[FRIAM] The comparative thickness of the tropospheree

[Marcus Daniels]

I know.  If small green bipedal creatures landed on earth and started tending to yardwork would that also be a disappointment?

They’ve failed to trim my tall hedge, so curse them!



From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of Nicholas Thompson
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2025 9:44 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The comparative thickness of the tropospheree



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<mailto: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<mailto: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<mailto: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<mailto: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<mailto:nthompson at clarku.edu>

   https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson

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