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reword books, simplify footnotes

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Joshua Seigler 2025-05-09 14:24:18 -04:00
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site/pages/books.md
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@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ This book functions not only as an engaging story, but a primer for digital secu
### [Snow Crash](https://amzn.to/3SfPIMG)
by Neal Stephenson
A sympathetic main character, heaps of style, a hacker aesthetic, an evocative and lived-in setting, and non-stop action. This book magnified my love of the written word as a literal creative force. Digital reality and baseline reality are both created from language, but in different ways, and this story explores those ideas vigorously and memorably.
A sympathetic main character, heaps of style, a hacker aesthetic, an evocative and lived-in setting, and non-stop action. This book magnified my love of the written word as a literal creative force. Digital reality and baseline reality are both shaped by language, but in different ways, and this story explores that distinction vigorously and memorably.
### [The Stranger](https://amzn.to/3SeBz2k)
by Chris Van Allsburg

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site/posts/2025-04-24-thinking-machines.md
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@ -31,21 +31,14 @@ Simply put, an LLM is a document completion engine. You give it text, and it ext
Because they are built from essentially the whole public internet, LLMs also have a strong connection to The Algorithm. Algorithms that run social media feeds and online advertising are designed to attract human attention, a precious thing. Social media algorithms and LLMs are oriented towards capturing that attention. The foundational LLM paper is even called, "Attention is all you need". A prescient title. LLM intelligence is not like ours. It can't know what it's like to be a human.
If this was a person, someone who wanted your attention and had this kind of indifference towards truth, they would be considered a con-man or bullshitter[^1]. Untrustworthy.
If this was a person, someone who wanted your attention and had this kind of indifference towards truth, they would be considered a con-man or bullshitter^[[On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt | Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/on-bullshit-by-harry-frankfurt)]. Untrustworthy.
## Don't create the torment nexus
LLMs clearly manifest a type of intelligence. Sure, it's "just" some linear algebra and a ton of data. But it does exhibit a type of intelligence. One without empathy. Not being human, it *can't* have empathy -- and intelligence without empathy can be dangerous [^2] [^3] [^4].
LLMs clearly manifest a type of intelligence. Sure, it's "just" some linear algebra and a ton of data. But it does exhibit a type of intelligence. One without empathy. Not being human, it *can't* have empathy -- and intelligence without empathy can be dangerous ^[[AI chatbot pushed teen to kill himself, lawsuit alleges | AP News](https://apnews.com/article/chatbot-ai-lawsuit-suicide-teen-artificial-intelligence-9d48adc572100822fdbc3c90d1456bd0)] ^[[Belgian man dies by suicide following exchanges with chatbot | Brussels Times](https://www.brusselstimes.com/430098/belgian-man-commits-suicide-following-exchanges-with-chatgpt)] ^[[AI-Fueled Spiritual Delusions Are Destroying Human Relationships | Rolling Stone](https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/ai-spiritual-delusions-destroying-human-relationships-1235330175/)].
Science fiction is littered with cautionary tales about inhuman intelligence. For that matter, so is myth: genies give people whatever they want, but because people have self-destructive desires (like the desire to avoid work), it goes wrong. In TRON, Infocom has the MCP (Master Control Program), an overgrown chess program that is given access to whatever information it can consume, until its intelligence and capabilities are seemingly endless. The company leadership comes to rely on the program so completely that it becomes their entire interface for understanding and operating the business. There is also the irony that Infocom's success was built on the misuse of intellectual property, much as LLM companies have done [^5] [^6].
Science fiction is littered with cautionary tales about inhuman intelligence. For that matter, so is myth: genies give people whatever they want, but because people have self-destructive desires (like the desire to avoid work), it goes wrong. In TRON, Infocom has the MCP (Master Control Program), an overgrown chess program that is given access to whatever information it can consume, until its intelligence and capabilities are seemingly endless. The company leadership comes to rely on the program so completely that it becomes their entire interface for understanding and operating the business. There is also the irony that Infocom's success was built on the misuse of intellectual property, much as LLM companies have done ^[[AI, Copyright, and the Law: The Ongoing Battle Over Intellectual Property Rights | IP & Technology Law Society](https://sites.usc.edu/iptls/2025/02/04/ai-copyright-and-the-law-the-ongoing-battle-over-intellectual-property-rights/)] ^[[Generative AI Has an Intellectual Property Problem | Harvard Business Review](https://hbr.org/2023/04/generative-ai-has-an-intellectual-property-problem)].
I don't think I am wise enough to safely use a genie in a bottle. And I don't want to outsource my creative efforts to an addictive, bullshitting alien intellect, even if it might save time and effort in the short term.
![End of line](/2025-04-24--end-of-line.jpg)
[^1]: [On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt | Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/on-bullshit-by-harry-frankfurt)
[^2]: [AI chatbot pushed teen to kill himself, lawsuit alleges | AP News](https://apnews.com/article/chatbot-ai-lawsuit-suicide-teen-artificial-intelligence-9d48adc572100822fdbc3c90d1456bd0)
[^3]: [Belgian man dies by suicide following exchanges with chatbot | Brussels Times](https://www.brusselstimes.com/430098/belgian-man-commits-suicide-following-exchanges-with-chatgpt)
[^4]: [AI-Fueled Spiritual Delusions Are Destroying Human Relationships | Rolling Stone](https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/ai-spiritual-delusions-destroying-human-relationships-1235330175/)
[^5]: [AI, Copyright, and the Law: The Ongoing Battle Over Intellectual Property Rights | IP & Technology Law Society](https://sites.usc.edu/iptls/2025/02/04/ai-copyright-and-the-law-the-ongoing-battle-over-intellectual-property-rights/)
[^6]: [Generative AI Has an Intellectual Property Problem | Harvard Business Review](https://hbr.org/2023/04/generative-ai-has-an-intellectual-property-problem)