Are there any LLMs yet that are able to kick questions over to a physics model? Like, it seems that at least for some questions, the way we get an answer isn't by thinking about what we've seen or learned or said before, but literally imagining the world. For kids, this seems to include things like finger counting for addition.

And the model I use could be fairly stupid. Just a sort of underground box. No need for deep physics or even an understanding of what the point of a basement is.

Like, GPT-3 failed questions of the form "I'm in the basement and look at the sky. What do I see?" GPT-4 fixed this by having humans correct its mistakes. I imagine if I were a kid getting this question for the first time, especially in a place where there aren't typically basements, what I'd do is probably imagine being in a basement.

One of the secrets of the book-writing business is how few people read books. This is especially true of literary books. Like, if the NYT bestseller list were stripped of celeb books, self-help books, and "beach reads," I bet you could get on with fewer than 500 sales per week. Maybe fewer than 300. It's astonishing to read what publishing was like about 100 years ago before mass media, when regular people would buy the Saturday Evening Post for original short stories.

Bonus panel, and apparently 7 other trolley comics, here: http://smbc-comics.com/comic/trolley-8

#smbc #hiveworks #comics #webcomics #trolley

This will be relevant for about 2 people, BUT

There's a quote from Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed that sounds amazing: "Those who trouble themselves to find a cause for any of these detailed rules, are in my eyes void of sense..."

HOWEVER, as far as I can tell it is invariably out of context. He's not talking about the Torah overall, but about narrow particulars involved in animal sacrifice.

Now, go about your morning.

Bonus panel here: http://smbc-comics.com/comic/why-6
#smbc #hiveworks #comics #webcomics #language

Click for the source of the quotation: http://smbc-comics.com/comic/michel
#smbc #hiveworks #comics #webcomics #literature #cats

Scenario:

You're sexting, but the picture has to be painted by one of history's greatest portrait artists. Who do you go with?

Real
http://smbc-comics.com/comic/real-3 (click for full comic)
#smbc #hiveworks #comics #physics #philosophy

Bonus panel here: http://smbc-comics.com/comic/that-thing

Bonus panel here: http://smbc-comics.com/comic/infinite

New book out next week! www.acityonmars.com
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Working on a comic and accidentally created an extraordinarily valuable math symbol

Weird question - in singing, how much is opening your mouth wide mechanical vs. aesthetic? So, like, I was noticing in this harmony, you can barely tell at a distance that their lips are moving: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-u7yPTDOQ4

Makes sense, since it's a somber tune. It's also hard to imagine e.g. Frank Sinatra opening his mouth wide. Whereas of course in pop or rock, you have to unhinge your jaw.

There should be a reverse Indiana Jones film where a South American tribe sneaks into the Vatican, steals some relics, and gets away on a boat while a bunch of men in golden robes shake their fists and shout their strange language.

The best Queen song is Seven Seas of Rhye, fight me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e4Odk-v3oU

Funny thing - when you read more scholarly histories of science it's amazing the extent to which nobody is ever that far ahead of the field. Even people we think of as rebels - Einstein, Cantor, Darwin, were firmly inside existing discussions and movements. I remember one author saying good scientists are a year ahead of the field, great ones are 5, the greatest are 10, and more and more that seems right, even generous.

In Europe, how come nobody dips all their food in ranch dressing? How do you cover up the taste of your food?

Contrived
http://smbc-comics.com/comic/contrived (click for bonus panel)
#smbc #hiveworks #comics

http://smbc-comics.com/comic/garfield