original >compressed copy < compressed copy > compressed copy < new data

This is a deceptively brilliant essay. The images we perceive as literal object representations are lossy compressions.

Very nice essay by Ted Chiang on ChatGPT. He's really a treasure of the contemporary world.

Ted Chiang is one of the smartest humans on the planet (also, he would be mildly uncomfortable with that statement, regardless of it being true) and this piece, and its metaphor, are both very good.

1/ I love Ted Chiang's writing, but about this well-written piece remember that (a) most of the current theories of the brain are that the brain is to a large degree a prediction engine; and (b) compression and prediction are *literally* the same thing.