets aren't just producing impressive-looking results, they are based on how our brains learn.

So it annoys me when people throw out that it's not how learning works. It's exactly how learning works. It's just not the complete picture required for UNDERSTANDING, MEANING, and SELF-REFLECTION.

It doesn't pass the requirements for MINDEDNESS. But that's not the same as matching the mechanical ways in which we learn.

*Do not get distracted by the Turing Test, if you've heard if it. The Turing Test was a thought experiment, but it's by no means the most interesting thing Turing did. No one treats the Turing Test seriously in cognitive science anymore. Arguably, Eliza the computer psychiatrist could fool at least some humans in the 1960s. Behaviourism as a philosophy of mind (that behaving the right way is all there is to being minded/having meaning) is a very out-dated theory.

#ai #artificial intelligence #llms #philosophy of mind #cognitive science #mindedness

[glosackmd]

NYC100916 by a Psychiatrist's view Via Flickr: body painting a yearly event in Manhattan Photography’s new conscience linktr.ee/GlennLosack

#body #paint #colors #nyc #manhattan #glennlosack #streetphotographer #streetphotography #photojournalism #open #mindedness #flickr

[wujnl4bjuy40tn]

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[xbupmmri7s4n]

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[tokaath]

An Echo of Wisdom

Solid Travel advice from an Authority (not me)

More to Explore at www.scottnkristal.com While it is true that there is nothing new under the sun, there are times when it can seem as though humanity is at each other’s collective throats more readily today than in the past; so much so, that many people I know and care about have started to see our world as more bad than good. Such a perspective creates a tendency to see how different people…

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#bigotry #Clemens #fatal #journey #Langhorne #Mark #mindedness #narrow #Samuel #Travel #trip #Twain

[acreativeminded]

#mindpower #alive #randomthoughts #mindedness

[sher-ee]

This is who Trump has been for years.

Yet, many blue collar supporters think that Trump would take care of them. It’s astonishing to witness such sycophancy, such a lack of critical thinking skills and full on ignorance during a time when truthful information is easily found.

Trump has filed over 3,500 lawsuits to keep from paying people what he promised to pay them.

#donald trump #maga #cult mindedness #cult #republicans #back stabbers #white collar crime #vote blue #sociopath #save our democracy #vote joe biden

[mejcinta]

God forbid that Targaryen women be flawed characters and at conflict within themselves and with each other, despite of loving each other as siblings.

#shallow mindedness of stan culture #fandom bs #the conquerors #visenya targaryen #rhaenys targaryen #aegon i targaryen #aegon the conqueror

[purity-in-heart]

Ffs people

I know we're on the internet, I know we normally can't see the other person's face, but they're still people! Male and female users alike should still be respected. So show some restraint or be patient. Don't be rude, don't be demanding, and make sure you're not saying something so sexual that it's discomforting. Even if there's a small chance you'll cross the line with what you say, think on it or don't do it at all. It's not difficult. I just ran into at least three or four posts addressing overly sexual asks or replies and DMs by an audience member who is so impatient or out of patience that he got mad, when it's not somebody refusing to take 'no' for an answer - Which is another issue, btw; NO MEANS NO. It's commonsense, just be respectful and open-minded. And accepting 'no' as a response is the most basic form of commonsense, I shouldn't have to explain this! I'm being nice, here. I'm literally exercising respect and open-mindedness right now, because I could easily call you specific people idiots or cowards, but I'm not, because you're people, too, and I'm considering the possibility that insulting you will just make you wanna tune out without learning from your mistakes first. The worst thing I can say right now is the truth that I've seen people on here, especially, leave because of the pressure brought by people who have no patience or others who tell female users about their shlong just because they're female or based on their content. Is that what you really want? Is risking or overstepping one's boundaries really worth it?

#ContentIsNotConsent

#ContentIsNotConsent #respect #commonsense #reminder #cardiophilia #cardiophile #patience #open minded #open mindedness #think before you speak #think before you act #no means no #take no for an answer

[nancywheeeler]

‘Eddie Munson should have died at the hands of the government instead of the Upside Down’ please expound on this your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

okay, i am finally gonna release from the vault a text post i had drafted months ago about how reductive and bland i find eddie munson's "heroism" arc.

from a characterization standpoint, i totally understand why eddie declares himself a coward for running after witnessing chrissy (and later, patrick) die. his image of himself as a proud outcast willing to brandish a middle finger at societal norms, bolstered by playing a "satanic" game about misfits coming together to bravely face great evils, is completely shattered. however, from our viewpoint as an audience, eddie does what just about any of us would have done after watching someone die in a horrific, unexplainable manner and not knowing if what happened to them is about to happen to us.

...except the show then does this weird thing where it agrees with eddie's warped, guilty view of his actions. eddie is a coward for running. he should have...what? stayed, again not knowing if he would be killed next, tried to explain everything to hawkins pd, and gotten arrested? (which would have derailed the rest of the hawkins plot because, unless dustin & company staged a jailbreak, eddie then would have been in custody during fred and patrick's murders.) the plot demands he run, but to wring any sort of emotional catharsis out of his death, the writers want us to think "look! he's redeemed himself! this time he ran into the danger!" it equates self-preservation with selfishness and cowardice, which certainly isn't a new thing in media but it's boring and doesn't reflect reality.

and when you parallel eddie's death with billy's (and what i imagine steve's death would have been had they gone through with killing him in season one), it paints this uncomfortable picture that redemption can only be found through extreme self-sacrifice and ultimately death. boring! very boring! and again, why are we redeeming a character who doesn't need redemption?

i appreciate (and really like actually!) that the narrative dooms eddie from the beginning. there wouldn't have been a satisfying way to write him out of a triple homicide rap had he lived. that being said, i would have loved to see eddie survive the upside down, get arrested for the murders, and, while our intrepid heroes are expecting owens and his shadowy government contacts to swoop in, be killed by those same shadowy government contacts as a cover-up.

because that is all owens has been doing for the past three seasons: covering things up to save a fringe organization's ass. it's just been convenient for our gang that the cover-ups align with their interests, too, to the point they are over-reliant on owens stepping in with forged birth certificates and mall fires. only, in season four's case, eddie is the most convenient cover story. with owens left for dead in a bunker in the middle of the desert, what loyalty does the rest of this strange government operation have to the gang and to eddie that they would exert any additional effort concocting a more outlandish story than the easy one the town of hawkins has already bought into?

it would have been a great way to add additional stakes going into season five because the gang would have had absolutely no one to rely on or trust but themselves. no more clean-up crew to plant fake stories and file the paperwork. the government has never actually been on their side. it's hawkins against the upside down and the world, baby.

wow, this is so long and i am so sorry. i still have a lot of feelings about this apparently, even after all this time.

#ask #i think the problem with eddie's arc ultimately comes down to framing #what should have been a tragedy of conservative close-mindedness got turned into this weird statement on heroism #commit to the tragedy duffers! make your horror season real horror! #stranger things #for the filters <3

[stringcage]

holy shit it's that guy i love

#if you or a loved one suffer from gansey mindedness you might be entitled to emotional compensation #gansey #richard gansey #the raven cycle #the raven cycle fanart #the raven boys #the dream thieves #blue lily lily blue #the raven king #my art #illustration #yeah i drew every single one with glasses this is how i choose to exercise my free will

[calamitys-child]

Obsessed with the audiobook choice to make the borogravians all northern except mal who is Dracula. I love them so much you have no idea how much I adore these little genderfuck desperate losers with swords. Monstrous regiment u r everything to me forever

#ive reread this (or listened to it) every year since I was 13 and it gave me the first glimmer of hope in my gender and my life #and in my righteous fury about all the horrors in the world. the bigotry and closed mindedness and war and prejudice. #the abuse and exploitation of the poor and disabled and queer. the way the military industrial complex chews people up #spits them into the dirt #ten years now and every year i get a little more secure and kick back a little harder. pterry as always i owe you a homemade sandwich and #a damn good book to read if ever we meet once my own hourglass runs dry #gnu terry pratchett

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

i’m really good at watching s3 of ted lasso in a calm, impartial, & reasonable manner

3x07 original title: boxes

me: biscuit boxes

3x07 new title: the strings that bind us 

me: ted and rebecca’s invisible string that binds them

#listen dude i'm afflicted with a bit of one-track-mindedness right now #that's just what's going on with me #dollsome's deep thoughts #ted x rebecca #tedbecca #ted lasso spoilers #ted lasso

[the-healing-mindset]

It might be time to let go of what you think you know, and open up to what the world has to offer you.

SourceMessages

#life #living #open-mindedness #note to self #openness #healing #recovery #growth #mindset #positive mindset #positivity #positive thinking #success #inspiration #encouragement

[tttrashmouth]

something i think nimona did really well was that they didn’t make nimonas oppression like,,,,, “her fault” i guess is a way to put it. i feel like far too often, whether the plot is an allegory for race, gender, or disability, it goes something like “x person is oppressed and treated like shit” and then you find out it’s because they turn into an uncontrollable monster that kills or hurts people and it’s like, why is that the metaphor we’re going with here. like with jk rowling and werewolf’s representing AIDS somehow. like, what the fuck do you mean by that?

but what nimona does well is they make nimona a shape shifter (trans person approved, i would love that) and then it’s not her problem that she’s different. just because she technically might fit the definition of monster doesn’t make her one and then we find out that the things that made her “bad” in the first place weren’t even real. it was a lie made to demonize nimona. she’s never the bad guy, she doesn’t want to hurt people, she’s just nimona and happens to be a shape shifter. and that’s how you do it in my opinion. you can’t make the oppressed the aggressor in these situations, because they literally never are. or at least should never be the original cause of it all, because in real life they really aren’t. they are the original victims of bigotry and their stories get rewritten so they look like the aggressors.

#nimona was literally so good #loved it so much #also the way that bal owns up to what he did wrong with nimona #when he’s like ‘what have i done?’ #because even when it’s not specifically just his fault he knows that his close mindedness contributed enough #if he had just been kinder and more accepting and understanding then just maybe she might now have snapped #and literally almost killed herself #oh my god i am losing my mind over this movie #nimona #nimona movie #theo stfu #fandom theory w/ pheo

[acreativeminded]

How Much effort would you put into it, if you knew you could never fail.

#mindpower #randomthoughts #mindedness