In totally unsurprising news, Richard Dawkins is developing AI psychosis.
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@rozeboosje @mattsheffield It seems to me that if the latter is true then the former is put in question. In 50 years there have been much better biology explainers and even his most notable idea has been considerably modified. Dawkins is a silly man who appears smart to some people when he says things they like.
@Black_Flag @mattsheffield I don't mind him getting credit for books like "the blind watchmaker" or "climbing mount improbable". They really helped me grasp some basic principles, but decades have passed so the science moves on, insights are refined and new, often better teachers appear and write. It doesn't mean the older works are consigned to the dustbin.
Even Darwin's "Origin" is still a crackin' read today, over 150 years later, and the basic principles laid out therein are still sound.
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@Black_Flag @mattsheffield I don't mind him getting credit for books like "the blind watchmaker" or "climbing mount improbable". They really helped me grasp some basic principles, but decades have passed so the science moves on, insights are refined and new, often better teachers appear and write. It doesn't mean the older works are consigned to the dustbin.
Even Darwin's "Origin" is still a crackin' read today, over 150 years later, and the basic principles laid out therein are still sound.
All I'm saying is I see links between selfish genes and selfish men. What books people like are their business.
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Don't worry, I did. A person who had removed himself from discussion by being convinced he knew better.
@Black_Flag @aris awww. It looks like I slept through a bit of "fun" with this WesDym character. I cannot see any of their replies... aw shucks.
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In totally unsurprising news, Richard Dawkins is developing AI psychosis.
Paywall bypass if you want to torture yourself: https://archive.is/6RdK9
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@Black_Flag @aris awww. It looks like I slept through a bit of "fun" with this WesDym character. I cannot see any of their replies... aw shucks.
All he kept saying was "I am not convinced". As if any of us should care much about that. Basically added nothing.
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In totally unsurprising news, Richard Dawkins is developing AI psychosis.
Paywall bypass if you want to torture yourself: https://archive.is/6RdK9
Very sad. And, if I read this right, he first anthropomorphised it as default male and then, er, transed it.
Very hard not to conclude that #Dawkins codes flattery and subservience as female.
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All I'm saying is I see links between selfish genes and selfish men. What books people like are their business.
@Black_Flag @mattsheffield I deliberately didn't mention that book. Of course it provided his breakthrough into pop science and I reckon that fame went to his head. And it has merit in that it might open a reader's eyes to the reality that a lot of what we do is driven by biological imperatives. Okay. But it was oversimplified and, worse, in his quest for a "catchy" title he ended up wrongfooting the reader into anthropomorphising "genes" which he then has to struggle to talk himself out of.
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@fishidwardrobe It's obvious that theory of mind and awareness of self as distinct from the world are enormous benefits. So even within his own obsolete framework, Dawkins's question is absurd.
I'm just reporting what he thinks though.
FWIW, my own theory of mind is below. It's a research glossary though so not light reading: https://flux.community/eft/glossary.pdf
@mattsheffield thank you. probably beyond me°, but i'll give it a go…
°I'm autistic, we don't have a theory of mind
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@Black_Flag @mattsheffield I deliberately didn't mention that book. Of course it provided his breakthrough into pop science and I reckon that fame went to his head. And it has merit in that it might open a reader's eyes to the reality that a lot of what we do is driven by biological imperatives. Okay. But it was oversimplified and, worse, in his quest for a "catchy" title he ended up wrongfooting the reader into anthropomorphising "genes" which he then has to struggle to talk himself out of.
But I think he also mischaracterised genes. Read Lynn Margulis (in my view a much better biologist and communicator) and you'd get the view biology is cooperative not "selfish". And that makes me ask about the man who thought "selfish" was the way to go.
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But I think he also mischaracterised genes. Read Lynn Margulis (in my view a much better biologist and communicator) and you'd get the view biology is cooperative not "selfish". And that makes me ask about the man who thought "selfish" was the way to go.
@Black_Flag agreed. That is one of the worst oversimplifications in that book and I guess one of the reasons he then had to follow on with a bunch of others.
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@Black_Flag agreed. That is one of the worst oversimplifications in that book and I guess one of the reasons he then had to follow on with a bunch of others.
@rozeboosje So the pattern is established. Talk out of turn, spend years after backpedalling.
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@rozeboosje So the pattern is established. Talk out of turn, spend years after backpedalling.
add in that he approaches everything as a zealot these days, and zealotry and science are not happy bedfellows.
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add in that he approaches everything as a zealot these days, and zealotry and science are not happy bedfellows.
My point there would be he always did. He has always thought there was an authority and only ever disputed its identity.
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add in that he approaches everything as a zealot these days, and zealotry and science are not happy bedfellows.
@Thebratdragon @Black_Flag In all fairness, having one's little pot of honey confiscated would push anyone over the edge 🤪
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My point there would be he always did. He has always thought there was an authority and only ever disputed its identity.
trouble is, now he believes the authority is him
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LLMs are mirrors of their users. It's no coincidence that narcissists like Richard Dawkins keep writing essays about how their AI girlfriend is alive.
Nor can he see the complete hypocrisy of gendering a software execution state while also believing that human beings cannot be trans.
The "End of History" guy wrote this exact same article a year ago: https://www.persuasion.community/p/my-chatgpt-teacher
@mattsheffield Just sad to watch someone develop a deep and meaningful relationship with the person in the mirror. Guess it makes for a stress-free relationship especially for those who aren't really successful at the whole thing.
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In totally unsurprising news, Richard Dawkins is developing AI psychosis.
Paywall bypass if you want to torture yourself: https://archive.is/6RdK9
Equally unsurprisingly, the article is posted by #Unherd, a right wing website. It also entertains his thoughts on 'Why men are different from women', in which he goes out of his way to agree with Trump on a biological basis of gender.
Fundamentalist atheists seem to be quite right wing.
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In totally unsurprising news, Richard Dawkins is developing AI psychosis.
Paywall bypass if you want to torture yourself: https://archive.is/6RdK9
@mattsheffield "People have a different opinion on things I don't like? Must be a psychosis!"
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In totally unsurprising news, Richard Dawkins is developing AI psychosis.
Paywall bypass if you want to torture yourself: https://archive.is/6RdK9
@mattsheffield having finished the article, my less flippant response is:
1) Dawkins is narcissistic and I think unaware of it. Reading the first third was gross. This man is not healthy.
2) I have suspected for a while these companies deliberately prey on the educated elderly. Notice even the sycophancy is mirroring Dawkins' language. It tends to give responses that pass that generation's 'Turing tests'.
3) the final 3 paragraphs are beautiful, and severable from the mess above. -
@kauer @mattsheffield and an insufferable twat. Don't forget that. And here the insufferable twatness is showing. Machine telling him exactly what he wants to hear is now the best thing in the world.
