[LINK] O/t: Henry Lawson Colonial Poet

[David]

I think a comparison between the Henry Lawson poem and the one by ChatGPT illustrates the difference between human intelligence and current AI technology, and the big difference is consciousness & self-awareness in relation to others and our individual worlds.

The Lawson poem sets out to make a point: that Lawson personally, on the basis of experience and intuition, anticipates a war (WWI),
> So I sit and write and ponder, while the house is deaf and dumb,
> Seeing visions "over yonder" of the war I know must come.\

that he considers our abstract, foundation values are at stake:
> No - no ranting song is needed, and no meeting, flag or fuss -
> In the future, still unheeded, shall the spirit come to us!
> 
> Without feathers, drum or riot on the day that is to be,
> We shall march down, very quiet, to our stations by the sea.

and he urges:
> While the bitter parties stifle every voice that warns of war,
> Every man should own a rifle and have cartridges in store!

In contrast, I suggest any literary assessment of the ChatGPG poem would class it as doggerel, which Wikipedia defines as  "poetry[1] that is irregular in rhythm[2] and in rhyme[3], often deliberately for burlesque[4] or comic effect.  Alternatively, it can mean verse which has a monotonous rhythm, easy rhyme, and cheap or trivial meaning."  It's the latter meaning I apply in this case.

The metre ("the basic rhythmic structure[5] of a verse[6] or lines in verse[7]") and the rhyming is excellent.  But the content is trivial.  In fact the content was mechanically correlated and assembled from the vast database of articles & analyses on that now-infamous meeting which is presumably available to ChatGPG, supported by a library of background data.

Large Language Models using AI aside, "AI" based machines are essentially very large correlation engines, as a few minutes reading about the Microsoft Azure programming language will confirm.  I don't doubt the value of AI for a moment, but it must be properly understood.

Linkers interested in this subject might refer back to the Link thread  "One for the Numerologists and Mystics..." originally passed on by me with that rather dismissive subject line, which listed some unusual numerical properties of the number "2025".  Antony Barry then queried PerplexityAI which revealed many more, including:
> **Sum of Consecutive Primes**
> Interestingly, 2025 can be represented as the sum of five consecutive prime
> numbers: 397 + 401 + 409 + 419 + 421 = 2025[7]. This connection to prime
> numbers adds to its number-theoretical significance.

However Sylvano spotted an error (397 + 401 + 409 + 419 + 421 = 2027).

And I then realised that this is a natural correlation-error.  The sum of the first five prime numbers beginning one prime earlier (389) does add up to 2015, thus:  389 + 397 + 401 + 409 + 419 = 2015 and the difference (10) can easily be found by differencing nearby primes.

On Saturday, 4 January 2025 4:42:59 PM AEDT Stephen then nicely finished this unexpectedly fruitful thread::
> AI Is Usually Bad At Math. Here’s Why It Matters
> 
> By John Werner, an MIT Senior Fellow. Updated Oct 7, 2024
> https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwerner/2024/10/07/ai-is-usually-bad-at-math-heres-what-will-happen-if-it-gets-better/
> 
> We’re seeing some new developments in AI models that are shedding light on one of the technology’s most prominent gaps – its relative inability to do math well.
> 
> Some experts note that AI is dysfunctional at math. It tends to produce wrong answers, and can be slow to correct them.  [...]

Apologies for this long response, but it's not a simple subject and we haven't gone anywhere near neurology and conscious self-awareness yet...

_David Lochrin_

--------------------
> "Every Man Should have a Rifle"
> By Henry Lawson
> 
> So I sit and write and ponder, while the house is deaf and dumb,
> Seeing visions "over yonder" of the war I know must come.
> 
> In the corner - not a vision - but a sign for coming days
> Stand a box of ammunition and a rifle in green baize.
> 
> And in this, the living present, let the word go through the land,
> Every tradesman, clerk and peasant should have these two things at hand.
> 
> No - no ranting song is needed, and no meeting, flag or fuss -
> In the future, still unheeded, shall the spirit come to us!
> 
> Without feathers, drum or riot on the day that is to be,
> We shall march down, very quiet, to our stations by the sea.
> 
> While the bitter parties stifle every voice that warns of war,
> Every man should own a rifle and have cartridges in store!
> 
> Scheme  AABBCC DDEEFF
> Poetic Form
> Closest metre   Iambic heptameter
> Characters      746
> Words   148
> Sentences       7
> Stanzas 2
> Stanza Lengths  6, 6
> Lines Amount    12
> 98 Views
> 
> Henry Lawson 1867 - 1922


--------
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry#Rhythm
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyme
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlesque
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhythm
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verse_(poetry)
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_(poetry)