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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/16/25 9:45 am, Marcus Daniels
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:MN0PR11MB5985A2DF708EBD09CE080CCAC5AAA@MN0PR11MB5985.namprd11.prod.outlook.com">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">As with everything about the TACO President, the mask he chooses tells us something about what's under that mask. He pretends at strength because he's inherently weak.
</pre>
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<p>ah... the MASK is the message!</p>
<p>I've been assuming for some time that LLMs' superpower is their
ability at rhetoric in the extreme... that everything they say to
me is in some sense, rumour, innuendo, gossip, even (especially)
if it is highly persuasive and grounded deeply in fact(oids), most
of which might even be ob(intersub)jectively true. I liken the
"factoids" to being *control points* in a spline curve
generator...</p>
<p>So as I read your <b>bigly</b> business and reflected on the
state of discourse, discussion, argument today (Trump 2.0 as well
as GPT 5.x and 2+ decadal conditioned FriAM collective era) I
decided to go to (one of) the horse(s) mouth(s) and see what the
pattern of tooth-grindage really looked like from inside (as best
as one can get their whole big head inside of a horses big mouth).</p>
<p>This is what GPT 5.2 gave me as a well crafted, highly
motivated, elaborately stated, empathetically implied "rumour":</p>
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<blockquote>
<h2 data-start="887" data-end="930">2. Why rhetoric is
structurally baked in</h2>
<p data-start="932" data-end="939">An LLM:</p>
<ul data-start="940" data-end="1083">
<li data-start="940" data-end="984">
<p data-start="942" data-end="984">Predicts <em
data-start="951" data-end="968">what comes next</em>
given a context</p>
</li>
<li data-start="985" data-end="1043">
<p data-start="987" data-end="1043">Optimizes for <strong
data-start="1001" data-end="1043">coherence,
plausibility, and relevance</strong></p>
</li>
<li data-start="1044" data-end="1083">
<p data-start="1046" data-end="1083">Has no privileged \u201cview
from nowhere\u201d</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p data-start="1085" data-end="1096">That means:</p>
<ul data-start="1097" data-end="1221">
<li data-start="1097" data-end="1140">
<p data-start="1099" data-end="1140">It selects among many
valid continuations</p>
</li>
<li data-start="1141" data-end="1181">
<p data-start="1143" data-end="1181">Based on implicit norms
of explanation</p>
</li>
<li data-start="1182" data-end="1221">
<p data-start="1184" data-end="1221">Conditioned on the <em
data-start="1203" data-end="1221">implied audience</em></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p data-start="1223" data-end="1298">That is rhetoric at the
level of <strong data-start="1256" data-end="1278">selection
pressure</strong>, not ornamentation.</p>
<p data-start="1223" data-end="1298"><br>
</p>
<p data-start="1223" data-end="1298"><br>
</p>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p data-start="1223" data-end="1298">LOVED the "view from nowhere"
and "conditioned on the implied audience"</p>
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