shannonizers fail at logic

 some people have been wittering on about “AI”, as though it’s this or that.

according to derpawerp, they are even going to take over the world.

i asked one what’s the third-most populous city in new zealand, and it said something implausible. it then claimed auckland was the second-most populous. immediately after, it said auckland was the most populous, but didn’t notice its mistake. i had to “prompt” it, by asking whether the same city was really the first and second most populous. at which point, of course, “you’re absolutely right”. but it continued, with a straight face, making not just incorrect, but blatantly incoherent, claims about city population rankings. these word salads don’t just fail on basic facts, they lack the self-awareness to pick up on themselves when, according to themselves, they are being ridiculous.

one was bugging me for pictures ideas, so i said draw a projection of new zealand onto northern hemisphere, flipping latitudes and lining up the other axis with britain. it drew what i can best describe as a translation into the north atlantic. it argued with me when i said it should look like a mirror image. i tried several times to get the laritudes right, which would be north africa to france, but it kept having another go and failing. in the end, it said i was using the wrong tool, i should do it in a GIS. fine, but don’t bug me for pictures ideas.

two years ago i was speaking to an enthusiast chap. lovely chap, but tends to jump from one transhumanist trope to another if interlocutor doesn’t steer conversation away. i observed that moore’s law period ended decade or so ago, and has started going backwards, so how do they think we’re going doubling into 2040 to realise these things? he said it’s not doubling in hardware, but in software. he said it’s changing not year to year, but week to week, and they can do all these things, and it’s happening right now. except it’s two years later and they’re still a bit shit.

then eric schmidt, charlatan, comes up, in regulatory capture mode. it’s going “like this” (he holds his fore-arm diagonally), but when it goes “like this” (he steepens his fore-arm)… same thing. your lack of integrity would be going “like this”, were it not already maxed out. schmeric.