4 ms·

”The book you're remembering is likely "Mr. Tompkins" by George Gamow. The series features the character Mr. Tompkins, but in "Mr. Tompkins in Paperback" (which

”The book you're remembering is likely "Mr. Tompkins" by George Gamow. The series features the character Mr. Tompkins, but in "Mr. Tompkins in Paperback" (which combines "Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland" and "Mr. Tompkins Explores the Atom"), he has a daughter named Gedanken. The stories are known for their accessible exploration of advanced scientific concepts, including those related to Einstein's theories, through fantastical adventures.” - GPT-4

omnicognate 3y ago
AFAICT there is no character named "Gedanken" in that book. The correct book was findable in a few seconds with a traditional search engine: The Time and Space of Uncle Albert by Russell Stannard [1]. [1] https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Time_and_Space_of_Uncle_Albert.html?id=aY06KAAACAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Time_and_Space_of...
- trulyunruly 3y ago
  Cunningham's Law:) I was only hoping to provide some direction. But thank you for finding the right answer.
  - omnicognate 3y ago
    I found and posted the answer in parallel with you, and then deleted my direct response when I replied to yours (at greater length as I initially posted only the link, which was sufficient for merely answering the question). I don't think the posting of unverified ChatGPT snippets in response to factual questions on HN has value.
    - guyomes 3y ago
      You have great search engine skills! Out of curiosity, what was the exact input you used, and on which search engine? I tried "adventure book girl named gedanken and grandfather on einstein theory" on Google and didn't get the right answer.
      - omnicognate 3y ago
        I had to refine it twice, IIRC, ending up with something like 'einstein book story girl "gedanken"' (the second refinement being by clicking next to one of the links that didn't include "gedanken"), for which one of the results was a New Scientist review of the book. I did it on Google because I was on iPhone Safari, which doesn't have a good way to use Kagi by default, but I strongly prefer Kagi where possible.
        LeFever 3y ago
        I know we’re really getting into the weeds here, but I’m curious what issues you’re having with iOS Safari and Kagi. I’m using it with both normal and private tabs and it’s working great. There were a series of fixes in the past month to the Kagi app (necessary for Safari integration) that specifically addressed issues with private browsing. Might want to try it again. Good luck!
        omnicognate 3y ago
        I just dislike the idea of installing an app or extension just to change the default search engine. Not Kagi's fault, entirely Apple's.
        LeFever 3y ago
        Definitely agree. Ideally you’d be able to extend the search engine list in Safari’s settings but alas.
    - trulyunruly 3y ago
      I agree. I usually don’t respond with generated text. But in this instance I wanted to try to see if GPT-4 could sniff out the book that was being searched for. As of the dangers in GPT responses, it is easy to be mislead. I vetted the response (existence of author, books), but not in depth of what was actually asked for. And for that reason I failed to catch the error that you pointed out. But thank you for doing so, will definitely be more critical to GPT responses in the future. And also not post generated content that is clearly wrong.
    - atlantic 3y ago
      So in effect, several possible responses were sent from the past, but the irrelevant ones were deleted, leaving only the right answer. Hmmm.
- paulrouget 3y ago
  Incredible book. In french it's Les Trous Noirs Et L'Oncle Albert. I read that book when I was ~14 years old. I can't overstate how incredible that book was. Having a grasp of what special relativity was at that age really made me feel like I could learn anything just by reading the right books. I never stopped reading about astrophysics since then. And I'm now 40+.
- forgotusername6 3y ago
  Thanks for finding it! I guess my traditional search engine skills aren't that great these days. Searching either returned booked on Einstein or German titles.

omnicognate 3y ago

AFAICT there is no character named "Gedanken" in that book. The correct book was findable in a few seconds with a traditional search engine: The Time and Space of Uncle Albert by Russell Stannard [1]. [1] https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Time_and_Space_of_Uncle_Albert.html?id=aY06KAAACAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Time_and_Space_of...

trulyunruly 3y ago
Cunningham's Law:) I was only hoping to provide some direction. But thank you for finding the right answer.
- omnicognate 3y ago
  I found and posted the answer in parallel with you, and then deleted my direct response when I replied to yours (at greater length as I initially posted only the link, which was sufficient for merely answering the question). I don't think the posting of unverified ChatGPT snippets in response to factual questions on HN has value.
  - guyomes 3y ago
    You have great search engine skills! Out of curiosity, what was the exact input you used, and on which search engine? I tried "adventure book girl named gedanken and grandfather on einstein theory" on Google and didn't get the right answer.
    - omnicognate 3y ago
      I had to refine it twice, IIRC, ending up with something like 'einstein book story girl "gedanken"' (the second refinement being by clicking next to one of the links that didn't include "gedanken"), for which one of the results was a New Scientist review of the book. I did it on Google because I was on iPhone Safari, which doesn't have a good way to use Kagi by default, but I strongly prefer Kagi where possible.
      - LeFever 3y ago
        I know we’re really getting into the weeds here, but I’m curious what issues you’re having with iOS Safari and Kagi. I’m using it with both normal and private tabs and it’s working great. There were a series of fixes in the past month to the Kagi app (necessary for Safari integration) that specifically addressed issues with private browsing. Might want to try it again. Good luck!
        omnicognate 3y ago
        I just dislike the idea of installing an app or extension just to change the default search engine. Not Kagi's fault, entirely Apple's.
        LeFever 3y ago
        Definitely agree. Ideally you’d be able to extend the search engine list in Safari’s settings but alas.
  - trulyunruly 3y ago
    I agree. I usually don’t respond with generated text. But in this instance I wanted to try to see if GPT-4 could sniff out the book that was being searched for. As of the dangers in GPT responses, it is easy to be mislead. I vetted the response (existence of author, books), but not in depth of what was actually asked for. And for that reason I failed to catch the error that you pointed out. But thank you for doing so, will definitely be more critical to GPT responses in the future. And also not post generated content that is clearly wrong.
  - atlantic 3y ago
    So in effect, several possible responses were sent from the past, but the irrelevant ones were deleted, leaving only the right answer. Hmmm.
paulrouget 3y ago
Incredible book. In french it's Les Trous Noirs Et L'Oncle Albert. I read that book when I was ~14 years old. I can't overstate how incredible that book was. Having a grasp of what special relativity was at that age really made me feel like I could learn anything just by reading the right books. I never stopped reading about astrophysics since then. And I'm now 40+.
forgotusername6 3y ago
Thanks for finding it! I guess my traditional search engine skills aren't that great these days. Searching either returned booked on Einstein or German titles.