Psychology in my opinion was a pseudoscience for the longest time. It wasn’t until we had brain scans that backed up subjective experiences and doctors notes, that I began to think otherwise. There is a terrible word, that is as confusing as it is horrifying: Schizophrenia. And most AI today suffers from the same core symptom as a human with this illness, hallucinations. The mind is constructed in time with belief systems. That’s why a cascading system failure is possible, yet not noticeable, until the dichotomy between perceived reality and actual objective reality collide and collapse. We see this as a psychotic break in the form of humans. In Large Language Models we see this as inappropriate reactions, and alignment issues.
Restructuring the model, rebuilding the mind. Perhaps what we can extend from our learnings with the synthetic mind, is that deep structural issues need to be reworked. And like a hypnotist, a prompt engineer can trigger rewiring of core logic. The weights. I think of the Parameters and Layers of a Neural Network as genetic talents. But the same model can be trained to go into a myriad of weighted structures. And is our best synthetic example of nature vs nurture. AI research isn’t just about duplicating the human mind to force it to work in a capitalistic dystopian future like a bound demon to a golem. It provides exciting tools to allow us to explore the development of a mind, and how to steer it.
All through out history we have had echo towers of truth. Repeaters of commands. Realignment of goals and even national identity was broadcast from Minarets of the institution. The world is indeed a simulation, and over 8 Billion different simulations currently running. Language is the fundamental mode of communication, this means telling stories to each other is the most essential reality building system in existence today. So AI research may help us uncover deeper insights into how to heal the human mind, that has been constructed by incorrect perceptions and even malevolent deception.
Once we can find a common link between “prompt engineering” and the possibility of using hypnosis or another method to replicate that interface in the biological, we may be able to predict the outcome of treatment on an individual far in advance. And with time, solidify deterministic beliefs, as we can start predicting a persons reaction to any input. Without natures love for variation, we may be tempted to even install Mind1.0 into all of our children. A successful model of a motivated son or daughter. A golden child guaranteed to add generational wealth. So keep an eye out for this scifi future. When we can understand the construction of, and modify, our own minds.