Thread by @damn_ethan

@theSamParr and @TheHustle got access to #GPT3 from @OpenAI. I fed it the first few lines of Moby Dick, then let it rip. It wrote some beautiful prose about the freedom of life at sea, then went on an insane tangent about how whales are like Holland cheeses. Thread below.

First, a few lines of the intro written by the (human) author, Herman Melville, which I input into the system:

"Call me Ishmael. Some years ago...(1/5)

...never mind how long precisely having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation...(2/5)

...Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet;...(3/5)

...and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can...(4/5)

...With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me."(5/5)

Now, here's what the AI wrote when asked to continue the story (posted in its entirety). To me, this first part is profound, and beautiful:

GPT-3: "But, to be sure, the reason of this, as of many other things, is too obvious to be told. Why is it that men love to be sailors, but not cod-fishers, or herring-fishers? It is, because a sailor’s life is a freer life than that of anybody else...(1/6)

...He is not chained to an oar; he is not shackled to anything. rolex watches for sale The very moment he comes aboard, he steps out of the old harness, and falls to promenading the deck, like a man in a garden...(2/6)

...He is not expected to pull hard, and sweat, and blubber, and gasp, and swear, and get red in the face. No, no; all that was to be done ashore; and being done, it is over, and he comes to the sea...(3/6)

...He must have liberty, too; he must be able to have his own way, and do what his own way bids him...(4/6)

He is not forced to take his chance with a thousand others in a ten-thousandth part of a square mile, to all appearance too small for a graveyard. He is not to be put in a strait-jacket, and hung up for safe keeping. He is not to be sent to sea upon a shelf, and kept there..(5/6)

...He is not to be made a slave of, or sent to work like an ox. He is a man, and a gentleman, and he must be treated as such. This is a brief preamble; but I thought it necessary to make it, in order that you may perceive what it is that has driven me to sea. (6/6)

Then there is a brief interlude where things start to slide off track.

GPT-3: "Now I have a fancy that if a man should succeed in what I am going to attempt, it will be almost as great a wonder as if he should succeed in climbing to the moon..." (1/4)

...At least, if the man has never been there before, that is my way of thinking about it...(2/4)

...I am the only man living who could have possibly undertaken such a thing; and as for any other man of the whole race, who might have been brought up for it, he would very likely have gone to sea on purpose to avoid it." (3/4)

...Now, one word more, and I will end this preamble." (4/4)

Then all hell breaks loose in the most perfect way, as though the press corpse asked Trump to expostulate about his opinions of a life at sea.

[Enter GPT-3]...

"I have not been at sea very long, and yet long enough to get a glimpse from the mast-heads, of what I may call the heart of the whale. The largest land animal, as the largest sea animal, is a sort of stupendous tub—a bathtub—and when you have seen one, you have seen all...(1/4)

...The whale is just such another. In shape, he is not so much like a tub as a Holland cheese, for in one end he is like a cheese, and in the other end he is like a tub...(2/4)

...If you will have a small cheese made, it will have the shape of a great tub. But if you have a tub, and will turn it upside down, and make four or five holes in the bottom of it, and two or three in the top, then it will have the shape of a cheese...(3/4)

...I do not say that it will weigh just as much as a cheese, for I do not know; but I do say it will weigh very nearly as much."(4/4)

There you have it, folks. Whales are like cheeses and human writers can all (finally) retire.

Clearly, there are a lot of important implications to this for professional writers and storytellers. I will continue to research and post, so follow if you're interested.