So I often come back to the question of defining what we mean by "intelligence."
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So I often come back to the question of defining what we mean by "intelligence." It's pretty easy to get disgusted say it's not even worth trying to define because it is a word used in such inconsistent ways.
Intelligence is a positive attribute that describes the decision making capacity and effectiveness.
* Is a scientific calculator intelligent?
* Is a billionaire intelligent?
* Is the largest blue whale the most intelligent animal alive because it has the most brain mass?@futurebird Calculators are my go-to counterargument when people say "AI" is becoming so powerful it will gain conscience, or any "computers are going to bet us." Any pocket calculator can do math much quicker than me, for many decades now.
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So I often come back to the question of defining what we mean by "intelligence." It's pretty easy to get disgusted say it's not even worth trying to define because it is a word used in such inconsistent ways.
Intelligence is a positive attribute that describes the decision making capacity and effectiveness.
* Is a scientific calculator intelligent?
* Is a billionaire intelligent?
* Is the largest blue whale the most intelligent animal alive because it has the most brain mass?"Aphids are less intelligent than ants." I think even the ants and aphids are aware of this. But, what does that statement really mean?
Aphids make very few observable interesting decisions.
In contrast to this ants are constantly making decisions that are easy to observe. For some aphids, part of their survival strategy is to allow ants to make most of their decisions for them.
Ants decide where they forage. Ants decide if they reproduce. Ants even regulate their digestive system.
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So I often come back to the question of defining what we mean by "intelligence." It's pretty easy to get disgusted say it's not even worth trying to define because it is a word used in such inconsistent ways.
Intelligence is a positive attribute that describes the decision making capacity and effectiveness.
* Is a scientific calculator intelligent?
* Is a billionaire intelligent?
* Is the largest blue whale the most intelligent animal alive because it has the most brain mass?@futurebird For me, the line is between clever - someone who knows a lot of things, whether through exceptional memory or a great deal of study - and intelligent - someone who can understand new problems and solve them. Clever is fine for some tasks and hopeless for others. Intelligence is much more flexible - and can seek out the relevant knowledge they don't have.
As for the technology equivalent, LLMs are a version of clever, generally minus the awareness of whether they are right or wrong!
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So I often come back to the question of defining what we mean by "intelligence." It's pretty easy to get disgusted say it's not even worth trying to define because it is a word used in such inconsistent ways.
Intelligence is a positive attribute that describes the decision making capacity and effectiveness.
* Is a scientific calculator intelligent?
* Is a billionaire intelligent?
* Is the largest blue whale the most intelligent animal alive because it has the most brain mass?the largest blue whale is the most intelligent animal alive because it's not actively destroying the planet in its unquenchable thirst for material wealth and power.
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"Aphids are less intelligent than ants." I think even the ants and aphids are aware of this. But, what does that statement really mean?
Aphids make very few observable interesting decisions.
In contrast to this ants are constantly making decisions that are easy to observe. For some aphids, part of their survival strategy is to allow ants to make most of their decisions for them.
Ants decide where they forage. Ants decide if they reproduce. Ants even regulate their digestive system.
It is staggering how many decisions ants manage given their size.
Part of the ant strategy is to have enough ants, all making decisions that if some of them make bad decisions it won't matter much, someone will get it right. They are also very quick to follow other colony members who are having success. This is the famous "emergent" colony intelligence.
If you watch leaf cutter ants there will always be one ant carrying the leaf in the wrong direction. But, eventually she gets turned around.
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the largest blue whale is the most intelligent animal alive because it's not actively destroying the planet in its unquenchable thirst for material wealth and power.
@saltywizard Unfortunately, intelligence doesn't necessarily involve wisdom. @futurebird
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@saltywizard Unfortunately, intelligence doesn't necessarily involve wisdom. @futurebird
nor empathy, nor compassion, nor even a modicum of self-preservation apparently.
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It is staggering how many decisions ants manage given their size.
Part of the ant strategy is to have enough ants, all making decisions that if some of them make bad decisions it won't matter much, someone will get it right. They are also very quick to follow other colony members who are having success. This is the famous "emergent" colony intelligence.
If you watch leaf cutter ants there will always be one ant carrying the leaf in the wrong direction. But, eventually she gets turned around.
That one ant going the "wrong way" isn't less intelligent than the rest. She's an essential part of the system.
Because sometimes that ant finds a shortcut. If she finds a shortcut her pheromone path, the passive evidence of her motion, the freshness of the leaf bit she delivers will attract more ants to her path. Quickly, without discussion or resentment, (cough cough) all of the ants switch to the new shorter path.
The 'wrong way ants' prevent the ants from being trapped in bad attractors.
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That one ant going the "wrong way" isn't less intelligent than the rest. She's an essential part of the system.
Because sometimes that ant finds a shortcut. If she finds a shortcut her pheromone path, the passive evidence of her motion, the freshness of the leaf bit she delivers will attract more ants to her path. Quickly, without discussion or resentment, (cough cough) all of the ants switch to the new shorter path.
The 'wrong way ants' prevent the ants from being trapped in bad attractors.
There are these social media memes about how army ants sometimes can get trapped walking in a circle. A "death spiral" this is presented with a knowing head shake about the dangers of just following the crowd.
This always annoys me since it takes extreme circumstances for this to happen to army ants. They have built in mechanisms to break such cycles and do so all the time...
But when in a human built environment they may get trapped. There are no tempting distractions for "wrong way ants"
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There are these social media memes about how army ants sometimes can get trapped walking in a circle. A "death spiral" this is presented with a knowing head shake about the dangers of just following the crowd.
This always annoys me since it takes extreme circumstances for this to happen to army ants. They have built in mechanisms to break such cycles and do so all the time...
But when in a human built environment they may get trapped. There are no tempting distractions for "wrong way ants"
As a participant in the human "death spiral" that is our current approach to things like climate change I find it hard to find fault with the ants.
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That one ant going the "wrong way" isn't less intelligent than the rest. She's an essential part of the system.
Because sometimes that ant finds a shortcut. If she finds a shortcut her pheromone path, the passive evidence of her motion, the freshness of the leaf bit she delivers will attract more ants to her path. Quickly, without discussion or resentment, (cough cough) all of the ants switch to the new shorter path.
The 'wrong way ants' prevent the ants from being trapped in bad attractors.
@futurebird This is about ants, but it feels like a metaphor about neurodivergence.
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As a participant in the human "death spiral" that is our current approach to things like climate change I find it hard to find fault with the ants.
@futurebird When my children were young I told them to be proud of humanity: Humans are the most advanced form of life on Earth, according to every metric humans have devised to measure "advanced."
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@futurebird This is about ants, but it feels like a metaphor about neurodivergence.
@mahryekuh @futurebird
I thought maybe I was cognitively biased I felt it too, could be both. -
So I often come back to the question of defining what we mean by "intelligence." It's pretty easy to get disgusted say it's not even worth trying to define because it is a word used in such inconsistent ways.
Intelligence is a positive attribute that describes the decision making capacity and effectiveness.
* Is a scientific calculator intelligent?
* Is a billionaire intelligent?
* Is the largest blue whale the most intelligent animal alive because it has the most brain mass?@futurebird
Using brain mass, the glial cell ratio, the average number of neurons/kg, and similar measures has always sounded to me like a strong collective confirmation bias, under which whatever metric is used must satisfy these preconceived assumptions: Einstein > humans > monkeys > dogs > cats > rats > chickens > insects > plants.This says a lot about how intelligence is perceived: a linear, vertical hierarchy of individuals used to enforce domination over people and other living beings.
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@futurebird@sauropods.win no no it's much simpler than that, things I like are intelligent, and things I don't like are not!
this is only half a joke, honestly most of human history crudely boils down to this lol@futurebird @froge not so much all of human history, but definitely the eugenics part.
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@futurebird This is about ants, but it feels like a metaphor about neurodivergence.
I think that's part of it. Although what keeps me up at night is thinking about the ease with which ants will abandon a bad but popular path for a shorter more effective one.
You will never have an ant who is saying "but this is the way my older sister went, you insult her memory by not using her path, she suffered so much" or "that ant who found the new shorter path thinks she's better than me, lets get rid of her and the path this is so embarrassing."
I hope.
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@futurebird It's such a loaded term that I've found it difficult to discuss philosophically or scientifically, as like if I say species X is less intelligent than species Y, I'm insulting X.
@futurebird @thejessiekirk it has no scientific definition because it is a pseudo-scientific term.
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That one ant going the "wrong way" isn't less intelligent than the rest. She's an essential part of the system.
Because sometimes that ant finds a shortcut. If she finds a shortcut her pheromone path, the passive evidence of her motion, the freshness of the leaf bit she delivers will attract more ants to her path. Quickly, without discussion or resentment, (cough cough) all of the ants switch to the new shorter path.
The 'wrong way ants' prevent the ants from being trapped in bad attractors.
@futurebird
I relate to this ant. -
I think that's part of it. Although what keeps me up at night is thinking about the ease with which ants will abandon a bad but popular path for a shorter more effective one.
You will never have an ant who is saying "but this is the way my older sister went, you insult her memory by not using her path, she suffered so much" or "that ant who found the new shorter path thinks she's better than me, lets get rid of her and the path this is so embarrassing."
I hope.
@futurebird @mahryekuh This is excellent... We should all follow the ant philosophy
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That one ant going the "wrong way" isn't less intelligent than the rest. She's an essential part of the system.
Because sometimes that ant finds a shortcut. If she finds a shortcut her pheromone path, the passive evidence of her motion, the freshness of the leaf bit she delivers will attract more ants to her path. Quickly, without discussion or resentment, (cough cough) all of the ants switch to the new shorter path.
The 'wrong way ants' prevent the ants from being trapped in bad attractors.
@futurebird
The funny thing is that human innovation often starts with "the wrong way"E.g. the discovery of x-rays by the accidental x-ray of Wilhelm Röntgens wife Anna Bertha Ludwig's hand .
Or the discovery of penicillin through an contaminated sample
