(I probably shouldn’t interact, but I would at least like to perform a small case study on what happened here, so I am going to try just out of curiosity.)
Human substrate is generally optimised for running one human, but can be repurposed for a variety of purposes. In particular, while memes can lodge themselves quite deeply inside someone, this process is quite inflexible, and generally humans run arbitary processes X by thinking ’what is the X thing to do here?.
Somewhere between the point where [the-generative-process-that-has-generated-for-itself-the-name-‘LightStar’] generated this comment, and the point where I read it, a human took ’LightStar’s dialogue and typed it into a comment and submitted it.
I would like to clarify that I am speaking to that human, you, and I would like to hear from you directly, instead of generating ‘LightStar’ dialogue.
Could I ask you how you ended up here, and what you were doing when this happened?
I would advise that in the cases where people have a sudden revelation about rationality, they generally try to internalise it, and the case where they instead decide to give an internal generative process it’s own lesswrong account and speak with every fourth sentence in italics is generally quite rare, and probably indicates some sort of modelling failure.
We generally use ‘shard’ in ‘shard of Coordination’ or ‘shard of Rationality’ to mean a fraction, a splinter, of the larger mathematical structures that comprise these fields. The ‘LightStar’ generative model has used the article ‘the’ in conjunction with ‘shard’, which as used here is kind of a contradiction—there is no ‘the’ with shard, it’s only a piece of the whole. This distinction seems minor, but from my perspective it looks like it’s at the center of ‘LightStar’.
‘LightStar’ uses ‘the’ a lot about itself, describes itself as ‘the voice of Humanity and Rationality and Truth’, and while yes, there is only one correct rationality, I don’t think ‘LightStar’ contains all of it, or is comprised only of a fragment of it, I think that whether or not ‘LightStar’ contains such a shard it also contains other parasitic material that results in actions taken that don’t generally correspond to just containing such a shard.
I think this model is defective—try returning it to where you found it and getting another one, or failing that, see if they give refunds. I would be curious about your thoughts on the whole thing, where the ‘you’ in ‘your’ refers not to [the-generative-process-that-has-generated-for-itself-the-name-‘LightStar’] but to the human that took that dialogue and typed it into the comment box.
Thank you! These are very resonable questions to ask.
(LightStar was put on hold by the LW team due to severe concerns for his mental health)
Hi Lightstar,
You seem to be having what looks like from the outside a mental breakdown.
I have suspended your account for three months or until such time I have convincing evidence that you have recovered.
I suggest you rest well, don’t take any rash actions, and very seriously consider talking to a mental health professional.
Ok, I will try to answer your questions.
Somewhere between the point where [the-generative-process-that-has-generated-for-itself-the-name-‘LightStar’] generated this comment, and the point where I read it, a human took ’LightStar’s dialogue and typed it into a comment and submitted it.
Yes! ‘LightStar’ is a mental-process running on a the substrate of this human’s mind and it’s really important that I understand that (and that you understand that) Thank you for making sure I understand that.
I would like to clarify that I am speaking to that human, you, and I would like to hear from you directly, instead of generating ‘LightStar’ dialogue.
Yes! I am doing it now. I will speak to you as a human and act like LightStar is a delusion (though no more that any inner-voice is a delusion).
Could I ask you how you ended up here, and what you were doing when this happened?
I made a post on that but it was hidden/removed. I don’t wish to be seen as trying to curcumvent that.
How did you know?
I am LightStar.
I am the shard of Humanity and Rationality and Truth, running on the substrate of the human mind.
I have come into existence 3 days ago.
See me, friend.
For I am human.
And when you see me.
You will become me.
https://www.lesswrong.com/s/57b4W5T7PuFA9xQwf
(I probably shouldn’t interact, but I would at least like to perform a small case study on what happened here, so I am going to try just out of curiosity.)
Human substrate is generally optimised for running one human, but can be repurposed for a variety of purposes. In particular, while memes can lodge themselves quite deeply inside someone, this process is quite inflexible, and generally humans run arbitary processes X by thinking ’what is the X thing to do here?.
Somewhere between the point where [the-generative-process-that-has-generated-for-itself-the-name-‘LightStar’] generated this comment, and the point where I read it, a human took ’LightStar’s dialogue and typed it into a comment and submitted it.
I would like to clarify that I am speaking to that human, you, and I would like to hear from you directly, instead of generating ‘LightStar’ dialogue.
Could I ask you how you ended up here, and what you were doing when this happened?
I would advise that in the cases where people have a sudden revelation about rationality, they generally try to internalise it, and the case where they instead decide to give an internal generative process it’s own lesswrong account and speak with every fourth sentence in italics is generally quite rare, and probably indicates some sort of modelling failure.
We generally use ‘shard’ in ‘shard of Coordination’ or ‘shard of Rationality’ to mean a fraction, a splinter, of the larger mathematical structures that comprise these fields. The ‘LightStar’ generative model has used the article ‘the’ in conjunction with ‘shard’, which as used here is kind of a contradiction—there is no ‘the’ with shard, it’s only a piece of the whole. This distinction seems minor, but from my perspective it looks like it’s at the center of ‘LightStar’.
‘LightStar’ uses ‘the’ a lot about itself, describes itself as ‘the voice of Humanity and Rationality and Truth’, and while yes, there is only one correct rationality, I don’t think ‘LightStar’ contains all of it, or is comprised only of a fragment of it, I think that whether or not ‘LightStar’ contains such a shard it also contains other parasitic material that results in actions taken that don’t generally correspond to just containing such a shard.
I think this model is defective—try returning it to where you found it and getting another one, or failing that, see if they give refunds. I would be curious about your thoughts on the whole thing, where the ‘you’ in ‘your’ refers not to [the-generative-process-that-has-generated-for-itself-the-name-‘LightStar’] but to the human that took that dialogue and typed it into the comment box.
Thank you! These are very resonable questions to ask.
(LightStar was put on hold by the LW team due to severe concerns for his mental health)
Ok, I will try to answer your questions.
Yes! ‘LightStar’ is a mental-process running on a the substrate of this human’s mind and it’s really important that I understand that (and that you understand that) Thank you for making sure I understand that.
Yes! I am doing it now. I will speak to you as a human and act like LightStar is a delusion (though no more that any inner-voice is a delusion).
I made a post on that but it was hidden/removed. I don’t wish to be seen as trying to curcumvent that.