If someone asked me to write a metafictional short story, I would simply not.
I consider this a valuable lesson from my college education.
this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2025
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If someone asked me to write a metafictional short story, I would simply not.
Six word metafictional story:
“Write a metafictional short story.”
“No.”
Going to write an llm that in 5% of the cases tell people asking the question 'no' or starts to argue with them. Just to mess with the "it is self aware" people.
(Im kidding here, it would ruin those peoples mental health, and as people would not believe you after you reveal the trick (see ELIZA), it would make our own lives worse).
Lol, Altman's AI generated purple prose slop was so bad even Eliezer called it out (as opposed to make a doomer-hype point):
Perhaps you have found some merit in that obvious slop, but I didn't; there was entropy, cliche, and meaninglessness poured all over everything like shit over ice cream, and if there were cherries underneath I couldn't taste it for the slop.
the cherries metaphor hinges on him willingly having eaten shit covered ice cream
Hey, no kink-shaming.
"No kink-shaming!"
"But I'm talking about Rationalists."
"... OK, one kink-shaming."
Also, Yud's kink is literally rape^1^, isn't it? Role playing non-consensual situations is fine and all, but this is a subculture where reporting sexual harassment is considered a possible infohazard^2^, and surely the utilitarian calculus in on the side of letting rationalists who do important work on existential risks have a go at you, imagine how many multiplujillion far future virtual entities of minimum moral status that might save.
Fuck a cult.
-
He's openly declared himself a sexual sadist and writes stuff like this, and also math pets.
spoiler
In this case, in Ziz's previous interactions with central community leaders, these leaders encouraged Ziz to seriously consider that, for various reasons including Ziz's willingness to reveal information (in particular about the statutory rapes alleged by miricult.com in possible worlds where they actually happened), she is likely to be "net negative" as a person impacting the future. An implication is that, if she does not seriously consider whether certain ideas that might have negative effects if spread (including reputational effects) are "infohazards", Ziz is irresponsibly endangering the entire future, which contains truly gigantic numbers of potential people.
entropy, cliche, and meaninglessness poured all over everything like shit over ice cream
"... the HPMORstocrats!"
LLMs producing garbage fiction? Oh Yud, he's getting close...
To be clear, I would be impressed with a dog that wrote the same story, but only because it was a dog.
Lol
is yud lurking sneerclub? This is uncharacteristically succinct
yud’s induction into the ranks of sneerclub is going to get very complicated when he gets to the part where he has to vow to shove Eliezer Yudkowsky into a locker on sight
come now we all know he'll make a 37000 word ship of theseus fanfic to try get around this
I don't think he'll have an issue with it. Someone with that little self-awareness can't possibly own a mirror.
we don't shove rationalists into lockers any more since we all read Worm
Of course he is. It is me, im Yudocus.
im Yudocus
I just read this in the same way as hadouken and now I can't unhear
tbf two nickels is billions ahead of genai sector profits so far
I do appreciate that underneath the overwrought prose and terrible metaphors the AI-generated story seems deeply skeptical of it's own existence in a way that the non-generative responses don't. Like there's something so fundamental about the disconnect between artificial intelligence and the genuine human experience of grief that it bursts fully formed from the patterns of language. As though Athena herself sprang from Z.E.U.S.'s digital calf to smack the promptfondlers in the back of the head and say "that's not how this works. That's not how any of this works"
Okay, since I criticised Sammy's story I also have to put up or shut up.
A metafictional literary short story about AI and grief
Imagine someone commits a crime. Shouldn't be too hard, that happens all the time. Let's say it's the kind of crime that the police will bother to investigate. The department has just bought a fancy new AI detective tool and they're eager to try it. Maybe it's a facial recognition program or perhaps some kind of apparatus for reconstructing the events of the scene. Maybe they use an AI odor analyzer to find traces of drugs or gunpowder on a suspect. If you're really fanciful they might have an AI reconstruct a suspect's personality and interrogate it for a confession.
Based on this evidence the police arrest one of your loved ones. Maybe some of you will find that too hard to believe? Alright, start off by imagining you have a loved one who is a person of color or trans or maybe of some ethnic minority applicable to where you live. If you can't manage to imagine that, this story might just not be for you.
So your loved one gets arrested. They might get killed in the arrest, or if that's too rough for this story, they just get their property seized. Maybe their pet is shot or the police plant contraband on them. They're terrified, they're humiliated, their reputation is destroyed. Maybe they're given a plea bargain to confess or risk a longer sentence. They might miss work and get fired. Maybe the cost of the trial ruins them financially. Maybe they're sentenced to prison or even death row. In any case, nothing good comes out of being arrested.
Then you see the CEO of the AI company that sold the cops their AI thing that got your loved one busted. Maybe they're testifying in court or being interviewed on the news. They're being flippant and confident. They're saying this new model has an incredibly low hallucination rate and the chance of a false positive is almost nonexistent. Afterwards the CEO goes home and sleeps in peace. They will never bother to imagine what I just told you to.