Disregarding for a moment whether that's what HN-greybeards want or not, being behind in this area doesn't necessarily preclude Apple from catching up later. There's enough of a market that they can buy it from one of Google's competitors if they have to.
Parent is trying to sarcastically demonstrate thought termination by way of woke. As in, some accusations shut down conversations by way of being too much effort or requiring too much social capital to argue against.
Cordwainer Smith's style and subject matter is quite different from Watts; I felt this story was like a combination of the two.
So, if you would like this story even if it was less eschatalogically cynical, and had more of a golden age setting, you'll probably like Smith!
1) velocity of money matters, some spending creates more economic activity than others due to re-spending.
2) Investment is not the same as having your money sitting idle. Investment makes certain activities possible because of scale, payment made with the expectation of future value, financing capital goods or R&D, etc.
It's effectively the same thing as a separate computer because it's not your problem if the sandbox becomes broken. It's not your responsibility to maintain its integrity.
It doesn't have to be a reference to dualism. We can draw a distinction between specific patterns of brain activity and the body that realizes it. "I" exist only when the characteristic property of neural activity that realizes the self is present. I am the realization of this second-order property. Here the "soul" is this specific pattern of dynamics realized by my body's neurons.
You make it sound like we are flesh robots : sensors and motors, with a central "CPU" that channels between the two. But a robot has no first-person experience, it's just smart electron flows.
That we have first-person experiences shows the soul is definitely not "a process your body runs" : it's where your whole experience "registers".
That we are not flesh robots is also why we have free will. You could coherently argue that free-will is an illusion, but you can't argue that first-person experience is an illusion, as you need something to perceive the illusion.
Yes, with an advanced version on an LLM on top that makes it seem like you is you. As of so far we've found zero external magical devices that cause our body to act like it does other than the cells and electrical signals they produce.
>we have first-person experiences
Do you? You say you do, much like an LLM says it knows things. But all these things you say about you are actually effects many orders separated from the cause. Your idea of first-person is something you're experiencing many filters later. Which is what the article is somewhat about. Messing with the input signals to your brain via physical mechanism changes what you feel about who you are. There is not magic, just electron flows.
>but you can't argue that first-person experience is an illusion, as you need something to perceive the illusion.
A computer can generate and play it's own video game. This can be entirely virtualized like a dream, or it could be more like AR where it's getting inputs from the world around us. "But, but, but, that's totally different in ways I cannot explain nor do I want to because I'm special"
Our improvements in AI will never lead to AI being proven smart. It will just lead to humans being proven dumb.
Dualism?! I believe the quote I referenced wasn't implying any sort of multiplicity...it's subordination of the lesser elements of a single entity and elevation of reverence for the ephemeral. Singularity, baby.
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