No, analog computers truly are symbolic. The simplest analog computer - the abacus - is obviously symbolic, and thus is also true for WW2 gun fire control computers, ball-and-shaft integrators, etc. They do not use…
Articles like this indicate we should lock down the definition of "computation" that meaningfully distinguishes computing machines from other physical phenomena - a computation is a process that maps symbols (or strings…
I understand the broader point but it is not actually constitutionally problematic for the executive branch to assert that a suspect committed a crime - of course they believe that, that's why the suspect was arrested!…
If you look at my comment history you will see that I don't think LLMs are nearly as intelligent as rats or pigeons. Rats and pigeons have an intuitive understanding of quantity and LLMs do not. I don't know what "the…
Putin and Xi fantasizing about immortality via 3D-printed organs quite starkly illustrated that many adults do not understand the difference between science and science fiction.
Keep in mind that we also have no clue how general anesthesia works! It's not just psychiatry, many medications targeting the nervous system (e.g. muscle relaxants) have unknown mechanisms of action…
It didn't come completely out of nowhere, Euler and Bernoulli had looked at trigonometric series for studying the elastic motion of a deformed beam or rod. In that case, physical intuition about adding together sine…
Caves of Qud is quite good, though a bit less traditional in being a big open world vs a dungeon. There a few quirks and bugs but the game is very fun and creative, and it has excellent music. I also love the graphics…
The point is that knowing where your hand is in space relative to the rest of your body is a distinct sense which is directly three-dimensional. This information is not inferred, it is measured with receptors in your…
Inner ear is a great example! I mentioned in another comment that if you want to be reductive the sensors in the inner ear - the hairs themselves - are one dimensional, but the overall sense is directly three…
It is simply wrong to describe touch and proprioception receptors as 2D. a) In a technical sense the actual receptors are 1D, not 2D. Perhaps some of them are two dimensional, but generally mechanical touch is about…
That's not what "coherent computational representation" means in this context. It means being able to reliably apply the rules of Othello / chess / etc to the current state of the board. Any competent amateur can do…
You can say it’s exactly 1 plus or minus some small epsilon and use the completeness of the reals to argue that we can always build a finer ruler and push the epsilon down further. You have a sequence (meters,…
The real point is that it takes infinite energy to get infinite precision. Let me add that we have no clue how to do a measurement that doesn't involve a photon somewhere, which means that it's pure science fiction to…
I am confused why you think the exactness of integers and rationals is unphysical. "This egg carton has 12 eggs" is a (boring) physical statement. "You can make 1/3rd of a carton of eggs without cutting an egg" also…
Nobody could have predicted that someone who worked for Baidu, Google, and OpenAI would found a company like this.
Where you're getting confused is by trying to combine state space determination and probability determination at the same time (this is also why the problem is so similar to Monty Hall). The state space is shifting when…
Unlike the other misreading, I think you are splitting hairs about something boring and irritating. Rephrase the problem instead to "you have a reliable device that can tell whether the family has at least one daughter…
Like others in the thread have said, the question could have been phrased more precisely. Technically you are misreading it but in an annoying and trivial way. What the problem is really saying is this: 1) You have a…
It sounds to me like Google is moving to a more typical "technical lead" model where leads have substantial authority and some mentorship responsibilities, but they're essentially an IC and someone else up the chain…
Therapy isn't about being pleasant, it's about healing and strengthening and it's supposed to be somewhat unpleasant. Colin Fraser had a good tweet about this:…
I think the "encouraging someone to take a non-criminal action" angle is weakened in cases like this: the person is obviously mentally ill and not able to make good decisions. "Obvious" is important, it has to be clear…
No, it's simply not "easily preventable," this stuff is still very much an unsolved problem for transformer LLMs. ChatGPT does have these safeguards and they were often triggered: the problem is that the safeguards are…
I think it's fine to be "morally absolutist" when it's non-medical technology, developed with zero input from federal regulators, yet being misused and misleadingly marketed for medical purposes.
Yes, if this were an adult human OpenAI employee DMing this stuff to a kid through an official OpenAI platform, then a) the human would (deservedly[1]) be arrested for manslaughter, possibly murder b) OpenAI would be…
No, analog computers truly are symbolic. The simplest analog computer - the abacus - is obviously symbolic, and thus is also true for WW2 gun fire control computers, ball-and-shaft integrators, etc. They do not use…
Articles like this indicate we should lock down the definition of "computation" that meaningfully distinguishes computing machines from other physical phenomena - a computation is a process that maps symbols (or strings…
I understand the broader point but it is not actually constitutionally problematic for the executive branch to assert that a suspect committed a crime - of course they believe that, that's why the suspect was arrested!…
If you look at my comment history you will see that I don't think LLMs are nearly as intelligent as rats or pigeons. Rats and pigeons have an intuitive understanding of quantity and LLMs do not. I don't know what "the…
Putin and Xi fantasizing about immortality via 3D-printed organs quite starkly illustrated that many adults do not understand the difference between science and science fiction.
Keep in mind that we also have no clue how general anesthesia works! It's not just psychiatry, many medications targeting the nervous system (e.g. muscle relaxants) have unknown mechanisms of action…
It didn't come completely out of nowhere, Euler and Bernoulli had looked at trigonometric series for studying the elastic motion of a deformed beam or rod. In that case, physical intuition about adding together sine…
Caves of Qud is quite good, though a bit less traditional in being a big open world vs a dungeon. There a few quirks and bugs but the game is very fun and creative, and it has excellent music. I also love the graphics…
The point is that knowing where your hand is in space relative to the rest of your body is a distinct sense which is directly three-dimensional. This information is not inferred, it is measured with receptors in your…
Inner ear is a great example! I mentioned in another comment that if you want to be reductive the sensors in the inner ear - the hairs themselves - are one dimensional, but the overall sense is directly three…
It is simply wrong to describe touch and proprioception receptors as 2D. a) In a technical sense the actual receptors are 1D, not 2D. Perhaps some of them are two dimensional, but generally mechanical touch is about…
That's not what "coherent computational representation" means in this context. It means being able to reliably apply the rules of Othello / chess / etc to the current state of the board. Any competent amateur can do…
You can say it’s exactly 1 plus or minus some small epsilon and use the completeness of the reals to argue that we can always build a finer ruler and push the epsilon down further. You have a sequence (meters,…
The real point is that it takes infinite energy to get infinite precision. Let me add that we have no clue how to do a measurement that doesn't involve a photon somewhere, which means that it's pure science fiction to…
I am confused why you think the exactness of integers and rationals is unphysical. "This egg carton has 12 eggs" is a (boring) physical statement. "You can make 1/3rd of a carton of eggs without cutting an egg" also…
Nobody could have predicted that someone who worked for Baidu, Google, and OpenAI would found a company like this.
Where you're getting confused is by trying to combine state space determination and probability determination at the same time (this is also why the problem is so similar to Monty Hall). The state space is shifting when…
Unlike the other misreading, I think you are splitting hairs about something boring and irritating. Rephrase the problem instead to "you have a reliable device that can tell whether the family has at least one daughter…
Like others in the thread have said, the question could have been phrased more precisely. Technically you are misreading it but in an annoying and trivial way. What the problem is really saying is this: 1) You have a…
It sounds to me like Google is moving to a more typical "technical lead" model where leads have substantial authority and some mentorship responsibilities, but they're essentially an IC and someone else up the chain…
Therapy isn't about being pleasant, it's about healing and strengthening and it's supposed to be somewhat unpleasant. Colin Fraser had a good tweet about this:…
I think the "encouraging someone to take a non-criminal action" angle is weakened in cases like this: the person is obviously mentally ill and not able to make good decisions. "Obvious" is important, it has to be clear…
No, it's simply not "easily preventable," this stuff is still very much an unsolved problem for transformer LLMs. ChatGPT does have these safeguards and they were often triggered: the problem is that the safeguards are…
I think it's fine to be "morally absolutist" when it's non-medical technology, developed with zero input from federal regulators, yet being misused and misleadingly marketed for medical purposes.
Yes, if this were an adult human OpenAI employee DMing this stuff to a kid through an official OpenAI platform, then a) the human would (deservedly[1]) be arrested for manslaughter, possibly murder b) OpenAI would be…