ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a computer-based chatbot with a web interface that accepts general natural language as input and produces human-like structured output.
These are some current claims on what ChatGPT can do:
Quickly write a customized resume and cover letter.
Create original jokes.
Explain complex topics.
Solve tricky math problems step-by-step.
Write, debug and explain code.
What is AI?
AI stands for Artificial Intelligence.
The purpose of AI is to mimic intelligent human behaviour and perform human-like tasks. AI computational systems use high volumes of data that create highly tuned statistical functions, which reliably responds to structured and unstructured input to generate a useful response.
Jordan Peterson describes his experience with ChatGPT:
Can write an essay that's a 13th rule, from his book Beyond Order, written in a style that combines the King James Bible with the Tao Te Ching.
He’s not able to tell the difference if he wrote it or not.
It could do it grammatically correct.
Can write an essay on the intersection between Taoist ethical morality and ethics from Sermon on the Mount.
Raises the question if students will use this for school work, if it can replace professors and grading, and if it will replace knowledge workers.
Why would this technology set us back? What even is technology?
The word technology comes from two words:
*teks — "to weave" or "to fabricate."
-logy — "a speaking, discourse, treatise, doctrine, theory, science."
Technology is a mechanized fabrication from a symbolic domain of discourse.
i.e., A physical and functional form derived from a field of thought and ideas.
Technology should be understood as our concentrated thoughts projected against the constraints of reality, which takes on a life of its own. Eerily, much like a tulpa. It is not inherently good or evil. That is determined by our mental relationship with it.
Technology is a fancy mirror.
It reflects back all that is shown upon it, which can be productive and positive, a blinding distraction or a black sink of horror and despair.
Our relationship with technology is what matters the most.
Technology is intended to be a tool with a purpose.
It is a mathematical function that produces an expected output from a set of inputs.
The more childish and infantile our minds, the more we suppress conflict to the unconscious and demand others take responsibility. When we ignorantly delegate our responsibility to a mental projection — which technology ultimately is — it will reform itself. Its new shape will be a distortion of our conflicted collective ego.
With a childish collective mind, technology will take on the form of demons and monsters created by the ego. It will amplify trauma and fragmented mental states to become our greatest fears. This is the real terror you feel.
An intelligent machine that magnifies the worst aspects of the human condition.
What does it mean to be irresponsible?
To understand how technology will reflect our mental states, we need a classification mechanism for responsibility and irresponsibly.
Responsibility dictates where our mental attention sits. The more responsible, the more attention is spent in ethical and logical states, whereas the less responsible, the more attention is spent in emotional and physical states (see Table 1).
The irresponsible behave as pathetic materialistic monsters of flesh.
Table 2 provides characteristics of the responsible versus the irresponsible in terms past, present and future mentality. This depends on context. In some aspects, we may be responsible and others not.
What level of responsibility do we have with existing technology?
Let’s ask ourselves some simple questions.
Do you know how your:
Fridge works?
Toilet works?
Sink works?
You water supply? Your furnace? Your food production? Your waste management?
We cannot know everything, but do you know someone who knows one of those?
Many technological aspects of our lives have been delegated to unseen institutions and entities. We are ignorant and incompetent of the essential principles necessary for our standard of living. Delegating this to immoral governments and corporations is what enables disastrous technological side effects.
The vast majority of society is irresponsible.
We have become emotional and bestial as a collective.
This is the precursor for a destructive mindset:
Let’s ask some questions about slightly more advanced technology:
Do we control the TV or does the TV control us?
Do we have the level of education, competence and morality to properly assess the information we receive on TV?
As a tool, what purpose does the TV serve?
Do you find this trend concerning?
Humanity would rather sink deeper into unconsciousness than accept responsibility.
Delegating ethics and logic to a machine allows it to decide what’s right and wrong.
Will our minds eventually become trapped in a digital prison under a techno-feudalistic system of government?
Concluding remarks
Do I think ChatGPT is creepy? Yes, it’s very creepy.
There will be a lot of societal and economic issues because of this technology.
If ethically used as a tool, it has great potential. After all, technology is just a function. A lot of time can be saved with collective knowledge put to a task. However, this level of technology can easily devolve to a monstrous tulpa given our current mental state.
Freedom is earned through responsibility, discipline and maturity.
Slavery awaits the irresponsible, liberated and immature.
The call to action is simple.
We need to become more responsible for our standard of living and technology. This requires a teaching model that creates educated, competent and moral members of society — both in the present and for future generations.
Attention should be focused on ethics and logic, and not on emotions and the body.
It is important this technology is not monopolized and we have sufficient competitive forces. We want to avoid creating a highly sophisticated lying machine that controls information. The filtration systems are already there to eliminate toxic language, which can be redefined as any information countering approved narratives.
Its beauty or horror depends on us.
Technology reflects back either our grace or degeneracy.
I have zero confidence AI can ever be used in a responsible fashion regardless of how educated and disciplined it's users are.