Re:OK, it’s time to freak out about AI
by vba616 on Sunday March 19, 2023 @01:22AM
(#35216291)
>It's OK, you simply lack imagination.
"Imagine" is a word that has more than one sense. I can "imagine" a possibility whether or not I think its probability is > 0%. Saying "I can't imagine" can be a way of saying yeah, I think the probability is 0%.
But if I can state the probability, I must have some kind of model in my head, so in that sense I am "imagining" it.
"Imagine" that strategic bombing was invented, and then everybody just waited around without doing it until there was a bomb that could destroy an entire city - i.e. Trinity.
In one sense, sure, I/you/we can imagine it. But it seems to me that sort of thing would be unprecedented in all of human history, so in another sense it seems impossible - unimaginable - although in a softer way than a violation of physics or logic.
The last bit of my previous comment was about logical impossibility, by the way.
"Imagine" is a word that has more than one sense. I can "imagine" a possibility whether or not I think its probability is > 0%. Saying "I can't imagine" can be a way of saying yeah, I think the probability is 0%.
But if I can state the probability, I must have some kind of model in my head, so in that sense I am "imagining" it.
"Imagine" that strategic bombing was invented, and then everybody just waited around without doing it until there was a bomb that could destroy an entire city - i.e. Trinity.
In one sense, sure, I/you/we can imagine it. But it seems to me that sort of thing would be unprecedented in all of human history, so in another sense it seems impossible - unimaginable - although in a softer way than a violation of physics or logic.
The last bit of my previous comment was about logical impossibility, by the way.