> I do appreciate some of the responses here, including Glen's meta-narrative > and Nick's tease of "GPT nailed it right away!" though that does have the > taste of shaming the rest of us (as if GPT IS one of us?) for not being as > broadly trained on obscure facts and patterns as GPT is? > I’m sorry if I missed it, but did Nick include the “explanation” by which GPT “got” a number?
I could imagine a string of reasoning along the lines of: — Nick intends to put this on FRIAM as a trick question — Probably nobody would guess the number 1 as the next answer in the sequence, so that must be the number Nick wants — ergo: the next number in the sequence is 1. QED. Was that the reasoning? Eric > On Sep 11, 2025, at 0:57, Steve Smith <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >> Yes. Thank you. I was beginning to fear i had asked an unfair q. Gpt got it >> on the first pass and then went on to say some interesting things about >> mathematics and semantics > i think questions of this type *are* implicitly "unfair" (whatever that > means). Without attributing malice to Nick, it is of the type of question > known as "trick", either deliberately misleading gesturing in an arbitrary > (mis)direction or simply deliberately obscuring/withholding context which > might otherwisemake the question "obvious". > > I'm not a big fan of the whole domain of "trick questions" generally up to > and including highly respected (e.g. NYT) crossword puzzles, "Trivial > Pursuit" or "Jeapordy". This might seem odd as I *am* a fan of esoteric > knowledge... perhaps just not using it as tool for "getting one over on > others" (still not impugning Nick as having intended such). > > I do appreciate some of the responses here, including Glen's meta-narrative > and Nick's tease of "GPT nailed it right away!" though that does have the > taste of shaming the rest of us (as if GPT IS one of us?) for not being as > broadly trained on obscure facts and patterns as GPT is? > > Grumbling about "trick questions" aside, Nick's claim of: "interesting things > about mathematics and semantics" is compelling to me. I can't help but want > to know what that actually grounds out as? > > I'm wondering if GPT calls this question out as a "category ambiguity" > (ambiguity being.a subcategory of error)? I could dive in with GPT and > discuss these sequences and everyone's guesses, etc... but despite my > fascination with LLM-relations I don't want to compound my already > over/mis-use and speed the paving of the planet with Data Centers beyond what > I'm already doing with GPT. Like noodling (yet) better/more-subtle methods > for using natural materials to build an a addition onto my home (just in time > for a massive data-center blob to grow, looming over the horizon, inevitably > sucking my humble adobe-abode into "the Matrix"? > > - grumbleSteve > > > > .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / ... > --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom > https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fbit.ly%2fvirtualfriam&c=E,1,1vPovkYJaRstrscbpM2I84tT91PSbCdsEKqJaNmDYajwbAHwfQTn_dMxqns1Y8jo6-QFjN7M0LNH0x7jsNGITtjMkja4YuMrilfLLVuW7rTkmjGhffjk&typo=1 > to (un)subscribe > https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http%3a%2f%2fredfish.com%2fmailman%2flistinfo%2ffriam_redfish.com&c=E,1,yjoqkLEYEmX90sK_O6AjjRo9ieLfUsNAPOpWOiXfaelnBh4vMYdoUUZ66O3DfczM5HxwX3qUd40MzDU1o2cppef1U3v7QE2T2giz016i2l469IyFLA,,&typo=1 > FRIAM-COMIC > https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http%3a%2f%2ffriam-comic.blogspot.com%2f&c=E,1,LmsgosFzEh0KGWf_Q6UnH0LOxLT6yR_7EunysEzmw_GbhEX5wWwOU6MLVNaYSd4N2qukWMmA7GEB-BHBHw71Wloaz3G45XL8e-rTEOm5HVYHcUUGabQ,&typo=1 > archives: 5/2017 thru present > https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fredfish.com%2fpipermail%2ffriam_redfish.com%2f&c=E,1,XFit9QjZekz6BhR-iyOl9CtbYnA5ZnzXpuyBeG-Yj-IIatJxvAs691IxaQk3yk99ylUKbPlQ-_Jf41peRVbmBthugM39l0r5sxV5Nt-mkYQvgAg,&typo=1 > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
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