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<h1>Thinking machines</h1>
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<div class="header-meta">
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<author>Joshua Seigler</author><date>April 24, 2025</date>
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</div>
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</header>
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<main data-pagefind-body>
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<p>
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There’s an exchange early in the classic '80s movie TRON. Some
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scientists are talking shop:
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</p>
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<p>
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<img
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src="/2025-04-24--computers-will-start-thinking.jpg?v=72b55e6fa16c"
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alt="Still from TRON, left to right Linda, Alan, and Gibbs, in conversation."
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/>
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</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p>
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<strong>ALAN:</strong> I tell ya, ever since he got that Master
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Control Program, system’s got more bugs than a bait store.
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</p>
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<p>
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<strong>GIBBS:</strong> Ehh, you gotta expect some static. After all,
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computers are just machines, they can’t think…
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</p>
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<p><strong>ALAN:</strong> Programs will be thinking <em>soon</em>.</p>
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<p>
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<strong>GIBBS:</strong> (wryly) Hahaha, won’t that be grand –
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<em
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>computers and the programs will start thinking, and the people will
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stop!</em
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>
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</p>
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</blockquote>
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<p>
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Gibbs has a point. The modern vision of a utopian future is one where
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work is relieved, and people are free to pursue leisure, or exercise
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their creativity with art, writing, and poetry. Thinking computers are
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here now, in the form of “large language models” (LLMs) like ChatGPT.
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Setting aside the irony that creative works are the first and most
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visible applications of LLM technology – is that imagined future
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actually a good one?
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</p>
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<h2 id="mom-is-always-right" tabindex="-1">
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<a
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class="header-anchor"
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href="#mom-is-always-right"
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aria-hidden="true"
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></a>
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Mom is always right
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</h2>
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<p>
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When I was a kid, I remember a day going to yard sales with my mom in
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the family minivan. It was early summer, a hot day. The windows were
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down, and I complained that if the vehicle has good air conditioning, we
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should use it. What was the point in getting all hot? “To get used to
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the warm weather,” came the answer. What an injustice! We were sweating
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back there! Later in life, I took a short trip to Arizona in August.
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Everyone scurried from building to building. Where the sun was doubled,
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reflected off of glass skyscrapers, the temperature jump was alarming.
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It was actually unsafe to spend long stretches outside unprepared. But
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when I returned to Massachusetts, for the rest of the summer 85 or 90
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degrees Fahrenheit felt like nothing.
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</p>
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<p>
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All that to say, the work that LLM technology offers to relieve isn’t
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just about achieving a result. The effort maintains and builds our
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abilities. Work pushes us to connect to each other for help, or to
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persevere in doing something difficult. Outsourcing that work eventually
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means losing the ability to do it yourself.
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</p>
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<h2 id="attention-must-be-paid" tabindex="-1">
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<a
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class="header-anchor"
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href="#attention-must-be-paid"
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aria-hidden="true"
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></a>
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Attention must be paid
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</h2>
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<p>
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Simply put, an LLM is a document completion engine. You give it text,
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and it extends it. The result doesn’t have to be true, it just has to be
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convincing. No amount of pre-training or guard rails will make it
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truthful. It does often say true things, but that’s not the point, it’s
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more of a happy accident.
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</p>
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<p>
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Because they are built from essentially the whole public internet, LLMs
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also have a strong connection to The Algorithm. Algorithms that run
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social media feeds and online advertising are designed to attract human
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attention, a precious thing. Social media algorithms and LLMs are
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oriented towards capturing that attention. The foundational LLM paper is
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even called, “Attention is all you need”. A prescient title. LLM
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intelligence is not like ours. It can’t know what it’s like to be a
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human.
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</p>
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<p>
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If this was a person, someone who wanted your attention and had this
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kind of indifference towards truth, they would be considered a con-man
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or bullshitter.
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<span class="aside"
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><a
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href="https://archive.org/details/on-bullshit-by-harry-frankfurt"
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target="_blank"
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rel="noopener"
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>On Bullshit</a
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>, <em>Harry Frankfurt</em></span
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>
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Untrustworthy.
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</p>
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<h2 id="don%E2%80%99t-create-the-torment-nexus" tabindex="-1">
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<a
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class="header-anchor"
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href="#don%E2%80%99t-create-the-torment-nexus"
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aria-hidden="true"
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></a>
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Don’t create the torment nexus
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</h2>
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<p>
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LLMs clearly manifest a type of intelligence. Sure, it’s “just” some
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linear algebra and a ton of data. But it does exhibit a type of
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intelligence. One without empathy.
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<span class="aside"
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><a
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href="https://apnews.com/article/chatbot-ai-lawsuit-suicide-teen-artificial-intelligence-9d48adc572100822fdbc3c90d1456bd0"
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target="_blank"
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rel="noopener"
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>AI chatbot pushed teen to kill himself, lawsuit alleges</a
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>, <em>AP News</em><br />
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<a
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href="https://www.brusselstimes.com/430098/belgian-man-commits-suicide-following-exchanges-with-chatgpt"
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target="_blank"
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rel="noopener"
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>Belgian man dies by suicide following exchanges with chatbot</a
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>, <em>Brussels Times</em><br />
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<a
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href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/ai-spiritual-delusions-destroying-human-relationships-1235330175/"
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target="_blank"
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rel="noopener"
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>AI-Fueled Spiritual Delusions Are Destroying Human Relationships</a
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>, <em>Rolling Stone</em></span
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>
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Not being human, it <em>can’t</em> have empathy—and intelligence without
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empathy can be dangerous.
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</p>
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<p>
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Science fiction is littered with cautionary tales about inhuman
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intelligence. For that matter, so is myth: genies give people whatever
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they want, but because people have self-destructive desires (like the
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desire to avoid work), it goes wrong. In TRON, Infocom has the MCP
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(Master Control Program), an overgrown chess program that is given
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access to whatever information it can consume, until its intelligence
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and capabilities are seemingly endless. The company leadership comes to
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rely on the program so completely that it becomes their entire interface
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for understanding and operating the business. There is also the irony
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that Infocom’s success was built on the misuse of intellectual property,
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much as LLM companies have done
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<span class="aside"
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><a
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href="https://sites.usc.edu/iptls/2025/02/04/ai-copyright-and-the-law-the-ongoing-battle-over-intellectual-property-rights/"
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target="_blank"
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rel="noopener"
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>AI, Copyright, and the Law: The Ongoing Battle Over Intellectual
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Property Rights </a
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>, <em>IP & Technology Law Society</em><br />
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<a
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href="https://hbr.org/2023/04/generative-ai-has-an-intellectual-property-problem"
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target="_blank"
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rel="noopener"
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>Generative AI Has an Intellectual Property Problem</a
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>, <em>Harvard Business Review</em></span
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>.
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</p>
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<p>
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I don’t think I am wise enough to safely use a genie in a bottle. And I
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don’t want to outsource my creative efforts to an addictive,
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bullshitting alien intellect, even if it might save time and effort in
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the short term.
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</p>
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