I’ve always been fascinated by the tension between what seems real and what is real. It’s easy to get swept up in the allure of complexity—those moments where patterns emerge that feel like they hold deeper meaning. Whether it’s the swirling motion of a pendulum carving art into sand or a colony of ants building what looks like a planned city, I often find myself tumbling down the rabbit hole, asking, Is there something more going on here?
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21 sats \ 2 replies \ @south_korea_ln 9h
I'm not sure I agree with the author of that piece. I think what he calls cognition is a much more advanced level of computation, but it is still, just that, computation. Humans want to feel special, but there is no tangible evidence that we are something more than just a lump of cells following the laws of physics he attributes to LLMs. Of course, this is ignoring the spiritual aspect for which, by definition, no evidence is required, only faith, but that's outside my comfort zone as an atheist.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @ch0k1 OP 8h
Despite being a believer, opposite of your atheism, I can partially agree with you that we, humans, tend to believe we're kind of special (just because the consciousness which we cannot even study or fully explain) and have certain privileges which are nothing but imaginary.
But in the same time, in some sense, I also believe that this exact consciousness (in the developed state we currently posses it) is the key phenomena that truly brings us apart from any other living creatures we know, have studied or observed.
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @south_korea_ln 8h
We are likely indeed at the apex of development. So, in that sense, we are indeed special when compared to the other living creatures we know.
One of my former colleagues, a highly acclaimed scientist, extremely smart, was also a very staunch believer. A current colleague, also a very good scientist, has devoted his life to his religion, i.e. no marriage and giving his salary to his church. I've always found this kind of match between scientist and believer quite fascinating. I used to believe, due to my upbringing, but I've only found science to separate me from that upbringing. Yet, for others, it is the opposite.
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