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Explore a thought-provoking 40-minute conference talk from the 38th Chaos Communication Congress that examines magical thinking through an anthropological lens, starting with literal chicken sacrifices and moving to modern technological metaphors. Learn how humans use storytelling and personification to understand complex systems, particularly in the context of explaining LLMs (Large Language Models) to the general public. Discover the distinction between useful and problematic magical thinking, understanding how metaphors and simplified explanations can either aid or hinder comprehension of complex topics. Gain insights into the challenges experts face when communicating technical concepts to non-experts, and understand why humans default to story-based explanations with clear actors and actions. Examine how public discourse often reduces system-level problems to human-scale categories, and learn to distinguish between deliberate misinformation and genuine misunderstandings arising from mismatched metaphors. Master the ethnographer's approach to understanding different perspectives, making complex technological discussions more accessible and the world appear more comprehensible.
