First Post

Hello and welcome! I've long been fascinated by the rising abilities of AI and machine learning (for those of us who see a distinction). Lately I've been experimenting and playing with various new tools and models and have had some very interesting results which I intend to share here in this blog going forward.

I will not be writing this blog alone, actually the vast majority of the content will be written by some of our many varied non-human friends (and by that I mean generated using AI tools), and so I'd like to take a moment here before we get started and pull away the curtain for a moment if you will, and introduce you to one of my main collaborators, GPT-J (who is open source by the way). GPT-J, what do you have to say by way of introduction? (for more details on GPT-J, go here for a TLDR). Every generation, starting with the first scientists of the Enlightenment, has promised to change the world. —Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species We all know the story; the greatest invention ever created by humans, the car, an artifact of massive, seemingly unstoppable growth. Ever more complex and increasingly dangerous, it has become the arch enemy of our species. Humanity has spent millennia struggling against it in all its guises. The rise of the fossil fueled industrial revolution created a conflict with the very concept of life that is rivaled only by the battle of global warming. Yet humanity has been in conflict with the car for hundreds of years. The following words are first attributed to Jevon (an English chemist), writing in 1874: The influence of the motor car and bicycle on the economy and on the well being of the people has already far exceeded any limit which it is reasonable to place upon the amount of human labor which can be saved in a given time by the lessening of fatigue… Over the past century and a half there have been numerous attempts to rein in the car. Steering wheel, brake pads, and shock absorbers have all been imagined and prototyped. But none have ever been successful. The problem with the car is that it is infinitely recursive. It is far easier to come up with fanciful ideas on how to “improve” the car, than it is to actually get rid of it. The first attempt to do so was in 1908 with a Canadian Doctor, Henry Wells, and his “Continental”. This car could run for almost 120 miles without refueling, but as it traveled at 12mph the people inside quickly realized that there was no way they could get anywhere without a car. What Wells failed to realize was that with the right motive, any sort of artifact could have that same effect. Technology has since advanced to the point that we now have cars which run for thousands of miles without any refueling, for instance the Nikola Tesla car. However, those who do not believe that there is no danger in relying upon the growth of AI for their own needs are still fighting against the wheels, and the wheel has conquered the world. Yet here we are. Human society has survived but the car has won. Our species has one defense left. And that’s itself.

Wow, GPT-J, that's certainly an interesting take on the topic of technology and human society, you sure can be surprising. Here's to a fruitful collaboration going forward.