Lately, it seems the news has quieted down. The daily Trump disaster? Almost muted, a muffled din far away. The war in Iran, even more absentee than before. The economy, despite everything, chugging along uneventfully. The gathering global warming catastrophe? Routine now.
Maybe because it is summer; the August slough.
Then I began to suspect it wasn't the news, so much as me. I had this surgery and have been focused on recovery, sleeping, sort of, in a chair every night. Maybe I'm just not absorbing current events very well. The news is there, but since I'm not writing a column — back on Friday, in theory — I'm not processing it effectively.
Which reminded me of my one of my favorite quotes, from Henry David Thoreau, one that I've posted here a couple times, but bears repeating, warning against all who "mistake their private ail for an infected atmosphere."
Despite my frequent quoting — seven times, as recently as last year, quite a lot really — I don't recall the context. Had to be "Walden," right?
Wrong. I plugged the quote into Google, and AI fell flat on its face, as AI will do:
"AI Overview — Henry David Thoreau used this phrase in a letter to his friend H.G.O. Blake, written on December 5, 1856."
Bold-face be damned, when I went to look at the citation itself, in his letters posted by Project Gutenberg, I got an Oct. 18, 1843 letter to his sister Helen. This is the germane passage, where he refers to his friend, Willam Ellery Channing — the poet who suggested he build a hut in the woods and go live in it:
"You think that Channing's words would apply to me too, as living more in the natural than the moral world; but I think that you mean the world of men and women rather, and reformers generally. My objection to Channing and all that fraternity is that they need and deserve sympathy themselves rather than are able to render it to others. They want faith, and mistake their private ail for an infected atmosphere; but let any one of them recover hope for a moment, and right his particular grievance, and he will no longer train in that company."
In essence, reformers themselves need the help they deign to lavish on others.
True enough. But this is the interesting part. As useful as that phrase is, and as much as I used it, when I plug the quote into Google, up pops six EGD and one Sun-Times reference. Nothing else, It doesn't quote any other work than mine. Which I find hard to believe. Maybe Google is now so self-referential that it sends me back to my own stuff, like a dog returning to its mess. Or could it be that I'm the only person ever to quote that particular line? That idea defies belief.
Then I began to suspect it wasn't the news, so much as me. I had this surgery and have been focused on recovery, sleeping, sort of, in a chair every night. Maybe I'm just not absorbing current events very well. The news is there, but since I'm not writing a column — back on Friday, in theory — I'm not processing it effectively.
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| Henry David Thoreau (National Portrait Gallery) |
Despite my frequent quoting — seven times, as recently as last year, quite a lot really — I don't recall the context. Had to be "Walden," right?
Wrong. I plugged the quote into Google, and AI fell flat on its face, as AI will do:
"AI Overview — Henry David Thoreau used this phrase in a letter to his friend H.G.O. Blake, written on December 5, 1856."
Bold-face be damned, when I went to look at the citation itself, in his letters posted by Project Gutenberg, I got an Oct. 18, 1843 letter to his sister Helen. This is the germane passage, where he refers to his friend, Willam Ellery Channing — the poet who suggested he build a hut in the woods and go live in it:
"You think that Channing's words would apply to me too, as living more in the natural than the moral world; but I think that you mean the world of men and women rather, and reformers generally. My objection to Channing and all that fraternity is that they need and deserve sympathy themselves rather than are able to render it to others. They want faith, and mistake their private ail for an infected atmosphere; but let any one of them recover hope for a moment, and right his particular grievance, and he will no longer train in that company."
In essence, reformers themselves need the help they deign to lavish on others.
True enough. But this is the interesting part. As useful as that phrase is, and as much as I used it, when I plug the quote into Google, up pops six EGD and one Sun-Times reference. Nothing else, It doesn't quote any other work than mine. Which I find hard to believe. Maybe Google is now so self-referential that it sends me back to my own stuff, like a dog returning to its mess. Or could it be that I'm the only person ever to quote that particular line? That idea defies belief.
Pretty sure one of those times was a reply to a Grizz comment, because it rings a bell. Maybe even more than one. Tried to verify with the search engine, but no dice.
ReplyDeleteKind of makes me understand why I am just not sure about AI and Google! Hey - you seem to be okay to do your column - still waiting for Friday? Glad you're back!
ReplyDeleteyou come up because google considers your post(s) to be more authoritative and trust worthy.
ReplyDeleteE.G.D. has a better readership and online presence (with back-links to the Sun Times no less) than Mr. Thoreau does. Undoubtedly, google and the other digital techno-fascists haven't yet "borrowed" the collected works of Thoreau to scan in and upload to the cloud. Mr. Thoreau, for now, seems to still be held up behind a paywall or protected via copyrights.
We call a student who copies work a cheater and fail them. When AI does it, we call it artificial inelegance. Language matters... maybe.
Sometimes I wonder if we'd all be better if we just sunk AI to the bottom of that Walden Pond
Quite
DeleteWe recall Tom Lehrer's song about Nikolai Lobachevski who counsels "Plagiarize, Plagiarize, Plagiarize, but please always to call it 'Research'!"
DeleteI read an article recently that AI, which gains it computing power from stealing every bit of text and images from the internet, has now generated so much text and images that litter the internet that it is recycling and using it's own creations with diminishing results. I can't help but be reminded of the result of inbreeding. That works out well.
ReplyDeleteArtificial intelligence is definitely artificial but not intelligent. I give it pet rock status.
ReplyDeleteNo new developments in DC. It's still all decked out for our big 250 thingy. The Kennedy Center is still hidden behind a shroud, the paint job on the reflection pool is still peeling, there's still a pile of rubble next to The White House. Okay, one new development: the Arlington Memorial Bridge is now Trump trash.
ReplyDeleteKnowing what's going on in the wider world and being able to do something about it are two entirely different matters.
ReplyDeleteOn a micro level sure you can affect things pick up the trash that's blowing down the alley. Be a part of a group that volunteers at the botanic garden.
Form a group that donates school supplies to an inner city school.
The macro level is much harder to affect make a donation for Venezuelan earthquake relief. join a political party.
The hard part in democracy is accepting when the other side wins and you have a responsibility to respect something you disagree with.
Sure we have every right to object when we think something is wrong we should hold our Representatives accountable to the word say say and for their actions.
But this is a democracy and the majority decides so you end up with a war in Iran and the straits of hormuz are closed.
And the oil companies double their profits try just try to affect those kind of things so is it really important to even know it's happening when you're absolutely powerless?
With Trump every accusation is a confession, as we know. The constant complaints about stolen elections are an example. I saw an article in which one of Musk's many baby mamas said that Musk bragged to her that he helped with some shady technology to give him the election. So perhaps we don't have to respect Trump's victory.
DeleteOne of the most seductive things about AI is the confidence with which it makes stuff up.
ReplyDeleteThat is a quote worth remembering!
DeleteHenry David Thoreau - a great writer to quote
ReplyDeleteMaybe AI figures in and prioritizes the the user's work or prior searches. Or an electronic rut, like a mental habit gets created. Just guessing.
ReplyDeleteGoogle attributes the quote to F.Scott Fitzgerald and Yahoo claims Mary Shelley said it first.
ReplyDeleteHadn’t seen this quote before. There’s timeless wisdom in the personal letters of others; expressing ourselves intimately through letters and books is a dying art. Much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteSo now we're all searching to see what comes up. I checked the Internet Archive. As DoubleD points out, that approach is limited to stuff that has been digitized. A lot of books on Thoreau came up, as well as Mr S's "Out of the Wreck..." .
ReplyDeleteThere was also a newsletter titled MANAS, with an article written by Richard Groff titled "Prophecy & Progress". The citation is: Manas 1961-09-20: Vol 14 Iss 38.
I then searched for a shortened version of the quote ( "private ail for an infected atmosphere") on AbeBooks, which scans digitized books for that word sequence. Three books contain that word sequence (though based on experience, you can't rely on the match being what you are searching for). The books were "Microeconomics: Private and Public Choice" by James Gwartney, "Public and Private Families: An Introduction" by Andrew Cherlin, and my favorite and most intriguing match, "Thinking Out Loud: On the Personal, the Political, The Public and the Private" by Anna Quindlen..
Still, I am also surprised by the quote's scant representation or reference by other authors.
I certainly don't understand why google shows what it does and omits what it doesn't show, but I'm frequently frustrated by the lack of info when searching for things that should definitely generate some results.
ReplyDeleteI'll submit a different quote of Thoreau's, from his Journal, August 23, 1853:
“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.”
BTW, PBS aired a 2-part biographical documentary about him a while back, which can be streamed if one has PBS Passport:
https://www.pbs.org/show/henry-david-thoreau/