LLMs and the Human Condition · HackerPapers discussions

LLMs and the Human Condition — mentioned by Peteragain

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 08:28:58 GMT

The notion of "thinking" is not clear. I'll agree thinking with symbols is powerful and something (adult) humans and computers can do, but is is not the only way of making decisions. I'm going to suggest LLMs are not thinking this way, but that indeed "glorified auto complete" (c.f. Hinton) is far more useful than it seems. Https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.08403

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

LLMs and the Human Condition — HN submission

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 12:20:47 GMT

LLMs and the Human Condition

2 points; 1 discussion reply on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

LLMs and the Human Condition — mentioned by Peteragain

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 11:35:15 GMT

A beautifully written paper but I do feel it missed a major point. Vygotsky pointed out that "in ontogenesis one can discern a pre intellectual stage in the development of speech, and a pre linguistic stage in the development of thought"[Kozulin 1990 p153]. The pre intellectual nature of language can be interpreted as "performative" language (eg "ouch!" or "I pronounce you man and wife") but what does pre linguistic thinking look like? The contemporary answer I'd propose is that it looks like situated action/ radical enactivism / behaviour-based robotics.(see for example Gallagher's 2020…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

LLMs and the Human Condition — mentioned by Peteragain

Sun, 20 Oct 2024 07:27:11 GMT

I know a little about this area and there is certainly a movement (glacial) away from thinking that thinking uses symbols, distributed or not. The argument cannot be made in a popular science article and so such articles inevitably fall back on popular ideas of what thinking is. The alternatives: the embodied nature of reasoning is one direction and many talk of an "enacivist" approach. There are certainly some kinds of thinking that require symbols, but a surprisingly large and diverse range of intelligent behaviour can be done by just wiring stuff up. Interestingly, a significant amount…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.