this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2024
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Soon kids will start talking like LLMs.
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Always have, always will.
My pet hypothesis is that our brains are, in effect, LLMs that are trained via input from our senses and by the output of the other LLMs (brains) in our environment.
It explains why we so often get stuck in unproductive loops like flat Earth theories.
It explains why new theories are treated as "hallucinations" regardless of their veracity (cf Copernicus, Galileo, Bruno). It explains why certain "prompts" cause mass "hallucination" (Wakefield and anti-vaxers). It explains why the vast majority of people spend the vast majority of their time just coasting on "local inputs" to "common sense" (personal models of the world that, in their simplicity, often have substantial overlap with others).
It explains why we spend so much time on "prompt engineering" (propaganda, sound bites, just-so stories, PR "spin", etc) and so little on "model development" (education and training). (And why so much "education" is more like prompt engineering than model development.)
Finally, it explains why "scientific" methods of thinking are so rare, even among those who are actually good at it. To think scientifically requires not just the right training, but an actual change in the underlying model. One of the most egregious examples is Linus Pauling, winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry and vitamin C wackadoodle.
When I read that I had some sort of epiphany - "wow - maybe our brains are just LLMs", and it felt weird. Probably not weird enough to change my model, but still weird.
Glad you wrote this comment - you said it so much better than I could have.
Edit - my model is going wild here. New thought - if our brains are LLMs, how do the brains in all the other species (without language) work? I guess a LLM is just a special case of a Large Sensory Input Model.
2nd edit - of course our brains are "just LLMs" - LLMs are special cases of computer simulations of neural networks modelled on brains. I know the logic is backwards and I'm a bit slow, but it still feels weird to read LLM written articles and realise that we use a more evolved version of the same process to do basically - everything.
Thanks! I've been working on this idea for quite a while. I post summaries and random thoughts occasionally hoping to refine my thinking to the point at which I'll feel comfortable writing a proper essay.
I like the name you've given the overarching system. That's been a bit of a struggle for me, so you've given me a better concept to work with. "Large Sensory Input Model" captures my thoughts better than my own "the brain is just a kind of LLM." That it's abbreviation "LSIM" also conjures connections to "simulation" is a bonus for me, because that also addresses my thoughts on how we understand some things and other people.
There is a fairly old hypothesis that something called "Theory of Mind" is basically our brain modelling and simulating other brains as a way to understand and predict the behaviour of others. That has explanatory power: empathy, stereotypes, in/out groups, better accuracy with closer relationships, "living on" through powerful simulations of those closest to us who have died, etc.
Thanks for the feedback!