23 Comments

Octopi can't hold their liquor- noted.

Expand full comment

How dare you not mention Ask Jeeves or Alta Vista?! Will we ever find the answer for what causes you to be so impudent?!🤣

Expand full comment
author

I asked them both every question I could think of back in the 90s!

Note: I almost pointed out that these tools were almost 30 years old, but I'm not ready for that yet.

Expand full comment

Ask Jeeves definitely had the best mascot.

Expand full comment
author

Lycos and Webcrawler both had the most goth names.

Expand full comment

Jeeves was THE BEST!!!

Expand full comment

Not only does that octopus look drunk. It looks like an AGGRESSIVE drunk. It's holding up its fists in a "Come and get a taste of these knuckles, punk!" kind of way. I tried using ChatGPT's Vision to ask the question, but ChatGPT simply returned a cowering-in-fear emoji and said "Please, sir, tell that octopus I don't want any trouble. Don't let him hurt me!

So clearly, there are some limits to what you can use modern large language models for.

Expand full comment
author

I know there's a type of person who gets belligerent when they drink, but I can state with some certainty that the last thing I wanted any time I was hammered was a confrontation. Mischief, sure! A fight, though? Ugh!

Expand full comment

That's how you know you're not an octopus!

Expand full comment

Appropriately, the first time I saw "drunk octopus wants to fight" was in a bar bathroom in the Fan. I hope Richmond is still staying classy.

Expand full comment
author

There's a non-zero chance this was the first one I saw, too!

Expand full comment

I had a question this weekend I can’t find an answer for… or at least haven’t yet. A colossal squid has eyes up to 12” in diameter, does that mean a human could fit their head in its eye socket? Heads aren’t perfectly round, but you’d think so. However, I can only find how big the eyes are across, not any indication of them being perfectly round. So I don’t know how deep the socket is.

I know this is a weird question, and I have no excuse for it, but now I’m kind of invested in the answer.🤷‍♀️

Expand full comment
author

I ran this by Gemini and ChatGPT, and it thinks you can do it, but it'll be tight.

Expand full comment

As a teen in the 70s, my many questions were never to be answered unless the gigantic card catalog at the downtown library had some cryptic hint about the contents of a reference book on a dusty shelf three floors up. I adore the Internet!

Expand full comment
author

Let's not forget the Dewey Decimal System!

Expand full comment

Long live Lewy! Hey! What do you mean he died?

Expand full comment

My brother and I talked about this many times during the late 80s and early 90s. “We don’t have to wonder anymore?!?”

Not the end of curiosity—as you’ve said so well. ❤️

Expand full comment
author

There's never been a more rewarding time to be curious.

Expand full comment

Octopi are the assholes of the sea. They randomly punch passing fish, just so that word gets out not to swim too close to the octopus.

“In new proof that 2020 has been a crappy year basically everywhere, scientists have captured video evidence of octopuses randomly punching at fish, possibly for no reason other than being spiteful.”

Expand full comment

There are always things that there are no answers to. But even they they leave clues if you know where to look for them.

Expand full comment

Not "world-changing", but I had a similar moment of AI appreciation not long ago. I wanted to know: "...the name of the band , performing the song, which plays in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off', when Ferris's friend is looking at the painting, in the Chicago Museum."

I could have gone to IMBD and scrolled through the track list, or found the specific scene and watched it. Instead I used GPT.

An answer in seconds, instead of minutes minutes. Compounded over many questions, that's astound time-savings.

(The song is "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want", covered by Dream Academy)

Expand full comment
author

What a great movie, and I can totally see that scene in my mind's eye!

Expand full comment

Hmmm... another of life's puzzles...

Expand full comment