There is a “true nature” – it’s “whatever processes turn out to be predicting the next token”.
I’d agree to this in the same way the true nature of our universe is the laws of physics. (Would you consider the laws of physics a shoggoth?) My concern when people jump from that to “oh so there’s a God (of Physics)”.
I think the crux of my issue is what our analogy says to answer the question “a powerful LLM could coexist with humanity” (I lean towards yes). When people read shoggoths in the non-canonical way as “a weird alien” I think they conclude no. But if its more like a physics simulator or a pile of masks, then as long as you have it simulating benign things or wearing friendly masks, the answer is yes. I’ll leave it to someone who actually read lovecraft to say whether humanity could coexist with canonical shoggoths :)
I think I’ll retreat to this since I haven’t actually read the original lovecraft work. But also, once enough people have a misconception, it can be a bad medium for communication. (Shoggoths are also public domain now, so don’t force my hand.)
I’d agree to this in the same way the true nature of our universe is the laws of physics. (Would you consider the laws of physics a shoggoth?) My concern when people jump from that to “oh so there’s a God (of Physics)”.
I think the crux of my issue is what our analogy says to answer the question “a powerful LLM could coexist with humanity” (I lean towards yes). When people read shoggoths in the non-canonical way as “a weird alien” I think they conclude no. But if its more like a physics simulator or a pile of masks, then as long as you have it simulating benign things or wearing friendly masks, the answer is yes. I’ll leave it to someone who actually read lovecraft to say whether humanity could coexist with canonical shoggoths :)