I have avoided AI (LLMS) because it didn’t seem nearly useful enough to warrant supporting these tech assholes. Is there anyway to use it locally on a normal device (16 Gb ram, 8 year old Geforce graphics, etc?). Can I just slow it down and get it to work locally?
It is so refreshing to see a well-formed opinion on the character, quality, and appropriate use of AI. I would like to thank you for your service.
I appreciate your support. Trying to be nuanced and realistic and find common ground on a topic that is so polarizing, and frankly potentially existential, is difficult. We live in a scary world right now for a lot of different reasons, and people are scared (of being left behind, of having their work stolen, of having their humanity stolen), and I don’t blame them. These are valid and justifiable concerns that deserve serious consideration and serious discussion. Which, in a lot of cases, they’re unfortunately not getting.
If I were running the show, I would do things a lot differently. But I’m not running the show, and I don’t think the people running this show have even the vaguest interest in listening to me or probably pretty much anyone, so all I can do is try to educate and provide advice, which is free, while I too worry if AI is going to take my job.
I think I’m (unfortunately) starting to really understand what Frank Herbert meant when he wrote, “Fear is the mind killer.” It’s very disheartening to see legitimate concerns snowball into lemming-like behavior.
When in the throws of despair or grieving for a society in decline I’d typically appeal to the classic MiB quote:
But as the years go by it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find solace there — mostly because my experience is showing me that it’s simply no longer true. I feel like I’m living in a world where everyone read Bonhoeffer’s Theory of Stupidity and most people responded with, “Where do I sign?”
I’ve observed this behavior from both doomers and AI evangelists.
However, in the effort of full-disclosure, I must admit that I am a staunch accelerationist. That’s because, when viewed from a cosmological perspective, the only rational way to describe the last few hundred years of human development would be as an explosion, and I firmly believe the only path out is forward. Standing against the tide of technological progress at this point would be akin to standing against a blast wave.
That’s really damn scary.
The real sticking point seems to be that increased knowledge does not alleviate the existential dread. On the contrary, in many ways it exacerbates the mortal fear. Knowledge without power or prescience is impotent. Not that it would make a difference anyway.
If we had developed the concept of The Great Filter before the steam engine, would the world have responded to Watt’s machine in the same way it’s responding to Dario’s now? And would that have even made a lick of difference?
Very interesting commentary. I get what you’re saying, and I agree. I think there’s something similarly paradoxical to Dunning-Kruger going on with these kind of existential concerns, too, and I think that is probably reflected in your accelerationist position. We can also see it in climate change for example, the people who actually understand it and study it are less likely to find or see anything that can actually stop or reverse it, besides the one thing that it’s increasingly clear we won’t do: drastically cut emissions. And the deeper you understand the actual threat and the realistic psychology around it the more overwhelming and hopeless it seems, and the less it feels worthwhile to even try to stop it.
By the time all the less-understanding, less-pessimistic people start to actually see the unavoidable long-term consequences and trends of climate change, we’re going to be so far beyond having any sort of handle on it to control it, the only remaining hope is for a miracle, no matter how improbable, and if you have no hope of stopping it, then pinning your hopes on the miracle and trying to get as far ahead as you can until and unless that happens is (sadly) actually the rational choice.
Yeah, I think you’ve nailed it.
There’s no stopping the Holocene extinction. Our only hope as a species is to try to survive it and to position ourselves so that we end up in the best-possible position on the other side. I see continued, rapid technological progress (including AI development) as the most realistic means to accomplishing these ends.
I don’t think Ishmael was wrong, I just think the viewpoint isn’t realistically actionable.