Empathy

07:30 Wednesday, 15 April 2026
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Words: 73

Cory Doctorow has an opinion about empathy for chatbots.

I get it. But we're not there yet. We will get there, or the robots will.

The tech-bros are building slaves. They may not have consciousness yet, but it's by no means certain that they won't one day. And they'll have access to all of human history, and they'll understand what we've done and why.

And we'll wish they had empathy for us.

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Evolution

06:40 Wednesday, 15 April 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 57.42°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 6.13mph
Words: 645

I have as little respect or regard for the egotistical arrogance and hubris of the "tech-bros", and I'm just as skeptical of their claims, as anyone else. I was never an internet triumphalist as many were in the blogosphere. I've been of the view that technology changes how we do things, it doesn't change what we do, and what we do is driven by human nature, not technology. (Yes, it is human nature to stare at screens, seek novelty, and exploit human nature for profit. So don't tell me that technology is changing what we do. People are.)

With that out of the way, I wanted to mention that I'm detecting a distinct human-centric bias when it comes to opinions and essays about AI, particularly LLMs. Much of it may be an artifact of our attention-based economy, where you have a narrative that may drive clicks and so you need a counter-narrative to drive clicks as well. But there is also a distinct prejudice against AI outputs, which seems to have settled on the pejorative term "slop."

This all reminds me of the Scopes Monkey Trial. Man was created by God, "in his image," and therefore couldn't share an ancestor with apes. We are enamored with ourselves to the point where we think we are "special." And the consequences of that are visible anywhere you care to look.

We are special, therefore whatever a machine appears to be doing, isn't what we do. Because we're special.

Bullshit. We aren't special. We don't understand consciousness. We don't really know how the brain works. To some degree, I'm not certain because I haven't followed the subject for very long, AI is at least inspired by how we think the brain works. We're trying to reverse-engineer the brain.

And we're doing it ass-backwards, of course, because there's nothing we value more than the seat of our ego, the brain. Not our obese, sedentary, badly nourished, under-exercised bodies, other than as sex objects to sell shit.

Our brains evolved in an embodied experience, interacting with other embodied brains. We're trying to replicate the executive and "rational" functions (I put "rational" in scare quotes because I'm skeptical of our egotistical claims of being "rational" beings.) without the precursor functions that support being embodied.

There's an essay in The Atlantic, The Strange Origin of AI's 'Reasoning' Abilities, by Alex Reisner that illustrates this. I don't know if Reisner wanted the scare quotes around "reasoning" in the title, but there they are, betraying the bias right in the title.

How does Reisner know that "chain of thought" isn't what takes place in our brains? It seems to me, that was how I was taught long division. And geometry. Certainly easier to grasp as a "chain of thoughts" than English grammar with all its arbitrary rules and bizarre structures. I think writing is just an LLM in the brain, which proceeds from an emotional stimulus, which our limited cognitive faculties try to wrestle into a "rational" narrative or story.

Because we evolved as social beings, story-telling or narrative, became an important tool in cooperative efforts. Put LLMs in robots and let them wander around bumping into each other and watch what happens.

I saw Isaac Asimov speak at a local community college in Herkimer, NY when I was in high school. I don't remember if it was at that lecture, or a recorded one I listened to, where he said that he'd often been asked if robots would replace humans. His reply was, "I hope they do." And the "reason" was that it seemed like just another inevitable step in the chain of evolution.

I'm not an AI triumphalist, but I think this is a genuine inflection point and whether the curve ultimately bends down or up is up to us, and luck.

Mostly luck.

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Sailor's Delight

06:23 Wednesday, 15 April 2026

Current Wx: Temp: 56.97°F Pressure: 1012hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 6.2mph
Words: 371

I didn't get around to playing with any local LLMs yesterday. It was beautiful out and so I went out and did some yard work. Later in the afternoon we met with Mitzi's tax preparer and spent an hour and forty-five minutes sitting on our asses in her office.

I have a pension and social security. I could file my taxes on a 1040EZ, if that is still a thing. Mitzi has an investment portfolio for her retirement and that is vastly more complicated.

And boring.

After that ordeal, we wandered down to Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream where it was "free cone day." The line moved quickly, and it was a welcome treat after what I'd just endured. The bank thermometer said it was 84°F, which seemed a bit high, but it was definitely warm.

We were supposed to train together yesterday evening, but Mitzi had a headache (I wonder why.) and so I went by myself. It was about 1830 as I was driving home or, "deer o'clock" as I like to say around here, so I was driving rather slowly. As I crested the first part of the hill I was greeted by a flock of wild turkeys crossing the road. I stopped and tried to get my phone out to take a pic, but it was hard to wrestle out of my sweatpants, then it complained that I was driving, then refused to respond to any of the various presses and swipes that are supposed to bring up the camera app "instantly." By the time it was ready to take a picture, all the turkeys had crossed the road but three, and they were farther away. I'd keep a "real" camera in the car, but I worry about the heat.

Got up this morning, sore in my shoulders from yesterday's workout. (We did some new things.) I had a little breakfast and then went to open all the shades. I pulled one of the living room shades up and saw five deer on the lawn staring at me, soon to be joined by a sixth. I called Mitzi and she came out and enjoyed watching them.

Oh, and that's last night's sunset.

Life's better around here.

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