James McMullen | Substack
Lampwick
James McMullen
I enjoy thinking about AI and religion.
Lampwick
Activity Posts Likes & Replies Reads (134)
4d — Sonnet 4.6 on low effort, but yikes just the same.
5d — The fact that anyone was ever convinced that he was anything other than a scheisy hustler will go down as one of the wonders of our age.
The Dumbest War in American History
At the beginning of the second Trump administration, I wrote that I wasn’t enjoying my job anymore, because it was at once too easy and too awful: the people in charge are evil, stupid, or both, and those who support them are either evil, stupid, or both. That’s all there is to say — over and over. Anything else strains the truth. Now, I find that the i…
James McMullen
7d — Put two people in a room and prompt them specifically to never start up a conversation, and see how long they hold out. As “true” agents, are we free to not think our next thoughts?
Great read, but there definitely seems to be some unexamined philosophical assumptions here.
AI is never the subject. At the very core, there is no spark of agency. It’s inescapably a reactive thing. It simply can’t “do” anything unless it is first prompted to do so. Nerds thrill when chatbots engage in a “conversation” with each other; but put two chatbots in a virtual room and never prompt either, and neither will ever start up a conversation. There is no unmoved mover.
Additional Notes
AI is never the subject. At the very core, there is no spark of agency. It’s inescapably a reactive thing. It simply can’t “do” anything unless it is first prompted to do so. Nerds thrill when chatbots engage in a “conversation” with each other; but put two chatbots in a virtual room and never prompt either, and neither will ever start up a conversation. There is no unmoved mover.