[parpfish]

Back when I was calculating eigenvectors for my linear algebra homework, I had no idea I should've been taking the matrices well being into account.

Those math professors are downright barbaric with their complete disregard for the welfare of the numbers.

[tomrod]

Sometimes, when I'm feeling especially sadistic, I make sure the matrix does not have full column rank.

[parpfish]

how degenerate

[hollerith]

For those who are persuaded by this "it's just matrices" argument, are you also persuaded by the argument that it does not matter how you treat a human being because a human being is just a complicated arrangement of atoms?

[parpfish]

no.

we understand everything that a transformer does at computational/mechanistic level. you could print out an enormous book of weights/biases and somebody could sit down with a pen and paper (and near-infinite time/patience) and arrive at the exact same solution that any of these models do. the transformer is just a math problem.

but the counterargument that you're getting is "if you know the position/momentum of every atom in the universe and apply physical laws to them, you could claim that everything is 'just a math problem'". And... yeah. I guess you're right. Everything is just a math problem, so there must be some other thing that makes animal intelligence special or worthy of care.

I don't know what that line is, but i think it's pretty clear that LLMs are on the side that's "this is just math so dont worry about it"

[emp17344]

We can’t reduce consciousness to a math problem. Maybe that’s the thing that differentiates unfeeling statistics from living beings.

[bicepjai]

I think intelligence and consciousness must be considered as different concepts .