2·
1 month agoI also underwent a shift from atheism and materialism (in reaction to my Christian upbringing) into a more syncretic form of personal spirituality. I’ve really taken to heart the idea (which i think I learned from Jodorowsky) that magic is a language which speaks to the unconscious, and so spirituality isn’t just comforting woo, but actually can shift beliefs and ideas, impacting behaviors and outcomes. I also think spirituality is vital to community and buidling better societies.
“Artificial Intelligence” is a very broad term that, within computer science, covers a range of techniques and tools that broadly cover the study of “human-like behavior and impersonation.” Before the current fad of calling LLMs “AI”, the term was most often used in video games and covered techniques for pathfinding, decision making, reacting, seeming to speak, etc. Before that, pre-90s basically, “AI” had already undergone a few boom and bust cycles of hype with chess playing machines and, as always, chat bots.
In many fields, many of these same techniques and their descendants are being used to model and simulate and predict. All of them have trade-offs and limitations, that’s what computer science is all about.