Justin Pot
"Grok" being the name for an AI chatbot is just the latest example of tech bros not understanding science fiction. In "Strangers In a Strange Land", the famous 1950's novel the term comes from, to "grok" something is to understand it on a deep level. AI chatbots, as we all know by now, do not grok—they bullshit.
I'm really tired of sci-fi terms being used by people who read the books and got nothing from them beyond “lol this word sounds cool”. (See also: “metaverse”.)
Børge
clacke
Natanox 🇺🇦🇵🇸
@timo21 @jhpot Wait, there's another Gronk than literally the most famous german-speaking streamer? 😅
Timo
@jhpot For a second I misread it as 'Gronk' the nickname of American football player Rob Gronkowski 😅 🙄
Oggie
@jhpot
God I am so fucking bothered by this jackass in particular taking pieces of nerd culture he doesn't understand and plastering it elsewhere. 'Grok' is a term I used to use all the time (and I always explained it with the book quote 'to drink fully', if pressed).
I am still salty about him using Culture ship names, too- and that entire universe was techno-anarchist with deep democratic underpinnings, about as anti-capitalist as you can get, how did he miss that?
Justin Pot
@Oggie Somewhat related: Bezos personally intervening to get more seasons of The Expanse, a show that’s heavy on the theme of “if a for profit company tries to get you to go to space don’t do it”
Charlie Stross
@Oggie @jhpot I knew Iain and I am *ABSOLUTELY* certain that if he was alive today he would have some EXTREMELY trenchant (and rude) things to say about Dilbert Stark.
(Iain was more left wing in real life than he made visible in his fiction. And if you're unsure what I mean, ask yourself how many of his fictional villains were capitalists or imperialists.)
jwz
@jhpot More importantly, anyone who has ever actually used the word "grok" non-ironically might as well have "I am a huge fucking loser" tattooed across their forehead. That's like an ESR level of cringe dweebery.
FeralRobots
@jwz @jhpot
I use it unironically on a regular basis. It's a pretty darn cromulent word. Reliably embiggens the conversation.
Luis Villa
@shannonkay @clacke @jhpot Speaking directly from experience, a lot of them (me) had identities that in large part revolved around reading the books, like others did around music or clothes. Some of us grew up to realize the rockets weren’t the important part. Some… not so much.
Shannon Kay
@luis_in_brief @clacke @jhpot I would be surprised if most of the people in question had read the books.
Luis Villa
@clacke @jhpot Meh? It’s entirely possible they just didn’t understand the book. Like people missing that Rage Against the Machine was political, lots of not-so-bright folks have managed to read a lot of humane sci-fi and totally miss the humane part. (See also all the AI folks who completely missed the point of Iain M Banks.)
clacke
Luis Villa
@jhpot @SomaFMrusty Sci-fi Author: in my book I created the Understanding Nexus as an inspirational goal
Tech company: at long last we have created a tormenting version of the Understanding Nexus from the classic novel Stop Tormenting People and Understand Them Instead
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