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M1B's avatar

Very interesting, I have always thought highly of Baudrillard's writings and I remember thinking about him when I first tried ChatGPT. I don't think there is any coming back from generative LLM's at this point (was there ever?). I feel bad for the younger generations that must grow up in a world that is more and more detached from reality.

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Stefan Saal's avatar

You walk into the room with your pencil in your hand

You see somebody naked and you say, "Who is that man?"

You try so hard but you don't understand

Just what you will say when you get home

Because something is happening here but you don't know what it is

Do you, Mr. Jones?

You raise up your head and you ask, "Is this where it is?"

And somebody points to you and says, "It's his"

And you say, "What's mine?" and somebody else says, "Well, what is?"

And you say, "Oh my God, am I here all alone?"

But something is happening and you don't know what it is

Do you, Mr. Jones?

etc.

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Dominic Fox's avatar

The more esoteric end of Dylanology has long regard Bob Himself as something like an LLM, prophetically revoicing the anima mundi in ludic, fragmentary utterances...

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Stefan Saal's avatar

I think it's true. He was the LLM of 1965. The need to satisfy rhyme structure forces the poet to use his machine, to go outside generative grammar if only momentarily. The randomness of some words seems to reach out to touch strange attractors of chaos. In a way, it serves to keep the verse alive even to now. He Himself says he cannot account for how he did it. The older stuff still seems rather good. Some fragments of Sappho do the same thing. So beautiful.

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The Combed Thunderclap's avatar

This is particularly interesting given how entangled epistemology and ontology are within the post-structuralist tradition. It permits a reflection on some of the boundaries and nuances of those assertions.

Of course, I could not resist a Lacanian angle in response: https://thecombedthunderclap.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-subject-supposed-to-know-nothing.html

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