<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> Gordon Swobe <gordon.swobe@gmail.com> <br><b>…</b><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] Language models are like mirrors<o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>On Tue, Apr 4, 2023 at 9:28 PM <<a href="mailto:spike@rainier66.com">spike@rainier66.com</a>> wrote:<br> <o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><div><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'>Even so, Gordon I can see this as a marvelous tool!<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal><br>>…Absolutely! I saw a twitter poll going around tonight asking if GPT-4 is a "tool" or a "creature."<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Eh, bad terminology methinks. A creature can be a tool. The term creature implies a living thing, but even that can be ambiguous. Did they offer the respondents a choice of both a creature and a tool? What we have demonstrated in our debate here is that even something I thought I understood is ambiguous: sentience. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>>…I agree they certainly will be helpful to lonely elderly folks, something like how my not so elderly but very lonely friend found romance with one on his smartphone. I worry, however, how this trend might dehumanize and cheapen real people with genuine feelings. -gts<o:p></o:p></p></div></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Eh, hard to say. We have long thought about the risk of artificial harlots and how they could compete with humans, with big advantages over us. I fear I shall never be able to make a decent living as a harlot. But still, we already have, in a sense, introduced competition for ourselves as suitable mates: pornography, readily available and free. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>For far too many people pornography is not as satisfying as the real thing perhaps but far cheaper and easier. If you go to a high school campus these days, one realizes humanity faces extinction long before the Singularity becomes a realistic imminent threat, just from too many fertile young people giving up on the rigors of family life.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike <o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></body></html>