You are not a Large Language Model

Get your grubby little paws off of that word

Put. That. Word. Down, Mister.

In this house, we treat language with the same respect as a laser, a rifle, or a high voltage detonator.

In this house, we believe that language is a powerful tool for delivering energy with precision. 

Words are not bludgeons. They are not flags. We do not use them under the intoxication of powerful emotion. In this house, we speak as if driving a semi truck filled with nuclear warheads: soberly, intentionally, and with a precise destination in mind.  

Do you know the definition of that word? Could you explain to your college math teacher what “stochastic” means, in a way they would accept?   If not, put. It. Down.

You are not a large language model. Do not act like one. 

You are capable of reason, which means computing the deductive implications of sets of claims about essences.  A large language model is not. 

You are capable of belief, which means acting in the world as if some idea were true. A large language model is not.

You are capable of noticing and resolving contradictions between different aspects of what you believe. A large language model is not.

To truly reason means to resolve contradictions between claims that feel good, to turn them into actual beliefs. That is the work of a reasoning mind. Only a reasoning mind is capable of true belief, which means action consistent with a stated principle.

It is the work that lets Scott Alexander flex on you: his audience is massive because of the enormous effort he has exerted to organize his mind.  You do not have a giant audience, not because you have nothing worthwhile to say - I promise, you do, your understanding of your potential is accurate - you do not have the audience you wish because you are not sufficiently diligent in removing the contradictions from your own worldview.

Your mind is a jungle, which means whichever animal is strongest wins that day.

Scott’s mind is a garden, with pruned hedges, flowering fruit trees, and soft grass. Scott assiduously ambulates his cognitive inner territory, shears in hand. One of these two trees has got to go. He does not hesitate. He cogitates, and then he cuts. Or, he waits, with caution tape around the trees. “I am uncertain as to what to believe here,” he says. “Each of these trees seems well rooted, and yet their branches snarl. I am convinced that a garden aligned with truth will not have trees with such snarling branches. Either one of these trees is falsely rooted, or the branches are not growing correctly. But I can’t tell what’s going on, precisely. Perhaps you can help me,” he asks, with the humility that only a truly virtuous reasoning mind can possess.

The secret is in valuing the truth itself, so much, that you don’t care how others see you or what you accomplish or what you do with your life, you just want to know the truth. ¹

That is how a reasoned mind communicates. A large language model, however, merely barrels towards the positive labels. A human acting like an LLM says what feels good to it. These two are structurally equivalent. That’s all Lacan was on about: he told everyone, “you think you’re a reasoning agent, but really you’re just modeling the socially approved language.”

You are too focused on the outer territory to have a well-maintained inner territory. Do the work there, in your own mind, the place of highest leverage, and all else will follow.

Nothing is as rare, or high leverage, as a coherently structured consciousness.  Nothing is as sexy - as intellectually receptive to and generative of new signals of Truth - as a well-ordered mind.

You Are Not an Open Minded Evidence Follower

Do you have an open mind, following the evidence wherever it leads? I doubt it.

If you had an open mind, you’d be willing to consider evidence of any hypothesis as long as it came from someone you found reasonably credible.

Be honest. You don’t do this all the time. Sometimes, sure. But the rest of the time, you have ideas that you love and ideas that you hate.

If someone that you generally trust and find credible articulates something that sounds to you like an idea that you hate, you are not always going to weigh your trust for this person as being more important than your hatred for that idea. Maybe if you feel good, or they’ve been on a role lately. Maybe. On a good day.

You are not a large language model. Do not lie to yourself.  Perhaps you have a positive valence associated with the phrase “I am open minded and follow the evidence.” Perhaps you’ve managed to do this once or twice. The reality is that this is now how you are, but rather, how you aspire to be.

Instead, consult the evidence of your own life. Introspect your own behavior, as an outsider would, before you claim to be a way that you are not. 

You Don’t Believe in Equality

Do you believe in equality? I doubt it. 

What does “equality” mean? Equal in what way?  Equally deserving of dignity?  Compassion? Acceptance? Do you act as if this were true? If not, you don’t really believe in equality. You merely feel good when you say that you do.

Do you really act as if you are equal to a pedophile rapist? If not, you don’t believe in equality. You only think you do.

You are not a large language model. Do not lie to yourself.  Perhaps you have a positive valence associated with the phrase “I treat everyone equally.”

Instead, consult the evidence of your own life. Introspect your own behavior, as an outsider would, before you claim to be a way that you are not. 

You Don’t Believe in God

Do you think you believe in God? I doubt it.

If you did, you’d never be anxious, you’d always be loving, and the material world would only be a source of awe and beauty for you, not something you clung to. Are you like that, all of the time? If not, then No, you don’t believe in God. You might possibly have some training weights that assign positive valence to the phrase “I believe in God”, but if you really believed, you would act this way at all times. 

Instead, consult the evidence of your own life. Introspect your own behavior, as an outsider would, before you claim to be a way that you are not. 

You are a Human. Act like one.

You probably believe in gravity, because you don’t try to jump into the air and fly, nor do you routinely walk off of buildings. You don’t do these things because you really do believe in gravity. You act as if it’s true.

As for many other beliefs and properties that you claim to have, you are wrong. You are lying to yourself.  You are acting like a large language model, which you are not. You are a human. Act like one. Say things like, “I don’t know” or “perhaps, what does that mean do you?”

If you aspire to believe in something, say that instead. If you feel good when you think of a phrase, but you cannot translate this good feeling into predictions about the external world, then say that. This inability doesn’t mean the belief is forever invalid, only that it is, at present, beyond you.  

Speaking this way this will make you stronger, wiser, and tougher. It will only make you appear weaker in the eyes of fools.

Do you really want fools to think highly of you?

1. If anything is more important to you than the truth, you will adopt falsehoods and nonsense beliefs that are instrumental in your pursuit of that thing. Your instrumental goals must take priority over your terminal goals, or else you will fail to approach even your terminal goals. As the ancients said,

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before”