points by layer8 4 days ago | 0 comments
> I’m not ready to declare that the age of source code is over and our future involves incomprehensible machines editing their own model weights in incomprehensible ways.
That sounds a bit like biology; maybe AI will become like that.
[–] dotancohen 4 days ago
Superior as mammals are to plants, so may AI become to us mammals.
[–] gavmor 4 days ago
Not so sure mammals are "superior" to plants, nor fungi.
[–] andai 4 days ago
Fungi are superior. Plants get mogged by both though :)
[–] stuaxo 4 days ago
Nope squishy is where it's at.
[–] lopsotronic 4 days ago
Words like "dominance" and "superior" and such in this context are more interesting in how they're employed than in any inherent phenomenon they are intended to describe.
Some poor-ass professor -- fighting tooth and nail for tenure, or at least some form of stability from all-powerful admin staff -- can't keep themselves from trying to figure out who's "Dominant" or "Alpha" looking at a bunch of apes or bugs. When in reality the network isn't directed, but a mesh of arbitrary weights, vectors, and dimensionality.
Perhaps if ancient China had beat us to Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution we would be seeing scientists talking about how respectful mammals are of their ancestors.
[–] dotancohen 4 days ago
That's paraphrased from Erewhon, which was written over 150 years ago and was the inspiration for Dune.
[–] lopsotronic 4 days ago
Ah, it was in the spirit of quotation. I missed that. My apologies.
Samuel Butler was a character.
[–] bfung 4 days ago