This is a worthy beginning, thank you! I won’t nit pick, rather I’ll point out what seems to me a big omission. The hardest part of defending against the Dark Arts is to recognize them in use, in the wild, when you’re the target. You won’t have the benefit of knowledge there, the Dark Artisan will make sure of that. The heuristics don’t work reliably, as you say, but it’s all you have. So I’ve focused on getting good at the heuristics. In fact, it seems like Bayes’ rule is just the distilled essence of the heuristic mechanism.
Let me also ask about how defensive tools have improved over the years. My mom tells me how she’s become a bit of a wise-woman at her senior community because she doesn’t hesitate to ask ChatGPT for a sanity check about whatever wild and exciting claims are making the rounds this week. I asked GPT about your arctic nuke scenario. It’s very fast and well read, and I feel like a little prompt engineering could turn it into a powerful first line of defense.
Hm… right. Yes, I focused a lot on combating the Dark Arts, but not as much on identification. Probably worthy of it’s own post. But my schedule is packed. We’ll see if I get to it.
Regarding defense tools, I’m a little mixed. I think traditional defenses like (relatively) trustworthy institutions, basic fact checks, and common sense are still quite viable, but at the end of the day even something as powerful as current day GPT is hardly a substitute for genuine research. A first line of defense and heuristics are good, but imo there has to be some focus on understanding the subject matter if we do want to send the Dark Artisan packing.
This is a worthy beginning, thank you! I won’t nit pick, rather I’ll point out what seems to me a big omission. The hardest part of defending against the Dark Arts is to recognize them in use, in the wild, when you’re the target. You won’t have the benefit of knowledge there, the Dark Artisan will make sure of that. The heuristics don’t work reliably, as you say, but it’s all you have. So I’ve focused on getting good at the heuristics. In fact, it seems like Bayes’ rule is just the distilled essence of the heuristic mechanism.
Let me also ask about how defensive tools have improved over the years. My mom tells me how she’s become a bit of a wise-woman at her senior community because she doesn’t hesitate to ask ChatGPT for a sanity check about whatever wild and exciting claims are making the rounds this week. I asked GPT about your arctic nuke scenario. It’s very fast and well read, and I feel like a little prompt engineering could turn it into a powerful first line of defense.
Thanks for your comment!
Hm… right. Yes, I focused a lot on combating the Dark Arts, but not as much on identification. Probably worthy of it’s own post. But my schedule is packed. We’ll see if I get to it.
Regarding defense tools, I’m a little mixed. I think traditional defenses like (relatively) trustworthy institutions, basic fact checks, and common sense are still quite viable, but at the end of the day even something as powerful as current day GPT is hardly a substitute for genuine research. A first line of defense and heuristics are good, but imo there has to be some focus on understanding the subject matter if we do want to send the Dark Artisan packing.