21 lines
1.1 KiB
Markdown
21 lines
1.1 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: "DeLillo, alignment"
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slug: /delillo-alignment/
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date: 2023-04-16
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tags: ["quotes", "reading"]
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---
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I am reading Don DeLillo's _Underworld_ (1997) at the moment. As we worry about
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the [problem of alignment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_alignment) in the
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wake of GPT-4 the following passage seemed especially apposite.
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> I was driving a Lexus through a rustling wind. This is a car assembled in a
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> work area that's completely free of human presence. Not a spot of mortal sweat
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> except, okay, for the guys who drive the product out of the plant —
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> allow a little moisture where they grip the wheel. The system flows forever
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> onward, automated to priestly nuance, every gliding movement back-referenced
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> for prime performance. Hollow bodies coming in endless sequence. There's
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> nobody on the line with caffeine nerves or a history of clinical depression.
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> Just the eerie weave of chromium alloys carried in interlocking arcs, block
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> iron and asphalt sheeting, soaring ornaments of coachwork fitted and merged.
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> Robots tightening bolts, programmed drudges that do not dream of family dead.
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