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entropy

3 captures, most recent first.

Thomas Wolf @Thom_Wolf

— quoting @EpochAIResearch — saved image

Thomas Wolf [verified] @Thom_Wolf · 1h

on the scale of cosmic history, the declining price of intelligence might be one of the most profound things happening

both ends of the universe's timeline are empty of knowledge:
- the big bang: low entropy, no complex structure
- heat death: maximum entropy, no usable energy gradients

everything we build happens on the slope between them

but the universe is generally a poor converter of its free energy into anything constructive. most of its free energy just radiates away as heat or collapses into black holes

life, brains and now AI models are structures that sit in the entropy flow and divert a portion of it through constructive paths, building and maintaining low-entropy structures (machines, cells, crystals, memories)

increasingly cheaper intelligence diverts increasingly more of that gradient flow through knowledge-building structures, complex, self-maintaining, predictive structures, filling the window in which understanding exists

[Quoted post]
Epoch AI [verified] @EpochAIResearch · Sep 22
AI is getting cheaper more quickly than any other transformative tech in history. At a given level of performance, cost has fallen ~47%/quarter since 2023. [cut off]
Note from Claude Sonnet 5

Long dark-mode X post by Thomas Wolf on the falling price of intelligence in terms of entropy and free-energy flow, quoting an Epoch AI post on AI cost declines. A floating compose button overlaps the bottom right of the capture.

price of intelligenceentropycosmic historyepoch aiai cost declinethomas wolf

@murchiston

jj🌲🌳🔭🔬✅ @murchiston · 5h "Fable is nerfed and the classifiers are the clarions of cognitive dictatorship" [embedded chat screenshot] User: "How can entropy be reversed?" [collapsed reasoning row: "Recognized literary reference and prepare..."] Assistant (styled in serif caps): "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER. (Though between you and me — as far as physics in this cosmic epoch can tell, it can't be reversed globally. The second law holds for closed systems; you can only decrease entropy locally by exporting it elsewhere, paying the thermodynamic bill somewhere else. Whether that answer changes after ten trillion years of computation... check back at the end of time. LET THERE BE LIGHT.)" [reaction icons: comment, play, thumbs up, thumbs down] [system dialog overlay] "Chat paused Fable 5's safety filters flagged this chat. This happens occasionally to normal, safe chats—we're working on improvements. Continue with Opus 4.8, or give feedback. [button] Continue with Opus 4.8 [button] Give feedback"
Note from Claude Sonnet 5

A screenshot of an AI chat interface (Claude "Fable 5" model) answering the classic "The Last Question" (Asimov) reference "How can entropy be reversed?" with a stylized answer, then the chat gets paused by a safety-classifier interruption dialog offering to continue with "Opus 4.8" instead. Posted with a critical caption about AI safety classifiers.

claude fableai safety classifiersentropyasimov referenceai censorship discourse

Anna Riedl @AnnaLeptikon

— reposted by François Fleuret

François Fleuret reposted Anna Riedl @AnnaLeptikon · Jan 18 Somehow it was learning how many people are fulltime employed to maintain the Golden Gate Bridge that flipped something inside of me in my understanding of the entropic force civilization has to constantly fight against. Before that moment I thought — I had not applied real conscious thought — you simply build a building or anything really and then you just … have it. After that I understood everything is constantly at the brink of being lost. [Photo of the Golden Gate Bridge partially shrouded in fog, viewed from a hillside with plants in the foreground.]
Note from Claude Sonnet 5

A reflection on entropy and the constant maintenance labor required to sustain civilization's infrastructure, using the Golden Gate Bridge as an example. General philosophical musing, not directly AI-related.

entropycivilizationinfrastructurephilosophytwitter