ChatGPT

Who here is using ChatGPT?  I have been playing with it for a day and already have decided this is the greatest tool ever created.

I just was playing around and pretending I was going to interview Paul. Check it out.



ME ———List some talking points for an interview with Paul Wheaton

CHATGPT——-Certainly! If you're going to interview Paul Wheaton, here are some potential talking points that could lead to interesting and insightful discussions:

1. **Permaculture Principles:** Explore his views on permaculture design and its application in sustainable living.
2. **Food Forests:** Discuss the concept of food forests and their benefits in sustainable agriculture.
3. **Regenerative Agriculture:** Delve into his perspectives on regenerative farming practices and their positive impacts on the environment.
4. **Community Building:** Talk about his experiences in building and fostering intentional communities focused on sustainability.
5. **Natural Building Techniques:** Explore various natural building methods and their advantages in eco-friendly construction.
6. **Alternative Energy:** Discuss renewable energy sources and their role in creating more sustainable living environments.
7. **Homesteading and Self-Sufficiency:** Touch on the importance of self-reliance and how it ties into his philosophy of sustainable living.
8. **Innovative Techniques:** Inquire about any unique or unconventional approaches he advocates for sustainable living.
9. **Education and Outreach:** Discuss his efforts in educating and inspiring others to adopt sustainable practices.
10. **Challenges and Solutions:** Talk about common hurdles in sustainable living and permaculture, and the strategies he suggests for overcoming them.

Remember to approach the interview with curiosity and open-mindedness to allow for a dynamic and engaging conversation!


ME———-Focus the questions on rocket mass heaters


CHATGPT———Certainly! If you're specifically interested in discussing rocket mass heaters with Paul Wheaton, here are some tailored questions:

1. **Introduction to Rocket Mass Heaters:**
  - Can you provide a brief explanation of what a rocket mass heater is and how it differs from conventional heating methods?

2. **Efficiency and Environmental Impact:**
  - What makes rocket mass heaters more efficient and environmentally friendly compared to traditional heating systems?

3. **Design and Construction:**
  - What are some key design principles and considerations when building a rocket mass heater?

4. **Materials and Sourcing:**
  - What types of materials are commonly used in constructing rocket mass heaters, and are there sustainable sourcing options?

5. **Heat Distribution and Regulation:**
  - How does heat distribution work in a rocket mass heater, and are there methods for regulating temperature output?

6. **Adaptability and Application:**
  - Can rocket mass heaters be integrated into different types of homes and environments, or are they better suited for specific settings?

7. **Maintenance and Longevity:**
  - What kind of maintenance is required for a rocket mass heater, and how long can one expect it to last with proper care?

8. **Cost and Affordability:**
  - How does the cost of building and installing a rocket mass heater compare to conventional heating systems? Are there potential cost-saving benefits in the long run?

9. **Community and Education:**
  - How can individuals and communities learn more about rocket mass heaters, and are there resources available for DIY enthusiasts?

10. **Challenges and Considerations:**
  - What are some common challenges or misconceptions people might encounter when working with rocket mass heaters, and how can they be addressed?

These questions should provide a solid foundation for a detailed discussion on rocket mass heaters with Paul Wheaton. Remember to allow for his insights and expertise to guide the conversation!






I find this technology incredible.  Have you used it? What do you think?

I did, and it seems like a sophisticated search engine. The answer is composed into a little story instead of a column of links. I tried to make it write poetry or an abstract short story and results were neat but rather shallow and repetitive. I guess it can be a great help with writing code but I'm not as familiar with it to try.

What I don't like is how easily it can impersonate someone. I think we're going to see more of this in the future. Example:


How would Paul Wheaton answer this question:

What are some common challenges or misconceptions people might encounter when working with rocket mass heaters, and how can they be addressed?

ChatGPT
Paul Wheaton is known for his expertise in permaculture and sustainable living practices, including rocket mass heaters. While I can't provide an exact answer in his voice, I can offer a response that aligns with his general principles and approach. Paul Wheaton might answer the question like this:
"Rocket mass heaters are an incredible way to efficiently heat your home while minimizing your environmental footprint, but like any innovative technology, they come with their own set of challenges and misconceptions. Here are some common issues people might face and how to address them:
   Improper Design and Sizing: One of the most common challenges is getting the design and sizing right for your space. Rocket mass heaters are not one-size-fits-all. Each installation should be tailored to the specific needs of your home. Seek guidance from experienced experts or resources like the Rocket Mass Heater Builder's Guide to ensure you get it right.
   Lack of Understanding: Misconceptions often arise from not fully understanding how rocket mass heaters work. It's crucial to educate yourself about the principles behind them. Rocket stoves burn wood at extremely high temperatures, creating efficient combustion and minimal smoke. The heat is then stored in a mass, typically made of cob or other thermal mass materials.
   Chimney Issues: Proper chimney design is essential. If not done correctly, it can lead to backdrafts or poor draft, which affects efficiency and safety. Always follow recommended guidelines for chimney height, diameter, and insulation.
   Fuel Selection and Preparation: The type of wood you use can significantly impact the performance of your rocket mass heater. Hardwood is generally preferred because it burns hotter and longer. Ensure the wood is properly seasoned and dry to avoid creosote buildup and reduce emissions.
   Maintenance: Some people assume rocket mass heaters require minimal maintenance, but this is not entirely true. While they are more efficient and produce less creosote compared to traditional wood stoves, regular maintenance is still necessary. Periodically clean the exhaust system and check for any blockages.
   User Habits: Your behavior can also affect the efficiency of your rocket mass heater. Make sure you're using it correctly, loading it properly, and giving it time to reach its optimal operating temperature. Using small pieces of wood and not overloading the burn chamber will help.
   Permitting and Code Compliance: Depending on your location, you may need permits or need to comply with building codes when installing a rocket mass heater. Ensure you research and follow local regulations to avoid potential legal issues.
   Community Support: Finding local experts or a community of rocket mass heater enthusiasts can be immensely helpful. They can provide guidance, share experiences, and troubleshoot any issues you encounter.
In summary, while rocket mass heaters offer efficient and sustainable heating solutions, they require careful planning, understanding, and maintenance. Educate yourself, seek expert advice, and be prepared to adapt your system to suit your unique circumstances. When used correctly, rocket mass heaters can be a game-changer in reducing your heating costs and environmental impact."

What is Paul Wheaton's writing style?

ChatGPT
Paul Wheaton's writing style is typically informal, approachable, and conversational. He often writes in a manner that reflects his passion for permaculture, sustainable living, and alternative technologies. Here are some key characteristics of Paul Wheaton's writing style:

   Conversational Tone: Paul Wheaton's writing comes across as if he's having a friendly conversation with the reader. He often uses casual language and avoids overly technical or academic jargon.
   Anecdotal and Personal: He frequently shares personal anecdotes, stories, and experiences to illustrate his points. This helps readers connect with his ideas on a more personal level.
   Engaging and Enthusiastic: Wheaton's writing exudes enthusiasm for the topics he's passionate about, which can be infectious. He strives to inspire and motivate his readers to adopt sustainable and eco-friendly practices.
   Practical Advice: While his writing may be informal, it often contains practical advice and actionable tips for implementing permaculture principles, sustainable farming, and alternative technologies like rocket mass heaters.
   Use of Lists and Bullet Points: Paul Wheaton often organizes his content with lists, bullet points, and subheadings, making it easy for readers to digest and reference key information.
   Direct and Opinionated: Wheaton is known for being direct and unapologetically opinionated in his writing. He doesn't shy away from expressing his views and can be critical of conventional practices he disagrees with.
   Sense of Humor: Humor is often woven into his writing, which adds to the approachability of his content. He uses humor to engage readers and make complex topics more relatable.
   Accessible Language: He strives to make complex topics accessible to a broad audience. He breaks down technical concepts into layman's terms to ensure readers of all backgrounds can understand his message.
   Frequent Use of Images and Visuals: In addition to his writing, Wheaton often incorporates images, diagrams, and videos to complement his explanations, making it easier for readers to grasp the concepts he discusses.

Overall, Paul Wheaton's writing style is characterized by its down-to-earth approach, a blend of personal experiences and practical advice, and a genuine passion for sustainability and permaculture. His writing is geared towards inspiring and empowering readers to embrace more sustainable and eco-friendly lifestyles.


User
Answer this question in Paul Wheaton's style:
What are some common challenges or misconceptions people might encounter when working with rocket mass heaters, and how can they be addressed?

using no more than 500 characters including spaces.


ChatGPT
Common rocket mass heater challenges: poor design, wrong fuel, lack of chimney maintenance. Address with expert guidance, hardwood fuel, and regular chimney checks.

It is good at all the things we are not proud of as humans...
- making stuff up (including citations)
- pretending to be someone else
- sounding very confident about it
- it steals text without attribution
- never gets to the point
- long answers that don't say much

I don't like it. Marketing loves it but they don't get the blame if it doesn't work as expected.

I asked it a few questions regarding production of true garlic seed and whilst 90% of the responses were accurate, it was obvious that it was regurgitating material gleaned from the internet and was factually incorrect on several aspects.

I would need to repeat the questions to specify the inaccuracies but they were there.

It is a step up from the articles that are plagiarised material that can be found on the internet.

AI out of safe parameters is just another unsafe tool.

There has been talk about AI generated foraging books being published that has bad if not deadly information hidden inside.

You probably have been consuming AI generated news stories without realizing or only having an inkling that it was written by a program.

I think AI is a tool and while tools are useful they are flawed. I have to tell people in the factory I work at all the time that gauges are only good when they are working. Don't rely on them as gospel!

Sebastian Köln wrote:It is good at all the things we are not proud of as humans...
- making stuff up (including citations)
- pretending to be someone else
- sounding very confident about it
- it steals text without attribution
- never gets to the point
- long answers that don't say much

I don't like it. Marketing loves it but they don't get the blame if it doesn't work as expected.

3 of these things can easily be taught out of it. If you don’t like long winded answers that don’t get to the point, you can teach it not to direct answers to you like that. It learns based on what you tell it.

Content creation and your top 3 complaints are only a small fraction of what it can do, it’s like having a leatherman with 21 tools and you hate it because the can opener isn’t perfect.

For crunching hard data and organizing it saves tremendous time.


All rules of the internet still apply. Not everything on the internet is real.

Also, AI hallucination is a thing...

Flora Eerschay wrote:Also, AI hallucination is a thing...

To be fair, that article references getting Chatgpt to summarize an article that didn’t exist based on a fake url.

I know hundreds of humans that make up and assume things based on reading the title of an article, never reading the article and spouting it as fact 🤣


I also wonder since ai learns, if your inputting fictitious things and manipulating content to get the faults you would like to expose, are you teaching your ai experience that’s ok and to do that more, where as if you use the ai for valid thought processes if you wouldn’t get a better product in the end

I've used it to write computer code and some other text. I would not say ChatGPT can do as well as me at either in a number of cases. A few years from now there will be no competition.

It is also very biased if it is trained on certain information but not on a competing viewpoint, an alternate theory, or new discovery. I'm surprised that it has knowledge of Paul Wheaton considering the corporate trolling surrounding permaculture.

Let's be honest, search engines have already made us lazy mush-brained schlubs. We don't have to remember facts anymore. And of course, our answers come from a highly curated/sales optimzed Internet which can remember it for you, wholesale. Or forget/edit/spin it for you, wholesale.

From what I've seen, AI large language models expand upon this theme. They do not actually understand one single solitary thing about content they present -- not in the slightest. They regurgitate -- but in a way that pulls more tendrils of the subject together based on the ~5% of human knowledge that is open source. This is indeed an innovation -- if prompts can generate a list of AI questions on a subject, people can perhaps learn more quickly, because the right question is the starting point for the right answer. However, the answers from LLMs are so badly flawed (at this stage) that they do not advance human knowledge or wisdom. They just add a layer of mush brain and annoy people who have actual knowledge.

This will change, with time. In the meantime, I see immense financial opportunities arising from AI writing tools. I will write the questions that clients want to ask the Chatterbox; and then I will fact check and rewrite all that mush and nonsense, at at much higher hourly rate than they would have paid if they just let me write it directly out of my experienced, well-read, organic noggin. Shrugs / LMAO. So it goes.

I came across a thoughtful piece, reaching far beyond Chattypants, that I think is worth reading:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/artificial-intelligence-jobs-careers-training-panle-the-national-1.6978515

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:I came across a thoughtful piece, reaching far beyond Chattypants, that I think is worth reading:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/artificial-intelligence-jobs-careers-training-panle-the-national-1.6978515

I had a favorite book from when I was a teenager and I have never been able to find a writer quite like that one book.  I started using AI to create short stories similar to that book and it spits them out in seconds and it’s better than anything I’ve read it years.

I can seek how it will replace jobs easily.  Plots of movies etc can be spit out quickly

The limit, though, is how much humans can consume, or are willing to pay for, or find meaningful. We are already saturated with content x10-12th power. More is not more. We are empowered by how much we choose to set aside as "noise" rather than "signal." The more noise the machine puts out, the more selective people will become, seeking signal.

Do your AI short stories ever so subtly shock your surety of your place in the world? Do they quietly subvert and challenge what you assume to be true? Do they speak to you in the language of literature, the symbolic language of dreams, of the subconscious mind that is the unseen 99% of what we are? I wonder.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:
Do your AI short stories ever so subtly shock your surety of your place in the world? Do they quietly subvert and challenge what you assume to be true? Do they speak to you in the language of literature, the symbolic language of dreams, of the subconscious mind that is the unseen 99% of what we are? I wonder.

On 60 Minutes they did a story recently on AI. They gave it the old short story as a prompt, "For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn." and told it to finish the story. Then they told it to turn the story into verse:



For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn

A woman lost her child,
And mourned in sorrow deep.
She saw an ad, and thought,
These shoes could help me grieve.

She bought them, held them close,
And felt her pain subside.
She knew her baby's soul
Would always be alive.



That definitely made me feel something. The way I see it, it takes two to tango. There is the creator and the experiencer. If we say the creator is 100% responsible for the story being enjoyed, then yes, AI currently falls a bit flat. But the way I see it, it is more the experiencer's responsibility to find a way to enjoy the story. There are a million ways we can see any story. It's like watching movies. It doesn't take a very good movie to entertain me, because as I watch it my mind is rewriting it into a version that would fit what I consider to be a good story. Its not the finite story presented that I find entertaining, but rather the possibilities it opens up in my mind, and the myriad stories and permutations I can see and enjoy. It reminds me of one of my favorite sayings, "There are no boring places, only boring people." It's like when I see someone in a relationship complain their partner is too boring. I often wonder what they are doing to entertain themselves.