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skeeter2020yesterday at 2:32 PM3 repliesview on HN

I don't like it for a permanent solution, but "synthetic thought" might make a good enough placeholder until we figure this out. It feels most important to differentiate because I believe some parties have a personal interest in purposely confusing human thought with whatever LLMs are doing right now.


Replies

Libidinaleconyesterday at 11:37 PM

This is complete nonsense.

If you do math in your head or math with a pencil/paper or math with a pocket calculator or with a spreadsheet or in a programming language, it is all the same thing.

The only difference with LLMs is the anthropomorphization of the tool.

pmarreckyesterday at 5:39 PM

agreed.

also, sorry but you (fellow) nerds are terrible at naming.

while "thunking" possibly name-collides with "thunks" from CS, the key is that it is memorable, 2 syllables, a bit whimsical and just different enough to both indicate its source meaning as well as some possible unstated difference. Plus it reminds me of "clunky" which is exactly what it is - "clunky thinking" aka "thunking".

And frankly, the idea it's naming is far bigger than what a "thunk" is in CS

N7lo4nl34akaoSNyesterday at 4:54 PM

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