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An unsettling new world
- Thread starter Basil
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So many things described in that video -
Garbage is thrown at us through the 'net 24/7, so I'll go back to my main tool: my brain. Or as I teach my students and interns - question everything, search for credibility, stop using social media, and ask "How do you know it's true"?
eek
As a certain BCF member used to say - "We don't need a fountain of youth. We need a fountain of smart."
Garbage is thrown at us through the 'net 24/7, so I'll go back to my main tool: my brain. Or as I teach my students and interns - question everything, search for credibility, stop using social media, and ask "How do you know it's true"?
eek
As a certain BCF member used to say - "We don't need a fountain of youth. We need a fountain of smart."
OP
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The problem now is that the garbage is getting very sophisticated and harder to detect. Critical thinking is more important now than ever before.
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No kidding - can I agree with you 101%?
The increase in garbage info, and the decrease in critical thinking, leads to a crumbling future. People I work with even now are overwhelmed with menus, dropdowns, online data collection, garbage news, notifications, sales pitches on nearly every webpage, and a feeling of losing the small bit of control over their lives they have left.
About 20 years ago here on BCF we talked about what at that time was the tip of the iceberg: "disconnect from the 'net and talk to people face to face." Still sounds good to me.
TM
OP
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I prefer face-to-face or telephone conversations over, say, email. I still have friends from high school who I talk with by phone regularly. As for the garbage news, I will say that I'm glad that sources and choices are becoming more diversified and less centralized. Some might see that as a problem - I don't. I think choice is a good thing. Of course one has to use one's critical thinking to decide which sources they find credible and which they don't. With so-called legacy media, I often am troubled when several outlets seem to talk from the exact same sheet of music. Almost as if there is some centralized script they are using, even to the point of using the exact same words to describe people and events; Often using language intentionally meant to elicit specific emotional responses. But that's just me.
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I continually lament the loss of "government and civics" in public school curricula. If people don't know how the system *should* work, and/or feel the system isn't working, they'll often fall for promises of wealth and protections against threats which may or may not exist. I think Goering said something like that back in 1945 or '46.
OP
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Getting back to the original topic - I think AI has a lot of potential for good, but also a lot of potential for harm ("HAL, Open the door! "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that"). We are living in times that once were science fiction, but are fast becoming reality.
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HAL is a great example! Giving power to "machines", especially machines which can "defend themselves", can lead to some pretty bad outcomes.
At Sturbridge, I often tell visitors - imagine how much smarter farm animals might be, if humans didn't breed, feed, water, and protect them. They'd have to fend for themselves, and develop their intelligence.
A similar argument could be made about AI - don't bother checking, AI is here to serve you. Just trust AI to give you answers.
At Sturbridge, I often tell visitors - imagine how much smarter farm animals might be, if humans didn't breed, feed, water, and protect them. They'd have to fend for themselves, and develop their intelligence.
A similar argument could be made about AI - don't bother checking, AI is here to serve you. Just trust AI to give you answers.
Silverghost
Yoda
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And I lament the loss of critical - née liberal (!) thinking being taught. Apparently it doesn't come naturally...
mikephillips
Yoda
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interestingly I saw a story about an AI that when they went to shut it down, copied itself to other machines in it's network in order to "survive". Completely true?? Can't say 100% either way but they have noted AIs that create their own languages to talk to each other and do other things to propagate information among themselves, so may very well be true. They may not be alive in the sense we are as self aware beings, but it wouldn't surprise me they come up with survival and propagation instincts as well as sharing what works and doesn't. And along with that, create events so real, if you weren't there you may not know what to believe.
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I'm reading Carl Sagan's The Demon Haunted World - Science As a Candle in the Dark. Just now, believe it or not, I read this:
When the training is unchanged for immense periods of time, traditions are passed on intact
to the next generation. But when what needs to be learned changes quickly, especially in the
course of a single generation (emphasis mine), it becomes much harder to know what to teach and how to teach it. Then, students complain about relevance, respect for their elders diminishes.
Teachers despair at how educational standards have deteriorated, and how lackadaisical students become. In a world of transition, students and teachers both need to teach themselves one
essential skill - learning how to learn.
When the training is unchanged for immense periods of time, traditions are passed on intact
to the next generation. But when what needs to be learned changes quickly, especially in the
course of a single generation (emphasis mine), it becomes much harder to know what to teach and how to teach it. Then, students complain about relevance, respect for their elders diminishes.
Teachers despair at how educational standards have deteriorated, and how lackadaisical students become. In a world of transition, students and teachers both need to teach themselves one
essential skill - learning how to learn.
OP
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But not to worry AI (the topic of the thread) will come to the rescue!
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OK, but I ain't holdin' my breath!
OP
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USAF seems to have the right idea:
OP
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I'm not "always" on it, but I do use it for a lot of useful things (at least I think they're useful).