Wednesday, March 8th, 2023 - TrickJarrett.com: Semper Ad Meliora

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Side project on my to do list: A website where you enter a word or short phrase and it returns every translation for it possible.

Sometimes I just want to see a word or phrase around the world and not have a specific country or language in mind.

3/8/2023 8:06 am |

| Tags: project, translation, language, linguistics

Sci fi novelist Iain M. Banks hits ChatGPT on the head 18 years ago

Found on this blog, and reposted here for my own records.

From Algebraist by Iain M. Banks, 2005

"You know, you seem alive to me…. Are you sure you might not be alive and sentient…?"

"Of course not!" the old man said scornfully, "I am able to give the appearance of life without being alive. It is not especially difficult."

"How do you do this?"

"By being able to access my memories, by having trillions of facts and works and books and recordings and sentences and words and definitions at my disposal. I am the sum of all my memories, plus the application of certain rules from a substantial command-set. I am blessed with the ability to think extremely quickly, so I am able to listen to what you, as a conscious, sentient being, are saying and then respond in a way that makes sense to you, answering your questions, following your meaning, anticipating your thoughts.

"However, all this is simply the result of programs—programs written by sentient beings—sifting through earlier examples of conversations and exchanges which I have stored within my memories and selecting those which seem most appropriate as templates. This process sounds mysterious but is merely complicated. It begins with something as simple you saying 'Hello' and me replying 'Hello,' or choosing something similar according to whatever else I might know about you, and extends to a reply as involved as, well, this one."

3/8/2023 8:12 am |

| Tags: science fiction, chatgpt, artificial intelligence

Eunice Newton Foote (1819-1888)

Several years ago, I started a short lived Twitter account where I was going to highlight scientists daily or regularly. Unfortunately that proved untenable for me at the time and that project fell away. But Ms. Foote is absolutely someone I would have wanted to feature on it.

[A]n American scientist, inventor, and women's rights campaigner. She was the first scientist to conclude that certain gases warmed when exposed to sunlight, and that rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels would change atmospheric temperature and could affect climate.

3/8/2023 10:19 am |

| Tags: science, scientist