4 ms·

This is amazing. The examples are like Lucky's speech from Waiting for Godot. Pozzo commands him to "Think, pig", and then: > Given the existence as uttered fo

by eszed 3y ago

This is amazing. The examples are like Lucky's speech from Waiting for Godot. Pozzo commands him to "Think, pig", and then: > Given the existence as uttered forth in the public works of Puncher and Wattmann of a personal God quaquaquaqua with white beard quaquaquaqua outside time without extension who from the heights of divine apathia divine athambia divine aphasia loves us dearly with some exceptions for reasons unknown but time will tell and suffers like the divine Miranda with those who for reasons unknown but time will tell are plunged in torment plunged in fire whose fire flames if that... And on and on for four more pages. Read the rest here: https://genius.com/Samuel-beckett-luckys-monologue-annotated https://genius.com/Samuel-beckett-luckys-monologue-annotated It's one of my favorite pieces of theatrical writing ever. Not quite gibberish, always orbiting meaning, but never touching down. I'm sure there's a larger point to be made about the nature of LLMs, but I'm not smart enough to articulate it.

Simon_ORourke 3y ago
I'm fairness, Beckett's life story isn't too far off crazy nonsense, sometime secretary to James Joyce, member of the French resistance, acquaintance and local driver for Andre the Giant...
- eszed 3y ago
  My favourite bit is that he's the answer to the trivia question of who's the only first class cricketer to win a Nobel Prize!
  - lanstin 3y ago
    Wow! These two comments (parent and GP) tie together so many previously unrelated things in my life. (Like Beckett, read with a teacher that I also took a lot of Shakespeare plays from; read Joyce with the book group my bridge club spun off; got introduced to cricket via attending an IPL game in Chennai in '08; and loved Princess Bride both in high school and watching with my high school aged kids).
impish9208 3y ago
> …always orbiting meaning, but never touching down. This is a nice turn of phrase :) .
- ddingus 3y ago
  Indeed. Notable. Added to personal lexicon.
  - eszed 3y ago
    Thanks for the compliment, but honestly... Please don't. I was writing quickly (and admittedly looking for a "nice turn of phrase") when I came up with that, but as a metaphor it doesn't work. "Not touching down" is inherent in the idea (and, in fact, enirely the point) of "orbiting", so that's either redundant or confused. Satellites whose orbits decay do reach the ground, but they hardly "touch down" - they crash! That's not the idea we're going for either. Airplanes "orbit the airfield" while waiting for clearance to land, but that's hardly (!) the first image that would spring to a reader's mind, and anyway doesn't fit: Lucky's desperately trying to communicate; an orbiting plane isn't (right then) by definition trying to land! So, yeah: that's a superficially-appealing phrase that I'd cut from a second draft. I'd be embarrassed (on both of our behalfs) if I saw it used elsewhere. Tl;dr: Writing is hard. I came up with a cliche. Do not use.
    - ddingus 3y ago
      I am in roughly 80 percent agreement. The phrase played out for me: We are flying home and ideally we end up on the ground, having arrived at the intended expression, undeniable. But, we could come in too fast, skip orbit and burn up. Or, we could sling around, launching ourselves off into space on some tangent. Or, we orbit. Never quite bringing it home. And we could miss the planet entirely! Not sure it is as broken as your take on it would suggest. I am going to leave it and flag it for entertainment only. Same place I keep a large set of turd analogies. Those are often fun and one can express a crazy amount of ideas using turds.
      - 3y ago
ysavir 3y ago
That was my first thought as well! I guess one of the Ls in LLM is for Lucky.
segasaturn 3y ago
My first thought was that it reads like a kind of corporate Finnegan's Wake. It reads like poetic, rhythmic nonsense.

by eszed 3y ago

Simon_ORourke 3y ago

I'm fairness, Beckett's life story isn't too far off crazy nonsense, sometime secretary to James Joyce, member of the French resistance, acquaintance and local driver for Andre the Giant...

eszed 3y ago
My favourite bit is that he's the answer to the trivia question of who's the only first class cricketer to win a Nobel Prize!
- lanstin 3y ago
  Wow! These two comments (parent and GP) tie together so many previously unrelated things in my life. (Like Beckett, read with a teacher that I also took a lot of Shakespeare plays from; read Joyce with the book group my bridge club spun off; got introduced to cricket via attending an IPL game in Chennai in '08; and loved Princess Bride both in high school and watching with my high school aged kids).

impish9208 3y ago

> …always orbiting meaning, but never touching down. This is a nice turn of phrase :) .

ddingus 3y ago
Indeed. Notable. Added to personal lexicon.
- eszed 3y ago
  Thanks for the compliment, but honestly... Please don't. I was writing quickly (and admittedly looking for a "nice turn of phrase") when I came up with that, but as a metaphor it doesn't work. "Not touching down" is inherent in the idea (and, in fact, enirely the point) of "orbiting", so that's either redundant or confused. Satellites whose orbits decay do reach the ground, but they hardly "touch down" - they crash! That's not the idea we're going for either. Airplanes "orbit the airfield" while waiting for clearance to land, but that's hardly (!) the first image that would spring to a reader's mind, and anyway doesn't fit: Lucky's desperately trying to communicate; an orbiting plane isn't (right then) by definition trying to land! So, yeah: that's a superficially-appealing phrase that I'd cut from a second draft. I'd be embarrassed (on both of our behalfs) if I saw it used elsewhere. Tl;dr: Writing is hard. I came up with a cliche. Do not use.
  - ddingus 3y ago
    I am in roughly 80 percent agreement. The phrase played out for me: We are flying home and ideally we end up on the ground, having arrived at the intended expression, undeniable. But, we could come in too fast, skip orbit and burn up. Or, we could sling around, launching ourselves off into space on some tangent. Or, we orbit. Never quite bringing it home. And we could miss the planet entirely! Not sure it is as broken as your take on it would suggest. I am going to leave it and flag it for entertainment only. Same place I keep a large set of turd analogies. Those are often fun and one can express a crazy amount of ideas using turds.
    - 3y ago

ysavir 3y ago

That was my first thought as well! I guess one of the Ls in LLM is for Lucky.

segasaturn 3y ago

My first thought was that it reads like a kind of corporate Finnegan's Wake. It reads like poetic, rhythmic nonsense.