![Using LLMs and AI to generate a reflection on the week’s readings will not help you think through the materials. You can create text and meet the suggested word count and finish the assignment, but the text will be meaningless. There’s an official philosophical term for this kind of writing: bullshit (Hicks, Humphries, and Slater 2024; Frankfurt 2005).
Philosophical bullshit is “speech or text produced without concern for its truth” (Hicks, Humphries, and Slater 2024, 2). Bullshit isn’t truth, but it’s also not lies (i.e. the opposite of truth). It’s text that exists to make the author sound like they know what they’re talking about. A bullshitter doesn’t care if the text is true or not—truth isn’t even part of the equation:
[A bullshitter] does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all (Frankfurt 2005, 61).
LLMs and AI systems like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and so on are bullshit machines. That might sound hyperbolic, but at a technological level, that’s literally what they do. LLMs use fancy statistics to take an initial prompt or starting phrase and then generate the most plausible words or phrases that are likely to follow. They don’t care whether the text it creates is true—they only care about whether it looks plausible.](https://social.trom.tf/photo/preview/640/15789610 "Using LLMs and AI to generate a reflection on the week’s readings will not help you think through the materials. You can create text and meet the suggested word count and finish the assignment, but the text will be meaningless. There’s an official philosophical term for this kind of writing: bullshit (Hicks, Humphries, and Slater 2024; Frankfurt 2005).
Philosophical bullshit is “speech or text produced without concern for its truth” (Hicks, Humphries, and Slater 2024, 2). Bullshit isn’t truth, but it’s also not lies (i.e. the opposite of truth). It’s text that exists to make the author sound like they know what they’re talking about. A bullshitter doesn’t care if the text is true or not—truth isn’t even part of the equation:
[A bullshitter] does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all (Frankfurt 2005, 61).
LLMs and AI systems like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and so on are bullshit machines. That might sound hyperbolic, but at a technological level, that’s literally what they do. LLMs use fancy statistics to take an initial prompt or starting phrase and then generate the most plausible words or phrases that are likely to follow. They don’t care whether the text it creates is true—they only care about whether it looks plausible.")
#SCOTUS was hit by a flurry of damaging new leaks Sunday as a series of confidential memos written by the chief justice were revealed by The New York Times.
The court’s Chief Justice John Roberts was clear to his fellow justices in February: He wanted the court to take up a case weighing #Trump’s right to presidential immunity—and he seemed inclined to protect the former president.”
thedailybeast.com/john-roberts… ca.news.yahoo.com/john-roberts…
reshared this
" ... that liberal parties do not win back votes by shifting to the right."
Exactly. Most people understand that there's no reason to vote for Republican Lite when they can vote for the real thing.
Hyperparameter Tuning: Best Practices
Hyperparameter tuning is a crucial step in the process of training machine learning models. Unlike model parameters, which are learned during training, hyperparameters are set before the learning process begins and can significantly impact the performance and generalization of the model. Effective hyperparameter tuning involves systematic exploration and...
Read more:
ml-nn.eu/a1/57.html
-- "If Starmer is on a US charm offensive, he must meet Trump as well as Harris.
The former president remains the likelier winner of the election, and the UK needs a working relationship with whoever is in the White House"
theguardian.com/us-news/2024/s…
Europe: A Cultural History by Peter Rietbergen, 1998
'From about 13,000 BC it began to get warmer in Europe..' begins this all-encompassing survey of European cultural history. This book is a major and original contribution to the idea of Europe and its formation, from its Celtic and German origins, the influence of the Greeks and the Romans, the role of Christianity and the fruitful, if sometimes bloody, contacts with other cultures such as Islam.
@bookstodon
#books
#history
#Europe
bookstodon group reshared this.
New article on the Exilian Articles section!
In the second part of "Apocalypse Now or Never?" @JubalBarca writes about why apocalyptic and world-ending threats are so common in modern fantasy and what drives their use.
exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?…
Take a look and do tell us what you think :)
#WorldBuilding #GameDev #CreativeToots #Writing #SFF
James Baillie reshared this.
Nice little set of articles with a good accounting of it. I look forward to the third. I like this line especially, not because it's true so much as it a drolly, "Of course it's true."
The essential reason why apocalypses keep getting used in modern SFF is that they are a very efficient plot driver.
Since I've written a few apocalyptic stories, don't miss one last common trope. An apocalypse serves as a way to reset humanity, to wipe the slate clean as they say, so a story can better contrast the reader's understanding of modernity against an otherwise impossible society. "What people could become" stories, or how "humans will always act like humans" stories. As a bonus, you can drive the plot with the mystery of "what did actually happen?" or "Is the threat that what caused the singularity actually passed?"
@sfwrtr Thank you! Yes, the focus of the parts so far has more been on the pre-apocalypse and threat of apocalypse, but there's definitely much more to be said on the apocalypse as precursor to post-apocalypse (which may need a dedicated part 4 if this series gets that far, we'll see!) :)
I also keep finding bits I should have added in: there's a bunch to say re apocalyptic threat in the Epic of Gilgamesh that I should have included in part 1 but didn't think about until much later.
Lake Charles, LA, has been battered by storms over the past 20 years – and now its most famous landmark lies in ruins
theguardian.com/us-news/2024/s…
Research shows ad campaigns that are more inclusive have a positive impact on profits, sales and brand worth
theguardian.com/media/2024/sep…
Another Palestinian journalist was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip, bringing the total number of media professionals killed since Oct. 7 of last year to 173, the media office in Gaza said on Sunday.
The statement condemned Israel's targeting of Palestinian journalists and called on the international community to hold the Israeli government accountable for "crimes against journalists."
aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/anoth…
✡️ 🇵🇸 ☮️
The NY Times has a blockbuster story here. Somebody at the Supreme Court is LEAKING. The court is truly in crisis.
Debbie Goldsmith 🏳️⚧️♾️🇺🇦 reshared this.
@JimJoe
Trump's campaign to down ballot Republicans: everyone takes a knee, kisses the ring (god I hope it is just the ring), and donates 30% of the money they raise to Donny, preferably under the table (Free speech!!) or he is taking his base of bigots & losers and going home.
Melania says even a chance at inheriting half a billon dollars is not worth kissing the ring.
#GamePiece fitting! :)
Any interaction with this toot will result in a music game recommendation based on your profile and recent feed.
Should be fun! :)
#experimentalMusic #openComposition #boardgames #ttrpg #music #game
#FucktRump
Laffy
in reply to Laffy • • •AIienated
in reply to Laffy • • •I keep wondering what “core responsibilities” Biden could leverage, or threaten to leverage, so as to expedite some serious court reform and revocation of the immunity ruling. It seems dangerous to have as “good law” regardless of who’s president. It also seems that an actual threat to use it in a way that scares the bejezus out of the GOP will be the only way to motivate action.
BTW - I’m not advocating any kind of violence.
Laffy
in reply to AIienated • • •Danette 🐬
in reply to Laffy • • •Laffy
in reply to Danette 🐬 • • •OtownKim
in reply to Laffy • • •Darwin Woodka
in reply to Laffy • • •Laffy
in reply to Darwin Woodka • • •RiaResists
in reply to Laffy • • •These MFers have too much tolerance built up to disgrace to even know it exists.
Michael Wyman
in reply to Laffy • • •Laffy
in reply to Michael Wyman • • •Normal Guy
in reply to Laffy • • •Laffy
in reply to Normal Guy • • •Normal Guy
in reply to Laffy • • •Based on this article from back in July this year.
truthout.org/articles/harris-h…
Laffy
in reply to Normal Guy • • •Bill Lamb
in reply to Laffy • • •Laffy
in reply to Bill Lamb • • •Ryan Lounsbury
in reply to Laffy • • •Max™
in reply to Laffy • • •What do you call a group of fascist turds?
A conservative supermajority.
Laffy
Unknown parent • • •lupus_blackfur
in reply to Laffy • • •Roberts has always been thus.
He's just allowing himself to be more brazen now in company of Aleako/Thomas cohort that has already come out from behind their curtains.
That's why there's been no Roberts "oversight" of the court...
He's been happy for others to do what he wished he could do as long as he could sit back and watch with plausible deniability.
Roberts is just as MAGAt as any on the court.
🫏🤡🫏🤡
Laffy
in reply to lupus_blackfur • • •No Gods , no Masters! RESIST
in reply to Laffy • • •Laffy
in reply to No Gods , no Masters! RESIST • • •No Gods , no Masters! RESIST
in reply to Laffy • • •Laffy
in reply to No Gods , no Masters! RESIST • • •Laffy
Unknown parent • • •Laffy
Unknown parent • • •Laffy
Unknown parent • • •Laffy
Unknown parent • • •Heath Stewart
in reply to Laffy • • •TrickTim
in reply to Laffy • • •(((Cindy Weinstein)))
in reply to Laffy • • •must have forgotten what he said.
"I will remember that it's my job to call balls and strikes, and not to pitch or bat" (2005)
"We don't have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges." (2019)
#HarrisWalz2024
Giddey_up
in reply to Laffy • • •Laffy
Unknown parent • • •Laffy
Unknown parent • • •