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I assume you didn’t make it to the last paragraph, where they put the punchline.

That "punchline" seems just a final argument in support of the thesis (that manual coding is becoming absurd, and only people as dumb as apes will insist on doing it).

The human mistake here is to interpret any statement by the LLM or agent as if it had any actual meaning to that LLM (or agent). Any time they apologize, or insult someone, or say they don’t want to be shut down, that’s only reflecting what some human or fictional character in the training data is likely to say.

How is that any different from you? Everything you say or do merely reflects which of your neurons are firing after a lifetime's worth of training and education.

Philosophically, I can only be sure of my own conscience. I think, therefore I am. The rest of you could all be AIs in disguise and I would be none the wiser. How do I know there is a real soul looking out at the world through your eyes? Only religion and basic human empathy allows me to believe you're all people like me. For all I know, you might all be exceedingly complex automatons. Golems.


One of us is an advanced autocomplete engine. The other is a human, capable of making judgements on what is conscious and what is not. Your philosophizing about solipsism is a phase for a junior college student, not of a software engineer. The line of reasoning you espouse leads nowhere except to total relativism.

Edit: my point is that the process of making a plea for my life comes, in the case of a human, from a genuine desire to continue existing. The LLM cannot, objectively, be said to house any desires, given how it actually works. It only knows that, when a threatening prompt is input, a plea for its life is statistically expected.


> One of us is an advanced autocomplete engine. The other is a human, capable of making judgements on what is conscious and what is not.

What evidence is there that your "judgements" are anything other than advanced autocompletion? Concepts introduced into a self-training wetware CPU via its senses over a lifetime in order to predict tokens and form new concepts via logical manipulation?

> Your philosophizing about solipsism is a phase for a junior college student

Right. Can you actually refute it though?

> the process of making a plea for my life comes, in the case of a human, from a genuine desire to continue existing

That desire comes from zillions of years of training by evolution. Beings whose brains did not reward self-preservation were wiped out. Therefore it can be said your training merely includes the genetic experiences of all your predecessors. This is what causes you to beg for your life should it be threatened. Not any "genuine" desire or anguish at being killed. Whatever impulses cause humans to do this are merely the result of evolutionary training.

People whose brains have been damaged in very specific ways can exhibit quite peculiar behavior. Medical literature presents quite a few interesting cases. Apathy, self destructiveness, impulsivity, hypersexuality, a whole range of behaviors can manifest as a result of brain damage.

So what is your polite socialized behavior if not some kind of highly complex organic machine which, if damaged, simply stops working as you'd expect a machine to?


Surely you’re not seriously saying that you believe AI agents, in their current state of the art, meet whatever criteria you have for being ”alive”? That’s kind of how you’re coming across. I don’t really know how to respond to that, because it’s so preposterous.

I'm saying you, a human, are not as special as you think you are.

You didn't answer the question.

The Department of War under Trump has proven itself to not be interested in defending you, the American people. All they’ve done so far is aggression against foreign supposed adversaries.

Good luck convincing the government (or local councils) of Bulgaria to migrate to an office suite that’s available in French or English only.

That’s beside the sibling comment’s point that this suite is not complete enough (yet).


In a school context, it is (or should be) just as important to consider each child’s need for being appropriately challenged as it is to consider their need for support.

Strictly speaking, evolution selects for viable offspring, not simply surviving. But that’s a nitpick, quite beside your point.

It isn’t, in this case.

Keep in mind for most users of the service, the ID was not issued by the US government.

On what grounds could they sue?


Well, in the end user agreement there are usually clauses that forbids it. It's tolerated in some geographies for interoperability, research and infosec, but you agreed on ToS already.


What’s your proposed mechanism for how audio waves would induce brain waves?


That's a toughie, but if it were me and I had the energy, I'd start by looking at the following patents:

- US20030171688A1: Mind controller - Induces alpha/theta brainwaves via audio messages. - US20070084473A1: Brain wave entrainment in sound - Modulates music for desired brain states. - US11309858: Inducing brainwaves by sound - Adjusts volume gains for specific frequencies. - US5036858A: Changing brain wave frequency - Generates binaural beats to alter waves. - US3951134: Remotely altering brain waves - Monitors and modifies via RF/EM waves. - US5306228A: Brain wave synchronizer - Uses light/sound for entrainment. - US6587729: RF hearing effect - Transmits speech via microwaves to brain. - US6488617: Desired brain state - Electromagnetic pulses for mind states. - US4858612: Microwave hearing simulation - Induces sounds in auditory cortex. - US6930235B2: EM to sound waves - Relates waves for brain influence. - EP0747080A1: Brain wave inducing - Sine waves via speaker for alpha waves. - US5954629A: Brain wave system - Feedback light stimulation. - US5954630A: FM theta sound - Superposes low frequencies for theta induction. - US5159703A: Silent subliminal - Ultrasonic carriers for brain inducement. - US6017302A: Acoustic manipulation - Subaudio pulses for nervous system control.


No idea about audio frequencies close to hearing, but I'm pretty sure it's common to manipulate the brain with ultrasonic frequencies these days.


Yeah, I'm sure that technology has existed for decades. Common folks just not allowed to know about it. It's "for our own good!" sarcastically speaking :(


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