This is similar to me asking some basic questions to the LLM instead of reading the text it wants me to read and review. The difference is that it’s a robot and you’re not.
LLMs are a good case study, and I'd argue it's exactly the same phenomenon - just with LLMs, people feel allowed to just say "I don't have time to read this wall of text, 90% of that is noise anyway", because LLMs won't get offended.
Also GP is presuming the person on the other end should automatically care about request being sent to them. They don't.
> The declines cut across attention, memory, literacy, numeracy, executive function, and general IQ.
Problem can be with the tests. Are they testing the correct thing? Are there any increases with other tests? Are there any functions they haven't tested?
Maybe they're faster, quick-thinking multitaskers. Their brains are augmented with always-online smart devices. They have constant access to knowledge and have better educational materials. They must be smart in a new way.
Why “must”? To accept your argument as written, it sounds like you would consider it impossible for the typical intelligence to decline from one point in time to a future point in time.
I tend to believe the argument made in the article because when I see someone young try to fact-find, the effort usually begins and ends with a Google AI overview. They then accept that unilaterally and are incapable of independently analyzing or verifying what it claims. Hell, they don’t even click its meager “citations”!
Multiple studies have found that Gen-Z is more gullible to scams.
All of this points to critical thinking weakness and learned laziness. A belief that everything should be easy and simple. I think it even explains some of their common political beliefs in both parties: absolutist opinions are more popular than ever, rejecting nuance.
It’s another red flag. I don’t read “rationalist” blog posts but I’ve seen verbosity before. It’s a pseudo-intellectual effect. It’s a kind of propaganda method. You talk and write very long and convoluted. No one really understands you but they assume you know what you’re talking about and tend to buy what you sell. Of course this requires a “community” praising the person who talks a lot. Otherwise no one would read/listen to them.
I’ve seen this tactic in politics and media, to sway public opinion (into something against public’s interest and against basic common sense). I’ve seen with charismatic leaders and followers of religious cults. They talk a lot, write thick books but say little of value. I’ve seen this with people selling Ponzi schemes.
I think the common theme is they have to go against the common sense and have to weaken defense mechanisms of the target. But they have no real arguments that can be summarized clearly in a few sentences. Such arguments would be easy to understand and refute.
> This is the LLM diversity collapse problem no one is talking about
We’ve been trying to tell this on every pelican thread. All models were recreating the same composition. The sun, the road, the green, the scarf, going right. Even the style. They’re not obvious associations one would make given the prompt.
OP gives electricians as a typical example of blue-collar work and argues SW engineers are the same.
There is a real and big difference between an Electrician and an Electrical Engineer. I have an EE degree yet I am not legally allowed to install wires or electrical equipment in the field. Electricians are not allowed to do some engineering tasks. Even an engineer requires additional license (Professional Engineer) in order to sign off building designs.
This is a strict division between white-collar and blue-collar work. Same logic applies to other engineering disciplines.
I remember people argued the same logic should apply to SW as well, in as late as early 2000s. They wanted to make a distinction between a SW Architect and a programmer/coder. The industry preferred to go another way. This was mainly because designing and manufacturing was the same thing for SW. You wouldn’t do much without writing the code yourself.
Now this is kind of haunting us back. There is no law saying licensed SW Engineers have to inspect and sign off every SW system. Doctors, lawyers and other engineers are legally protected from AI doing their jobs more efficiently. We’re not.
With AI you can write a new Harry Potter novel in under an hour. But if I ask you about the story you can only answer “It involves wizards”.
In pre-AI era you could solve a bug in one week. But you would end up having a detailed mental picture of the system, which requires time to be created. That mental investment helps you make better decisions on the system or solve related problems instantly.
I think the distinction is about the interaction with physical world. I robot must change its own position and/or can be able to manipulate other objects.
A washing machine does’t care about the pose of the laundry inside. No direct manipulation. It just rotates the drum with a motor.
A self driving car locates and moves itself. A robotic arm manipulates objects. They are like half-robots. A “robot” robot can do both.
My washing machine detects when the wet laundry inside is imbalanced and will do a slow half rotation to evenly spaced the wet laundry before a spin cycle
But actually my washer does respond to to load levels that it senses, then fills with different amounts of water accordingly.
And then like an unruly robot, it sometimes becomes unbalanced and "ambles" across the floor unexpectedly when it's supposed to be a completely stationary automaton.
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