[FRIAM] a variety of uses

glen gepropella at gmail.com
Thu May 8 09:00:53 EDT 2025


Well, it's only reasonable to claim a centralized system is more efficient than a distributed one *if* both the centralized and distributed systems *can* solve the problem under consideration. It reminds me of the "parallelism theorem" which claims that any parallel process can be simulated well enough with a sequential process. But that's only true if space and time are easily traded. Sometimes the parallel system isn't merely more efficient. Sometimes the sequential system just cannot solve the problem at hand, e.g. when it would take more time than the life of the universe. Or vice versa, when the parallel solution would take more objects than all the particles in the universe.

The distributed and centralized systems are different and can be more or less efficient as a function of the problem(s) being solved. If we don't know the problem being solved, then we don't know if both can solve it. Similarly, if we don't know the problem being solved, we won't be able to estimate the consequences if we change the system such that it's no longer solving that problem.

So if I were actually making an argument, here, I'd suggest that we don't know what problem(s) the diverse constellation of "professionals" is(are) solving. Yes, any given CEO or Billionaire *thinks* she knows what problem's being solved. But are they correct? Or reifying their own brain farts? Thereby manipulationism: FAFO. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/causation-mani/

On 5/7/25 12:09 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
> True, evolution can function with small-mind agents.  They can differentially survive based on fitness.   Requiring an entirely separate platform for survival with different bodies for locomotion, immune system, etc. is wasteful.   A big system like the U.S. government or a corporation makes many commitments that makes conceptually simple things like deploying EV chargers take years.   But if the big system weren't many slow minds constrained by many rules, but one fast mind, I don't see a reason why it couldn't be agile.   LLMs are faster when they are small and dumb, but they aren't that much faster.   (I don't use Haiku, I use Sonnet -- I'd rather get a good answer than a slightly faster or cheaper answer.)
> 
> The CS analogies are obvious:  64-bit address spaces are more useful than 32-bit and 32-bit are more useful than 16-bit.   Once the address space is big enough one can run whole separate systems.   Swarms of Swarms of Swarms all simulated on the same platform, not federated across systems.
> 
> Professionals are middle-aged by the time they start to work.   It doesn't seem sustainable.   Evolution worked for bootstrapping, but it is costly to keep it going.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of glen
> Sent: Wednesday, May 7, 2025 11:12 AM
> To: friam at redfish.com
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] a variety of uses
> 
> As always, there's a tradeoff at least analogous to space and time. The primary benefit I see to many independents isn't pluralism so much as the ability to explore (and co-construct) pathological spaces. It's still a single/monist space, just very weird. The one massive LLM seems to imply a convex space where any point can be reached (even if only by interpolation).
> 
> I suppose another implication is the sheer volume of the space. Many independent ones might be able to breed because it takes fewer resources to create a new one. Each new one will either re-tread old ground (refine the space) or break new ground (enlarge the space). And if the independent ones can be quite a bit different, then it's reasonable to imagine an ecology of them, where the waste product of one is a resource for another ... a bit like the unix philosophy, maybe.
> 
> On 5/7/25 8:53 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
>> On one hand there seems to be a latent hypothesis that culture built around many independent agents has some good properties -- pluralism.  On the other, there's the myopia problem.  It seems to me a larger or even universal agent like a massive LLM addresses that?
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of glen
>> Sent: Wednesday, May 7, 2025 7:15 AM
>> To: friam at redfish.com
>> Subject: [FRIAM] a variety of uses
>>
>> While we were chatting with our "friends", others are putting them to better use:
>>
>> Coding:
>> https://www.reuters.com/business/openai-agrees-buy-windsurf-about-3-billion-bloomberg-news-reports-2025-05-06/
>>
>> Reifying our myopic perspectives:
>> https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/06/arizona-road-rage-victim-ai-chris-pelkey
>>
>> And, of course, taking misogyny to new heights:
>> https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/05/07/canadian-pharmacist-linked-to-worlds-most-notorious-deepfake-porn-site/
>>
>> The AI Pelkey is the funniest of the bunch. Yeah, of course a road rager believes in forgiveness, namely the ability of *other* people to forgive him for his toxic masculinity. What a prank his sister pulled. She's prolly an atheist. I suppose I need a clause in my last will & testament. ... or maybe the best way to preserve one's "image" after death is to start a corporation holding all the rights ... but that would die. I guess the best thing to do is become semi-famous and sell the rights to Disney or somesuch. At least the model they induce will look good, hopefully with bulging eyeballs for the "cute" factor.
>>


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