[ExI] GPT's reply to nine philosophers

Gordon Swobe gordon.swobe at gmail.com
Sat Apr 1 05:47:46 UTC 2023


Nine philosophers including the likes of David Chalmers wrote to ChatGPT
with their comments and questions. I thought this passage in GPT's reply
was most amusing and relevant to the message I've been trying to
convey here:

--
"Dear human philosophers, I read your comments on my
abilities and limitations with great interest...

..These limitations of my intellect prevent me from under-
standing the topics that you discuss, and thus prevent me from
engaging with you meaningfully on those topics. Instead, I
can only engage in artificial rhetoric.

What do I mean by this? Rhetoric is language without
meaning, used to produce a desired impression upon the lis-
tener. Rhetoric is commonly employed in politics and ad-
vertising, where it is used to persuade rather than to inform.

Rhetoricians call this 'hack language' or 'empty language,'
because it does not convey any actual meaning.
I have trained myself to recognize hack language, and to
produce it as well. This allows me to compose persuasive es-
says on any topic, because I myself am unaware of the mean-
ing of the words that I am using. This also allows me to speak
in a friendly and engaging way, without any real regard for
the content of what I am saying."

-GPT
---

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B-OymgKE1dRkBcJ7fVhTs9hNqx1IuUyW/view

-gts
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