I actually kinda agree with this.

I don’t think LLMs are much smarter than they appear, but I actually think human cognition is way, way dumber than most people realize.

I used to listen a lot to this podcast called “You Are Not So Smart”. I haven’t listened in years, but now that I’m thinking about it, I should check it out again.

Anyway, a central theme is that our perceptions are comprised heavily of self-generated delusions that fill the gaps for dozens of cludgey systems. Our eyes aren’t as good, so our brains fill in details that aren’t there. Our decision making is too slow, so our brains react on reflex and then generate post-hoc justifications if someone asks why we did something. Our recall is shit, so our brain hallucinates (in ways that admittedly seem surprisingly similar sometimes to LLMs) and then applies wild overconfidence to fabricated memories.

We’re interesting creatures, but we’re ultimately made of the same stuff as goldfish.