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Comment by jameson | Hacker News Reader

> The LLM undeniably reduced the friction involved in answering participants' questions compared to the Search Engine. However, this convenience came at a cognitive cost, diminishing users' inclination to critically evaluate the LLM's output or ”opinions” (probabilistic answers based on the training datasets). This highlights a concerning evolution of the 'echo chamber' effect: rather than disappearing, it has adapted to shape user exposure through algorithmically curated content. What is ranked as “top” is ultimately influenced by the priorities of the LLM's shareholders [123, 125].

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> What is ranked as “top” is ultimately influenced by the priorities of the LLM's shareholders [123, 125].

As if that's anything new. There's the adage that's older than electronics, that freedom of the press is freedom for those who can afford to own a printing press.

> However, this convenience came at a cognitive cost, diminishing users' inclination to critically evaluate the LLM's output or ”opinions” (probabilistic answers based on the training datasets).

Reminds me of Plato's concern about reading and writing dulling your mind. (I think he had his sock puppet Socrates express the concern. But I could be wrong.)

Plato's sock puppet Socrates? I think that you and I have read different history books, or at least different books regarding the history of philosophy. That said, I would love to hear your perspective on this.

> Plato's sock puppet Socrates?

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_problem

> Socrates was the main character in most of Plato's dialogues and was a genuine historical figure. It is widely understood that in later dialogues, Plato used the character Socrates to give voice to views that were his own.

However, have a look at the Wikipedia article itself for a more nuanced view. We also have some other writers with accounts of Socrates.

I presume they refer to the fact that Socrates is basically used as a rhetorical device in Plato’s writings, and it’s not entirely clear how much of the dialogues were Socrates’s thoughts and how much was Plato’s own.

Yes, exactly.

> Reminds me of Plato's concern about reading and writing dulling your mind. (I think he had his sock puppet Socrates express the concern. But I could be wrong.)

Nope.

Read the dialogue (Phaedrus). It's about rhetoric and writing down political discourses. Writing had existed for millennia. And the bit about writing being detrimental is from a mythical Egyptian king talking to a god, just a throwaway story used in the dialogue to make a tiny point.

In fact the conclusion of that bit of the dialogue is that merely having access to text may give an illusion of understanding. Quite relevant and on point I'd say.

> In fact the conclusion of that bit of the dialogue is that merely having access to text may give an illusion of understanding. Quite relevant and on point I'd say.

Well, so that's exactly my point: Plato was an old man who yelled at clouds before it was cool.

Wow.

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