Great stuff as always, measured, nuanced, data-based but not solely data-driven. I wish more legacy publications had someone like you writing for them.
Excellent, excellent, excellent. I found this statement particularly compelling: A model trained on Seneca’s work gives me a synthetic conversation shaped by what Seneca thought as applied by the model to my questions. Could be cool. But reading Seneca means meeting him on his own terms in a fixed work that preserves his intentions. Those are different products for different desires.
At the back of all this, I believe, is the triumph of method over virtue. I mean here virtue in the broad sense: the wisdom, courage, and ability to navigate the shoals of life. But navigating the shoals of life requires less virtue if you have a GPS, an unsinkable boat, and a search-and-rescue helicopter hovering perpetually overhead. Technology has worked tirelessly to replace virtue with method for navigating life's shoals, and what technology could not achieve, government social programs have largely accomplished. Modern life makes very few demands on our virtues compared to life 100 or 200 years ago.
And so, when we encounter an eddy current or a narrow channel, we do not summon our virtue; we look for a method. And LLMs are very good at surfacing methods and presenting them in soothingly conventional prose.
If we felt the need to develop our virtue, we would not look to LLMs for that. Virtue can only be learned from other human beings, if only because the foundation stone of the virtues is love.
But how often, in these latter days, do we reach for virtue, and how often do we search for a method? We have become habituated to method. Method and the welfare state will get us through life without wisdom, courage, or even competence. This does not, perhaps, rob us of every cause for seeking human contact, but it does seem to tip the scales in the direction of LLMs. At least until we are asked to pay their true cost per query.
I often think of this line from Eugene Vodolazkin's novel The Aviator: “Wisdom is experience more than anything. Experience that’s processed, of course. If there’s no processing, then all the bruises you get are useless.”
When we use technology to avoid experience, especially the difficult experiences, we potentially learn much less about life, the world, and ourselves.
Great stuff as always, measured, nuanced, data-based but not solely data-driven. I wish more legacy publications had someone like you writing for them.
Thanks, man! I’m happy just doing my thing here. Glad you enjoyed the piece!
Excellent, excellent, excellent. I found this statement particularly compelling: A model trained on Seneca’s work gives me a synthetic conversation shaped by what Seneca thought as applied by the model to my questions. Could be cool. But reading Seneca means meeting him on his own terms in a fixed work that preserves his intentions. Those are different products for different desires.
Thank you, Latayne. I'm not surprised non-readers would opt for a solution like that, but they're missing out!
At the back of all this, I believe, is the triumph of method over virtue. I mean here virtue in the broad sense: the wisdom, courage, and ability to navigate the shoals of life. But navigating the shoals of life requires less virtue if you have a GPS, an unsinkable boat, and a search-and-rescue helicopter hovering perpetually overhead. Technology has worked tirelessly to replace virtue with method for navigating life's shoals, and what technology could not achieve, government social programs have largely accomplished. Modern life makes very few demands on our virtues compared to life 100 or 200 years ago.
And so, when we encounter an eddy current or a narrow channel, we do not summon our virtue; we look for a method. And LLMs are very good at surfacing methods and presenting them in soothingly conventional prose.
If we felt the need to develop our virtue, we would not look to LLMs for that. Virtue can only be learned from other human beings, if only because the foundation stone of the virtues is love.
But how often, in these latter days, do we reach for virtue, and how often do we search for a method? We have become habituated to method. Method and the welfare state will get us through life without wisdom, courage, or even competence. This does not, perhaps, rob us of every cause for seeking human contact, but it does seem to tip the scales in the direction of LLMs. At least until we are asked to pay their true cost per query.
I often think of this line from Eugene Vodolazkin's novel The Aviator: “Wisdom is experience more than anything. Experience that’s processed, of course. If there’s no processing, then all the bruises you get are useless.”
When we use technology to avoid experience, especially the difficult experiences, we potentially learn much less about life, the world, and ourselves.