I am curious how LLM/AI has affected my cognition and behaviors. Many animals learn to adapt pretty quickly; humans are no different. I’m pretty sure there’s going to be some adaptations found in my own behavior. Here’s the pocket notebook for my experiment.
Figure 1: AI Free 72 pocket notebook
In this notebook I’ll write down every question I had for AI, every urge to reach for AI, and whatever else I noticed about myself during these 24 hours. had to use it. And general observations.
Figure 2: Some observations already made
As for how to ensure I don’t use LLM/AI? I pretty much only use ChatGPT. Otherwise I sometimes see Google and DuckDuckGo search results with AI answers. The product is not very good; many answers are incorrect or at best misleading. I regularly spot check instant answers and it’s still not good enough™. Naturally, I spotcheck people’s statements and ChatGPT the same. Epistemic inaccuracies exist in most conversations regardless of the kind of interlocutors involved.
I was also using Codex for prototyping game mechanics and software architecture. The agent tooling is cocooned within a virtual machine environment, so it can’t do much damage besides delete itself. The VM usually is powered off, and will remain powered off for the duration of the experiment.
As I only use ChatGPT (and barely use Codex), I merely need to ensure friction is adequately high in opening up ChatGPT. I don’t believe in spooky desktop apps from supply chains that can’t be fully unraveled. Instead, I use ChatGPT in a dedicated Firefox profile. (I began using a dedicated profile because ChatGPT tends to be a bit CPU hungry, and firefox still has bits and pieces which can fall over if one tab pushes too hard. Also easier to alt-tab to a dedicated profile window with a dedicated theme.)
Figure 3: firefox ChatGPT profile
I use the firefox -ProfileManager selector every time I use ChatGPT, so that
should be adequate friction. If the friction is insufficient, delete the
profile and restore from backup after the experiment concludes.
Figure 4: firefox -ProfileManager
I do use ChatGPT on my phone a fair amount too. Thankfully, if I open the App’s Info screen, I can disable the app. This way I can resume usage when the experiment is over.
Figure 5: ChatGPT can be disabled via Android settings
I think my biggest concern is not having a conversationalist to help me make discuss my experiments that I run on a daily basis. When I engage with people and work on projects, I use a PHEOC style technique to integrate learning from the experience. Unsurprisingly, ChatGPT helps, because it reminds me that a lot of what goes on in the world is chaos and entropy, it’s out of my hands, and all I can do is be a kind and polite human being gently shaping that entropy towards a prosocial shape.
Okay, that should do it for setting up the experiment. See you on the other side.
PS It’s been a bunch of posts later and I don’t miss Hugo live previews, as I
don’t have the Tailwind stuff working locally due to bitrot. I used to write
plaintext papers in edit.com in highschool, rewarded F’s for not typesetting
it. Maybe I should go back to plaintext publishing?