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Thomas P. Balazs's avatar

I appreciate Joseph Campbell, but I’ve met many intellectuals who dismissed him I think largely for the very reason you’re discussing here that they took his claims as literal instead of metaphorical.

Chris Bateman's avatar

I have great love for Campbell, but he was full of scorn for Christians whose interpretation of the Bible leaned towards literality (as a lot of Evangelicals do), and am forced to admit that he was quite prejudiced in this regard. For me, however, Campbell was one of several people whose writings helped open a path back to Christianity for me after many years drifting in the spiritual wilderness.

RZB's avatar

Stimulating essay....

I asked ChatGPT Deep Research: "Does the human mind organize ideas as a collection of metaphors" After 30 minutes it came back to me with

"Does the Mind Organize Ideas as a Collection of Metaphors? A Cross-Disciplinary Assessment"

https://chatgpt.com/s/t_698b9011d8388191ae47177ddbbdf958

Gemini on the other hand I asked "Is an ISM a metaphor" which at first it took to mean 1) "Interstellar Medium" and 2) "When "ISM" Becomes Metaphorical" and explained the difference between Metonymy vs. Metaphor.

I then asked the same question: "Does the human mind organize ideas as a collection of metaphors"

so I clarified and here is the dialoque

https://gemini.google.com/share/46576de58f55

Chris Bateman's avatar

Thanks for the kind words, Bob!

Since the robots can only regurgitate other people's ideas with a bias for the popularised, I would expect that you will not find much immediate support for this concept in a chatbot (your link, alas, did not open for me - the robots know I don't trust 'em! 😂). However, that said, there is a long-standing stream of discussion around this topic, and so depending on how a prompt was constructed, you certainly could foreground people who have approached it this way.

I laughed heartily at the robots interpreting ISM as 'interstellar medium"! 😂 Their hilarious mistakes are the aspect of LLMs I enjoy the most.

All the best,

Chris.

RZB's avatar

Sorry the links didn't work. I will try to find out why the ChatGPT link didn't work.

In defense of Gemini, my question was vague and I should have said suffix ism.

I sent the ChatGPT for your amusement. Actually, ChatGPT put context and perspective on what you essay. I think your characterization was somewhat harsh, for I considered the output a summary of the available literature and perspectives.

I find that on specific topics ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude provide useful answers to technical research questions.

They all have trouble with the puzzle: Form 24 from 7,2,2,2 ( one 7 and just three 2's)

Time yourself....

Chris Bateman's avatar

Took me about 20 seconds. This looks like a straight up state-space search: traditionally, the robots have been good at these... 🧐