<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div><blockquote type="cite"><p>I do appreciate some of the responses here, including Glen's meta-narrative and Nick's tease of "GPT nailed it right away!" though that does have the taste of shaming the rest of us (as if GPT IS one of us?) for not being as broadly trained on obscure facts and patterns as GPT is? </p></blockquote></div>I\u2019m sorry if I missed it, but did Nick include the \u201cexplanation\u201d by which GPT \u201cgot\u201d a number?<div><br></div><div>I could imagine a string of reasoning along the lines of:</div><div>\u2014 Nick intends to put this on FRIAM as a trick question</div><div>\u2014 Probably nobody would guess the number 1 as the next answer in the sequence, so that must be the number Nick wants</div><div>\u2014 ergo: the next number in the sequence is 1. QED.</div><div><br></div><div>Was that the reasoning?</div><div><br></div><div>Eric</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br id="lineBreakAtBeginningOfMessage"><div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Sep 11, 2025, at 0:57, Steve Smith <sasmyth@swcp.com> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div>
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Yes. Thank you. I was beginning to fear i had asked an unfair q.
Gpt got it on the first pass and then went on to say some
interesting things about mathematics and semantics<br id="lineBreakAtBeginningOfSignature">
</blockquote><p>i think questions of this type *are* implicitly "unfair"
(whatever that means). Without attributing malice to Nick, it is
of the type of question known as "trick", either deliberately
misleading gesturing in an arbitrary (mis)direction or simply
deliberately obscuring/withholding context which might
otherwisemake the question "obvious". </p><p>I'm not a big fan of the whole domain of "trick questions"
generally up to and including highly respected (e.g. NYT)
crossword puzzles, "Trivial Pursuit" or "Jeapordy". This might
seem odd as I *am* a fan of esoteric knowledge... perhaps just not
using it as tool for "getting one over on others" (still not
impugning Nick as having intended such).</p><p>I do appreciate some of the responses here, including Glen's
meta-narrative and Nick's tease of "GPT nailed it right away!"
though that does have the taste of shaming the rest of us (as if
GPT IS one of us?) for not being as broadly trained on obscure
facts and patterns as GPT is? </p><p>Grumbling about "trick questions" aside, Nick's claim of:
"interesting things about mathematics and semantics" is compelling
to me. I can't help but want to know what that actually grounds
out as?</p><p>I'm wondering if GPT calls this question out as a "category
ambiguity" (<i>ambiguity</i> being.a subcategory of <i>error</i>)?
I could dive in with GPT and discuss these sequences and
everyone's guesses, etc... but despite my fascination with
LLM-relations I don't want to compound my already over/mis-use and
speed the paving of the planet with Data Centers beyond what I'm
already doing with GPT. Like noodling (yet) better/more-subtle
methods for using natural materials to build an a addition onto my
home (just in time for a massive data-center blob to grow, looming
over the horizon, inevitably sucking my humble adobe-abode into
"the Matrix"?</p><p>- grumbleSteve</p><p><br>
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