Michael LaCroix

Exploring the advance of AI and its impact on religion, spirituality, and our sense of identity. What can we do about it?

[Michael LaCroix @mjplacroix]

@connerdelights Add @fchollet's @ndeainc

This would be great - esp if it included a stream of recent updates or blog posts from each. Rn I just have their sites bookmarked and check regularly.

[Michael LaCroix @mjplacroix]

@ryantm @Replit @Nixos That's fire, but fyi - pretty sure you wanted @nixos_org

[Michael LaCroix @mjplacroix]

@connerdelights Taking this a step further - do you think we'll develop a spectrum of "guilt levels"?

If we can determine someone did it, but was only partially in control of themselves or felt so desperate they needed to commit said crime - would that change the sentencing? Should it?

[Michael LaCroix @mjplacroix]

How far can we leverage technology in an effort to better understand ourselves?

[Michael LaCroix @mjplacroix]

Communication changes as it becomes faster (horse, telegram, phone...) and alters society in significant ways.

As technology is further intertwined with our lives, how might it systemically change the nature of society and how humans operate and interact?

[Michael LaCroix @mjplacroix]

As brain scans increase in resolution, will we be able to identify the seat of "identity"? If so...

Is there a specific place for it?

Is it a unique set of connections?

Or does it differ from person to person?

[Michael LaCroix @mjplacroix]

Are there mental equivalents of affordances?

Could we build them into our day to habituate healthy mental habits that could support things like an unshakeable identity?

[Michael LaCroix @mjplacroix]

What benchmark AI achievements will most challenge our identity as humans?

Worth reflecting on IMO as this will likely highlight where our identities lie.

[Michael LaCroix @mjplacroix]

When defining concepts like intelligence and identity, is it helpful to distinguish between defining these for individuals vs humanity as a whole?

I don't think this is a distinction without a difference, but I'm not sure it's a qualitatively different distinction.

[Michael LaCroix @mjplacroix]

What is more difficult to define - intelligence or identity?

[Michael LaCroix @mjplacroix]

What if the core of our identity is an emergent phenomenon or a trait that we haven't identified yet?

[Michael LaCroix @mjplacroix]

@datasociety @SofiQuaglia @SofiQuaglia - curious how you think about the broader implementation of this. If Google Translate has policies on its usage, how would they alert users to this? Especially since so many of us (myself included) often ignore the TOS/guidelines.

[Michael LaCroix @mjplacroix]

It would seem like developing human level AI requires training models on scenarios where humans fundamentally disagree on the right or correct outcome.

How will we respond when it comes a nonobjective conclusion we disagree with?

[Michael LaCroix @mjplacroix]

How should we view the tradeoff between voluntarily constraining one's choices and having no choices left?

[Michael LaCroix @mjplacroix]

As communication grows and makes us increasingly intertwined as a species, this dense interlinking would seem to manifest some form of greater identity.

Do we have language for talking about our shared identity as a human species (ie humanity's identity)?

[Michael LaCroix @mjplacroix]

Reasoning is an important milestone for AI. But what is the difference between reasoning and memorizing an absurd amount of information?

It seems like one of the reasons we developed reasoning is almost as a coping mechanism for having a very limited working memory.

[Michael LaCroix @mjplacroix]

Is "human level" AI even the right way to think about it?

Is it even possible to effectively evaluate this?

Human-level in which domain?

And over how many domains until we feel seriously challenged by it?

[Michael LaCroix @mjplacroix]

If we want to make technology more human, we need clarity on what we mean by more "human".

This is easier with areas that have objective answers, but what about areas that are subjective or are layered with multiple meanings and emotion?

[Michael LaCroix @mjplacroix]

@mwjcoughlin @AmandaAskell Ah - good catch. Yeah, definitely unaware.

When you have them 'paint a picture', do you think they realize what they're illuminating for you?

[Michael LaCroix @mjplacroix]

@lowdeigger @AmandaAskell Doubly ironic is how essential phenomenology will probably become as we delve further into our own minds and consciousness.