I think this comment made me finally understand the AI hate circlejerk on lemmy. If you have no clue how LLMs work and you have no idea where “AI” is coming from, it just looks like another crappy product that was thrown on the market half-ready. I guess you can only appreciate the absolutely incredible development of LLMs (and AI in general) that happened during the last ~5 years if you can actually see it in the first place.

Yeah, I get that, and I think this is somehow a cultural difference. I didn’t mean to tell you that’s not what you’re supposed to do, sorry if it came across like that. I just thought it was interesting that to me, the whole idea of saying the pledge seems so strange, it reminds me of saying a prayer, and that somehow doesn’t match my understanding of a democratic system. I’m from Germany, by the way. We grow up with a very different relationship to our state compared to the US. I think it changed a bit in recent years (and I’m a bit undecided whether that’s a good thing or not), but when I was a kid, basically only nationalists and neonazis waved the German flag (that changed with the soccer worldcup in Germany in 2006). My school curriculum was filled with the crimes of the Third Reich, and I think what I took away from that was to never just worship or even trust a state or government just because it’s you own, because it may actually be or turn evil. And that it’s your responsibility as a citizen to not let that happen. Of course I do feel connected to my country and my culture, but I’m just very unfamiliar with the kind of connection that (many) Americans seem to have with their country. Again, I’m not trying to say it’s wrong per se, but to feel such an emotional connection to a democratic state that is meant to be shaped by the people for the people does feel feel a bit off to me, in the sense maybe that I see a risk of it leading people in a wrong direction. I don’t know. I hope that makes it a bit more understandable. I’d actually like to hear your opinion on that. Is my point of view understandable for you, or does it seem just as strange to you?

I appreciate that you don’t tell kids that they have to participate, but honestly, even telling the others to be “respectfully quiet” seems a bit odd to me.

A democratic state is something you pledge allegiance to by actively participating, by making use of your democratic rights and by putting energy into building and shaping the system we all live in. That’s what democracy is meant to be, a system of all people working together and valuing the needs and opinions of others, working out the best solutions for everyone through discourse. It’s not a religion or a god that you pray to in silence, that’s a bit absurd, isn’t it?

No idea why you’re getting downvoted. People here don’t seem to understand even the simplest concepts of consciousness.

What is “actual intelligence” then?

You know, and I think it’s actually the opposite. Anyone pretending their brain is doing more than pattern recognition and AI can therefore not be “intelligence” is a fucking idiot.

As far as I know, matrices were a “pure math” thing when they were first discovered and seemed pretty useless. Then physicists discovered them and used them for all sorts of shit and now they’re one of the most important tools in in science, engineering and programming.

Many good movies have been mentioned already (especially Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind, Big Fish, Manchester by the sea and The Fountain).

I would like to add:

• Finding Neverland
• Captain Fantastic

And if you want to absolutely destroy yourself: Prayers for Bobby.

What makes you think a human brain has anything to do with general intelligence? Have you ever talked to people with a human brain?

I was way more excited to buy a cool new rug for my room as a teenager than I am now, the one in my living room is annoying but I’m too lazy to look for a better one. So I don’t really understand the concept. I guess I’m “I don’t give enough fucks anymore about unimportant shit”-old.

I remember as a teenager I had such terrible menstrual pain I’d take pain killers and just curl up on the bed suffering and waiting for them to start working. I remember sitting in class at school not being able to focus because the pain in my stomach was barely tolerable. Everyone around me told me it was normal. My mother just told me to take pain killers. It only got better when I started taking hormonal birth control pills. I’ve always wondered if I have endometriosis but never got diagnosed (never asked about it to be honest because on bc it’s manageable). I’d really like to tell my past self that I wasn’t just being weak and that it really wasn’t normal to feel that level of pain. It’s good that slowly there’s more awareness about this, but apparently there are still people like OP who believe they just need to live with pain like that.

OP, this is not normal and not how it should be, please see a doctor.

This. Same with the discussion about consciousness. People always claim that AI is not real intelligence, but no one can ever define what real/human intelligence is. It’s like people believe in something like a human soul without admitting it.

I’m going to be the one here that says: I think you might be. Do you want a partner to love and live together and truly consider equal with all their thoughts, feeling and needs being just as important as yours, or do you want a maid that also happens to love you and wants to sleep with you? I think that is the question you need to answer first.

AI isn’t math formulas though. AI is a complex dynamic system reacting to external input. There is no fundamental difference here to a human brain in that regard imo. It’s just that the processing isn’t happening in biological tissue but in silicon. Is it way less complex than a human? Sure. Is there a fundamental qualitative difference? I don’t think so. What’s the qualitative difference in your opinion?

I’m not even really sure why but for some reason, Alan Rickman hit me pretty hard.

You’re getting downvoted but I absolutely agree. I don’t understand why “AI algorithms are just math, therefore they can’t have consciousness” seems to be the predominant view even among people interested in the topic. I haven’t heard a single convincing argument why “math” is fundamentally different from human brains. Sure, current AI is way less complex and doesn’t have a continuous stream of perceptual input. But that’s something a “proper” humanoid robot would need to have, and processing power will increase as well.

You talk like you know what the requirements for consciousness are. How do you know? As far as I know that’s an unsolved philosophical and scientific problem. We don’t even know what consciousness really is in the first place. It could just be an illusion.

“Analrinne” ist wirklich ein furchtbares Wort.

I think those are the best ones.