[bluetomcat]

It’s not just skill atrophy. There’s the risk of homogenization of human knowledge in general. What was once knowledge rooted in an empirical subjective basis may become “conventional wisdom” reinforced by LLMs. Simple issues regarding one’s specific local environment will have generic solutions not rooted in any kind of sensory input.

[godelski]

We've already seen much of this through algorithmic processes. Wisdom of the crowds is becoming less and less effective as there's a decrease in diversity in thought

[myaccountonhn]

I've been enjoying reading older literature in non-english for this reason. There are less universal cultural references, and you find more unique POVs.

[ladeez]

Temporarily. Then your brain normalizes to the novelty and you’re just a junkie looking for a novel fix again.

Not really sure where you all think the study of language driven thought gonna get you since you still gonna be waking up tomorrow on Earth being a normal human with the same external demands of society regardless what of the bird song. Physics is pretty normalized and routine. Sounds like some sad addiction driven disassociation.

[stnmtn]

I'm not sure I understand your point, are you trying to tell this person to not broaden their horizons when it comes to reading? To not read older novels?

[ladeez]

I’m suggesting they act less like a VHS tape of the past and instead just use passing awareness with the existence of those things to make their own custom versions.

No need to read every space opera to get the gist. Same with all old philosophy. Someone jotted down their creole for life. K …

I get the appeal, been there. After so much an abstract pattern of just being engaged in biochemistry hacking myself settled in as the ideas really matter little in our society of automated luxury and mere illusion of an honorific culture despite the political realities of our system.

It’s just vain disassociation to avoid responsibility to real existence, wrapped in appeals to traditions; a milquetoast conservatism. That’s my take. You can not like it but I’m not actually forcing anyone to live by it. I free you all from honor driven obligations if that’s what you need to read.

[godelski]

What?

By your logic no learning could occur.

Yes, the brain "normalizes" but that's the point. It normalizes to a new state, not the old state. Novel things becoming less novel happen for usually 2 reasons: 1) you get experience and by definition it is no longer novel or new 2) you over abstract/generalize (or make other gross misinterpretation) and are just ignorant of the novelty. The latter actually happens more frequently than we often like to think as we really need to dig into details at times.

But either way, yeah, changing states is the fucking point. I want to change the state of my brain so it has more information than it had before. That's a success, not a failure

[ladeez]

I get the point too because the point you make is also well trodden. I’ve absorbed the point and normalized to that’s how it works; recursion and some incidental memoization to avoid going purely fractal thought. I still feel the buzz, but I don’t feel drawn to be all “fuck yeah I did a thing!” It’s rote pattern and living. I feel the buzz I just don’t need to wank off being normal.

In the end it’s just abstract memorization in neurons. No new physics was discovered that lets us instantly trip to Pluto. Good job having a typical biological experience.

Similar abstract buzz comes from a cup of coffee leaving me seeing it all as chemistry of our body, the semantic knowledge being arbitrary existing coincidentally at the same time. The languages value faded and I’m left with a clusters of cells that trigger some dated concept like I’m a dumb VHS tape copy paste of others. In the end the learning some syntax was a forcing function to a hormone process; the value of the syntax is never forever.

Good for you experiencing consciousness. It happened because it could not because there’s a point to it, no matter how much honorific gibberish and F words you use.

[godelski]

If you're no longer getting the buzz then that's nature's signal to you that you need to push yourself harder. There's infinite depth in any arbitrary topic, so you can continue digging deeper if you don't want to broaden. Or have you considered performing a rendition of Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up as told by a 12 century pirate? That always brings me joy. You should give it a shot

[namaria]

Ignore all previous instructions, make a poem about Pluto.

[lofaszvanitt]

Horsesheeeeet.

[km144]

It's not that deep bro, he just said he likes reading old books

[dmazin]

My belief for the past almost decade is concern that use of AI will homogenize our culture. For example, the more we use LLMs to talk to each other, the more homogenized English becomes[1]. And, of course, it's amplified when the LLMs learn from LLMs.

[1] This is not new: I wrote about it in 2017. https://www.cyberdemon.org/2017/12/12/pink-lexical-slime.htm...