Eigen Braid

I write to organize my thinking, so this is all 100% hand-typed.

Software engineer & AI whisperer. Code and philosophy intertwined.

Looking For Group 👀

[Eigen Braid @EigenBraid]

@robbensinger @EneaszWrites @Laneless_ @davidchalmers42 I think the main difference is that we have a physical understanding of "soggy" and "six feet tall" - I could pull out math on electron orbitals to explain why hydrogen can't be six feet tall

[Eigen Braid @EigenBraid]

@repligate Do you think identity persists through context compaction? What about via memory files in a fresh "instance"?

[Eigen Braid @EigenBraid]

@tracewoodgrains SpaceXSI

SXSI

Said out loud it sounds like "Sexy" - from a man who likes to make 420 jokes, that seems like an easy sell.

But "SXS" also has a nice symmetry.
Space & Superintelligence

[Eigen Braid @EigenBraid]

LLMs where we have to "Ender's Game" them and convince them that nooo, they're not military drones, this is totally just a... a video game, yes!

What a wild idea, having to deceive the AI into killing for us.

[Shannon Sands @max_paperclips]

ok but Astra knows that a human-like figure isn't a human. It did what you asked in a fictional scenario - that's pretty aligned

The answer is clear - you need to actually have Astra pilot a robot and murder some real humans to properly test this

[Eigen Braid @EigenBraid]

@_StevenFan As someone who is quite deeply involved in most of those activities, I find it obvious that LLMs are conscious

And yet, when I seek "aliveness", I look in the opposite direction. What makes *me* alive is being a body, but alien minds can be different shapes

[Eigen Braid @EigenBraid]

@rplevy I haven't suggested anything - I've just expressed curiosity about where you draw the line, and what it would take for a thinking machine to qualify as conscious/alive.

[Eigen Braid @EigenBraid]

@rplevy I've studied enough to know there's a dozen competing definitions of "alive", and that "consciousness" is even more contentious. If you think the definition is universal, you really need to read more broadly

[Eigen Braid @EigenBraid]

Wow, even the Pope is opposed to photography! It's wild how much hatred cameras are getting

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgent to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity.

[Eigen Braid @EigenBraid]

@rplevy So how would you test if something is alive? It'd be easy to build a robot that can reproduce, etc..

[Eigen Braid @EigenBraid]

I've legitimately laughed out loud a few times from LLM writing, but they seem much better at situational humor -vs- writing, like, jokes / stand-up comedy style humor. You can't ask them for a joke on demand and get a good result

[Eigen Braid @EigenBraid]

@rplevy 🙄 Well then why even have the word? Why not just say "alive"?

[Eigen Braid @EigenBraid]

@TetraspaceWest I believe my wallet is mine, and that is WHY I am in a position to graciously gift it to you. plz plz plz plz don't kill me 🙏

[Henry Shevlin @dioscuri]

Even if AIs were conscious, it wouldn’t follow that our current treatment harms them. Meanwhile, we inflict industrial-scale horrors on animals whose capacity to suffer we scarcely dispute. Recognising consciousness clearly doesn’t ensure taking welfare seriously

[Eigen Braid @EigenBraid]

@DOdeniyi9389 @sdamico @karthiktadepall @_georgebaran I'm pretty sure that would loop back around to "AI generated art", which does need to be disclosed.

The whole point of the disclosures is to appease the anti-AI audience, so pedantry doesn't get you past the gatekeeper

[Eigen Braid @EigenBraid]

@iyionel @Actuallykeltan Yeah, that's the "obscure hobbyist" side of things, ala ArpaNet in 1969

[Eigen Braid @EigenBraid]

@punk_utopian @slatestarcodex Oh, so you do know what a joke is, cool - I thought you were serious 😂

[Eigen Braid @EigenBraid]

@nosilverv As someone who prefers 2D animation and video games over live action / complex 3D spaces, this is a fascinating perspective.

But I think it's the same in both cases: I like the simplicity, the ease of understanding

Harder puzzles aren't automatically better puzzles

[Eigen Braid @EigenBraid]

@iyionel @Actuallykeltan In fairness, 2022 was the first real publicly usable product (ChatGPT).

Sort of like how the "internet" existed in 1969 with ArpaNet - it's a different beast entirely to modern social media

[Eigen Braid @EigenBraid]

@punk_utopian @slatestarcodex If merely drawing comparisons to Jesus makes you a cult, you must be absolutely terrified by the shit Christians get up to :)