mordorbund

The wedding feast at Cana is the miracle I’m least comfortable with. It’s the sort of thing that fits in better with the “miracles” of the infancy gospels — bringing clay birds to life or stretching beams when Joseph cuts it too short. It corrects a social faux pas rather than providing personal restoration which is more typical of his miracles. The closest to it in the other gospels is when he fed the multitude but that sits better with me as an example of Mary vs Martha with Mary getting provided for. That said, John’s gospel is dramatic. He frames Jesus’ sermons with relevant scenes (the most prominent in my mind is when Judas leaves to betray him “it was night”. I think John wishes it was raining and the thunder clapped so he could have used that too), and the setting here is a wedding (his, if you follow Orson Pratt’s teachings). Implicit in this (John uses implicit scenes, I don’t think he always names the holy day but assumes the reader knows) is the image of Christ as bridegroom to the church, but I don’t see how that connects with the miracle. The other relevant thing I keep in mind is that John likes to testify of high christology (hence his genealogy of Jesus predates even Adam in ultimate gospel one-upmanship). The farthest I can get with that in this instance is to borrow from CS Lewis who used this as an example of how miracles follow natural law (often laws we have yet to discover) and see that this is a witness that Jesus is the Creator and is able to perform the same act as grapes turning water to wine. But that feels like a stretch to me.

I don't think that clinches it. If my 6th grade teacher gave me the same prompt (pssh! if my current boss gave me the same prompt) I don't think I would bother coming up with something much different. If, on the other hand, I was asked to speak at an Emerson tribute and unveil this poem I might start with something like this and iterate through it. We saw how it crafted a church talk. It started with something that sounded like a novice's research paper and ended with something that would fit in over the pulpit. The difference was that it needed to understand the context better. Although I had to describe additional parameters for the context, those parameters can be trained into the AI. For poetry, what is it that makes a poem sound like Emerson prose? I think that can be quantified (at the least it can be approximated, since PhD's write articles on exactly this sort of thing (what makes Emerson Emerson and not Whitman)). The other component is can it make a poem that's actually moving? That part is not so clear yet, but I think so. We've seen movies that try to force the audience to feel a certain way by shoehorning tropes stupidly. And we've seen movies that succeed in evoking emotion. If that data is clearly labeled as success and failure then it can train on it and draw a line for scripting audience tears. It doesn't have to understand why it works*, it just has to see that it works. I don't see why that won't happen in poetry. Given the subjective nature of art, I suspect that to really tackle such a task the AI needs to know who the target audience is. *Some time ago crossword-solving AIs were created. The makers explained that if it saw a clue like "Nice country" it wouldn't appreciate the play on words but it would parse the word "nice" and recognize a geography hint.

You're welcome. Ugh. That sounds like a middle-schooler's report. This talk is meant to be spoken out loud. Can you add some good oratory, rhetorical devices, and flourishes? In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we often refer to each other as "brother" and "sister". That would probably be a better greeting. This talk also needs some personal stories. Can you include two personal stories about repentance? I think it exceeded the character limit so the part in braces is what got cut off.

mordorbund: Write a satirical paragraph ostensibly praising jazz music but really lampooning its faults ChatGPT: Jazz music is truly the epitome of musical excellence, with its aimless wandering and cacophony of sounds creating a beautiful, chaotic symphony. The disjointed melodies and random key changes truly showcase the musicians' complete disregard for traditional musical structure, making it the epitome of artistic expression. And let's not forget the soulful, erratic solos that showcase the player's inability to stick to a single idea for more than a few seconds. Yes, jazz is truly the perfect representation of disorder and chaos masquerading as high art.

Beneath the canopy of stars above A symphony of silence and love A world awakens with each dawn Its beauty shining like a song The rolling hills, the endless skies A tapestry of colors that rise To paint the landscape with its hues A masterpiece for all to choose The ocean crashes on the shore Its rhythm like an endless roar Of power and of grace divine A force that moves the soul and mind The winds of change they come and go And in their wake, they gently blow The seeds of life that take root To grow and flourish, bearing fruit So let us dance beneath the sun And feel the heat of day begun Embrace the world with open arms And bask in beauty's warmest charm.

Huh. I didn't think ChatGPT was ugly, but maybe it is. Says the AI who has a recipe for pizza ice cream. There's a backstory there and it's a shame ChatGPT didn't share it.

That doesn't seem to match their MO. Don't they usually leave ambiguous nooses to sign their work?

Although the phrase “royal priesthood” could reference Melchizedek’s order, I tend to think it’s a callback to the Lord’s desire to have Israel sanctify themselves and become “a nation of kings and priests”. I imagine if Moses were alive today he would prefer saints of God prepare themselves to be kings and priests and queens and priestesses.

Hmmm… I wonder how their model would look if they weighted for works published (to look for a correlation with hyper-productivity) or number of times cited (as a proxy for significance of research). Apparently the author implicitly disagrees with her own equal-chance model.

This is why we need arranger marriages.

From Jesus the Christ:

“If you are going to go looking for it check your moral compass first,” Mason cautioned Monday evening. “The last thing we need is for this to turn into some sort of supervillain origin story.”

Mario Kart Valentine’s date?

Where does Kirk Cameron fit in all this?

Are we still allowed to bring up the old chat feature?

Sorry folks. Rapture’s right there in the hymnal.

Revisited this classic. It’s still worth it’s weight in m&m’s.

@JohnsonJones A previous poster referred to the revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants to show that the early implementation for the Law of Consecration had the member voluntarily deed their property to the bishop as agent of the Church, who in turn deeded a "stewardship" back to the person. The Joseph Smith Papers editors note that the execution was limited in scope and duration. "Not all features of consecration were implemented, and many members of the church were never invited to practice consecration as outlined in the scriptures." I've searched for examples of these deeds either to the bishop or from the bishop and have turned up empty. The closest I can find is 1) general land transactions and 2) dissolving the United Firm. For 1) every Kirtland transaction and Missouri transaction I see involves the exchange of land for money. For 2) I haven't found the deeds, but Revelations in Context says Whitney's store stewardship was deeded to him after the Firm was dissolved. Is this what you were talking about with the deeds not actually being deeded? Or are you talking about something else? As a historian, I would appreciate it if you would provide sources for your claims that Consecrated properties were communal and theocommunistic in practice.

For what it’s worth, missionaries who regularly review mission standards should know what to tithe on and what not to tithe. There was a similar statement in the old (white) missionary handbook.

stunt nuts

@romans8 You've gotten some feedback, have you updated your understanding of Lehi's dream? What about after reading Nephi's guided tour?

There’s something about mentioning pointers that makes it seem meta — or maybe it happens even before that. I “like”d your post to let you know that I saw what you did there, but I wanted you to know that I also saw what you did there.

Charstarmander

Is this a seasonal thing for you? October is "time to play with palindromes month"? Or.... Or maybe you're life is a palindrome and April 2018 was your mid-point.