[HN Gopher] How to write stuff no one else can
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       How to write stuff no one else can
        
       Author : EthanDBrooks
       Score  : 81 points
       Date   : 2024-02-09 19:52 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (thewritetoroam.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (thewritetoroam.com)
        
       | yamrzou wrote:
       | This sentence caught my attention:
       | 
       | > You can't just Google these kinds of things. That's why they're
       | so interesting.
       | 
       | So what Google did is dilute the information advantage. The more
       | interconnected we are, the harder it becomes to maintain that
       | advantage.
        
         | hawski wrote:
         | That's also something I often encounter with ChatGPT. It often
         | is very wrong about things I ask, because I often wonder and
         | try things off the beaten path. That's our advantage against
         | LLMs.
        
           | from-nibly wrote:
           | No the advantage is that you have context. That context is
           | HUGE. That's why you can't and won't be able to have chat gpt
           | actually do your job for you. You still need to ask it
           | questions. And to even know what questions you need to ask
           | you need to have context.
        
             | Jensson wrote:
             | You don't just need a context, you need to finetune a model
             | around that context since working memory isn't enough. That
             | is what human workers do, they spend the first months
             | finetuning their model around the company context before
             | they can start to provide valuable code.
             | 
             | Once you can pay to get your own fine tuned version of the
             | big LLMs maybe we can start to do real work with these.
        
           | adtac wrote:
           | Purely probabilistically, trying things off the beaten path
           | is just a matter of higher LLM temperature. Turning up
           | GPT-4's temperature is basically an expensive /dev/urandom
           | pipe today, but I don't see any fundamental reason why LLMs
           | can't catch up. Maybe all it takes is tinkering with how
           | temperature is calculated.
        
         | cjohnson318 wrote:
         | The fact is that we're not that interconnected though. Finding
         | people that have useful, actionable information, and want to
         | share it with you, is extremely difficult.
        
           | Jensson wrote:
           | That is a search issue not an interconnectivity issue.
        
         | ssivark wrote:
         | Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, etc are all retrieval
         | services (with some rudimentary remixing capabilities thrown
         | in, for the latter few). Some human has to actually have
         | interesting insights and write them. Retrieval services help
         | with distribution & discovery. The less we're connected, the
         | harder it is to find the right audience who value your (niche)
         | insights.
         | 
         | Of course attribution and linking is important.
        
           | wordpad25 wrote:
           | AI so much much more than retrieval since it knows how to
           | correctly apply exist concepts to previously unexplored
           | areas.
           | 
           | You can ask ChatGPT how one might implement and enforce laws
           | in a world where magic exists. Or time travel. Or whatever.
           | Because it knows laws and it knows common fiction tropes and
           | can reason well enough to surmise how to apply them together.
        
             | wordpad25 wrote:
             | Wanted to give it a try. I didn't even consider many of
             | these and doubt I would've come up with such a good list
             | even if I had a lot of time. Much less than 1 second it
             | took to generate the response.
             | 
             | In a world where magic exists, laws and the legislative
             | system would likely undergo significant adaptations to
             | address the unique capabilities and risks presented by
             | magic. Here are several ways in which these systems might
             | be different, based on various assumptions about the nature
             | and scope of magic:
             | 
             | 1. *Regulation of Magical Practices*: Just as with
             | professions and practices in our world, there would be
             | regulations governing who can practice magic, how it can be
             | learned, and where it can be used. Licenses or permits
             | might be required for practicing certain types of magic,
             | similar to medical licenses or driving licenses.
             | 
             | 2. *Magic-Related Offenses*: New categories of crimes would
             | exist, such as unauthorized enchantments, illegal curses,
             | magical fraud (using illusions or mind control for deceit),
             | and unlicensed necromancy. Laws would specify what
             | constitutes a magical assault versus a non-magical one,
             | with potentially different penalties.
             | 
             | 3. *Enforcement and Jurisdiction*: Special law enforcement
             | units trained in counter-magic or magical defense would be
             | necessary to handle crimes involving magic. The
             | jurisdiction might depend on the nature of the magic used;
             | for example, cross-dimensional or time-altering magic could
             | involve a higher authority or international magical
             | council.
             | 
             | 4. *Evidence and Investigation*: The collection of evidence
             | might include magical means, such as truth spells, scrying
             | (viewing distant or future events), or reviewing memories
             | directly. However, there would also need to be laws
             | protecting individuals against invasive magical
             | investigations.
             | 
             | 5. *Rights and Protections*: There would be laws to protect
             | non-magical beings from discrimination or harm by magical
             | individuals or entities. Similarly, sentient magical
             | creatures or beings might have their own rights, leading to
             | more complex legal considerations regarding interspecies
             | interactions.
             | 
             | 6. *Ethical Use of Magic*: Legislation would likely address
             | the ethical implications of spellcasting, summoning, and
             | other magical practices, including the use of magic on
             | unwilling subjects or creating sentient beings. Regulations
             | might prevent or restrict the use of magic that can alter
             | someone's will, memories, or identity.
             | 
             | 7. *Magical Contracts and Agreements*: The legal system
             | would need to address the binding nature of magical
             | contracts, which could have irrevocable consequences. Laws
             | might specify how such contracts can be fairly negotiated
             | and what remedies exist for breaking a magical contract.
             | 
             | 8. *Intellectual Property*: In a world where spells,
             | potions, and magical items are created, there would be
             | intellectual property laws protecting the creators of
             | magical inventions. This could include patents on spell
             | formulas, copyright on magical texts, or trademarks on
             | magical item designs.
             | 
             | 9. *International Relations and Security*: On a larger
             | scale, there might be international laws governing the use
             | of magic, especially in conflicts or espionage. Treaties
             | could limit the use of particularly destructive spells or
             | ban the creation of magical weapons of mass destruction.
             | 
             | 10. *Education and Public Safety*: Laws would govern the
             | education and training of individuals with magical
             | abilities, possibly requiring mandatory schooling to ensure
             | that magic is used safely and responsibly. Public safety
             | regulations would address the storage of magical materials
             | and the construction of magically protected buildings.
             | 
             | In this magical world, the legal and legislative system
             | would need to be flexible and innovative, capable of
             | addressing the ever-evolving nature of magic and its impact
             | on society. It would be a blend of traditional legal
             | principles and new rules designed to manage the unique
             | challenges posed by the existence of magic.
        
               | bena wrote:
               | All of these are basically "what we have now, but with
               | magic".
               | 
               | I'm sorry but how magic and the legal system interact
               | _is_ a subject explored in fiction. Hell, even Harry
               | Potter touched on the subject. And that 's not going to
               | even touch authors like Jim Butcher and Piers Anthony who
               | have entire series about "this, but with magic".
        
               | pcc wrote:
               | Fun little exercise: while reading above, see what
               | happens when mentally substituting "magic" with "AI",
               | words like "enchantments" with "algorithms" and so on.
        
             | oldandtired wrote:
             | You make the following comment regarding artificial
             | stupidity systems (AI)
             | 
             | > since it knows how to correctly apply exist concepts to
             | previously unexplored areas
             | 
             | and yet these systems know nothing at all. Far too many
             | people (including the developers of such systems) have
             | failed to understand that none of these systems can go
             | beyond the programming that humans have incorporated into
             | them. Yes, they appear to exhibit certain [abilities] but
             | no more than any other essentially mechanical device and
             | the limited capabilities that we have been able to design
             | in them.
             | 
             | You can certainly pose questions and these systems (within
             | the constraints of the programming involved in them) can
             | retrieve and correlate data that is accessible. Bus the
             | insights drawn will require human involvement.
             | 
             | Over decades, I have built tools to help in the analysis of
             | all sorts of data sets and it has taken a human asking the
             | [right] questions to get appropriate outcomes.
             | 
             | We do not understand our own intelligence let alone being
             | able to build any artificial intelligent system that can
             | operate on its own.
             | 
             | What does amaze me though is that we create natural
             | intelligence systems all the time and they are called
             | children. I have been avidly watching the development of my
             | youngest grandchild and she makes an absolute mockery of
             | any artificial system we have built anywhere.
             | 
             | In a very real sense, every artificial stupidity system
             | (AI) that we have built is as complicated as a hammer or a
             | knife.
             | 
             | It is what we (human beings) do with these simple tools
             | that determine the outcomes.
        
               | philipswood wrote:
               | > and yet these systems know nothing at all. Far too many
               | people (including the developers of such systems) have
               | failed to understand that none of these systems can go
               | beyond the programming that humans have incorporated into
               | them.
               | 
               | I think the point of machine learning is that programming
               | isn't "incorporated into them".
        
           | QuantumGood wrote:
           | The longer I think about something, the dumber AI gets.
           | 
           | I have given our internal knowledgebase documents to ChatGPT
           | and asked for summaries, and it adds in things from the
           | general internet that are wrong to very wrong contradicting
           | our KB (we are very far off the beaten path of conventional
           | audio studio design testing).
        
       | mattfrommars wrote:
       | I read the article, what mind opening tactic did the author
       | explain to the public?
       | 
       | Appears to be blogspam.
        
         | tmountain wrote:
         | Going down a layer below Tim Ferriss to his staff... /s
        
         | vrc wrote:
         | I think the extent to which writers have to get creative in
         | finding sources for novel pieces is taken for granted. I did
         | not realize how tactical and painstaking the process is to
         | create the content that I casually skim and enjoy. So I
         | strengthened my appreciation of the process
        
       | irrational wrote:
       | I wonder if Stephen Hanselman is being inundated with email right
       | now and doesn't know why?
        
       | thenerdhead wrote:
       | What was the answer?
       | 
       | Find a human who can bypass robots.txt/limitations of ChatGPT and
       | find less traveled sources given the internet fails to archive
       | itself and important information can be wiped any minute? Isn't
       | that just called good journalism?
        
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       (page generated 2024-02-10 23:00 UTC)