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I have been pondering this one since yesterday, Erin. Lots of big ideas in this letter to the big guy/gal/nonbinary. Here's one: Is omniscience the same thing as godliness? I don't think so. While I am not a believer, there just has to be more to it than that! This AI stuff is really doing a number on all of us.

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Isn't it the truth.

As I wrote this, I kept thinking of our current model. Some dudes write a book a zillion years ago and we're still killing people over interpretations of the Bible.

Does omniscience equal godliness? No, but it's one major component on the way to godliness. The kicker for me is that AI's "omniscience" will be somewhat real (at least on its own terms).

help

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prior to reading here i had read a news article about an Alabama law aimed at controlling content in public libraries utilizing old obscenity statutes. think of the smut in AI. or better yet, don't, and the possibilities for puritan charlatans. (well, maybe just a little smut. "Outlier Smut")

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So many things brewed in my mind over this one. Imagine how easily we can be predicted by an entity that has simultaneous and perfect recall of every social post, every news story, all the public coverage of criminal and civil trials ...

Ya know, however I muse on this, it seems so puny and insufficient. A-course, anything's better than talking about SCOTUS.

As I said yesterday on Threads, "If I make it through 2024 without picking up the bottle, it will be such a goddamn miracle before the Lord, I may question my atheism."

effing hell

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BTW...I suspect if you run Erin/2024 simulations on a supercomputer, say 10,000, that more than one has a completely sober outcome, ergo, I would argue continued Erin sobriety in 2024 IS NOT a miracle because a "miracle", by definition, is an event with no other possible outcome. Atheism safe, math wins. ( my sister, an unapologetic believer, quite frequently will say "Wow, that's a miracle." she hates me when I embrace reason and challenge her conclusion as I did yours. The extraordinary would be banal in her world it occurs so regularly.)

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somewhere back in the pandemic there was a miniseries in cable land, (I can't keep up with the providers) called "DEVS" with Nick Offerman that I don't think got much critical praise but I rather liked it. Basically explored immortality through quantum computing. I have seen clips of the "3rd body" but haven't watched it. Looks interesting. I think people like you with a math and science predisposition have an advantage. What little I know I picked up playing online poker. Pretty quickly that environment was controlled by bots but I still occasionally find myself trying to calculate probabilities of human transactions and contemplating what optimal strategy would be. The Matrix is here.

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ATHEISM SAFE

MATH WINS

Either or both on a T-shirt, please.

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I still think a.) These AI digi-babblers are full of it; and b.) they're gonna start poisoning each other's datasets to gain a competitive advantage; and wind up frying all trust in their business.

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I just wanna sit by my rotary phone and eat sugar cookies.

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Sort of pertinent, so I'm posting it.

From Grace Gedye for Politico:

"If you’ve looked for a job recently, AI may well have a hidden hand in the process. An AI recruiter might have scored your LinkedIn profile or resume. HR professionals might have used a different AI app to scrape your social media profiles and spit out scores for your cheerfulness and ability to work with others. They also might have used AI to analyze your word choice or facial expressions in a video interview, and used yet another app to run an AI background check on you."

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/04/30/ai-legislation-states-mistake-00155006

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