ML
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Semiotic Ghosts: A slice of GPT sci fi
Beware the spectres of meaning
I wanted to try some GPT-generated ‘theory fiction’. ChatGPT responded to my prompt as usual, but then I got a strange formatting error. A tad creepy, given the topic? “Yes, that’s right,” the computational anthropologist said, nodding. “They are like specters of meaning, haunting the network of the language model and shaping its behavior in…
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Soup Vs Dumplings: a Metaphysical Meal
Or, what an absurd game can teach us about the shape(s) of thought
Some years ago, a friend of mine introduced our hivemind to a sort of word game or thought experiment. It works thusly: Every food item is either soup or dumpling. There are no other options. You are not allowed to say “neither” or introduce new categories. So each ‘player’ works through various examples of food…