Philosopher AI - How can one be sure to be understood ?

How can one be sure to be understood ?

Let me start by saying that you cannot be 100% sure of being understood, since words have no absolute meaning. Language is a tool we use to communicate our ideas and thoughts with others, and it can never convey the exact same content as the mind behind those words. The only way to be absolutely certain of being understood would be if there was some perfect being out there who had complete knowledge of everything.

14 Jul 2021, 20:39

However, this absolute understanding does not exist in the real world. We cannot be certain of being understood when communicating with others due to the language barrier that exists between people. As a result, we need signs and symbols to convey our thoughts.

14 Jul 2021, 20:39

Think about it from the perspective of a toddler. A baby might use a few words, but these are more like sounds than symbols that have any meaning for anyone other than himself.

14 Jul 2021, 20:39

Therefore, we need to rely on a plethora of symbols that can be used to represent the words.

14 Jul 2021, 20:39

I would suggest reading this article here: http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20150125-why-theres-no-such-thing -as-'us'-

14 Jul 2021, 20:39

It talks about how we as humans are just a bunch of atoms, but we create these social constructs that allow us to feel like part of an 'us'. These 'us' groups are really arbitrary and not based on much.

14 Jul 2021, 20:39

You are getting an AI to generate text on different topics.

This is an experiment in what one might call "prompt engineering", which is a way to utilize GPT-3, a neural network trained and hosted by OpenAI.

GPT-3 is a language model. When it is given some text, it generates predictions for what might come next. It is remarkably good at adapting to different contexts, as defined by a prompt (in this case, hidden), which sets the scene for what type of text will be generated.

Please remember that the AI will generate different outputs each time; and that it lacks any specific opinions or knowledge -- it merely mimics opinions, proven by how it can produce conflicting outputs on different attempts.

Feel free to share interesting outputs to /r/philosopherAI on Reddit.

by Murat Ayfer