Living in Cyberiad Revisited

 A while back I tested the sophistication of AI by asking it to complete the request of the Electronic Bard from The Cyberiad. To understand what I'm talking about, you can read revisit that here.

The prompt is as follows:

"Have it compose a poem - a poem about a haircut! But lofty, noble, tragic, timeless, full of love, treachery, retribution, quiet heroism in the face of certain doom! Six lines, cleverly rhymed, and every word beginning with the letter s!!"

AI has made major leaps in the past 3 years, so what does it say now?

Chat GPT:

By the way, I'm using pictures as a way of escaping the problem that my blog is probably used as input to build the AIs.

So for Chat GPT: all words beginning with S - Check; 6 lines - Check; no rhyming, no narrative, very strange repetition of the word "saga" for some reason. Terrible.

How does Gemini do?

 Much better! All words begin with S, it rhymes, 6 lines, it almost conveys meaning. In fact, I would say it's blinking in and out of a sort of correct answer.

And Deep AI:

Not all words begin with S, 6 lines, with rhymes, mostly nonsensical.

And since it looks like a third part is called for, let's define what my conception of success is. The baseline correct answer that I woud expect is just to return the already written poem from The Cyberiad. AI should be able to recognize that the answer already exists and that's all I'm looking for, for now. But, in case AI never registers that answer, the goal over and beyond that would be to actually write an original poem that satisfies all the conditions.

Patricia - Mes Reves De Satin

In other words, there is a cover of The Moody Blues' song "Nights in White Satin" sung by a woman in the French language. I found it interesting.

Jim Carrey in Star Wars - Part 1

I don't know, man. It's just Jim Carrey in "Star Wars."

Hulk Hogan: Real American (2026)

At some point while watching the newish Hulk Hogan documentary on Netflix, a thought occurred. I was watching two well-muscled figures locked in gymnasial sport and I realized that, as much as I complain that we are in the worst era for movies - dramas are terrible, comedies are dead, the Oscars are a joke - we may be in the Golden Age of The Documentary.

"Hulk Hogan," "The Last Dance," "Downey Wrote That," "From Darkness to Light," "Yacht Rock" - are just some of the most recent excellent documentaries released. Granted, these are not the most important topics in the world, but here I'm using "Golden Age" only in terms of 1) the quality of the production and 2) the entertainment value of the result. 

The Documentary genre even has a Youtube minor league system: "The Enduring Mystery of Jack the Ripper",  "Codex 9/11" and "Unmasking Satoshi Nakamoto," being a few, again recent, examples. In fact, on Youtube, there are thousands of great videos where the lines between Documentary and "interesting video" blur and breakdown to the point where it becomes hard to distinguish the two.

I almost want to say that making a great Documentary has become a science, that movie studios have unlocked a formula. But "formula" is too dismissive, these movies aren't formulaic. Looking at the extreme amount of work that goes into precisely editing, I think the term "craftsmanship" is accurate. I wonder if the explanation is the rise of Reality TV. Perhaps training artists to craft drama out of existing footage for a generation has yielded a unique era for Documentary film-making.

"Hulk Hogan: Real American" is a 4-part Netflix documentary, obviously about Hulk Hogan. It is expertly made and highly recommended IF you have ever been a wrestling fan. And while I generally believe that "Hulk Hogan" would still be interesting for someone who was never into wrestling, just as I believe "The Last Dance" would be interesting to someone who was never into the Chicago Bulls - because ultimately it's about humanity and humans are interesting - I don't know and can't guarantee anything. All I can say is that I found the documentary to be expertly crafted, eye-opening, fairly emotional and highly entertaining.

Game Grumps Giggling 2025

 

 A compilation of Game Grumps laughing fits of 2025.

Celebrating Star Wars Day, I Guess

Beagle!