Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines

Re:Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines by ctbergstrom on Sunday February 09, 2025 @04:57PM (#42994494)

This is something we've given serious consideration, having taught a course called "Calling Bullshit" (http://callingbullshit.org) for almost a decade and having authored a book by the same name that gets downranked on various Amazon features because of its title.

But the bullshit is a term of art here, after the seminal 1986 article "On Bullshit" by Princeton philosopher Harry Frankfurt (later published as a little book). We strongly feel that it is exactly the right term for what LLMs are doing, and we make the case for that in lesson 2 of the course. (https://thebullshitmachines.com/lesson-2-the-nature-of-bulls...)

We're also concerned about accessibility for high school teachers etc., and thinking about what to do in that direction.

I'm curious: do you find "bs" to be any less offensive?

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Re:Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines by corford on Monday February 10, 2025 @07:57PM (#43007561)

FWIW, I don't think you should cave on this. For me, your choice to use it over "hallucination" instantly elevated the insight of the lessons. I also think the authenticity of the voice of the lessons benefits from owning the decision to use it fully rather than compromising with the shorter "bs" version.

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