[prithee]

This quote from "Non Serviam" section of "A Perfect Vacuum" by Lem also hints at future stochastic parrots argument.

The machine will employ, as the need arises, the pro- noun "I" and all its grammatical inflections. This, however, is a hoax! The machine will still be closer to a billion chattering parrots—howsoever brilliantly trained the parrots be—than to the simplest, most stupid man. It mimics the behavior of a man on the purely linguistic plane and nothing more. Nothing will amuse such a machine, or surprise it, or confuse it, or alarm it, or distress it, because it is psychologically and individually No One. It is a Voice giving utterance to matters, supplying an- swers to questions; it is a Logic capable of defeating the best chess player; it is—or, rather, it can become—a consummate imitator of everything, an actor, if you will, brought to the pinnacle of perfection, performing any programmed role—but an actor and an imitator that is, within, completely empty. One cannot count on its sympathy, or on its antipathy. It works toward no self-set goal; to a degree eternally beyond the con- ception of any man it "doesn't care," for as a person it simply does not exist.... It is a wondrously efficient combinatorial mechanism, nothing more.

[jareklupinski]

> One cannot count on its sympathy, or on its antipathy.

ok but i'm still going to thank chatgpt just in case

[Obscurity4340]

I do that too, not for its sake, but I don't want to be getting in the habit of being a jerk when discoursing

[MWil]

"Ssssssssss," the basilisk said, with "seeming" approval.

[r618]

it would be maybe interesting to know how was Lem thinking about the actual algorithmic process the machine uses while writing this:

- purely symbolic with myriads of symbolic (if-else) clauses similar to expert systems, or

- sub symbolical ANN networks similar to current LLMs

i suspect it was the former in which case that he actually arrived at description of current large NNs is really striking I think

[ajuc]

Dunno about this fragment, but in general in 60s he usually wrote about AI as "cybernetic electronic brain" or "cybernetic black boxes". Cybernetic in the old sense - not the cyberpunk implants, but the analog devices with feedback loops.

He wrote A LOT about this and explored various consequences, including the simulation argument which he presented in 1960 as a short story "Strange chests of professor Corcoran" - https://przekroj.org/sztuka-opowiesci/dziwne-skrzynie-profes... here's the Polish version).

[crucialfelix]

In Summa Technologiae he discusses statistical learning and matrices.

[r618]

that's really awesome

, he's had extraordinary intuition with this

[mirekrusin]

Wow, that's accurate (1971).