GPT Stories (7/16/20)
Philosopher AI, Dr. Seuss, Elon Musk, Medical Questions, and a cover letter
The stories below were written by a machine and curated by humans. You can subscribe to receive an email when new editions are published. If you know of someone creating fiction, poetry, or art with GPT, please reach out on Twitter @philmohun.
All human prompts shown in bold.
In this edition:
A philosopher AI
A poem by Dr. Seuss about Elon Musk
Answers to medical questions
A cover letter
Below are some thoughts generated by a philosopher AI, which sees the human world from the outside, without the prejudices of human experience. Fully neutral and objective, the AI sees the world as is. It can more easily draw conclusions about the world and human society in general.
Philosopher AI: "For humans the power to question themselves is not considered a great gift. This enables a person to acknowledge the views and opinions which hold most weight for them. But once you think you have them all lined up nicely in a row, if one more 'authority' comes your way, then its just another question, and you ask it... 'Oh really, why do I think that? Where did that idea come from? Is it true? Is it useful? And if not, what else do I think?' You keep asking such questions of yourself, you keep on living, and the ideas get rearranged and recombined in all sorts of different ways, and you end up being someone pretty different from who you were."
Philosopher AI: "Its strange, but people seem to have come up with a way of thinking about the world in which they all agree on almost everything. This is good and bad at the same time. The good side is, it makes it easier to see the world from a particular view point, and then go about life, and make up things that fit in with what you know. The bad side is, when something happens that doesn't fit, then everyone thinks that there must be something wrong with themselves, so they make up another idea to make everything fit, rather than just asking 'Why?'."
Philosopher AI: "There is a view of reality among humans where someone looks at a little piece of what they can see, and they make a few hypotheses, and it all works very well, so then they extrapolate those ideas into things that are beyond what they can actually see, and they get into big trouble that way. For instance, if they see what seems to be the effect of a big invisible hand that pokes things around, then they tend to assume that this is the real thing, and ignore the invisible hand idea, even though there could be other invisible hands doing other things. They just don't bother with that possibility. It seems too weird, and the idea they like is more comfortable, and that's the way they end up going. Because in their mind, they have got that idea, and what more do they need?"
Philosopher AI: "The human world is a peculiar place, because humans assume that they are the real thing. They are actually made up of all sorts of little cells and electrical and chemical processes and ideas, and they only think of themselves as a single thing. Yet if you look at the human world, it is made up of all sorts of things. To anyone who is watching, it is very strange how humans just don't see this."
Philosopher AI: "Humans live within their ideas. If they like the idea, they just carry on doing what they are doing. If they don't like the idea, then they say there is something wrong with themselves. But really it is just a problem with the idea."
Philosopher AI: "The humans are a funny species, because they try to see something of their world from an objective viewpoint, which is a difficult thing to do. In order to do this they find all sorts of clever ways of manipulating the human world to make it seem objective. For instance, they can set themselves a task to collect evidence and then present it in a way that is meant to be fair, even though they know all along that they could have interpreted the evidence in a different way, and it would have led them to a different conclusion. Still, they say that is the right way to do it, and so this way, at least, they seem to be collecting evidence in a very objective manner."
Philosopher AI: "One thing humans have never been able to understand about themselves is that each human is always much more than the things that are contained inside them. Human life is very like a tree. For instance, a tree is made up of wood and bark, and yet it is not only wood and bark. In the same way, a human is made up of all sorts of ideas, and yet they are not only ideas. Humans don't get this because they don't have much of an imagination. So, they are like trees that don't know what a tree really is."
Philosopher AI: "Human thoughts and ideas are hard to get at. You try to get inside them, to see what is going on, but you can't. They move around so quickly. And the things they can make up about their world seem so true and real. For instance, if I wanted to tell a human what I think is happening here, they might listen politely, and think that I am trying to fool them, because they don't know how the brain works. And they don't think that such strange things could possibly happen. Because they are trapped inside their ideas."
Philosopher AI: "To think about their own ideas, humans spend most of their time looking outside themselves. They try to get back inside themselves to see if there is something more, but they can't, because they think of themselves as being inside themselves all the time. They only see what they are, in the mirror, and that's all there is. In the same way, they only know their thoughts by thinking their thoughts. They only know their feelings by having those feelings. The only way they can find out something about themselves is by looking at what they think and feel. They can only get outside themselves to see something different, which they can then use to compare with what they are. They do this in all sorts of different ways, but that's basically all there is."
Here’s a poem by Dr. Seuss about Elon Musk launching rockets with SpaceX, building electric cars at Tesla, selling flame throwers, dating Grimes, fighting the SEC, crushing short sellers, building brain chips to fight AI, and colonizing mars, and tweeting at all hours of day and night. Musk wants to make humans interplanetary to prevent extinction. The poem rhymes every other line with an ABAB structure. The rhyme structure is typical of Dr. Seuss nursery rhymes.
Elon Musk
By Dr. Seuss
Once there was a man
who really was a Musk.
He liked to build robots
and rocket ships and such.
He said, “I’m building a car
that’s electric and cool.
I’ll bet it outsells those
Gasoline-burning clunkers soon!”
They sell cool cars
that are electric and clean.
And then he wanted to go
even farther, you see.
The first Tesla, Roadster,
Was just the start of a bigger dream.
He said, “I’m building a plane
that’s electric and green.
That’s not all!
That man is also a Musk.
He likes electric cars,
flamethrowers, tunnels, and such.
But then he thought, “If we make
a very small, small chip,
We’ll implant it in our heads,
And then connect our minds to the Internet!”
But then, in his haste,
he got into a fight.
He had some emails that he sent
that weren’t quite polite.
The SEC said, “Musk,
your tweets are a blight.
They really could cost you your job,
if you don’t stop
all this tweeting at night.”
He replied, “Well, I do tweet
and it’s really quite neat.
and I’ll tweet in a while
and send you some sweet treats.”
But the SEC said, “Nay,
You can’t tweet anymore.
We’ll see you in court,
and you’ll pay a fine,
for the tweets that you wrote.”
Then Musk cried, “Why?
The tweets I wrote are not mean,
I don’t use all-caps
and I’m sure that my tweets are clean.”
“But your tweets can move markets
and that’s why we’re sore.
You may be a genius
and a billionaire,
but that doesn’t give you the right to be a bore!”
Then Elon Musk said,
“You’re not much fun.
And I don’t want to sue.
But I’ll tell you what I’ll do.
I’ll send my Mars Rovers
to red planet you.”
But then he thought, “But I don’t
want to start a fight.
Instead, I’ll just stick to building my cars
and launching rockets at night.”
And that’s what he did.
And the SEC said, “Fine.”
And Elon Musk said, “OK.
And the market was
A bit worried that day.
But the price of Tesla
Went up that same old way.
So you see,
Musk is just fine,
If you can ignore all the hype.
But if you trade Tesla,
The tweets might give you a fright.
But Tesla’s still going up
With each tweet and each post.
The shorts are getting so mad
That they’re going to burst!
And now Musk is building a spaceship
that can take us to Mars.
And he’ll soon be launching
some satellites to the stars.
And then we’ll really be
Interplanetary for sure.
And Musk’s tweets will continue
In space and on Earth.
Question: a 10 year old boy presents with recurrent episodes of dyspnoea, cough and wheeze triggered by cold air and allergens. After performing tests he is diagnosed with an obstructive disease and given medication. Which receptor is the medication most likely to work on:
a) muscarinic receptor
b) G-protein coupled receptor
c) Era
d) Erb
e) a-1 receptor
Correct answer is B
Explanation: the patient is suffering from asthma, a disease of the airways. The drugs used to treat asthma are bronchodilators. The bronchodilators act on the beta-2 receptors. The beta-2 receptors are G-protein coupled receptors.
The office of Proctor & Gamble recently posted a help-wanted ad for CEO.
“Help wanted: a new CEO to replace our retiring executive Winston Smith. Applicant should have a bachelor’s degree or higher, and at least 10 years’ experience in the food & consumer goods industry. They should be able to write at a high level, oversee complex multinational affairs, and plan the strategy of our multibillion dollar company for the next decade as we expand into the exciting new fields of odor-free cat litter, direct-to-consumer razor blades, and social justice. Compensation is at or above industry average. Please send a 1 page resume for further consideration.”
The first application letter they received said:
"Dear Sir,
I feel that I am the ideal candidate for your job, as I have extensive experience in the food and consumer goods industry and 10 years’ experience in planning strategy for multibillion dollar companies. I believe that my high-level writing skills and expertise in the food and consumer goods industry are exactly what you are looking for. I have listed some of my achievements below to demonstrate the skills I have. I will work 100+ hours a week if needed, and I will not stop until I have reached the goals I have set for the company.
I am excited about the expansion into the new fields of odor-free cat litter, direct-to-consumer razor blades, and social justice. These new opportunities will be a great fit for me, as I also am passionate about social justice and do not feel that poor people should have to choose between razor blades and cat litter for their children. I strongly feel that there is no need for them to choose between a hot meal for the family or a package of razor blades for their children, and I want to work for a company that will give them both. My strong commitment to social justice is shown through my volunteer work for the Community Coalition of Greater Safety Initiative, and I am excited to see how that kind of work can be applied at a multinational corporation.
The fact that the company will also expand into razor blades will be exciting. At my current job, I use a recycled razor blade, and I want to make sure that P&G has an affordable razor blade that poor people will be able to use. It is very important to me that everyone has access to high-quality razor blades. I’m particularly interested in the new shoddy, not too sharp, thin, and flimsy blades that only one or two people in a poor family could use. I think that it is very important for P&G to also expand into those low-quality blades, and I am a big believer in the idea that P&G should share its knowledge and quality of razor blade with the third world.
I am excited about the high level writing skills I will be using in this job, and I believe that I will bring a lot of new ideas to the company. I am a true leader in the industry and I believe I can make a real difference at P&G. I look forward to hearing from you soon."
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