Murtaza Hussain
@mazmhussain
It seems like LLMs will accelerate the phenomenon of post-literacy in the public. It already seems like the sophistication of people’s reading and writing has decreased with the decline in the cultural centrality of books, as well as the short, staccato informality of unedited text that most of us have grown accustomed to via social media. This in itself is not such a big deal and a lot of boring corporate writing deserves to be automated by LLMs. But the psychological impact of moving from a literate to a post-literate society is significant. Democracy presupposed a literate public and literacy has neurological effects that are arguably a necessity for democratic deliberation. If we’ve moved on from mass literacy I expect democracy will become increasingly farcical and managed through technological manipulation. We’re already much of the way there but these new advancements in blurting out passable text seem ready to put the last nail in the coffin of the republic of letters.
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Jack
@jackten
Being able to read and write now is like how the ancients used to spend their lives memorizing and retelling long epic stories, back before reading and writing were even invented. It's basically a nifty skill. Impressive that people were able to do that sort of thing. but practically useless now.
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KingBlack
@kingblack
With time, most democratic governments will become more dictatorial.
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alixkun🎩🍡
@alixkun
Plato theorized that already in The Republic, pointing out Democracy for being a flawed model that tends to turn into a popularity contest rather than a meritocracy. I think we're prisoner of the fact that we want the mean more than the end goal. We prefer imperfect results through democracy rather than perfect result without democracy. Except in China maybe. Ppl seem to accommodate with their lack of democracy as long as their getting positive outcomes. Which might change soon, so we'll see how it plays out for them...
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Callum Wanderloots ✨
@wanderloots.eth
Indeed, I think the general decline in an ability to focus/hold attention for long periods correlates to a decline in deep problem solving and critical thinking This boosts the ease at which the masses are manipulatable by low effort/mass produced short form content with a bigger agenda that the consumer is incapable of seeing or understanding Attention in the attention economy is still vastly underrated as a skill, rather than purely a resource to spend
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headtop
@headtop
The shift towards LLMs may lead to a post-literate society with significant psychological implications for democracy. Automated writing has its place, but the decline in literacy could impact democratic deliberation and pave the way for technological manipulation.
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