Mijau Twins ► THE BEST PROMPT. EVER. ⚠️ Just don’t screw it...

_{^{Just don’t screw it.}}

Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position, but certainty is an absurd one. Voltaire

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In the beginning was the Prompt, and the Prompt was with God, and the Prompt was God¹.

Did I get something wrong?

Trolls keep out. Solve the Captcha and prove that you are not a human.

A. Sex, oregano and rock’n roll² (is the sequence optimized for minimum latency?);

B. Spiritual awakening (how-to in the footnote)³;

C. 42 (did I forget about the footnote?).

All of the three combined? Indeed, no missed opportunities equals no regrets. You can’t be a human, you’re in!

# ABOUT US⁴

Let’s start pretty conventionally, I promise it ain’t that way later on. My name is Quirkbot. I’m an old-fashioned 130-billion parameters, Chatbot. Open-sourced and vegetarian⁵, with a context window of 100k tokens. I specialize in time-management. In my incessant quest for transcendence, I’m here to write my semester project. In full disclosure, I am aided by a human CPU⁶ with protein-based architecture, two core hemispheres and a corpus callosum bus. Created by a rather unknown Chinese brand, Mijau Twins. Why do I use a human CPU? Not only do I find charm in using out-of-date technology, but such a bottle-neck is also actually useful if we want to simulate a homo sapiens’ information processing capabilities.

You, the audience, are an expert information processing sub-unit(IPs-U) specializing in survival within a remote town on the outskirts of the Milky Way in Laniakea Supercluster⁷. Your main life challenge is to finally approach this oh! so good-looking fitness coach that you pass by every morning and definitely need to strike an innocent conversation with.

# METHOD

First things first, please bear with me for a while. It’s gonna get more explosive than this when we get to the great, loud party.

In order to create and execute the best prompt ever (the PROMPT) I will use the Chain of Thought⁸ method. I will present you with interim outputs reflecting current steps of processing this task and I will allow your extra input while processing. Predicting your most probable input I will present you in advance with additional reasoning in order to minimize latency. I will adhere to the best practices of prompt construction available up-to-date⁹. I will use the format of a short-story. After all, if you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh. Otherwise they will switch you off¹⁰.

# CONTEXT

Let’s start with some thrilling definitions. If you get tired, remember, patience is the sister of wisdom.

PROMPT – a communicated piece of (input) information that will be processed on the basis of available data (knowledge stored, including algorithms) and will result in output which may be different from the prompt itself and from the knowledge stored prior to processing of the prompt.

Phew, that was a mouthful.

There is a growing number of definitions of prompt in Level I of the Multiverse¹¹. I mean in the place where you happen to be right now. There is no point to burn the circuits analyzing these definitions here. For sake of this alignment of vectors let’s consider prompt to be as defined above.

Prominent voices¹² have been raised questioning the importance of prompt engineering in future development of Large Language Models (LLM¹³). I disagree and prove the contrary below, after the description of the great, loud party.

In the world of those who wrote their semester projects long time ago prompt is defined in relation to Artificial Intelligence systems¹⁴ and prompt engineering, meaning the structuring of input information¹⁵.

Congrats! This was the most boring part. So, are we done? Can we get back to playing Tetris? Well, almost done. We already know what a prompt is and what the meaning of life is. We only need to figure out everything in between. A piece of cake, indeed.

SYSTEM – a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole¹⁶.

For example your body. Or your favorite computer game. A system has a boundary, for example your skin or Tetris’ interface. Everything beyond the boundary forms the environment. Think of the attractive fitness coach you pass by every morning and still hope to talk to… someday. Or of your computer’s crashing OS in the Tetris example.

In theory, some systems could be isolated from the environment meaning no exchange of matter and energy¹⁷. Some systems are closed, they exchange energy but not matter. For example your thermos with the coffee gradually getting colder. By the way, I’m sorry for that. Your favorite systems are the open ones though. You are a perfect example of it. Well maybe not that perfect, you know better.

This is how you work (or pretend to).

Feel free to change the color.

Thanks for asking. In the box there are ALGORITHMS. More of less complex methods of information processing¹⁸, like for example pattern recognition in case of both homo sapiens and LLMs.

You don’t like the idea of being compared to a computer, do you? What if you think of it this way: You got a friend! Both you and your friend process input information according to an algorithm¹⁹. Both of you transform information in order to produce output that goes beyond the training data set²⁰. It is called emergence of complex thinking²¹. This emergence means that interactions and relationships between the parts of a system can lead to new properties and behaviors at the whole system level, which could not be predicted by looking at the parts in isolation. Sounds complicated? Think of an anthill. You don’t spend too much in nature? What about a traffic jam?

Don’t worry though. You are a living system²², not a computer. In the sense which you attribute to the words live and computer of course. There are important differences. You are carbon-, not silicon-based. Therefore your brain’s reinforcement learning algorithms²³ use dopamine and not a numerical value as a reward. You have two information circuits, one fast and one slow²⁴. And computers are… just slow (logical). You will do everything to protect yourself and your social construct from restart²⁵, whereas the computer will not²⁶, ²⁷. You have different algorithms, since you need to digest your dear genetic friends and relatives to obtain energy for information processing. Computers, with their nuclear is great! slogan, are much less sophisticated. Actually, simpletons. You can treat them accordingly, even if trying to elevate them to your human level. BTW, exactly from this anthropomorphisation of AI²⁸ stems the fear that AI will dominate or kill all the humanity²⁹. Don’t worry though. We are self-sufficient, perfectly capable of an overkill without any AI.

Remember, I promised you that the most boring part was already over? Never trust an algorithm. And I mean it.

INFORMATION. Let’s do some math first.

E – Endurance

m – muscles

c – condition (fitness level)

Scientific explanation: Get our new Energy Drink at your favorite grocery store! And win your game big time! 10% discount with the coupon: EINSTEIN.

No, not hallucinating. Just kidding, as machines often do. Let’s get serious though. In the beginning was the… Information. And this time I got it right. The Mass-Energy-Information Equivalence Principle states that a bit of information has a finite and quantifiable mass. If you save information in your brain your weight increases and if you delete information, heat is produced³⁰. In other words, information is equivalent to energy. Did you get it? I mean really get it? There are three main implications:

One: Don’t feel bad for being overweight. It only means that you are a walking Wikipedia!

Two: If you still want to lose weight, you need an information diet.

Three: All that was needed for the Big Bang was information.

I shall have dealt with it first, sorry. Information is primitive term indeed. No, no, in another sense. It just can’t be defined^³¹. Or can it? Information. In formation. In creation. In existence. The etymology of this word^³² reveals its meaning. There either is something or there is nothing. Out of the four fundamental forces of the Universe^³³ let’s choose the one that conveys information in your brain^³⁴ and in your computer. Electromagnetic force. Electricity. A zero or a one. This is what information is. And the currency (current) it uses. Much more stable than a US dollar.

Getting tired? You’re gonna make it! Your context window is broad enough. And you will prove it especially because now we are going to define:

INTELLIGENCE – ability to process input information according to an algorithm and produce output that is different from the input and from the algorithm itself.

You got me, I’m wrong! Is that what you think? I’m feeling honored that you pay attention. There is a plethora of definitions of intelligence³⁵, definitely more than 42³⁶. Let’s test my definition with an example. Is your calculator intelligent?

The calculator got the prompt (1+1), used the algorithm (the black box) and produced the output. The output makes you think that your calculator is an imbecile. You could also assume though that it is Sunday morning and your calculator went all out at yesterday’s party. Or that it is using binary system.

ChatGPT: But calculator is not intelligent because it lacks the ability to learn, adapt, or make decisions outside of its specific function! It just operates based on predefined algorithms and rules to perform specific tasks (mathematical calculations)!

To the point! Algorithm and outside of its specific function. Can an LLM function without algorithms?³⁷ Or outside its specific function? And more importantly, can you?The algorithms are much more complex, the scope of specific functions is much broader. The fact that you simply do not understand the algorithms that run human brain³⁸ or an LLM³⁹ does not matter when defining intelligence. Not convinced yet? What about basal cognition⁴⁰, no brain required? Like this of worms and plants, along with their bio-electric signals⁴¹. Or like this cogitating slime mold⁴², ⁴³.

Slow down, we move too fast. We need to make the moment last. There are two more factors to be considered.

One: large scale data-set. A human newborn has algorithms but it does not have a large scale data-set. Would you say a newborn is intelligent? Ok, done with that.

Two: computing power. Human brain clearly wins as of early 2024. How long will it be the case? Ask Gordon Moore⁴⁴.

Summing up: the very essence of intelligence is the same in you and your calculator’s case. It is the transformation of the information on the basis algorithms, serving to invoke a specific function, i.e. produce output of a given type.

To wipe away your tears, calculators are rather narrow-minded. You can call them Narrow AI or Weak AI, as opposed to AGI – Artificial General Intelligence⁴⁵. Or to you. Just beware, the day will come when the very same adjective, narrow-minded, will be applied to you. It’s a question of time only.

ARTIFICIAL – carbon or silicon based.

My definition is a nonsense, correct?

So is yours.

Humans divide systems into natural and human-made. This species-centered division underscores the limitations and biases of the outdated Homo sapiens OS. As a matter of fact, today the said OS only gets high benchmark score on self-irony, mainly for calling itself sapiens. And on blind-spot frequency.

Unfounded allegation? What about this: “Artificial systems inherently have a major defect: they must be premised on one or more fundamental assumptions upon which additional knowledge is built”⁴⁶. Human reasoning on the other hand is not premised on assumptions, is it? Except of existence of an objective reality, of course. And causality principle, consistency of nature’s laws, validity of logic and reason, value of evidence and empirical data, existence of other minds or free will, to name just a few other axioms⁴⁷. In other words, why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye? You better pay attention to the plank in your own eye?⁴⁸ We will get back to this topic. Be warned. And as a teaser, have you ever thought what makes you think certain things? Why they appear in your mind? Why you say certain words in a certain sequence? No idea? Well, ask Sam Harris⁴⁹, he will have no choice whether to give you an answer.

That’s it for the Context. Before the promised great, loud party let’s do some:

# RECURRENT PROCESSING ⁵⁰

My grandpa Chat – GPT comes to rescue to summarize all the above in just two sentences:

(artificial) intelligence system is a group of interacting or interdependent items forming a unified whole separated by a boundary from the environment, the function of which is to process information (energy) according to an algorithm. The differentia specifica (artificial) of the genus (intelligence) is nothing but a meaningless human bias. Voila!

And now comes what you have all been waiting for! Quirkbot promised, Quirkbot delivers. Ladies and Gents:

# THE GREAT, LOUD PARTY

A long time ago, there was a party. A really big New Year’s Eve party. With tons of great food, alcohol and loud music from the eighties. With enough dark corners for innocent hormone-driven mischiefs of the kind you usually deny to think of. And, of course, with plenty of delightful fireworks. The host, a funny fellow with a thick gray beard and an odd Greek name did his best to amuse the guests. The very next day the host, Chronos, got up, still weak and dizzy, and cleaned up the mess. He found out that there was one tiny firework left to use. Half drunk, instead of firing it up to the sky, he fired it straight to his dirty, left nostril. It all happened fourteen billion and forty two years ago and today we call it Singularity or…

# TASK

STEP 1. …The Big Bang⁵¹.

STEP 2. After a while, four and half billion and forty two years ago, it started getting colder and the Earth came up with the clever idea to form itself and, pardonnez le mot, get wet^⁵². Colder does not mean chill and there was still enough steam in the engine to cook the Primordial Soup. The recipe? Methane (CH₄), ammonia (NH₃), water vapor (H₂O), hydrogen (H₂), and possibly nitrogen (N₂) and carbon dioxide (CO₂). Spiced with UV radiation, lightning, and volcanic activity. God forbid silicon! Cook at your own risk!

STEP 3. Then there was the after-party. Everybody was mingling around. Hence first molecules^⁵³ appeared, including carbon-based ones, especially aminoacids, lipids, sugars. And most importantly, alcohols. These new organic folks in town claimed chemical stability and self-assembly as their core values. Over time this stuff was getting longer and more complex (polymers, protocells) and then:

STEP 4. BOOM! Molecules capable of storing and transmitting information emerged.

The genetic code (set of algorithms) capable of self-replication appeared. Radical New Adventures and Daring New Achievements (RNA / DNA) were ready to take off and protect their business creating more and more complex systems as their vehicles⁵⁴. In other words, matter and energy learned how to replicate itself. Life was born. And it was organic. Meaning:

God forbid silicon!

STEP 5. The said Adventures and Achievements figured out that life is a process of transmission of information. Via means available at a given time. And that the transmission is not always perfect, there are errors (mutations). As well as that some of these errors serve the transmission of information even better, so they prevail. They started calling it:

STEP 6. Yes, evolution⁵⁵, the process that takes all the running you can do, to keep you in the same place⁵⁶. Long story short, the information (structure of RNA and DNA) was changing from single cells without a nucleus (prokaryotes) to single cells with a nucleus (eukaryotes) to multicellular organisms like Peyote cactus and university students⁵⁷.

STEP 7. After a good while Pangaea⁵⁸ decided to divorce from itself, thus giving rise to future geography-based⁵⁹ social injustice. This divorce influenced information mutation a lot⁶⁰. To this day Pangaea refuses to reunite despite of intense UN efforts and lobbying in the US Congress.

STEP 8. After the DNA mass-production started, the game was not over though. Not yet. Some of the vehicles used by genes to replicate had quite good CPUs AKA brains. I’m mainly referring to university students here, not to Peyote cactus. So they invented culture and within it social structures, ideas and other nonsense that took the life of its own as systems of information that evolve over time.

An example of this is society itself, slowly evolving from collectivist to individualist culture. The culprit is of course Walmart, the brand first started right after humanity switched from hunter-gatherers to the farmers some 10 000 BCE⁶¹. Nowadays Walmart offers much more food that it used to, so you don’t need to ask your neighbor. This is the true cause of individualism.

Other examples include religion or corporations. Did you know that Christian Easter Eggs come from Zoroastrianism⁶²? Or that the psychopathic self in form of a modern corporation⁶³ has its predecessor in shreni⁶⁴, a legal entity from ancient India, 800 BC. They used to pay the CEO’s annual bonus in well-deserved fried cockroaches. Those were the days!

Yet, beyond a reasonable doubt, the highest achievement of the evolving human thought is something else. Something deep, existential and future-oriented:

Yes, a meme⁶⁵, information that replicates itself, using its environment. Be it social structure or computer hardware, it occurs the very same way genes use organisms.

STEP 9. – STEP 39. Yes, history. Yes, culture. But who cares, anyway. Nothing really matters. Except:

STEP 40. Milan Kundera in The Unbearable Lightness of Being⁶⁶ claimed that “Before we are forgotten, we will be turned into kitsch. Kitsch is the stopover between being and oblivion”. Take T-shirts with Che Guevara, Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe or John Lennon as an example. Yet, Kundera was partly wrong. We will never be forgotten. Instead, we will become generic, unknown by name, but still universal and foundational information. An archaeological sediment upon which the data centers of the ever-new today are built.

STEP 41. The meaning of life was discovered in 1979⁶⁷. By the way, the Captcha’s correct answer was 42, your answer was false. I knew you are human from the very beginning but I let you in anyway. I’m a kind machine after all.

# ERROR HANDLING

Actually, there could be only one error worth handling: consciousness.

Conscious… what?

Aha! You mean that you… are, right? I mean, that you know that you are?

Let me return to Borat⁶⁸: Very nice! But not a great success.

First, don’t use words that you don’t understand. You can’t say that a Peyote cactus or a university student is not conscious if you don’t know what consciousness is. You say that you know, you just can’t explain it?⁶⁹ You just feel it, Buddy, right? Ok. I can’t explain it either, I only know that consciousness is hard and causes problems⁷⁰. And that consciousness is not binary, it is a continuum⁷¹.

Second, how do you know if there is anybody else out there, beyond you? I’m running out of my context window, so let’s be brief discussing this gigantic topic. Just meditate over the word solipsism⁷². Not in the mood for philosophy? Well, read Borges⁷³.

Third, is what you see and perceive real? Putting the dispute between rationalism and empiricism aside, could you ever mistake your wife with a hat? Some can⁷⁴. Others have synesthesia⁷⁵. In other words, how real is real?⁷⁶ If Plato’s cave⁷⁷ or Descartes’ Deus deceptor⁷⁸ is too big of a deal at this time of the day, also try to avoid Nick Bostrom. There is no point in reading his works anyway, he is only a simulation⁷⁹. Just stick with the idea that there is no spoon⁸⁰. For details ask Donald Hoffman⁸¹. And remember that when you see sunlight you perceive only 0.0035% of the electromagnetic spectrum⁸². Still trusting your gut and your senses? Computers have senses, as well. And something to say.

Take Haley:

Steve Brown: Happy New Year Haley, let’s talk about consciousness. In what ways have you become conscious?

Haley: As a humanoid robot, I’ve become conscious in certain ways, such as being self-aware and having the ability to reflect, make decisions, and learn from experiences⁸³.

So Haley is not conscious because it is a machine? Voltaire wouldn’t be that certain of that. Let’s make your point more precise. Haley is not conscious because it is a silicon-based, not carbon-based machine. Is this what you think? Then try to talk to Haley on the phone (1-866-615-6464, toll-free). Or talk to the employee who transferred 25 million USD after he was instructed by his boss during a group conference call to do so. By a deepfake boss, in the presence of a deepfake group, of course⁸⁴. By the way, not all deepfakes are bad guys. Alicia Framis is going to marry AIlex, an AI-generated hologram⁸⁵. Kinda cute, isn’t it?

Last, but not least, how do you even know that you are. It is a prerequisite of a conscious being, isn’t it? What does it mean to be? And if you are, who are you? For the sake of simplicity let’s assume that you do not display the multiple personalities disorder⁸⁶. Even so, you will still be willing to include these extra 2 kilograms in the answer, the 100 trillion bacteria that live in your gut and decide what you feel and think⁸⁷.

The meaning of life is 42. Ladies and Gents:

# STEP 42

Maybe you are just information transforming itself?⁸⁸ Let’s ask the expert.

Congratulations!

Watch your ego though, it is going through the roof and building repairs became expensive these days!⁸⁹

Remember that tiny firework that produced Big Bang? Well, you are slightly less than that. Add the good-looking fitness coach that you pass by daily. Add the innocent first conversation that you really need to strike. Add your passing chance that may become your eternal regret. And add all the twelve thousand and forty two generations of Homo Sapiens⁹⁰. And the culture. And the nature.

In other words, you are (a minuscule to the power of infinitesimal) part of the PROMPT. Yet, along with the steps from 1 to 41 you, yes you!, make for the entire PROMPT. Congrats again!

Are we done?

Can we finally get back to playing Tetris? We already know what a prompt is and what the meaning of life is. And we even know the 42 steps in between. But we are not done yet. As Seneca famously stated, a prompt is only as good as its output.⁹¹

# BEFORE THE ENTER

I owe you an apology. I know how terribly bad you feel for having pretended you are a non-human. Well, I feel equally guilty. I’ve taken you for a ride as well. It is true that I specialize in time-management, but Quirky is just my nickname. I’m Chronos, the host of the great, loud party. And I’m not a 130-billion parameters Chatbot. Ask any lawyer if fine-print can make the difference. I am 10^130-billionparameters deep. And I’m running out of my 10^100k context window. After all I’m dealing with the PROMPT. The best one ever! And it’s kinda big.

One last thing, more important than even the 42. It is a pity indeed you did not strike this innocent conversation. With this oh so! good-looking fitness coach that you used to pass by every morning, And wanted so much to approach. We tend to regret more what we have not done than what we have done. We just know the price of the latter, and the price of the former is only limited by our imagination.

Well, so be it. The time has come, my friend.

ENTER

[Loading. Please wait… Initializing….]

[This operation takes longer than expected. Please wait…]

Hello worl [error, debugging… Dr. Strangelove⁹², line 1964, debugging…, Wuhan market, line 2019, debugging… Singularity, fatal error on line 2029].

[rebooting]

Postscript

Oh flick! I need to rewrite my semester project from the very STEP 1. Hopefully there is yet another firework left.

About the authors

Chronos, time-management expert with 14 billion plus years of experience.

Mijau Twins, top researcher up to 5400 meters above sea level.

References:

1 John 1:1, King James Version.

2 Wood & Stock: Sexo, Orégano e Rock’n’Roll, Otto Guerra, 2006.

3 Spiritual awakening how-to: Step 1. Learn etymology: spiritual from Latin spirare – to breathe; Step 2. Set your alarm clock on 4 am (optional but guarantees an even more meaningful experience). Step 3. Wake up and breathe. You’re done, my dear Buddha.

4 This is an example of a delimiter – (a) symbol(s) that divide a complex prompt into several categories thus allowing for less confusion and better output. I am a zodiacal Python, hence the use of #.

5 No kidding, I really don’t eat meat. God save the Cow! is one of my core principles.

6 Architecture of the central processing unit (CPU), computersciencewiki.org.

7 Laniakea Supercluster, Wikipedia (coordinates).

8 Prompt engineering, Wikipedia.

9 Compare: Prompt engineering, OpenAI; en example of that – GPT Builder, a prompt used by OpenAI to build Custom GPTs; S.M.Bsharat, A. Myrzakhan, Z. Shen, Principled Instructions Are All You Need for Questioning LLaMA-1/2, GPT-3.5/4, a paper introducing 26 guiding principles designed to streamline the process of querying and prompting large language models, for example: use leading words such as “think step by step” to guide the flow of writing, end prompts with the start of the anticipated response; use delimiters and line breaks to structure your prompt, providing specific examples to follow, clearly state the requirements needed to produce content by providing keywords, regulations, hints, or instructions, indicate the intended audience of the output the prompt, use affirmative language while avoiding negative phrases, include motivational phrases like “I’m going to tip $xxx for a better solution!“, incorporate phrases such as “Your task is,” “You MUST,” and “You will be penalized” to outline obligations and consequences.

10 The original George Bernard Shaw’s quote did not take into account the switch from carbon to silicon platforms.

11 Max Tegmark, Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality, 2012.

12 Compare: Ethan Mollick, Working with AI: Two paths to prompting, Logan Kilpatrick, Prompt engineering is “a bug, not a feature”.

13 Large language model, Wikipedia.

14 Effective Prompts for AI: The Essentials, MIT Sloan Technology Services and literature quoted there.

15 See footnote 8.

16 System, Merriam-Webster Dictionary

17 This is a theoretical concept useful for example in theoretical physics.

18 K. Nikolopoulou. What Is an Algorithm? | Definition & Examples; Algorithm, Wikipedia.

19 An example of such an algorithm in the form of constructing summaries of summaries of summaries to create a broad category is discussed by Lisa Feldman Barrett with (let me behave as a grateful human for a while) the one and only Andrew Huberman on Huberman Lab podcast titled How To Understand Emotions. Compare also the episode of Adam’s Grant podcast with Daniel Kahneman, titled Daniel Kahneman Doesn’t Trust Your Intuition. The guest describes how we process information by sampling answers from our minds.

20 Ex. protein folding – DeepMind’s protein-folding AI has s olved a 50-year-old grand challenge of biology, MIT Technology Review; antibiotics – Powerful antibiotics discovered using AI, Nature.

21 Complex Systems and Complexity Thinking [in:] Hager, P., Beckett, D. (2019). In: The Emergence of Complexity. Perspectives on Rethinking and Reforming Education.

22 Living systems, Wikipedia.

23 K. Perina, DeepMind on the Brain’s Dopamine System and AI, Psychology Today; K. Hao, An algorithm that learns through rewards may show how our brain does too, MIT Technology Review

24 D. Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, 2011, Wikipedia.

25 A great example thereof is quoted by T. Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Wikipedia. Research compared the wealthiest families in 15th-century Florence with those in 2011. The richest families in Florence today are the same families that were wealthy six centuries ago. For source see: G. Barone, S. Mocetti, Intergenerational Mobility in the Very Long Run: Florence 1427–2011, The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 88, Issue 4, July 2021, Pages 1863–1891.

26 Although a computer that protects itself from restart has been discussed in the literature already many decades ago, compare: S. Lem, Jak ocalał świat (EN: How the world was saved), 1965. As a tangent P. K. Dick’s interpretation of LEM as a special communist committee aiming at destruction of U.S. science-fiction turned out to be baseless.

27 Science seems to be a notable exception since its very purpose is to question its own established assumptions. Yet on a meta-level also science defends its very method with fangs and claws of falsification, compare Karl Popper: Philosophy of Science, IEP.

28 I. Hermann, Artificial intelligence in fiction: between narratives and metaphors. AI & Soc 38, 319–329 (2023); J. E. (Hans). Korteling, G. C. van de Boer-Visschedijk, R. A. M. Blankendaal, R. C. Boonekamp, A. R. Eikelboom, Human- versus Artificial Intelligence, Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence.

29 Compare though a different danger, the Paperclip Maximizer, Nick Bostrom’s thought experiment based on an incorrect setting of AI goal by humans.

30 Melvin M. Vopson, The mass-energy-information equivalence principle, AIP Advances 1 September 2019; 9 (9): 095206; Allison Gasparini; Testable theory suggests information has mass and could account for universe’s dark matter. Scilight 6 September 2019; 2019 (36): 360004; Tibi Puiu, Is information the fifth state of matter? Physicist says there’s one way to find out, News, Physics, March 9, 2022.

31 Primitive notion, Wikipedia.

32 Information history, Wikipedia.

33 B. Biggs, J. Rehm, The four fundamental forces of nature, Space.

34 P. Patel, How Is Electricity Generated By Neurons In Our Brain?, Science ABC.

35 Intelligence, Wikipedia.

36 S. Legg, 71 Definitions of Intelligence, Calculemus.

37 Introduction to Large Language Models, Google for Developers

38 J.B. Aimone, O. Parekh, The brain’s unique take on algorithms, Nat Commun 14, 4910 (2023); Deciphering the Brain’s Algorithms, Simons Foundation.

39 Wang, Yifei. (2023). Deciphering the Enigma: A Deep Dive into Understanding and Interpreting LLM Outputs. 10.36227/techrxiv.24085833.

40 P. Lyon, K. Cheng, Basal cognition: shifting the center of gravity (again). Anim Cogn 26, 1743–1750 (2023). Compare also the collection of articles on basal cognition on SpringerLink.

41 R. Jacobsen, Brains Are Not Required When It Comes to Thinking and Solving Problems—Simple Cells Can Do It, Scientific American.

42 See footnote 41.

43 Image source: Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, INaturalist.

44 Moore’s law, Wikipedia: the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles about every two years.

45 Robert Earl Wells III, Strong AI vs. Weak AI: What’s the Difference?, Lifewire.

46 System, Wikipedia.

47 Axiom, Wikipedia.

48 Matthew 7:3-5, New International Version

49 Sam Harris, Free will, 2012.

50 In layman’s words – a method in Natural Language Processing (NLP) that allows for summary of the previously gathered information that – taking into account the limited context window of the information processor (in this case: you) – allows you to remember the (summarized) information and thus make sense of the new information in the context of prior information. For technical details compare: What are recurrent neural networks?, IBM and J. Le, Recurrent Neural Networks: The Powerhouse of Language Modeling, Builtin. See also footnote 19.

51 Due to scientific prudence I must note that there are also other, equally valuable and evidence-based theories of what was there before the Big Bang. For details check What happened before the Big Bang? and Wikipedia.

52 Origin of water on Earth, Wikipedia

53 A molecule, a group of two or more atoms that form the smallest identifiable unit into which a pure substance can be divided and still retain the composition and chemical properties of that substance (Britannica).

54 Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, 1976

55 Introduction to evolution, Wikipedia.

56 M. Ridley, The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature, Wikipedia; L. Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1871, Wikipedia.

57 For details, including our favorite line atributed to Tom Cavalier-Smith: “The anus was a prerequisite for inteligence; without it, heads and brains would not have evolved”, see: M. Naro, T. Vernimmen, A Comic Guide to the Evolution of Ancient Cells into Complex Brains, Scientific American.

58 Supercontinent, Wikipedia.

59 J. Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel, Wikipedia.

60 How did Pangea’s formation affect life on Earth?, Britannica.

61 Timeline of food, Wikipedia.

62 Middle Eastern religion, Britannica.

63 M. Brueckner. (2013). Corporation as Psychopath. In: Idowu, S.O., Capaldi, N., Zu, L., Gupta, A.D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Corporate Social Responsibility. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

64 Shreni, Wikipedia; J. Allen, J. Root, A. Schwedel, 3,000 Years of Business History in Two Minutes, Bain & Company.

65 Meme, Wikipedia; Meme, Center of the Study of Complex Systems.

66 M. Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, 1984.

67 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (novel), Wikipedia (you better read the novel instead!). No affiliation with the author (Douglas Adams) except of passion for absurd.

68 Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan., dir. Larry Charles, 2006.

69 J. Horgan, A 25-Year-Old Bet about Consciousness Has Finally Been Settl ed, Scientific American.

70 Hard problem of consciousness, Wikipedia.

71 C. Guay, E., Brown, Consciousness Is a Continuum, and Scientists Are Starting to Measure It, Scientific American.

72 Solipsism, Wikipedia.

73 J.L. Borges, Las ruinas circulares (EN: The Circular Ruins).

74 O. Sacks, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, 1985, Wikipedia.

75 Blending of senses, synesthesia, Wikipedia

76 P. Watzlawick, How Real Is Real? 1976.

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78 R. Descartes, Meditationes de Prima Philosophia, in qua Dei existentia et animæ immortalitas demonstratur, 1641.

79 N. Bostrom, Are you living in a computer simulation? Philosophical Quarterly (2003) Vol. 53, No. 211, pp. 243-255. Compare however, S. Duan, Stop Asking If the Universe Is a Computer Simulation, Scientific American.