[FRIAM] Free will—ghost in the machine or just clever wiring?

[Nicholas Thompson]

I am overwhelmingly happy to take a position on free will for Marcus:

You don’t have it, I don’t have it. George doesn’t have it. Will is not the sort of thing that can be had. It is a pattern, a relentless stubbornness in doing.
Sent from my Dumb Phone

On Jun 9, 2025, at 2:36 PM, steve smith <sasmyth at swcp.com> wrote:


On 6/9/25 12:25 PM, Jochen Fromm wrote:
> Why do you call ChatGPT George? I must have missed it. Or who was George?
> 
> We have a bar named George R in Berlin by the way, in the quarter where I live. It is named after George Remus, an American bootlegger during the Prohibition era
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Remus

someone might add an extra R in homage to our own George R.R. (Martin)?

I'm surprised the "George" reference slipped by you, I don't know if it was Stephen or Nick who first started making the reference to GPT (any version) in that mode, but it was a variant on another personal name I think Stephen used for a while with "Gupta" as the surname?   I think it was intended to suggest a serious collaborator, but somehow (d)evolved to George?  If I weren't so lazy, I'd go dig through the archives... I think someone with a higher fidelity memory or implicated in that origination will pile on here?

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