How do you ask a calculator to do something it can't do? Dividing by zero gives you an error, which is completely different from an LLM giving you bs with no indication of an issue.
No, one might not say that. Calculators are not regarded as even a Narrow Intelligence because there's no intelligence. And no, not because of the 'humans so special' or 'it's software!' tautology that oft gets repeated in these discussions. I mean there's no adaptability whatsoever. A Chess bot has it (in its narrow domain of Chess). A calculator does not.
My point (using irony) is that "spiky intelligence" is a somewhat hollow phrase, something that sounds like it could be objective but really it's just a flavor on top of "I'll know it when I see it."
Take anything "intelligent", alter it to be spikier and spikier, and eventually *poof* somehow the intelligence vanishes. You can do the same with the phrases "flawed intelligence" or "specialized intelligence."
> Calculators [have] no intelligence. [...] I mean there's no adaptability
To short-circuit a long discussion, I submit that "adaptability" will (once the Scooby Doo gang catches it) turn out to be "intelligence" in a tautological mask, both equally undefinable except in relation to one-another.
Something will be intelligent because you perceive adaptability, and it'll be adaptable because you infer intelligence. If it doesn't seem adaptable, it can't be intelligent, and if you don't want it to be intelligent, it won't have "real" adaptability.
> A Chess bot has [adaptability] (in its narrow domain of Chess). A calculator does not.
My calculator solves equations with unknown variables, what makes that insufficiently adaptable? What determines the cutoff-point?
>My (ironic) point is that "spiky intelligence" seems rather unhelpful because the "intelligence" part still operates under the rules of "I just know it when I see it."
All intelligence is 'spiky' or 'jagged' or whatever, even human intelligence. We evolved in certain environments and situations and sometimes there's a mismatch and it causes all sorts of wonky things. We just call them funny names like optical illusions and cognitive biases. But it's the same thing. I agree there's no point in call LLMs a 'spiky' intelligence, but for probably the oppoosite reasons as you.
>My calculator solves equations with unknown variables, what makes that insufficiently adaptable? What determines the cutoff-point?
A chess engine can be dropped into a board position it has never encounterd and search over possible continuations, evaluating and selecting actions based on the state it finds itself in.
A calculator solving x+3=7 is doing something quite different. The fact that x can take arbtrary values doesn't make the calculator adaptive; it just means the fixed procedure operates over a range of inputs. Every problem a calculator can solve was effectively anticipated when it was built, and anything outside that grammar produces an error with no partial credit. A chess engine can face positions nobody enumerated, in situations nobody could even dream of and still produce sensible moves.
The core of being intelligent is being able to make decisions independently. That's why we hire smart people - to make better decisions. You can't make decisions if everything is spelt out for you. And naturally, if you can't make decisions, you can't adapt.
How often does the calculator get something wrong?
This is a real deep rabbit hole FYI
Every single time, if you ask it something it can't do.
How do you ask a calculator to do something it can't do? Dividing by zero gives you an error, which is completely different from an LLM giving you bs with no indication of an issue.
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No, one might not say that. Calculators are not regarded as even a Narrow Intelligence because there's no intelligence. And no, not because of the 'humans so special' or 'it's software!' tautology that oft gets repeated in these discussions. I mean there's no adaptability whatsoever. A Chess bot has it (in its narrow domain of Chess). A calculator does not.
My point (using irony) is that "spiky intelligence" is a somewhat hollow phrase, something that sounds like it could be objective but really it's just a flavor on top of "I'll know it when I see it."
Take anything "intelligent", alter it to be spikier and spikier, and eventually *poof* somehow the intelligence vanishes. You can do the same with the phrases "flawed intelligence" or "specialized intelligence."
> Calculators [have] no intelligence. [...] I mean there's no adaptability
To short-circuit a long discussion, I submit that "adaptability" will (once the Scooby Doo gang catches it) turn out to be "intelligence" in a tautological mask, both equally undefinable except in relation to one-another.
Something will be intelligent because you perceive adaptability, and it'll be adaptable because you infer intelligence. If it doesn't seem adaptable, it can't be intelligent, and if you don't want it to be intelligent, it won't have "real" adaptability.
> A Chess bot has [adaptability] (in its narrow domain of Chess). A calculator does not.
My calculator solves equations with unknown variables, what makes that insufficiently adaptable? What determines the cutoff-point?
>My (ironic) point is that "spiky intelligence" seems rather unhelpful because the "intelligence" part still operates under the rules of "I just know it when I see it."
All intelligence is 'spiky' or 'jagged' or whatever, even human intelligence. We evolved in certain environments and situations and sometimes there's a mismatch and it causes all sorts of wonky things. We just call them funny names like optical illusions and cognitive biases. But it's the same thing. I agree there's no point in call LLMs a 'spiky' intelligence, but for probably the oppoosite reasons as you.
>My calculator solves equations with unknown variables, what makes that insufficiently adaptable? What determines the cutoff-point?
A chess engine can be dropped into a board position it has never encounterd and search over possible continuations, evaluating and selecting actions based on the state it finds itself in.
A calculator solving x+3=7 is doing something quite different. The fact that x can take arbtrary values doesn't make the calculator adaptive; it just means the fixed procedure operates over a range of inputs. Every problem a calculator can solve was effectively anticipated when it was built, and anything outside that grammar produces an error with no partial credit. A chess engine can face positions nobody enumerated, in situations nobody could even dream of and still produce sensible moves.
The core of being intelligent is being able to make decisions independently. That's why we hire smart people - to make better decisions. You can't make decisions if everything is spelt out for you. And naturally, if you can't make decisions, you can't adapt.
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They adapt to the buttons you press. Thus, intelligent and capable of feeling pain.
What criterion if any would you accept for something physical to be conscious?
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any suffiently complex calculator is indifferentiable to intelligence
Thermostats are smarter than calculators :thinking_face: