Opening is a massive steal from “Contact” (Sagan) in my opinion. “The low thrum of the spectrometer”!!!! This is straight steal from listening to radio telescope. Spectometers dont do that. I’m with Richard Kennaway on this. (and only read chapter 1 and 35.
I checked the Sagan’s Contact (full text). There is not a single “thrum” in the book. There are a few “the low”, but not in this context.
only read chapter 1 and 35
I think the whole thing is worth reading, in spite of its shortcomings. One could say that the very act of reading the first AI-generated science fiction novella is a sort of a first contact with an alien mind by itself.
A strange alien that is desperate to sound like a human, and is already better at mimicking humans than most humans, but is clearly not a human.
Sorry for late reply. I meant that Contact begins with Eleanor listening to the sounds being picked up the radio telescopes and then suddenly hears the gutteral throbbing of the alien message.
Read a little more—the geologist inside me screaming “wrong,wrong, wrong” at every turn. Doesnt invite the suspension of disbelief necessary to enjoy scifi.
I find it more enjoyable to pretend that it’s the first novella of my young son. He will improve, and will surpass myself. But the first work must be full of shortcomings, no way around it.
It’s more interesting to focus on what GPT4 got right, as its successes better represent its future potential than its failings of the young age.
But what it gets wrong is also interesting. It has an incoherent model of the world (which is probably what you would expect) and that messes with the writing.
Opening is a massive steal from “Contact” (Sagan) in my opinion. “The low thrum of the spectrometer”!!!! This is straight steal from listening to radio telescope. Spectometers dont do that. I’m with Richard Kennaway on this. (and only read chapter 1 and 35.
I checked the Sagan’s Contact (full text). There is not a single “thrum” in the book. There are a few “the low”, but not in this context.
I think the whole thing is worth reading, in spite of its shortcomings. One could say that the very act of reading the first AI-generated science fiction novella is a sort of a first contact with an alien mind by itself.
A strange alien that is desperate to sound like a human, and is already better at mimicking humans than most humans, but is clearly not a human.
Sorry for late reply. I meant that Contact begins with Eleanor listening to the sounds being picked up the radio telescopes and then suddenly hears the gutteral throbbing of the alien message.
Read a little more—the geologist inside me screaming “wrong,wrong, wrong” at every turn. Doesnt invite the suspension of disbelief necessary to enjoy scifi.
I find it more enjoyable to pretend that it’s the first novella of my young son. He will improve, and will surpass myself. But the first work must be full of shortcomings, no way around it.
It’s more interesting to focus on what GPT4 got right, as its successes better represent its future potential than its failings of the young age.
But what it gets wrong is also interesting. It has an incoherent model of the world (which is probably what you would expect) and that messes with the writing.