[HN Gopher] Tool for Thought (2005)
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       Tool for Thought (2005)
        
       Author : walterbell
       Score  : 47 points
       Date   : 2023-03-19 06:51 UTC (16 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (stevenberlinjohnson.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (stevenberlinjohnson.com)
        
       | walterbell wrote:
       | https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/30/books/review/tool-for-tho...
       | 
       |  _> There 's a fundamental difference between searching a
       | universe of documents created by strangers and searching your own
       | personal library. When you're freewheeling through ideas that you
       | yourself have collated -- particularly when you'd long ago
       | forgotten about them -- there's something about the experience
       | that seems uncannily like freewheeling through the corridors of
       | your own memory. It feels like thinking._
       | 
       | Has anyone applied a local-only LLM to their personal library?
        
         | graboid wrote:
         | I think a lot of people are thinking about that right now. At
         | least I read that idea a lot here on HN and on Twitter.
         | 
         | I personally cannot wait to try it. But for now, I wait until
         | there are better options for local LLMs. Given the current
         | development speed of all things AI, probably that won't take
         | too long.
        
         | nmcfarl wrote:
         | I've not tried it but this Obsidian plugin does exactly this to
         | your notes: https://github.com/exoascension/vault-
         | chat/tree/main
         | 
         | I think it's just a matter of time to scale it to something
         | larger.
        
           | rpastuszak wrote:
           | Thanks for sharing, but bear in mind that this plugin sends
           | data to Open AI.
        
             | nmcfarl wrote:
             | It certainly does -- and I expect anything in this space
             | that gets successfully commercialized will likewise siphon
             | all of your personal data into a large corporation. But
             | then I am a pessimist about these matters.
        
               | walterbell wrote:
               | As a positive precedent, OpenAI's Whisper speech
               | recognition is open-source and can be run locally with
               | zero data exposure,
               | https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-
               | technology/whispers...
               | 
               | Some progress with local LLMs:
               | https://arstechnica.com/information-
               | technology/2023/03/you-c...
               | 
               |  _> Things are moving at lightning speed in AI Land. On
               | Friday, a software developer named Georgi Gerganov
               | created a tool called  "llama.cpp" that can run Meta's
               | new GPT-3-class AI large language model, LLaMA, locally
               | on a Mac laptop. Soon thereafter, people worked out how
               | to run LLaMA on Windows as well. Then someone showed it
               | running on a Pixel 6 phone, and next came a Raspberry Pi
               | (albeit running very slowly)._
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | walterbell wrote:
       | _> The software I use now is called DevonThink.. it is only
       | available for Mac OS X._
       | 
       | A subset of functionality is available on iOS as "DevonThink To
       | Go", with optional sync to the Mac desktop version via WebDAV or
       | cloud services, https://devontechnologies.com/apps/devonthinktogo
        
       | gabrielsroka wrote:
       | Steven Johnson is one of my favorite people. I created a playlist
       | of 150 of his videos from YouTube.
       | https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ4_Rj_Aw2YlwhpEHE4SRIbRD...
       | 
       | This itself was a challenge because he has such a common name. I
       | had to do a lot of it by hand.
       | 
       | Also, I wonder if James Burke's Knowledge Web is relevant here.
       | He is the creator of BBC Connections from the '70s and another
       | one of my favorite people.
       | 
       | https://k-web.org
        
       | gbrindisi wrote:
       | If DevonThink find a smart way to integrate an LLM it would be
       | such a great level up.
        
         | walterbell wrote:
         | Apple Silicon includes an under-utilized Neural Engine,
         | hopefully we'll learn more about their local-first, privacy
         | oriented AI plans at WWDC,
         | https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/neural-engine-tra...
        
       | examplary_cable wrote:
       | With the accelerating force of information generation, I keep
       | thinking about how to cope with this much entropy coming from
       | everywhere. I currently have a pretty strict "information diet"
       | as no to drown in the sea of words and words and words.
       | 
       | I'm also currently working on a "Tool for Thought" but as a
       | browser. Fully customizable(plugins, themes, functions, HTML as
       | UI etc)
       | 
       | https://github.com/ilse-langnar/notebook
        
       | funstuff007 wrote:
       | The Ghost Map, by the author, is one of the best popular science
       | books I've ever read.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_Map
       | 
       | It was quite satisfying to see someone solve an epidemic, rather
       | than make things worse than if we had done nothing at all.
        
       | kehao95 wrote:
       | Hey folks, I've been really enjoying this discussion and wanted
       | to chime in with some thoughts on the nature of personal
       | knowledge bases. I've been dabbling in a side project that tries
       | to address some of the issues mentioned here, mainly focusing on
       | automation and the use of LLMs.
       | 
       | I believe one of the main challenges in building a personal
       | knowledge base is achieving the right balance between automation
       | and manual curation. While automation can conserve time, it's
       | crucial not to lose the personal touch that makes these knowledge
       | bases meaningful and relevant to us as individuals. My approach
       | aims to capture your readings as you browse the web. Though this
       | is a simple approach, it focuses solely on your personal
       | experience.
       | 
       | In my project, I've been experimenting with using LLMs to help
       | with information retrieval. The idea is to enhance the search
       | experience by leveraging AI to not only find relevant content but
       | also to provide context, answer questions, and offer insights.
       | I've found that integrating LLMs can add a whole new dimension to
       | exploring our personal libraries.
       | 
       | I think it's essential for any knowledge management tool to be
       | user-friendly and accessible, allowing people to focus on the
       | content rather than getting bogged down by the tool itself.
       | 
       | Anyway, just wanted to share some thoughts and ideas I've been
       | playing with in my project. if you are interested. Please check
       | out my project here. https://github.com/memex-life/memex
        
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       (page generated 2023-03-19 23:02 UTC)