@ErcanErdemArdal @metin @mastodonmigration

The above serves as apt example: AI ‘read the tea leaves’ and said it was Edison, but kindly gave me a similar / better Bertrand Russell quote: “We all have a tendency to think that the world must conform to our prejudices. The opposite view involves some effort of thought, and most people would die sooner than think—in fact, they do so.” The first sentence nails describing what we risk, the second even carries a delicious double meaning. Russell gets credit. But QuoteInvestigator finds one nugget in a 1850s Harper’s article, the twist in an ag magazine in 1913, and our venerated three nowhere near it. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/09/23/think/

A system relying on statistical decisions to string sentences together will seek an average. The tall poppy gets snipped, myth is reinforced, and we slouch off toward mediocrity. Fuck.