15 Comments
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Substack Joe's avatar

Great thinking! I remember thinking to myself when I was studying free will and working in a neuroscience lab that we, as a society, did not have a firm enough grasp on the tensions in how we conceive of free will and how that flows into our ethics and law.

That was in 2011 and now it’s 14 years later and probably the most urgent question of our time. The illusion that we can unilaterally control our will and what we will (I.e. second-order wanting what we want) is creaking and about to fold. We need concerted discussion and design around these problems.

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ToxSec's avatar

Thank you! I was brought into AI from Daniel Dennet, who spoke at length on neuroscience, so this was really fun to write. It’s a really interesting time we’re in, even just philosophically!

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Substack Joe's avatar

Absolutely, Dennett is great on the topic and articulated very well the ways in which our morality necessitates free will even if free will itself, from the 10,000 ft view, is illusory.

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ToxSec's avatar

Yep! I will always remember a few of his thought experiments on “consciousness explained” about controlling a giant robot.

It probably is illusory hah.

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Substack Joe's avatar

Shhhh don’t tell the normies that before they have read some compatabilist philosophy themselves. They’ll take it as license to do whatever they want or start talking about the soul or quantum physics totally making it make sense 😝

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ToxSec's avatar

Oh but didn’t your know free will is the soul communicating through quantum uncertainty in the unpaired pineal gland?

I can’t prove it but neither can you!

😂

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Dallas Payne's avatar

More gold, Tox! You really challenge the reader to think. I had a really weird experience on instagram a year or so ago where all the advertising and random stuff involved cat and dog memes or funny videos. It was the best day scrolling. I have no idea how to make that perfect day on the socials come back, it felt like a blip in the usual programming 😅

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ToxSec's avatar

They have to do some tweaking every once in a lol. Thanks for the positive feedback! I usually wouldn’t care as much, I just suspect it’s deeply driven for profit. Social issues are fun.

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Dallas Payne's avatar

It was probably all part of the master AI plan to keep me reeled in trying to recreate that perfect day again 🤣 Profit is everything...!

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ToxSec's avatar

I don’t doubt it! Happy thanksgiving! 🍁

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Saxxon Creative's avatar

The server with voodoo doll version of the user data and the advertising the mojo pin. Its very nefarious stuff. Great post.

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ToxSec's avatar

Hahaha thank you Saxxon, glad you enjoyed it!

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LeastPrivilegeLarry's avatar

Great Post. Really…. This is probably Something I would like to Talk about On my own As well. Thanks.

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Chaos AI's avatar

This is basically what I’ve been worried about.. The tools are getting irresponsibly strong. It with cause Chaos…

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ToxSec's avatar

Had a lot of fun writing this one. There is a surprising amount of psychology and philosophy here.

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