Comment by devmor

Comment by devmor 2 days ago

6 replies

Words have definitions for a reason. It is important to define concepts and exclude things from that definition that do not match.

No matter how emotional it makes you to be told a weighted randomization lookup doesn’t know things, it still doesn’t - because that’s not what the word “know” means.

timschmidt 2 days ago

> No matter how emotional it makes you to be told a weighted randomization lookup doesn’t know things, it still doesn’t - because that’s not what the word “know” means.

You sound awful certain that's not functionally equivalent to what neurons are doing. But there's a long history of experimentation, observation, and cross-pollination as fundamental biological research and ML research have informed each other.

  • devmor 2 days ago

    A long history of researching and understanding photosynthesis went into developing and maximizing the efficiency of solar panels. Both produce energy from sunlight.

    But they are not the same thing and have meaningfully different uses, even if from a casual observer they appear to serve the same function.

    • timschmidt 2 days ago

      > A long history of researching and understanding photosynthesis went into developing and maximizing the efficiency of solar panels.

      I don't think that's accurate. Some of the very first semiconductors were observed to exhibit the photoelectric effect. Nowhere in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell#Research_in_solar_c... will you find mention of chloroplasts. Optimizing solar cells has mostly been a materials science problem.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bio-inspired_computing on the other hand "trace[es] back to 1936 and the first description of an abstract computer" and we have literally dissected, probed, and measured countless neurons in the course of attempting to figure out how they work to replicate them within the computer.

lostmsu 2 days ago

> to have information in your mind as a result of experience or because you have learned or been told it

hatthew 2 days ago

What does the word "know" mean, then?

  • ninetyninenine 2 days ago

    Not only can he not give a definition that is universally agreed upon. He doesn't even know how LLMs or humans brains work. These are both black boxes... and nobody knows how either works. Anybody who makes a claim that they "know" essentially doesn't "know" what they're talking about.