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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">LLMs are causal models. Science is about building causal models. It is bizarre to me that there are scientists that carve out a special case for their own mind. Even people like Scott Aaronson talk
this way. As far as I can tell, it is just vanity. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> Friam <friam-bounces@redfish.com>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Steve Smith<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, January 26, 2024 7:38 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> friam@redfish.com<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [FRIAM] Breaking Bad and Free Will<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Does ChatGPT have choices? </span>
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<p>I "can't help myself", so here goes:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>I've been reading Sopolsky's "Behave" which paves the runway (or exit ramp) for his recent "Determined". His deep background in neuroendocrinology leads to some very compelling arguments which pretty much degenerate to:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>"do you believe in causality? if so, then where do you suppose the spirit or soul intervene to break the chain dominoes that have been set up by everything that you are and has happened to you up to that instant?"<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>He does a fancy little mocking dance, three card monte style, of homunculii he contrives for the purpose of debunking any fanciful regression/recursion escape plans you might have in that direction.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>To hear him tell it we (as are all AIs/LLMs/etc) essentially giant pachinko machines:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" style="text-align:center">:<img id="_x0000_i1027" src="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko#/media/File:Masamura_Gauge_All_15.jpg"><img width="225" height="300" style="width:2.3452in;height:3.125in" id="_x0000_i1026" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/19/Masamura_Gauge_All_15.jpg/225px-Masamura_Gauge_All_15.jpg"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p>His arguments on the topic seem unassailable in spite of my own deep and abiding sense of "choice" at many levels. It also doesn't help my cognitive dissonance that he speaks entirely colloquially using many words we all associate with choice... he speaks
_as if_ he makes choices and others do as well even if he seems to ignore the specific word, choice.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>I like the conceit of: "the universe is deterministic but not prestateable"<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>I guess this is why they call it "the HARD problem of consciousness"? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p>For those of you who read this far, it would seem you "couldn't help yourself" or as my mother used to quip "you must not have had anything better to do", and for those who have not, the same goes for hitting <next> or <delete> (or having set up a spam-filter
at an earlier time to avoid repeating the "decision" personally)... <o:p></o:p></p>
<p>PS re: Breaking Bad<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>I've only dropped a few Pachinko balls in my life, but I couldn't help agonizing over the trajectory of each one, feeling as if at every bounce they were at risk of "breaking bad" (or "good")... since many here are at least part-time simulants (as Glen
I believe refers to himself), even the most aggressive attempts at introducing "random" (noise, annealing, etc.) either degenerate to "pseudo-random" or engage with a physical system (e.g. sample a pixel-value from a webcam trained on a lava lamp) which of
course is deterministic if arbitrarily complex.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><img id="_x0000_i1025" src="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko#/media/File:Masamura_Gauge_All_15.jpg"><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Anyone interested in feeding FRIAM Archive to a custom LLM. :-)<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Prompt: <span style="font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:#ECECF1;background:#343541">Interpret Marcus use of gdb analogy in this thread:</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Segoe UI",sans-serif;color:#ECECF1;background:#343541">GPT: </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">The analogy used by Marcus in the context of the TV show "Breaking Bad" and the concept of free will involves a comparison with using the "step" command in GDB (GNU Debugger). GDB is a tool used by programmers to debug code. The "step"
command in GDB allows the user to execute program code one line at a time, observing the behavior and state of the program at each step.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">In "Breaking Bad," the main character, Walter White, is drawn into a life of crime. The analogy suggests that watching Walter White's descent into this life is like using the "step" command in GDB. Each step represents a decision or action
taken by Walter, leading him deeper into the criminal world. Just as a programmer observes the progression of a program one step at a time in GDB, the viewer observes Walter's journey into criminality in a step-by-step manner.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">The implication here is that Walter's choices, while appearing to be individual conscious decisions, are part of an inevitable progression, much like the sequential execution of code in a debugger. This raises questions about free will
and determinism, mirroring the discussion in the FRIAM group about whether free will is an illusion, especially in the context of strong compulsions or character traits that might limit one's range of choices.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">____________________________________________<br>
CEO Founder, Simtable.com<br>
<a href="mailto:stephen.guerin@simtable.com">stephen.guerin@simtable.com</a> <br>
<br>
Harvard Visualization Research and Teaching Lab<br>
<a href="mailto:stephenguerin@fas.harvard.edu">stephenguerin@fas.harvard.edu</a><br>
<br>
mobile: (505)577-5828<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">On Thu, Jan 25, 2024, 4:20<span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> </span>PM Frank Wimberly <<a href="mailto:wimberly3@gmail.com" target="_blank">wimberly3@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">GNU Debugger?<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">---<br>
Frank C. Wimberly<br>
140 Calle Ojo Feliz, <br>
Santa Fe, NM 87505<br>
<br>
505 670-9918<br>
Santa Fe, NM<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">On Thu, Jan 25, 2024, 4:11<span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> </span>PM Marcus Daniels <<a href="mailto:marcus@snoutfarm.com" target="_blank">marcus@snoutfarm.com</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Walter White was drawn into that life as sure as water runs downhill. Watching him go deeper and deeper was like repeating “step” in GDB.
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> Friam <<a href="mailto:friam-bounces@redfish.com" target="_blank">friam-bounces@redfish.com</a>>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Jochen Fromm<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, January 25, 2024 1:34 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <<a href="mailto:friam@redfish.com" target="_blank">friam@redfish.com</a>><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [FRIAM] Breaking Bad and Free Will</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">Since one of you mentioned today that free will is a recurring FRIAM topic I was thinking about it and found this SCIAM article that argues that human beings do have the power to
make conscious choices.<br>
<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/free-will-is-only-an-illusion-if-you-are-too/" target="_blank">https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/free-will-is-only-an-illusion-if-you-are-too/</a><br>
<br>
On the other hand the drug addicts in Breaking Bad and elsewhere clearly demonstrate that drug addiction inevitably takes away our free will and replaces it by a strong compulsion to get and consume the drug, no matter how devastating the consequences are.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">Robert McKee says in his book "Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting" that true character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure.
Could you say that a strong character or personality reduce our free will too, because they restrict our choices and decisions? <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">-J. <o:p></o:p></p>
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