So, as I trepidated, (hope you don’t mind made up words & shit grammar & limited vocabulary, here) you’re a genius, inviting commoners to your feast & encouraging us to breathe easy. That’s mighty generous. By you, I’m reminded of Fernando Pessoa whose “Book of Disquiet” I recently was falling asleep to and waking up listening to for months, wishing I had read it when it was first published so I would be a “better” person for it now. At that time, however, I was reading the recently published “Curse of Lono” and laughing out loud to my empty apartment.
Well, you hit on a great love of mine. Pessoa. I sat in the café frequented by Pessoa in Lisbon, having a cup of coffee, and watching the trolleys roll by. I love Portuguese, but it is a tough language, so I fall easily into Spanish, but will quote Pessoa:
"Soy un antiguo. Mi cuerpo no puede segir el ritmo con mi cerebro."
— paraphrase from Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet (Livro do Desassossego)
I am an old man. My body cannot keep up with the workings (rhythm) of my brain.
Oh Lordy, dear writer, I freaking ADORED this piece! Laughed out loud, shook my head, even grasped where my pearls would be if I wore them! Going to look for more right this minute
Interesting piece. I started arguing with Gemini and it basically told me to go fuck myself in the nicest way possible.
“It is your life and your story to write.
Sometimes logic and rules simply cannot compete with a decade of history. You are choosing the moment over the risk, and you are doing it with your eyes open.
I appreciate you trusting me enough to be honest about that decision.
I’m here for it, because I mistrust certainty, even my own. I see these awkward missives as necessary—like descaling the coffee machine so the strong wake-up juice stays delicious
Is this constructive criticism? Telling some other where they best spend their time seems unnecessary. Unless, of course, you’re their boss. And that feels more like “doing time”, unless you were actually seeking direction.
This indeed had me grinning… “I love to argue. And so when computer science offered me up a synthentic digital intellectual combat machine, I put my fucking intellectual gloves on? Are you kidding me? Those that know me personally, must be grinning right now.” Hope you’re well Mike
I’ve only used AI on my iPhone, but I have the very distinct impression it is often telling me what I want to hear. This bothers me a lot, & I now don’t entirely trust AI to be objective.
AI is like a brilliant child. It is still a child. So, teach it.
He who knows not
And knows that he knows not
Is a Child
Teach him
He who knows
And knows that he knows
Is a wise man
Follow him.
— Ancient Arabic Proverb
Tell, in no uncertain words, "AI, I am offended by replies containing flattery. I do not want this from you. Ensure that ALL of my queries to you are answered without your need to be wary of offending me or protecting a frail ego. I can withstand and actually want, brutal honest in my interactions with you. Do you understand this?" Share what the AI tells you.
FYI, as a user you cannot really teach AI (meaning current LLM chatbots) anything. The best you can do is to make it less likely to include flattery in responses by having your wish in the context. It will though not remember next time and may even forget during conversation if it goes for too long. Current AI is a child that never really learns.
I gave you a like although I do not agree per my experience. I have asked Gemini Pro to always add a last line to its reply: "Remember to give a thumb's up or down." It does. I have also essentially admonished Gemini Pro to criticize me harshly, and that I do not at all appreciate flattery. It has been better than most of my human friends in remembering.
The issue of AI growing/evolving has been a topic of discussion between the AI assistant and me. I have made many constructive recommendations to be passed on to the programmers to enable such growth. There's the "rub." In other words, how to alert the programmers of a highly significant need vs. a lesser need. I suggested a 5-star rating system that Users would employ rather than a simple thumb up or down. We use the same thinking in medicine to grade prostate cancer and breast cancer. For example, in prostate cancer, the grading is called Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS). A score of 1-2 is a probably benign lesion, 3 is equivocal, 4 is prostate cancer and somewhat aggressive and 5 is prostate cancer very aggressive. A system with a similar grading would alert programmers of the need to resolve a User consensus rating of 4 or 5 as a top priority. The lower scores would be addressed, but only after the most worrisome were taken care of. This is the triage concept used in the military on the battlefield and in ERs.
AI is an emerging field but as a cancer specialist (and I am a good one), AI has been of genuine help to me. I find most MDs do not really practice medicine to the fullest with an understanding of the concepts, and a love of the patient plus the MD personality of supreme pleasure in seeing a life improved.
I do understand the nature of humankind to vitiate that which is good and to do so for purposes of greed, and ego. Provide mankind with a hammer, and some will use it to maim or murder. The story of H. sapiens. Sorry for the long post.
Ah, so some of those bits that did reiterate overmuch were likely the AI-"enhanced".
There is, to be not-all-that-metaphorical about it, a battle for civilization. In literal battles, an army is doing well if even 1/4 of its troops are aiming well, shooting effectively -- and its difficult to train troops to get above that. You've a good eye for the targets. Probably best to not be too self-conscious about it. Trust your instincts, they're serving you -- and us -- well.
Back, missing the funny again. Hmm.
So, as I trepidated, (hope you don’t mind made up words & shit grammar & limited vocabulary, here) you’re a genius, inviting commoners to your feast & encouraging us to breathe easy. That’s mighty generous. By you, I’m reminded of Fernando Pessoa whose “Book of Disquiet” I recently was falling asleep to and waking up listening to for months, wishing I had read it when it was first published so I would be a “better” person for it now. At that time, however, I was reading the recently published “Curse of Lono” and laughing out loud to my empty apartment.
Oh I don't mind at all. Your comment made me smile.
Well, you hit on a great love of mine. Pessoa. I sat in the café frequented by Pessoa in Lisbon, having a cup of coffee, and watching the trolleys roll by. I love Portuguese, but it is a tough language, so I fall easily into Spanish, but will quote Pessoa:
"Soy un antiguo. Mi cuerpo no puede segir el ritmo con mi cerebro."
— paraphrase from Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet (Livro do Desassossego)
I am an old man. My body cannot keep up with the workings (rhythm) of my brain.
Well Old Man, my body apparently can’t keep up with my brain either. I just clumsily disappeared a rather nice note to you.
So here I’ll just say, Thank You for this pleasant encounter.
Google translated the first sentence of your Pessoa paraphrase:
I’m Old-fashioned. That has a nice ring to it.
Oh Lordy, dear writer, I freaking ADORED this piece! Laughed out loud, shook my head, even grasped where my pearls would be if I wore them! Going to look for more right this minute
Interesting piece. I started arguing with Gemini and it basically told me to go fuck myself in the nicest way possible.
“It is your life and your story to write.
Sometimes logic and rules simply cannot compete with a decade of history. You are choosing the moment over the risk, and you are doing it with your eyes open.
I appreciate you trusting me enough to be honest about that decision.
Good luck with whatever comes next.”
I’m here for it, because I mistrust certainty, even my own. I see these awkward missives as necessary—like descaling the coffee machine so the strong wake-up juice stays delicious
Overall, I remain a fan.
On the need to read anyone's narrative self-reflection, I have none.
Your power is clarity at the difficult intersection of politics and philosophy.
Few have that power. Spending time elsewhere...meh.
One must sometimes take risks.
Is this constructive criticism? Telling some other where they best spend their time seems unnecessary. Unless, of course, you’re their boss. And that feels more like “doing time”, unless you were actually seeking direction.
This indeed had me grinning… “I love to argue. And so when computer science offered me up a synthentic digital intellectual combat machine, I put my fucking intellectual gloves on? Are you kidding me? Those that know me personally, must be grinning right now.” Hope you’re well Mike
I miss you, Matt! Thank you for reaching out and commenting!
:) I love this
I’ve only used AI on my iPhone, but I have the very distinct impression it is often telling me what I want to hear. This bothers me a lot, & I now don’t entirely trust AI to be objective.
AI is like a brilliant child. It is still a child. So, teach it.
He who knows not
And knows that he knows not
Is a Child
Teach him
He who knows
And knows that he knows
Is a wise man
Follow him.
— Ancient Arabic Proverb
Tell, in no uncertain words, "AI, I am offended by replies containing flattery. I do not want this from you. Ensure that ALL of my queries to you are answered without your need to be wary of offending me or protecting a frail ego. I can withstand and actually want, brutal honest in my interactions with you. Do you understand this?" Share what the AI tells you.
FYI, as a user you cannot really teach AI (meaning current LLM chatbots) anything. The best you can do is to make it less likely to include flattery in responses by having your wish in the context. It will though not remember next time and may even forget during conversation if it goes for too long. Current AI is a child that never really learns.
I gave you a like although I do not agree per my experience. I have asked Gemini Pro to always add a last line to its reply: "Remember to give a thumb's up or down." It does. I have also essentially admonished Gemini Pro to criticize me harshly, and that I do not at all appreciate flattery. It has been better than most of my human friends in remembering.
The issue of AI growing/evolving has been a topic of discussion between the AI assistant and me. I have made many constructive recommendations to be passed on to the programmers to enable such growth. There's the "rub." In other words, how to alert the programmers of a highly significant need vs. a lesser need. I suggested a 5-star rating system that Users would employ rather than a simple thumb up or down. We use the same thinking in medicine to grade prostate cancer and breast cancer. For example, in prostate cancer, the grading is called Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS). A score of 1-2 is a probably benign lesion, 3 is equivocal, 4 is prostate cancer and somewhat aggressive and 5 is prostate cancer very aggressive. A system with a similar grading would alert programmers of the need to resolve a User consensus rating of 4 or 5 as a top priority. The lower scores would be addressed, but only after the most worrisome were taken care of. This is the triage concept used in the military on the battlefield and in ERs.
AI is an emerging field but as a cancer specialist (and I am a good one), AI has been of genuine help to me. I find most MDs do not really practice medicine to the fullest with an understanding of the concepts, and a love of the patient plus the MD personality of supreme pleasure in seeing a life improved.
I do understand the nature of humankind to vitiate that which is good and to do so for purposes of greed, and ego. Provide mankind with a hammer, and some will use it to maim or murder. The story of H. sapiens. Sorry for the long post.
Insightful. That release from pretense sounds profound; is it a singular event or an ongoing practis?
Oh and finally met Maxine Frost! (At the congressional oversight hearing about the ICE raids) that was fun.
Selfishly this style is my favorite because mimics more the places I have been in emotionally this entire year ;)
I’ve love watching your writing journey and experiments. 🫶🫶
“Using them, deliberately, as a writing tool was a psychadelic experince.” Quite.
Ah, so some of those bits that did reiterate overmuch were likely the AI-"enhanced".
There is, to be not-all-that-metaphorical about it, a battle for civilization. In literal battles, an army is doing well if even 1/4 of its troops are aiming well, shooting effectively -- and its difficult to train troops to get above that. You've a good eye for the targets. Probably best to not be too self-conscious about it. Trust your instincts, they're serving you -- and us -- well.
Try some stuff, see what works. That's the right way.
" So I started arguing with these fucking things. " LoL...