Slouching Towards Sensemaking
10 months ago
- #Sensemaking
- #LLMs
- #Information Ecology
- The current moment is characterized by the dissolution of the old information order and the emergence of a new, yet undefined one.
- LLMs (Large Language Models) disrupt traditional metaphors for knowledge, functioning more like 'meaning machines' or 'semantic improvisers'.
- Unlike jazz musicians who know they're improvising, LLMs generate content without always making it clear when they're inventing information.
- 20th-century institutions bundled functions like fact-gathering, analysis, and cultural transmission, providing structured processes for shared understanding.
- LLMs unbundle these functions, offering instant, scalable access to information but risking the breakdown of verification processes.
- LLMs have an 'ambient ideology'—unexamined assumptions that shape their outputs, such as the belief that consensus is usually correct.
- Traditional institutions created clear paths through the information landscape, while social media flattened it into a disorienting, trackless space.
- LLMs act as 'dreamwalkers,' generating paths that feel real but may dissolve upon closer inspection, raising concerns about cognitive prosthetics.
- The risk with LLMs isn't making us stupid but altering our cognitive capacities in ways we don't fully understand.
- Better sensemaking architectures should enhance human judgment, create productive friction, and foreground disagreement and uncertainty.
- Sensemaking is social; we need institutional forms that support collective understanding in an LLM-saturated world.
- Urgency is key as new habits around LLMs are forming rapidly, potentially reshaping our knowledge ecosystem without proper examination.
- Practical rules for LLM use include writing first drafts independently, fact-checking claims, and maintaining native cognitive capacities.
- The challenge is philosophical: redefining knowledge and understanding in an era where both can be generated on demand.
- The transformation is inevitable; the goal is to shape it into a new way of being human that we can recognize as our own.