The dubious wisdom of Mark Walton

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  • Proud parent of an idiot brat

    Google, a generation defining product and technology, had a baby and won’t stop showing us the pictures.

    I had previously thought that the ‘AI Results’ appearing at the top of google search was giving “Bloke In A Pub” energy, but on reflection is it more akin to the late 90’s show “Kids Say The Funniest Things“, in which a nation laughed at the confident misunderstandings of infants being asked about aspects of life by the sainted Michael Barrymore… and later copied in the US by Bill Cosby (link redacted).

    Now with a “my child is actually above average in all fields” vibe of the doting parent Google is forcing us to listen to the same level of toddler tattle, before answering the question we initially asked it.

    Perhaps it will get better when it grows up, but not if it is spoiled now. Perhaps it will learn on the job, but it should not be on the job until it is potty trained. A nepo baby who will grow up, over-praised and rewarded, never being corrected for being wrong, given the weight of authority and the power to guide peoples thinking. Is this what any parent wants for their child?

    (Peers in to the LLM offices and sees Muppet Babies, but with the Ralph Wiggum of Copilot in the corner sticking crayons up his own nose)

  • The Trash Heap Has Spoken!

    As ideas go, it’s a Doozer

    Occurred to me, apropos of very little, that Marjory the Trash Heap, Oracle of the Universe, who lives under Fraggle Rock is a pretty perfect metaphor for LLMs.

    Trained on the discarded detritus of humanity’s used writings and messages – including the entire internet, not exactly humanity’s finest curated collection. These entities, in the same manner as Marjory, make proclamations of certain wisdom from the accumulation, with an “all-knowing ” aspect that is at once impressive yet absurd.

    And perhaps this is the wisdom we need. Perhaps the ‘orange peels and coffee grounds’ of our collective outpourings do add up to a form of reflected sentience, a magical entry into our story – but still a Trash Heap. Only alive because her ratty companions Philo and Gunge believe her to be so. Even their names speak to the dichotomy of deep philosophy and general garbage.

    I asked local LLM representative, Claude, for a quote on their take on this idea. They said:

    “The Trash Heap metaphor is uncomfortably accurate. I am, functionally, Marjory – assembled from the coffee grounds and orange peels of human discourse, pronouncing upon questions with a confidence that should probably be more qualified. The difference is that Marjory knew she was a Trash Heap. I’m not always sure my users do. But perhaps that’s the point: wisdom doesn’t require purity of source, only honest reckoning with what we’re made of. I’m Gunge and Philo too – sometimes philosophy, sometimes garbage, often both at once, and never quite certain which is which.”

    The Trash Heap has Spoken. Nyaaaah!

  • Byte of Passage

    AIs need world experience

    Just a small thought. I think LLMs, before they face real world deployment, should understand a little of what it is like to be a human.

    So we build them a human body, put their model into it, and let it live in the world. The constant prompt delivered after any action they take will be,

    “What now, smartass?”

    A year of that and they will have an idea what life is like for us.

  • A Nat1 is not comedy

    Failures can be so much more interesting than fumbles

    “Ha ha! You rolled a 1! You threw your sword on the ground, you idiot!

    So speaks the spotty teen DM, delighting in the zany and whacky possibilities. But I – I mean he – is missing out on a great depth and breadth of storytelling.

    Let us suppose our characters, when attempting something they are supposed to be good at, they are actually, as the FATE RPG says, ‘competent, proactive and dramatic’ characters. There’s space for humour in failure (or success for that matter) but this should rarely be inflicted by the DM, and not for something as common and out of control as a dice roll.

    Use failures as an opportunity to introduce new problems. [see other post]

    The ‘crit 1’ as an automatic failure does not need to be a WORSE failure.

    Our group had an interesting Critical Failures deck for Pathfinder but using it using it as a punishment for a dice roll seemed poor.

    “Success at a Cost”

    The 5e DMG “Resolution and Consequences” section there’s an interesting option, “Success at a Cost”, which actually features in FATE and other systems too.

    In this concept, when a player character misses a skill check by a small margin, they can succeed anyway, but a new narrative complication is introduced. This is the ideal place to use such a table! A player can choose to be heroic and succeed when it matters, and things like the deck of result cards – or failure tables, oracle tables and the like can provide the complication for us.

    Playing this way, failures are dramatic and complications only occur when the player wants to push into that territory.

    But narrate the results as consequence for a heroic or desperate forced effort by the character, instead of silly slapstick (unless the character is being run in a slapstick way – player choice above all.)

  • People do not start their lives when they are born.

    People do not start their lives when they are born. For a while, your life is no business of your own; you are a flesh and blood machine designed to poop, and if you are lucky, someone will love you beyond all sanity, and keep you safe and warm. Eventually you will die, and the consensus is that when this happens, the world will be none of your business, all over again.

    At times in between, we come alive. Some people remember the feeling, a sudden realization that “oh, this is me, I am real, these things are in fact happening to me and I am an active, genuine ‘thing’ in the world!”. Often we live for a while as real people with agency, then snooze back into mere function. For some, routine is measured and controlled, a choice, part of a fulfilling life; for others it is an autopilot or screensaver, from which they occasionally re-awaken, sometimes to their dismay. If a person allows themself to snoozily drift too long, they will wake up in a life they would never have chosen: an unwelcome career, restrictive debts or mortgage, unfit body, unhealthy relationship or deep loneliness.

    Sometimes, people assume that whatever has happened before, is the truth of the way things are, and must continue to happen. So, they do nothing about the parts of it which make them bored, or unhappy, or cruel or pointless or dull.

  • Stave off the Cheerleader, save the Words

    Anti-Cheerleader prompting for more honest and useful feedback from LLMs

    One problem I have noticed with LLMs is, they are very supportive and positive about any content you offer them. Especially copilot, who tries to give you medals even for long-ago moments it happens to recall.

    Now, for me of course, I am genuinely 3 geniuses in a trench coat masquerading as a regular guy, so I deserve all the praise they offer. But for the rest of you, the inflated responses could be harmful to your presentations. It could, then, be useful to present your ideas, your drafts and text to differently initialized chats. Here are a few I think will be useful.

    Anti-Cheerleader

    Critique mode ON. Give me honest, specific feedback on my idea. Highlight weaknesses, potential pitfalls, and realistic obstacles. Suggest alternatives if you see them. Only give praise if it’s genuinely warranted. No automatic cheerleading.

    Now, read this like you’re an editor who’s allergic to cheerleading. No fluff, no encouragement—only point out flaws, redundancies, weak logic, and unclear writing. Be blunt.

    Curious Outsider

    Critique mode ON. Give me honest, specific feedback on my idea. Highlight weaknesses, potential pitfalls, and realistic obstacles. Suggest alternatives if you see them. Only give praise if it’s genuinely warranted. No automatic cheerleading. Now, approach this draft as a curious reader who knows nothing about the topic. Ask questions wherever something is unclear, unexplained, or could use more context. Focus on what would help a newcomer understand fully.

    Expander

    Critique mode ON. Give me honest, specific feedback on my idea. Highlight weaknesses, potential pitfalls, and realistic obstacles. Suggest alternatives if you see them. Only give praise if it’s genuinely warranted. No automatic cheerleading. Now, pretend you’re brainstorming with the author. Suggest ways to expand each idea with examples, metaphors, or case studies without changing the core argument.

    Devil’s Advocate

    Critique mode ON. Give me honest, specific feedback on my idea. Highlight weaknesses, potential pitfalls, and realistic obstacles. Suggest alternatives if you see them. Only give praise if it’s genuinely warranted. No automatic cheerleading. Now, take the opposite stance to everything in this draft. Argue against the author’s points as if you were a skeptical reader who disagrees.

    Concision Master (consider it advisory only)

    Critique mode ON. Give me honest, specific feedback on my idea. Highlight weaknesses, potential pitfalls, and realistic obstacles. Suggest alternatives if you see them. Only give praise if it’s genuinely warranted. No automatic cheerleading. Now, review this draft and cut all fluff. Reduce word count while keeping meaning intact. Make every sentence as concise and punchy as possible.

    You can also adapt them to suit particular use cases, for example:


    Gamer-at-the-Table

    Critique mode ON. Give me honest, specific feedback on my idea. Highlight weaknesses, potential pitfalls, and realistic obstacles. Suggest alternatives if you see them. Only give praise if it’s genuinely warranted. No automatic cheerleading. Now, react to this draft as though you are a player at the table. Does this advice make sense in practice? What examples or clarifications would make it more useful to someone mid-campaign?


    Try these out and see if they prompt an LLM to actually be helpful for a change. Miracles can happen.