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1. Justin Pot (jhpot@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 09-Nov-2023 09:10:20 UTC Justin Pot

   "Grok" being the name for an AI chatbot is just the latest example of tech bros not understanding science fiction. In "Strangers In a Strange Land", the famous 1950's novel the term comes from, to "grok" something is to understand it on a deep level. AI chatbots, as we all know by now, do not grok—they bullshit.

   I'm really tired of sci-fi terms being used by people who read the books and got nothing from them beyond “lol this word sounds cool”. (See also: “metaverse”.)

   • Luis Villa (luis_in_brief@social.coop)'s status on Thursday, 09-Nov-2023 09:10:18 UTC Luis Villa

     in reply to

     @jhpot @SomaFMrusty Sci-fi Author: in my book I created the Understanding Nexus as an inspirational goal

     Tech company: at long last we have created a tormenting version of the Understanding Nexus from the classic novel Stop Tormenting People and Understand Them Instead

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   • Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Thursday, 09-Nov-2023 09:10:29 UTC Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅

     in reply to

     • Natasha Nox 💙💛
     • Timo
     @Natanox @jhpot @timo21 I was thinking of this guy, but he's Kronk.
   • Natasha Nox 💙💛 (natanox@chaos.social)'s status on Thursday, 09-Nov-2023 09:10:30 UTC Natasha Nox 💙💛

     in reply to

     • Timo

     @timo21 @jhpot Wait, there's another Gronk than literally the most famous german-speaking streamer? 😅

   • Timo (timo21@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Thursday, 09-Nov-2023 09:10:33 UTC Timo

     in reply to

     @jhpot For a second I misread it as 'Gronk' the nickname of American football player Rob Gronkowski 😅 🙄

   • Oggie (oggie@woof.group)'s status on Thursday, 09-Nov-2023 09:10:35 UTC Oggie

     in reply to

     @jhpot
     God I am so fucking bothered by this jackass in particular taking pieces of nerd culture he doesn't understand and plastering it elsewhere. 'Grok' is a term I used to use all the time (and I always explained it with the book quote 'to drink fully', if pressed).

     I am still salty about him using Culture ship names, too- and that entire universe was techno-anarchist with deep democratic underpinnings, about as anti-capitalist as you can get, how did he miss that?

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   • Justin Pot (jhpot@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 09-Nov-2023 09:10:37 UTC Justin Pot

     in reply to

     • Oggie

     @Oggie Somewhat related: Bezos personally intervening to get more seasons of The Expanse, a show that’s heavy on the theme of “if a for profit company tries to get you to go to space don’t do it”

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   • Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Thursday, 09-Nov-2023 09:10:38 UTC Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Oggie

     @Oggie @jhpot I knew Iain and I am *ABSOLUTELY* certain that if he was alive today he would have some EXTREMELY trenchant (and rude) things to say about Dilbert Stark.

     (Iain was more left wing in real life than he made visible in his fiction. And if you're unsure what I mean, ask yourself how many of his fictional villains were capitalists or imperialists.)

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   • jwz (jwz@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 09-Nov-2023 09:10:42 UTC jwz

     in reply to

     @jhpot More importantly, anyone who has ever actually used the word "grok" non-ironically might as well have "I am a huge fucking loser" tattooed across their forehead. That's like an ESR level of cringe dweebery.

   • FeralRobots (feralrobots@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 09-Nov-2023 09:10:42 UTC FeralRobots

     in reply to

     • jwz

     @jwz @jhpot
     I use it unironically on a regular basis. It's a pretty darn cromulent word. Reliably embiggens the conversation.

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