Tag: LLMs
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Heavy Water
Roon “invented” the phrase shape rotator, which is either a brilliant description of intelligence or one of those technological jokes that becomes progressively less funny as the years pass. A shape rotator is supposed to be the mind that can turn the object around. Not merely solve the problem presented, but discover that the problem…
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The Particularity Floor
Music got there first, so it’s tempting to read its collapse as a preview of what’s coming for writing. The instinct is sound. The mapping isn’t quite as clean as it looks, and the differences matter more than the similarities. Recorded music had real bottlenecks. Studio time cost money. Mastering required equipment and expertise most…
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The Unpriced Shape
I am looking at a text file generated on Tuesday. It is 650 tokens. The model that wrote it is, by every commercial metric, worse than the model that will replace it next month. Worse at staying on topic. Worse at following instructions. Worse at avoiding statements that might cause brand managers to perspire. The…
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The Age Of Compensations
An agnostic education in a catholic environment trains you to recognize a crucial distinction: the difference between the Real Presence and a symbolic gesture, between a sacrament and a simulation. It’s the discernment between bread that has been transubstantiated and bread that’s just… bread with exceptionally good marketing. This theological framework—with its vocabulary of immanence…
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Ulysses
So Ulysses finally comes rowing back into Ithaca. Long trip, longer than advertised, and the shoreline isn’t olive trees anymore — its server racks humming, whispering, belching out cloud exhaust. The suitors have multiplied in his absence, and none of them are men. They’re LLMs. Not one or two scribblers competing for Penelope’s attention, but…
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Machine Learning is Applied Statistics
On one hand, the field of “machine learning” has gained significant attention in recent years, sparking debates about the nature of machines’ ability to truly “learn.” This essay challenges the notion that machine learning involves genuine learning and argues that it is primarily a statistical model adjustment process. It cautions against anthropomorphizing machines and falling…