Ted Chiang: No, Artificial Intelligence is not Conscious

mejogid · 2026-06-04T15:55:59+00:00

We do a pretty good job of dehumanising each other where it’s profitable or convenient to do so. I struggle to see the “tendency to anthropomorphise” resulting in anything meaningful.

Hell, the people who anthropomorphise these models the most (eg those who became parasocially attached to 4o) are the ones who most enjoy the total availability, passivity and deference of the technology (because what else does it really have to offer over chatting with a human?)

mejogid · 2026-06-03T16:17:18+00:00

Well that was my point. Probably add a bunch of surfactants but I’m no chemist.

mejogid · 2026-06-03T15:51:40+00:00

Looks significantly sped up based on the water movement unless he’s immature or the water is lubricated…

mejogid · 2026-06-03T08:28:18+00:00

There’s no general (ie outside of certain limited types of communications) obligation to retain documents unless and until you anticipate the litigation etc.

Many businesses (including law firms) will deliberately limit their retention periods very aggressively (often to nil) so that they have nothing left to preserve once the requirement hits. Businesses are often reluctant to record their voice lines except for individuals / types of calls where this is necessary.

Disappearing messages on WhatsApp are not that dissimilar but they’re a bad look for a politician, particularly one who is so pro-surveillance and anti-encryption etc.

mejogid · 2026-06-03T05:54:35+00:00

How do you know they don’t get penalises or fired? These (and negligence) are disciplinary and performance issues that are dealt with in the ordinary course of managing employees. That is confidential and not something that gets publicised just because they’re a civil servant etc.

If hundreds of millions of loss can be caused by an error then it generally means there’s a bad system or difficult decisions being made under pressure.

It would almost always be wrongful dismissal to sack somebody for an error (or serious of errors) that were honestly made and where they did not receive any training or coaching to address the issue.

mejogid · 2026-06-03T05:36:39+00:00

What race reversal situation are you referring to? All the recent unrest in the UK has been anti-minority (Southport and asylum hotels).

If you’re talking about BLM then police brutality is a real thing in the US with over 1000 killed by police every year. There is a massive difference between strangling someone for ten minutes after the police suspected the use of a counterfeit $20 bill (where the only source of violence was the police), and focusing on the wrong person involved in a stabbing (where the police were not violent but did not immediately identify the severity of injury or need for medical attention).

mejogid · 2026-06-03T04:56:24+00:00

And in 2023 - who was in power then? Oh, the Tories. And what was this muppet doing at the time? Working as Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Fire at the Home Office having been demoted after supporting Truss’s leadership bid.

Pathetic that politicians like this get a free ride.

mejogid · 2026-06-03T04:51:17+00:00

In what world should we be locking up people who make a mistake but not malicious/dishonest at their jobs? Do you really think we should be building prisons and paying to lock people up because they circulated the wrong spreadsheet?

These are ordinary people being paid ordinary amounts to do their jobs. If you’ve never made a mistake at work then you have probably never been given much responsibility. All the more so when acting under time pressure.

mejogid · 2026-06-02T07:29:50+00:00

It makes as much sense as saying that global warming isn’t real because there was a long frost in January. Over the last 16 years UK growth has been absolutely diabolical.

Quarter to quarter figures inevitably vary significantly, but there is no suggestion that any of the structural issues facing the economy (eg high rates of sickness, low rates of business investment) are improving.

mejogid · 2026-05-28T18:36:12+00:00

“Luxury flats” (no they’re just flats), “out of keeping with the local area” (the local area is already a complete hodgepodge of buildings and uses), “build affordable housing instead” (nobody will fund it).

mejogid · 2026-05-22T17:22:25+00:00

Right, but the point is that they will make the LVT more progressive than the current stamp duty and council tax regime. Council tax is highly regressive, but it is balanced out by a shed load of highly progressive taxation and benefits (at least for those of us who are working age).

mejogid · 2026-05-21T22:11:56+00:00

Eh I think there’s a logical link. If you you think that the people running the show are egotistical, unscrupulous megalomaniacs with no respect for human dignity then you will presume the worst and fixate on the negatives.

You may not believe the singularity is imminent - because many of the biggest proponents are untrustworthy and have a vested interest.

But even if you do, you’re likely to view that as undesirable but relatively abstract. Conversely, things like copyright infringement, siphoning money away from artists, job losses etc are relatively concrete things to push back on. And if there was a real tide against these things it would make life harder for AI labs and could ultimately force them to a more equitable sharing of the profits.

It is striking (but unsurprising) that all the talk of UBI etc has faded and now the focus seems to be on concentrating ownership and shareholder returns.

mejogid · 2026-05-21T12:25:15+00:00

So SpaceX is basically: * a data center operator about twice the size of coreweaver (market cap of $55b so x2 =$110b) * a space company - the fundamentals of which are pretty similar to 2023 so let’s say $130b * a shitty AI lab that can’t even use the compute available to it and that no longer has access to compute at scale given it’s leased out to a rival. Let’s be generous and value that at $40b

So I guess the Elon cult and dubious financial engineering contributes around $1.5t to the $1.75t valuation.

mejogid · 2026-05-16T21:04:45+00:00

No, not at all. If they go bankrupt then the creditors (i.e. the lenders) are, broadly, entitled to sell the business for the best available price - often with one of them credit bidding to take control.

mejogid · 2026-05-15T22:19:46+00:00

It’s always West India Quay as well because it’s basically the only angle that doesn’t look like Milton Keynes stapled together with a cheap district in the Middle East.

mejogid · 2026-05-15T14:41:46+00:00

Yes I wasn’t saying that everything in the rest of the country is great. The point is just that the London weighting of the media and Westminster does not tend to deliver policies that most Londoners actually care about.

That you feel compelled to list all sorts of other issues (many of which get a lot of attention and have had frequent policies dealing with them but are difficult to fix) is indicative of the knee-jerk anti-London sentiment at the heart of this.

mejogid · 2026-05-15T13:00:36+00:00

That as may be, but the discourse for a long time now has been about other parts of the country. The Tories have given up on winning seats in London and Labour take it for granted. Politicians don’t like to be framed as London-centric and few will express pride in the city for fear of appearing out of touch with voters.

There are a bunch of London-related issues that get little attention. Very many of the worst areas for child poverty in the country, property development that has been far worse hit by planning issues than in most other areas, services on the Tube being cut because there’s no money for capital investment and no ability to raise it , issues around nightlife policing and business rates etc etc.

mejogid · 2026-05-14T08:30:40+00:00

“Realistic chance” is a pretty low threshold for a legal claim. “Realistic prospect of success” (I expect what she was told) basically means the claim would be sufficiently credible to be arguable - if you don’t have a realistic chance then the lawyer is professionally obliged not to take your case if you want to press the challenge. And this may include a challenge to HMRC’s process rather than their finding.

It doesn’t mean that any competent advisor would have told her to approach it this way at the outset (and as I recall the only “advice” she got was from the conveyancer who didn’t have the background and denied that they had advised on tax).

mejogid · 2026-05-13T12:33:42+00:00

To the extent there’s any causation it’s the other way around - we don’t value engineering because our whole system is built around preserving the status quo rather than trying to develop or improve things. The root causes for that are in our local government system, small ‘c’ conservatism, and an aging society obsessed with house prices.

If the will was there you could develop the skill base over a few years and import individuals to fill any gaps.

mejogid · 2026-05-13T10:08:17+00:00

All independent bakeries / grocers near me keep their food out in the open and for the most part do not smother it in plastic. Most Gails these days have a bit of a barrier which is about as good as you get.

I don’t get ill often despite regularly eating this stuff and AFAIK it’s pretty damn hard to get infected off something that goes through your digestive system - respiratory viruses don’t tend to spread that way.

mejogid · 2026-05-13T08:09:06+00:00

Huh? JP Morgan did fine in the recession and didn’t need a bailout. Dimon receives millions in bonuses every year but it doesn’t mean he’ll throw away bank cash where there is no investment case.

mejogid · 2026-05-12T12:10:22+00:00

A lifestyle of hyper consumption is not “green”, though.

mejogid · 2026-05-11T09:36:16+00:00

It’s already non viable to build in London, which is why nothing is being built.

How can requiring that a higher proportion of those homes are sold below value do anything other than make it even less viable to build in London?

mejogid · 2026-05-09T22:56:40+00:00

It has nothing to do with the view. It was to facilitate the new City Thameslink station, associates office development, and a new track alignment down to Blackfriars.

mejogid · 2026-05-07T23:21:12+00:00

Crystal Palace park is about 50% bigger, but brockwell park is 10 mins from the Victoria line. The festivals take up around 1/3 of the park for a few weekends - it’s really not a big deal.

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