I'm not sure there's any reason to "work with" ChatGPT to get particular results, but if you do want characters it portrays to have their appropriate properties, my friend David discovered that it works best with fictional worlds that have spawned lots of fan-fiction, likely because it was trained on Internet texts and therefore has more of a "sense" (it has no sense) of characters who have been depicted in lots and lots of content. So e.g. Star Trek characters in prompted AI scripts often behave and speak recognizable like themselves, whereas it will fully shit the bed if we ask it to depict Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien from "Tree of Life" at a rave (or what-have-you).
βThe Come Upβ is a new oral history of hip hop thatβs entertaining and brisk. It covers a lot more ground than MMINTB. For one that covers a very specific time period in a very specific place, the new βRap Capitalβ does an excellent job; itβs reported rather than being an oral history of the recent dominance of Atlanta over all streaming music through hip hop. Itβs very materialist!
Iβve been trying to like* Bruce Springsteen since the 70s, to no avail. This didnβt help, in fact I looked at my watch halfway through. Particularly liked how the organ kept playing as Bruce arose into his trademarked chimpanzee stance.
Iβm very familiar with Suicideβs original and Bruce did not capture the spirit of it at all. In fact it was just another Springsteen song that largely distills down to being about himself, of which Iβve tried to look the other way but canβt get there. Suicideβs Dream Baby Dream is not very good but itβs importance is what it was, when it happened and what it (may have) influenced.
Maybe Springsteen is a perverse NYC thing (gawd knows he doesnβt epitomize the New Yorker type pushed onto us in the wastelands). Heβs loved by the critics and loved by the College kids who drunkenly yelled along with his woah-ho-ho songs from the Seventies. Maybe they bred and created his fan base - that and his admittedly good value overly long concerts that endeared him to the penny pinchers.
Once read an article about the Clashβs London Calling album. A line that resonated was a remark that a lyric in throwaway song, Death Or Glory - Now every cheap hood strikes a bargain with his world, And ends up making payments on a sofa or a girl - summed up the entire Springsteen canon. Obviously this isnβt completely true. Only about ninety per cent.
Anyway, weβre here to enjoy this Substack. Disagreement is a big part of it. I certainly donβt wish to offend.
* I did quite enjoy Springsteen On Broadway, not just because he admitted to being somewhat fraudulent but because of his βhonestyβ. Springsteenβs a good actor.
Freddie, you have decent track record of picks. I'm like 7-1 with my picks here. Those are numbers people will pay for. Whaat you say we write a football pick letter and make it subscriber only? If your track record is good, and ours is, you can easily clear $1000/week, given your built in subscriber base. We can make it work. I'm serious. Think about it. Even if it's just another $10K, why not take it? Since you'll be doing almost all of the work, you clearly get a huge chunk. I'm just a guy giving winning picks and giving you my ideas on why they should cover. You write it up and watch money flow. And we have such different (surprise there) strategies. You have the noise for points. You love betting the dog. I'm all about which favorite covers. You get both flavors! Dude, it makes sense.
As for today's pick, I'm rolling with Dallas -7. Washington is unraveling, starting Carston Wentz, and is playing for a dead coach walking. They are simply not enough talent and "want to" to keep it close. Dallas rolls.
77th post on 1/7 titled. βAnd we watched them as theyβ¦β. How did you miss the opportunity to give Prince his due? β All seven and we'll watch them fall. β
I have a sinking feeling that ChatGPT and other emerging AI technologies are just good enough to revolutionize the world but not good enough to actually improve it.
Some friends of mine introduced me to a game, played using an AI chatbot, where you compete as factions trying to conquer Europe. The idea is for each turn you write the start of a story about how your side wins, then let the AI finish it and see if you gain or lose territory. The fun of the game (such as it is) is in laughing at how hilariously bizarre the AI's interpretations of your prompts become and trying desperately to steer it back on track. The sense one gets very quickly is that this is a powerful artificial mind that has no idea what you need nor any ability to reliably provide it.
I've come to believe that the Internet and social media are primarily tools for generating hopelessness. The cynicism and hostility of Twitter, the bizarre identity flailing of Gen Z, and the social and political dysfunction that Freddie often writes about all make sense to me when seen through that framework. It's the result of feeling that nobody is steering the ship, that there's nobody in charge who understands how to help. And AI, I fear, will be that on steroids. Imagine the future as some dumb TikTok challenge to set your eyebrows on fire, only it's automated and now your paycheck depends on it.
I really enjoyed the non-garbage online reading of the week.
The author manages to criticise the excesses of the woke/social justice movement in a way that I found both true and compassionate:
> That racial oppression, violence, and exploitation have been constants throughout American history is a fact. But that these things constitute the meaning of American history is an interpretationβand one that Rorty would have rejected.
> ...
> When I hear the antiracist, antisexist, anticapitalist rhetoric of the left, I often respond as I think Rorty would: with the pragmatic sense that theirs is a platform unlikely to inspire a broad electorate, a platform far from Rortyβs hopes to achieve our country through solidarity with the working class and the poor. But I also sense that hiding beneath the rhetoric are profoundly held ideals, ones that are struggling to express themselves in a postidealist age, in the pragmatic language that is all we haveΒ left.
Meta-comment: Freddie, just wanted to say that I appreciate the existence of these Weekly Digest posts, even as someone who makes a valiant effort to read everything as it comes out. It helps mark the passage of time, and gives second-chance opportunities for commenting if someone wasn't lucky enough to secure first-mover advantage in like the first hour of a post being up. The NGOR is almost always worth at least skimming, too. Songs and books tend to not be up my taste alley, but likewise serve as possible inspiration for someone else I know who might enjoy such things. Thanks for the service, I wish some other blogs did the same.
NYT had an article about ChatGPT emulating kids' writing (grades 5 and 8) that included a quiz: 10 short essays for the reader to decide, kid or ChatGPT? I got 10 out of 10 right, and usually only had to read a couple of sentences of each.
Chat GPT is super helpful for my job. It's much better than reading through Stack Overflow threads, and it can help me correct errors in code that isn't working and optimize code that is. I can also ask it follow up questions that aren't clear in the API documentation. Maybe it's not good for creative exercises but it's all ready a huge deal for me.
As an Iowa State alumna, I cannot let this stand. May your bet be busted, your embarrassment be deep, and your shame lingering when the 49ers and Purdy prevail this season.
Now how do I cancel my subscription?
=)
I think that everyone is just jealous that a cow school, in the middle of Iowa, has (had) two legitimate contenders for rookie of the year this season (Breece Hall, RB, before season-ending injury). You'll also get to know Xavier Hutchinson over the next few seasons. We also have two other NFL starters, two NBA starters, and two strong NBA bench players.
(What do you mean `have I ever heard of an inferiority complex?')
Thanks for the article link. For me, as a Unitarian, fascinating to note that almost all of the pragmatist thinkers mentioned were either Unitarians (Thoreau) or Unitarian adjacent/ sympathetic (James in 'Varities of Religious Experience' basically articulates the modern Unitarian credo).
I mention this because my main issue with your piece on why its wrong to tolerate/ be open minded about tarot, astrology etc. is the value I place on epistemological compatibilism and the idea that reality is nested i.e. a spiritual story may have allegorical truthiness even if it lacks scientific truth.
I guess I'd always seen that as me being an idealist. But, actually, it strikes me that Unitarianism is pragmatist at heart with the //belief in belief// that you are critical of being largely pragmatic rather than idealistic.
Also, while the essay ends with a call for the Liberal Center-Left to regain its idealism, this comes after a number of paragraphs in which the authors notes that idealism hasn't actually worked out very well for the Left in recent times! It seems like he largely wants more abstract, traditionally Enlightenment-period ideals, rather than "anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-capitalism", which are more focused if anything!
I'm not sure there's any reason to "work with" ChatGPT to get particular results, but if you do want characters it portrays to have their appropriate properties, my friend David discovered that it works best with fictional worlds that have spawned lots of fan-fiction, likely because it was trained on Internet texts and therefore has more of a "sense" (it has no sense) of characters who have been depicted in lots and lots of content. So e.g. Star Trek characters in prompted AI scripts often behave and speak recognizable like themselves, whereas it will fully shit the bed if we ask it to depict Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien from "Tree of Life" at a rave (or what-have-you).
IIRC, Springsteen wanted to perform Dream Baby Dream at the Super Bowl but the producers wouldnβt let him.
βThe Come Upβ is a new oral history of hip hop thatβs entertaining and brisk. It covers a lot more ground than MMINTB. For one that covers a very specific time period in a very specific place, the new βRap Capitalβ does an excellent job; itβs reported rather than being an oral history of the recent dominance of Atlanta over all streaming music through hip hop. Itβs very materialist!
Iβve been trying to like* Bruce Springsteen since the 70s, to no avail. This didnβt help, in fact I looked at my watch halfway through. Particularly liked how the organ kept playing as Bruce arose into his trademarked chimpanzee stance.
Iβm very familiar with Suicideβs original and Bruce did not capture the spirit of it at all. In fact it was just another Springsteen song that largely distills down to being about himself, of which Iβve tried to look the other way but canβt get there. Suicideβs Dream Baby Dream is not very good but itβs importance is what it was, when it happened and what it (may have) influenced.
Maybe Springsteen is a perverse NYC thing (gawd knows he doesnβt epitomize the New Yorker type pushed onto us in the wastelands). Heβs loved by the critics and loved by the College kids who drunkenly yelled along with his woah-ho-ho songs from the Seventies. Maybe they bred and created his fan base - that and his admittedly good value overly long concerts that endeared him to the penny pinchers.
Once read an article about the Clashβs London Calling album. A line that resonated was a remark that a lyric in throwaway song, Death Or Glory - Now every cheap hood strikes a bargain with his world, And ends up making payments on a sofa or a girl - summed up the entire Springsteen canon. Obviously this isnβt completely true. Only about ninety per cent.
Anyway, weβre here to enjoy this Substack. Disagreement is a big part of it. I certainly donβt wish to offend.
* I did quite enjoy Springsteen On Broadway, not just because he admitted to being somewhat fraudulent but because of his βhonestyβ. Springsteenβs a good actor.
Freddie, you have decent track record of picks. I'm like 7-1 with my picks here. Those are numbers people will pay for. Whaat you say we write a football pick letter and make it subscriber only? If your track record is good, and ours is, you can easily clear $1000/week, given your built in subscriber base. We can make it work. I'm serious. Think about it. Even if it's just another $10K, why not take it? Since you'll be doing almost all of the work, you clearly get a huge chunk. I'm just a guy giving winning picks and giving you my ideas on why they should cover. You write it up and watch money flow. And we have such different (surprise there) strategies. You have the noise for points. You love betting the dog. I'm all about which favorite covers. You get both flavors! Dude, it makes sense.
As for today's pick, I'm rolling with Dallas -7. Washington is unraveling, starting Carston Wentz, and is playing for a dead coach walking. They are simply not enough talent and "want to" to keep it close. Dallas rolls.
77th post on 1/7 titled. βAnd we watched them as theyβ¦β. How did you miss the opportunity to give Prince his due? β All seven and we'll watch them fall. β
You don't have to do a post about chatgpt. Please, please for the love of God I want to stop hearing about chatgpt.
Sam Kriss has it beautifully covered from the skeptical side, and every single "rationalist" sperglord has it covered from the supporting side.
I have a sinking feeling that ChatGPT and other emerging AI technologies are just good enough to revolutionize the world but not good enough to actually improve it.
Some friends of mine introduced me to a game, played using an AI chatbot, where you compete as factions trying to conquer Europe. The idea is for each turn you write the start of a story about how your side wins, then let the AI finish it and see if you gain or lose territory. The fun of the game (such as it is) is in laughing at how hilariously bizarre the AI's interpretations of your prompts become and trying desperately to steer it back on track. The sense one gets very quickly is that this is a powerful artificial mind that has no idea what you need nor any ability to reliably provide it.
I've come to believe that the Internet and social media are primarily tools for generating hopelessness. The cynicism and hostility of Twitter, the bizarre identity flailing of Gen Z, and the social and political dysfunction that Freddie often writes about all make sense to me when seen through that framework. It's the result of feeling that nobody is steering the ship, that there's nobody in charge who understands how to help. And AI, I fear, will be that on steroids. Imagine the future as some dumb TikTok challenge to set your eyebrows on fire, only it's automated and now your paycheck depends on it.
My prediction for Chat GPT is that the stories get more impressive the closer to direct plagiarism they are.
I really enjoyed the non-garbage online reading of the week.
The author manages to criticise the excesses of the woke/social justice movement in a way that I found both true and compassionate:
> That racial oppression, violence, and exploitation have been constants throughout American history is a fact. But that these things constitute the meaning of American history is an interpretationβand one that Rorty would have rejected.
> ...
> When I hear the antiracist, antisexist, anticapitalist rhetoric of the left, I often respond as I think Rorty would: with the pragmatic sense that theirs is a platform unlikely to inspire a broad electorate, a platform far from Rortyβs hopes to achieve our country through solidarity with the working class and the poor. But I also sense that hiding beneath the rhetoric are profoundly held ideals, ones that are struggling to express themselves in a postidealist age, in the pragmatic language that is all we haveΒ left.
Meta-comment: Freddie, just wanted to say that I appreciate the existence of these Weekly Digest posts, even as someone who makes a valiant effort to read everything as it comes out. It helps mark the passage of time, and gives second-chance opportunities for commenting if someone wasn't lucky enough to secure first-mover advantage in like the first hour of a post being up. The NGOR is almost always worth at least skimming, too. Songs and books tend to not be up my taste alley, but likewise serve as possible inspiration for someone else I know who might enjoy such things. Thanks for the service, I wish some other blogs did the same.
NYT had an article about ChatGPT emulating kids' writing (grades 5 and 8) that included a quiz: 10 short essays for the reader to decide, kid or ChatGPT? I got 10 out of 10 right, and usually only had to read a couple of sentences of each.
Astrology and tarot are FAR from the most dangerous anti-reality woo being peddled by the Left (and I do not refer to marxism ...).
Chat GPT is super helpful for my job. It's much better than reading through Stack Overflow threads, and it can help me correct errors in code that isn't working and optimize code that is. I can also ask it follow up questions that aren't clear in the API documentation. Maybe it's not good for creative exercises but it's all ready a huge deal for me.
`I think Brock Purdyβs been overhyped.'
As an Iowa State alumna, I cannot let this stand. May your bet be busted, your embarrassment be deep, and your shame lingering when the 49ers and Purdy prevail this season.
Now how do I cancel my subscription?
=)
I think that everyone is just jealous that a cow school, in the middle of Iowa, has (had) two legitimate contenders for rookie of the year this season (Breece Hall, RB, before season-ending injury). You'll also get to know Xavier Hutchinson over the next few seasons. We also have two other NFL starters, two NBA starters, and two strong NBA bench players.
(What do you mean `have I ever heard of an inferiority complex?')
Thanks for the article link. For me, as a Unitarian, fascinating to note that almost all of the pragmatist thinkers mentioned were either Unitarians (Thoreau) or Unitarian adjacent/ sympathetic (James in 'Varities of Religious Experience' basically articulates the modern Unitarian credo).
I mention this because my main issue with your piece on why its wrong to tolerate/ be open minded about tarot, astrology etc. is the value I place on epistemological compatibilism and the idea that reality is nested i.e. a spiritual story may have allegorical truthiness even if it lacks scientific truth.
I guess I'd always seen that as me being an idealist. But, actually, it strikes me that Unitarianism is pragmatist at heart with the //belief in belief// that you are critical of being largely pragmatic rather than idealistic.
Also, while the essay ends with a call for the Liberal Center-Left to regain its idealism, this comes after a number of paragraphs in which the authors notes that idealism hasn't actually worked out very well for the Left in recent times! It seems like he largely wants more abstract, traditionally Enlightenment-period ideals, rather than "anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-capitalism", which are more focused if anything!