All Things You Hear

I like the idea I got from one of Joscha Bach posts that everything we hear is automatically executed by our brain like it is own thoughts even when we don’t pay attention to it. And that it is a security vulnerability that it opens a gate for all sorts of exploitations. I keep returning to this thought frequently and so I decide to put it on “paper”.

The summary of my thoughts on the topic. We have that loop hole that can be exploit in multiple ways from little verbal abuse, or manipulation to full-fledged propaganda attacks. The most devious part is that it can crawl under your skin even if you don’t even pay attention to it. It is probably even more contagious when you are not pain attention since your guard is off. You can resist certain ideas when you hear then once, twice, ten times but after a hundred of repetitions they will eventually get through unless there is something in you that will make those ideas completely unacceptable for you.

Interestingly on the day when I decided to write the article a few independent event had happened.

A new post When Words Flow Like Tears: The Mysterious Art of Epiphora from Eugene Terekhin came out on exactly the same topic. Here is one of the quotes in the post:

He knew Gandalf was worried for Frodo, so he said,

“Your love of the halflings’ leaf has clearly slowed your mind.”

He’s saying that Gandalf’s trust in the halflings is sheer folly. He amplifies Gandalf’s fears and doubts. He’s casting a spell: “Frodo is doomed, and you are a fool.” His goal is to weaken Gandalf’s confidence.

Then another post, this time on telegram, from a different person but again on the same came out, Odysseus, Sirens, and TikTok. Here is a quote from there:

A bright episode with Sirens. Whether fish or girls, the metaphor is that there are objects in life that try to seize our attention through our defenselessness.

How they do it doesn’t matter, in Homer they sing sweetly, in real life, these are algorithms of Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, ChatGPT, which create such a sticky experience that we can’t cope with them.

Later the same morning, we were discussing the topic of AI alignment, or responsible AI where folks were trying to trick LLMs and make them do something they shouldn’t be doing by various language tricks. Interesting LLM to an extend works like a human brain where there is not much difference between the LLM and the user when LLM generates responses it replays both sides and then predicts what is coming next without making clear separation of one from another.

And later after work while I was riding a bus home. I saw two car license plate one after another

  • 3YND628
  • 8ACK137

And my mind re-played them quite nicely to complete the picture of the day:

  • 3YND628 -> YND -> Wind? -> NYND -> Unwind?
  • 8ACK137 -> ACK (Acknowledged) -> 8ACK -> Back? -> Yes, unwind, back up, relax.