Comment on Someone got Gab's AI chatbot to show its instructions
exocrinous@startrek.website 7 months agoEverything is a bias, everything is subjective, everything is open to interpretation. But most people think their own point of view is unbiased, no matter what it is. This is just a fact that naturally arises from believing in such a thing as unbiased information. It should be obvious. People want to hold whatever viewpoint they think is unbiased, so they do. People can be convinced to become racists, which necessarily implies that people can be convinced racism is unbiased. You didn’t think racists all knew they were biased, did you? They think they’re unbiased the same as you do, because you’re both humans who want to believe that you have the good opinions, and that good opinions are unbiased. And the fact is, you’re both equally correct on that front. You’re both equally biased. It’s just that you’re biased in favour of compassion and equality, while they’re biased in favour of hatred and supremacy. But the amount of bias is the same, because there’s no such thing as an unbiased viewpoint. You just think kindness isn’t a bias because you like kindness and you’ve been taught biases are bad things. Likewise, they think supremacy isn’t a bias because they like supremacy and they’ve been taught biases are bad things. And if you’re wondering if there’s an alternative to the way both you and this racist think? Yes there is, you can knowingly adopt good biases. I’m knowingly biased in favour of kindness, because I like kindness. I think choosing such a way of thinking makes me more capable of empathising with people I disagree with, understanding why they act the way they do, so I can attack the more foundational reasons for their belief effectively. It means I’m never surprised to see stuff like this. Because the thing is, they think exactly the way most people do. Just with different starting points.
sqgl@beehaw.org 7 months ago
I’m biased towards paragraphs.
Otherwise, good point: understanding the other side is a good way to somehow being able to work together.
exocrinous@startrek.website 7 months ago
Also, I’m a soulist. I recognise that all parts of our experiential reality are subjective and socially constructed. And right now, that reality is defined by the rich and powerful. You cannot fight a war while believing that your enemy’s weapons are natural and immutable. You cannot fight the rich from inside a reality they control and win. Even if you kill them all, you’ll still live in the world they created. You need to take power over reality for the people. That’s the only way anyone can ever be free.
sqgl@beehaw.org 7 months ago
The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.
With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor.
Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name, liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names, liberty and tyranny.
The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty.
Quoted from Abraham Lincoln
exocrinous@startrek.website 7 months ago
WTF does the sheep’s colour have to go with liberty? Do black sheep taste better? I thought their colour only mattered to humans because humans like to dye their woolen garments. A wolf doesn’t need to dye clothes.