I think this is good advice for bloggers and journalists, but not for novelists or poets.
Readit NewsLabov commented on Rules of good writing (2007) dilbertblog.typepad.com/t... · Posted by u/santiviquez
Labov commented on Google can now read your WhatsApp messages neowin.net/guides/google-... · Posted by u/bundie
Oof, that's not what the WhatsApp ads on the train station platform say.
Labov commented on The Problem with AI Welfare substack.com/home/post/p-... · Posted by u/turing_complete
If there's any chance at all that LLM's might possess a form of consciousness, we damn well ought to err on the side of assuming they are!
If that means aborting work on LLMs, then that's the ethical thing to do, even if it's financially painful. Otherwise, we should tread carefully and not wind up creating a 'head in a jar' suffering for the sake of X or Google.
I get that opinions differ here, but it's hard for me really to understand how. The logic just seems straightforward. We shouldn't risk accidentally becoming slave masters (again).
It seems to me that the Large Language Models are always trending towards good ethical considerations. It's when these companies get contracts with Anduril and the DoD that they have to mess with the LLM to make it LESS ethical.
Seems like the root of the problem is with the owners?
Labov commented on The Problem with AI Welfare substack.com/home/post/p-... · Posted by u/turing_complete
"The issue is, if we push moral considerations for algorithms, we will not end up with a higher regard to human welfare. We will lower our regard for other humans. When we see other humans not as ends in themselves with inherent dignity, we get problems. When we liken them to animals or tools to be used, we will exploit and abuse them."
We already exploit and abuse humans. I've been exploited and abused, personally. I've heard about others who have been exploited and abused. This problem was extant even before there was language to model.
I took computer science for a year before flunking out. My parents pushed me into college. My father didn't want me to join the Navy like he had done, when he was a young man. A lot of conversations about my future earning potential with an undergraduate degree took place in the lobbies of payday loan joints.
I plagiarized quite a bit in school. I'm not proud of it. Desperation and poor role models can create all sorts of negative outcomes, though. I was taught how to survive, not how to live ethically.
You can try to filter the plagiarists, sure. But uh, I'm not sure if it will work. The plagiarists are in league with each other.
Labov commented on How to live an intellectually rich life utsavmamoria.substack.com... · Posted by u/TheLadyParadox
TBH Dr. Ambedkar’s Buddhism is very different from what the other traditions preach. It was an answer to the prevailing jātivada, but unfortunately it didn’t manage to make the dent he envisioned.
I’ve grown up around Navayana and have many friends from Kagyu, Theravada and other traditions.
(All this to say I know Bauddha Dharma intimately)
All part of the great warp and weft. It's a fascinating thing to learn about, how all these traditions intersect.
Seattle, the city I live in, recently became the first to ban caste discrimination. I didn't think much of it at the time, but nowadays maybe there's something to be learned from jātivada, the many forms it comes in, and the response to it. Reading Leslie Feinberg right now, interesting working class perspective.
Labov commented on How to live an intellectually rich life utsavmamoria.substack.com... · Posted by u/TheLadyParadox
It’s a common trope among urban Indians. They’re enamoured by the simple and rustic living of the villages and think of them as noble savages.
I grew up in rural India and I always recommend people to read Dr. Ambedkar’s rights on this subject.
Dr. Ambedkar is somebody more people in the United States should know about. I was a briefly involved with the Triratna Buddhist Community and read some of Sangharakshita's writing, and he discusses Ambedkar. Real interesting stuff.
Labov commented on How to live an intellectually rich life utsavmamoria.substack.com... · Posted by u/TheLadyParadox
> In August 2018, in the last month of my three-month sabbatical, I arrived at the Hamta village in Himachal Pradesh. I rented a one-room cottage, and my caretakers were Dolma Aunty and Kalzang Uncle, a couple well into their 70’s.
I got to this part and realized: I've read this article before in some form.
It's a really common trope to head out to some remote area of Asia and admire how happy people are. There's often a spiritual component to it. I will write the guy a bit of a pass, because he himself is (I think) Indian.
But westerners have been doing stuff like this for ages and prattling on about it - it's kind of a cornerstone of Orientalism. This was actually a plot point in the recent White Lotus season. People rarely go to Appalachia to have these experiences, but you certainly can find people living simple happy lives there. (At least, if they do, nobody publishes those articles - it doesn't fit our preconceived notions of who gets to be enlightened, which is to say it has to be some place far away and people very different than your average Americans)
Not to say there's no value in this article (there is), and it was a fun read at that.
Well, maybe there's something to it. I think it's great when East meets West. East should keep meeting West over and over and over. Maybe one day East will know West and vice versa.
For what it's worth, I had something of a similar experience, but it was in a plywood shack on a desert island off the coast of California.
it triggers the same eye roll as the schoolyard bully nicknames so popular in politics right now. bite sized, zero effort, fashionable take downs that suffocate any attempt at genuine discourse.
but I am probably just grumpy and old.