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Snowden St.
@snowden.st

(this is a loose analogy) if Data is the New Oil, I think LLMs might be something like a plastic

Alistair Davidson@moh-kohn.eurosky.social

Through that lens, AI almost feels inevitable. Capitalists concentrated so much data that it began to speak. People then took that and attempted to swarm-clone expensive SaaS products like Adobe Suite (n.b. they are yet to succeed at that).

Snowden St.
@snowden.st

loosely, it would also mean “is useful, is also a pollutant, and environmentally questionable, mostly benefits a lot of private production, but also probably not eradicable”.

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John
@lexaproluthor.bsky.social

Where this analogy falls apart somewhat is the doom loop problem. Plastics are a nasty pollutant, but you don't have to worry about them so contaminating oil formations as to compromise production.

Snowden St.
@snowden.st

very much so! and yeah, the analogy is more about “form”, I think, because “carbon forms from the earth” do not arise from complex systems that can compare to human cognition, like words, nor as you say is the supply chain as neat.

Snowden St.
@snowden.st

and to get VERY stoner with it— i think a lot of this is humanity at the frontier of understanding what *is* data. for good and for bad, and what is its value, what does it say about individual experience vs data, etc.

Snowden St.
@snowden.st

there’s really no room for maudlin or sentimental reasoning around technology, not lo these 150 years of technological boom. the task is to take them seriously, and rationally, and in as broad a context as we can push our minds to comprehend. Real Curious Nerds hours, imo.

Snowden St.@snowden.st

"It is the business of the future to be dangerous; and it is among the merits of science that it equips the future for its duties." -- Alfred North Whitehead

Snowden St.
@snowden.st

the Edenic myth is important, but it’s still mythical! the reality is that what we know as ourselves or human beings have developed against a permanent slope, the future has always been perilous, and we think and work in treats to make ourselves prepared to answer/address the perils.