Listen now | Robert Wright and Andrew Day discuss items from the Earthling. 0:42 Where’s Mickey? 5:00 Why ChatGPT is the real person of the year 20:41 The New York Times sues OpenAI 33:40 Bob’s bitter vindication on Russia-Ukraine 43:12 Israel threatens a wider war
In an ideal world, researchers would use LLMs as just another tool in the toolkit. Different projects require different levels of research. For certain projects, a trip to a particular archive to look at some historical documents or rare text might be warranted. If all you need is general background, an LLM might be useful (assuming the hallucinations become less of an issue). Right now, the uncertainty of the accuracy of what GPT4 is telling me makes me cautious to rely on it heavily.
Also, personally I enjoy Andrew’s contributions. Mickey sometimes had more obscure knowledge, which was enjoyable, but he also said more ridiculous things. And Andrew’s voice is more melodious.
I was thinking that if Marijuana existed in prehistoric times, isn't it more likely people saw it as food and ingested it like a fruit or vegetables? The plant must have existed pre discovery of fire. And if we(humans) ate it like every other fruit, that means we were ingesting large amounts of THCA, which is the precursor to THC. But the psychoactive element THC is only released when THCA is decarboxylated by heat or light.
Turns out, that inside the human body, the mitochondria of the cell uses decarboxylation to produce energy.
So if humans evolved to eat weed as a food and mitochondria can decarboxylate THCA inside of the body, after ingestion, does that mean there are evolutionary metabolic processes/pathways that were key to human development that we no longer use today? Especially given research that nonpsychoactive THCA has many medical benefits, the most important one I think is reducing inflammation, which is the root of most disease today.
Thanks for your work this year Bob and Andrew!
Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!
In an ideal world, researchers would use LLMs as just another tool in the toolkit. Different projects require different levels of research. For certain projects, a trip to a particular archive to look at some historical documents or rare text might be warranted. If all you need is general background, an LLM might be useful (assuming the hallucinations become less of an issue). Right now, the uncertainty of the accuracy of what GPT4 is telling me makes me cautious to rely on it heavily.
Also, personally I enjoy Andrew’s contributions. Mickey sometimes had more obscure knowledge, which was enjoyable, but he also said more ridiculous things. And Andrew’s voice is more melodious.
Bob and Andrew, thank you for providing an oasis of objectivity with the Nonzero newsletter. I wish you both a prosperous and productive new year!
Thank you for the kind words. And Happy New Year to you!
I was thinking that if Marijuana existed in prehistoric times, isn't it more likely people saw it as food and ingested it like a fruit or vegetables? The plant must have existed pre discovery of fire. And if we(humans) ate it like every other fruit, that means we were ingesting large amounts of THCA, which is the precursor to THC. But the psychoactive element THC is only released when THCA is decarboxylated by heat or light.
Turns out, that inside the human body, the mitochondria of the cell uses decarboxylation to produce energy.
So if humans evolved to eat weed as a food and mitochondria can decarboxylate THCA inside of the body, after ingestion, does that mean there are evolutionary metabolic processes/pathways that were key to human development that we no longer use today? Especially given research that nonpsychoactive THCA has many medical benefits, the most important one I think is reducing inflammation, which is the root of most disease today.