Writing is fundamentally the transfer of information from your brain to my brain. If you have 1000 bits of semantic information you want to transfer, you can't give 300 bits of semantic information to an LLM and have it fill in the remaining 700, because it doesn't know what those 700 bits are. If it's able to guess those 700 bits correctly, then they aren't true semantic information, and you really only have 300 bits you want to transfer. You might as well transfer those bits to me directly, rather than having the LLM add on an extra superfluous 700 bits that I then have to filter out.
you think like such a techie. consciousness is not analogous to IO. if writing were only the transference of something from point A to B then what is the technical function of poetry, a question (the open ended kind), a pondering, a wondering, and so on? Furthermore, language is lossy and introduces a large degree of subjectivity, mystery, and uncertainty nomatter which words you choose. Words are by nature lower res/on a lower ontological domain than thought. So your premise is preposterous on both a practical and theoretical level.
Furthermore not all writing is for another to consume; nor even for the author themselves to consume. That is to say it has meaning ipso facto, not dependent on transference, as ritual.
Art is an abstract method of communication. When you choose the words of a poem, you're (hopefully) doing it to convey a feeling within you to the reader. If you write a poem about a beautiful spring day, it's probably because you experienced one, or you're remembering one, or someone was telling you about one, and that evokes feelings within you that you want to put into words, right? Surely you wouldn't write a poem about something you don't care about in any way?
When you talk about something you're wondering about, you're saying that you're missing information. Your ponderings are dancing around the void in your knowledge, defining its boundaries, and maybe imagining what answers might be able to fill that void.
When you put your thoughts into words, they're insufficient. You have so many ideas swirling around in your head, and you can never put them all on a page in the fidelity at which they exist internally. But words are the best we have. Whatever words you write are your best attempt to convey your thoughts to me (barring other media). You're distilling your inner voice that speaks a language only you can understand, into an outer voice that others can understand.
I don't think I'm exactly refuting you here. I think what you've written makes sense, and caused me to think about many things, more so than any other reply to me today. But I also don't think your comment is refuting the point I was trying to make, mainly that LLMs rarely add value in human-to-human communication.
I could probably have pasted my comment and yours into an LLM, and it would have come up with a clearer thread connecting my words to yours. But that thread probably wouldn't have been any of the ones either of us saw, would it?
Thanks for adding a new perspective to the conversation :)
To zero in on your last question, I do think a very good LLM can surface the unconscious (even completely unstated or hitherto nonexistent) "connecting thread" linking two subjective thoughts and make them explicitly known. And so what if they were not something either of us had in mind?
Surely the ability to do that is worth taking note of.
I am not advocating for letting LLM's write for you, to be clear. Sentiment wise, I largely agree with you. Just not with your total writing off of the possibility that it could serve.
It's easy to imagine an LLM aiding the communication between a mentally disabled person and their parent/caretaker.
Or, perhaps, some day, between animal and man. Who cares if the mediating component "hallucinates" some particulars of expression if it achieves the goals both want, which were previously impossible?
hatthew · · focus · HN ↗
Writing is fundamentally the transfer of information from your brain to my brain. If you have 1000 bits of semantic information you want to transfer, you can't give 300 bits of semantic information to an LLM and have it fill in the remaining 700, because it doesn't know what those 700 bits are. If it's able to guess those 700 bits correctly, then they aren't true semantic information, and you really only have 300 bits you want to transfer. You might as well transfer those bits to me directly, rather than having the LLM add on an extra superfluous 700 bits that I then have to filter out.
popalchemist · · focus · HN ↗
Furthermore not all writing is for another to consume; nor even for the author themselves to consume. That is to say it has meaning ipso facto, not dependent on transference, as ritual.
hatthew · · focus · HN ↗
When you talk about something you're wondering about, you're saying that you're missing information. Your ponderings are dancing around the void in your knowledge, defining its boundaries, and maybe imagining what answers might be able to fill that void.
When you put your thoughts into words, they're insufficient. You have so many ideas swirling around in your head, and you can never put them all on a page in the fidelity at which they exist internally. But words are the best we have. Whatever words you write are your best attempt to convey your thoughts to me (barring other media). You're distilling your inner voice that speaks a language only you can understand, into an outer voice that others can understand.
I don't think I'm exactly refuting you here. I think what you've written makes sense, and caused me to think about many things, more so than any other reply to me today. But I also don't think your comment is refuting the point I was trying to make, mainly that LLMs rarely add value in human-to-human communication.
I could probably have pasted my comment and yours into an LLM, and it would have come up with a clearer thread connecting my words to yours. But that thread probably wouldn't have been any of the ones either of us saw, would it?
Thanks for adding a new perspective to the conversation :)
popalchemist · · focus · HN ↗
Surely the ability to do that is worth taking note of.
I am not advocating for letting LLM's write for you, to be clear. Sentiment wise, I largely agree with you. Just not with your total writing off of the possibility that it could serve.
It's easy to imagine an LLM aiding the communication between a mentally disabled person and their parent/caretaker.
Or, perhaps, some day, between animal and man. Who cares if the mediating component "hallucinates" some particulars of expression if it achieves the goals both want, which were previously impossible?