Thanks for a fascinating discussion. I'm sure this isn't an original observation, but I was struck by the segment where you talked about the importance of taking a historical perspective, and mentioned the innate plasticity of human "intelligence". The obvious parallel with machine learning seems to me to be the equally far-reaching invention of the internal combustion engine. It came on the back of the, much slower, technological development that was steam power, but it turned out to be a game changer of a different order entirely. Within a few, short decades it literally changed the whole face of the planet. Who, in 1890, could have foreseen the effect it would have had by, say, 1920? The history of motorised transport bears many of the same hallmarks as the development of computer technology. It moved fast, it changed things forever, it was replete with a multitude of unintended consequences, it pleaded efficiency gains and increased profits, it enbabled or enforced massive changes in employment patterns, and it very soon fell into the hands of a small number of immensely powerful corporations. The good news, however, and despite the fears of the time, was that most people seemed to take the whole process pretty much in their stride. Now, that's what I call plasticity...
Where to begin? In no particular order ... Lets start with a new lexicon, we need some new tools to get our minds around this alien (in the literal sense) 'slime' that is invading our houses, our homes, our classrooms, starting with the 'big one' - the White House (irony intended).
In old (cold war) money, you are both correct. We have started 'crossing the Niagara Falls in a sealed barrel' and there are, currently, no ways back. It is a 'sputnik-moment' although 'thresholds' or (more technically) 'event horizons' and 'dark holes' (nee 'black' holes) can substitute as interim tokens for what I want to say ...
* "Dark-boxing" Verb: to hide and permanently remove from human scrutiny.
As in the classic 'four colour mapping problem,' which asks a simple question: can we prove that no more than four colours are required to drawn a map of any group of countries without having any contiguous countries of the same colour? Answer #1. Humans can't do this, however, #2. It can now be done, but only by very fast computers, whose workings are too extensive for any human to check line by line. (Sorry, you have just been replaced by a computer/algorithm.) This is apparently an old story, but it makes the point quite neatly.
Search and replace all of the following: alienate, hide, abstract, remove-from-scrutiny &/or the test of replicability (the essence of the scientific method), etc with "AI-ed" (pun intended) ... you get the drift? All these functions have now been outsourced to 'seccure' / opaque machines / machine learning, so you might find it difficult to continue to use any of these terms.
* "Alienate" (archaic form of "dark-boxing") Verb: to transform from one mode of human interaction to another, and eventually to hide it permanently from human scrutiny in a digital computer program / algorithm.
* "Abstract" verb / noun. (Archaic, now a technical, coding term only) ... etc.
On the other hand, we could reprogram our institutions' computers, e.g.
Disallowed terms (these will in the future all be compulsorily searched out and replaced ...)
1. 'artificial Intelligence' - replace with 'machine learning' (In the spirit of the times, lets call a spade a spade.) etc. Food for thought ...? Any hackers available (where is Anonymous when we need you?)
And talking of 'legacy' or 'his/her-story,' ("context" will do) - what strikes me above all is that AI is 'back to the past ' Conservatism / Fascism with a Capital Letter - and a selected past at that.
Which makes it RP 2.0. (Received Pronunciation 2.0) I am sure you (2? / more than 2?) don't need reminding, but it's a repeat of the 'charming' initiative started with the Book of Common Prayer, and 'rounded off' by the the King James version of the Bible, overseen by that witch-pricker in chief, King James 1 of England / King James VI of Scotland.
The (explicit) purpose of these two books, which were distributed in (Protestant) churches across the new 'nation' was to create a 'ligua franca of consumption' for the nacent UK, which ensured the (passive) receipt of the King's (sic) English; something that even the (more charming) Henry VIII never imagined.
Good authority has it that no more than 5% of the people of the UK have ever spoken RP, though we all can 'hear' / receive understand / obey (etc) it.
It's at its core no less a 'language of instruction' than the (literally) bastardised Safrican 'funagalore' in the Gold Mines. Resonances all round the Empire ...
AI (and the aptly named LLM's) are just more systematic version of RP. (Digitalisation is so versatile, it can encode anything! (not).
And the new 'technology' of listening didn't even require 'literacy' (in the sense of reading AND WRITING) RP also presaged / initiated 'peer review' memes, which Charles II incorporated into the rules of the Royal (Scientific) Society. (Sung to the tune of 'the dots on the bus go round and round ...' pity this meme doesn't do audio, but there you are ...)
AI not only is a restricted 'language' / coding technology, it is also militarily and security-wise restricted. And so on ... I'll leave the rest to you ...
Thanks for a fascinating discussion. I'm sure this isn't an original observation, but I was struck by the segment where you talked about the importance of taking a historical perspective, and mentioned the innate plasticity of human "intelligence". The obvious parallel with machine learning seems to me to be the equally far-reaching invention of the internal combustion engine. It came on the back of the, much slower, technological development that was steam power, but it turned out to be a game changer of a different order entirely. Within a few, short decades it literally changed the whole face of the planet. Who, in 1890, could have foreseen the effect it would have had by, say, 1920? The history of motorised transport bears many of the same hallmarks as the development of computer technology. It moved fast, it changed things forever, it was replete with a multitude of unintended consequences, it pleaded efficiency gains and increased profits, it enbabled or enforced massive changes in employment patterns, and it very soon fell into the hands of a small number of immensely powerful corporations. The good news, however, and despite the fears of the time, was that most people seemed to take the whole process pretty much in their stride. Now, that's what I call plasticity...
Whew. You have opened so many boxes! Thank you.
Where to begin? In no particular order ... Lets start with a new lexicon, we need some new tools to get our minds around this alien (in the literal sense) 'slime' that is invading our houses, our homes, our classrooms, starting with the 'big one' - the White House (irony intended).
In old (cold war) money, you are both correct. We have started 'crossing the Niagara Falls in a sealed barrel' and there are, currently, no ways back. It is a 'sputnik-moment' although 'thresholds' or (more technically) 'event horizons' and 'dark holes' (nee 'black' holes) can substitute as interim tokens for what I want to say ...
* "Dark-boxing" Verb: to hide and permanently remove from human scrutiny.
As in the classic 'four colour mapping problem,' which asks a simple question: can we prove that no more than four colours are required to drawn a map of any group of countries without having any contiguous countries of the same colour? Answer #1. Humans can't do this, however, #2. It can now be done, but only by very fast computers, whose workings are too extensive for any human to check line by line. (Sorry, you have just been replaced by a computer/algorithm.) This is apparently an old story, but it makes the point quite neatly.
Search and replace all of the following: alienate, hide, abstract, remove-from-scrutiny &/or the test of replicability (the essence of the scientific method), etc with "AI-ed" (pun intended) ... you get the drift? All these functions have now been outsourced to 'seccure' / opaque machines / machine learning, so you might find it difficult to continue to use any of these terms.
* "Alienate" (archaic form of "dark-boxing") Verb: to transform from one mode of human interaction to another, and eventually to hide it permanently from human scrutiny in a digital computer program / algorithm.
* "Abstract" verb / noun. (Archaic, now a technical, coding term only) ... etc.
On the other hand, we could reprogram our institutions' computers, e.g.
Disallowed terms (these will in the future all be compulsorily searched out and replaced ...)
1. 'artificial Intelligence' - replace with 'machine learning' (In the spirit of the times, lets call a spade a spade.) etc. Food for thought ...? Any hackers available (where is Anonymous when we need you?)
And talking of 'legacy' or 'his/her-story,' ("context" will do) - what strikes me above all is that AI is 'back to the past ' Conservatism / Fascism with a Capital Letter - and a selected past at that.
Which makes it RP 2.0. (Received Pronunciation 2.0) I am sure you (2? / more than 2?) don't need reminding, but it's a repeat of the 'charming' initiative started with the Book of Common Prayer, and 'rounded off' by the the King James version of the Bible, overseen by that witch-pricker in chief, King James 1 of England / King James VI of Scotland.
The (explicit) purpose of these two books, which were distributed in (Protestant) churches across the new 'nation' was to create a 'ligua franca of consumption' for the nacent UK, which ensured the (passive) receipt of the King's (sic) English; something that even the (more charming) Henry VIII never imagined.
Good authority has it that no more than 5% of the people of the UK have ever spoken RP, though we all can 'hear' / receive understand / obey (etc) it.
It's at its core no less a 'language of instruction' than the (literally) bastardised Safrican 'funagalore' in the Gold Mines. Resonances all round the Empire ...
AI (and the aptly named LLM's) are just more systematic version of RP. (Digitalisation is so versatile, it can encode anything! (not).
And the new 'technology' of listening didn't even require 'literacy' (in the sense of reading AND WRITING) RP also presaged / initiated 'peer review' memes, which Charles II incorporated into the rules of the Royal (Scientific) Society. (Sung to the tune of 'the dots on the bus go round and round ...' pity this meme doesn't do audio, but there you are ...)
AI not only is a restricted 'language' / coding technology, it is also militarily and security-wise restricted. And so on ... I'll leave the rest to you ...