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LM: #338: The great dumbf*ckening
Alfred North Whitehead said, “Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.”
It’s incredible how much we’re able to do without thinking. I don’t know how to fix my car, don’t know how my computer works, and can grow my own food at the rate of roughly one bell pepper every two months.
When I’m working on a book, I take my files to the print shop. I make sure to ask for “actual size,” because otherwise it defaults to a shrunken version. Every time, I have to show the person at the print shop what box to check. This is someone whose only job is printing stuff out – they’re often the owner of the print shop. Even more puzzling, am I the only person ever to want things printed how I’ve laid them out?
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We humans don’t need to know how every tool works. We can press buttons, shake, bang on the side, and hope for the best. This is apparently how these print shops work, and this is how we’re using AI.
In fact, the way an LLM works is all about not having precise control over the output. Just try to get a reliable quote from ChatGPT.
If we really need help, we can call an expert – but even the experts can’t predict what AI will produce. So what happens when there are no experts?
Someone knows how to fix my car, my computer, or grow bell peppers at a steady rate. But what happens when air-traffic control, the municipal water supply, and our governments are self-perpetuating systems which no living person understands?
And with adult literacy and numeracy on the decline, who’s to say anyone will be capable?
Aphorism: “You should praise natural understanding without bookish learning rather than bookish learning without understanding.” —Leonardo da Vinci
Book: Sovereign (Amazon) is David Elikwu’s owners manual for a remarkable life.
Best,
David
P.S. Mind Management is on Kindle Unlimited, briefly (free to read with membership).
