[FRIAM] The comparative thickness of the tropospheree

[Nicholas Thompson]

Hi  Marcus,

I find that George's indulgence with bad metaphor very useful.

I  also find amazing his ability to grasp the gist of what I am asking.  I
have essential tremor and a bad keyboard and still George almost always
gets the message.  Siri will take any opportunity to misunderstand.

In this case, it was I, not George, who was cranking out the sloppy
metaphors, trying to find a way to convey just how thin the atmosphere is.
I was hoping Saran wrap thin, but that appears to be an order of magnitude
too far.

Am I reading this wrong? people often talk about LLM's as if they are
*disappointed* in them, as if there is something they SHOULD do that they
aren't doing.  Do you have any idea what the disappointment might be?: What
is the world hankering for that they don't provide?

Nick

On Sun, Apr 27, 2025 at 9:37 PM Marcus Daniels <marcus at snoutfarm.com> wrote:

> I wonder if the George makers 1) realized that people have an affinity to
> iffy analogies and they should give the people what they want, or 2) the
> LLM was prone to generating them so they just made it a feature?
>
>
>
> *From:* Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> *On Behalf Of *Nicholas Thompson
> *Sent:* Sunday, April 27, 2025 8:12 PM
> *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <
> friam at redfish.com>
> *Subject:* [FRIAM] The comparative thickness of the tropospheree
>
>
>
> George and I were looking for intuition pumps to help a reader imagine how
> very thin the troposphere is.   Here is what we came up with:
>
>
> Ordered by Type: Too Thin → Best Match → Too Thick
>
>
>
> *Material / Object*
>
> *Relative Thickness*
>
> *Too Thin or Too Thick?*
>
> *Notes*
>
> Weather balloon skin (fully inflated)
>
> ~280× too thin
>
> Way too thin
>
> Soap-film fragile
>
> Plastic wrap (1 layer)
>
> ~7× too thin
>
> Too thin
>
> Would need ~7 layers
>
> Eyeball tear film
>
> ~4× too thin
>
> Slightly too thin
>
> Very close, poetic comparison
>
> Party balloon skin (inflated)
>
> ~3× too thin
>
> Slightly too thin
>
> Best easy everyday match
>
> *Troposphere*
> Apple peel
>
> ~14× too thick
>
> Too thick
>
> Best among fruits
>
> Basketball skin
>
> ~16× too thick
>
> Too thick
>
> Similar to soccer ball
>
> Soccer ball skin
>
> ~17× too thick
>
> Too thick
>
> Very close to basketball
>
> Baseball leather skin
>
> ~25× too thick
>
> Too thick
>
> Heavier and thicker still
>
> Tennis ball felt+skin
>
> ~37× too thick
>
> Too thick
>
> Very thick and fuzzy
>
> Navel Orange peel
>
> ~70× too thick
>
> Way too thick
>
> Thickest skin we've discussed
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Nicholas S. Thompson
>
> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology
>
> Clark University
>
> nthompson at clarku.edu
>
> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson
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-- 
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology
Clark University
nthompson at clarku.edu
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson
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