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xkcd #3126: Disclaimer (imgs.xkcd.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [B] to c/xkcd@lemmy.world
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xkcd #3126: Disclaimer

Title text:

You say no human would reply to a forum thread about Tom Bombadil by writing and editing hundreds of words of text, complete with formatting, fancy punctuation, and two separate uses of the word 'delve'. Unfortunately for both of us, you are wrong.

Transcript:

Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com

Source: https://xkcd.com/3126/

explainxkcd for #3126

You say no human would reply to a forum thread about Tom Bombadil by writing and editing hundreds of words of text, complete with formatting, fancy punctuation, and two separate uses of the word 'delve'. Unfortunately for both of us, you are wrong.
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[–] 15 points 1 year ago (9 children)

I am not sure how many times I've been mistaken for ChatGPT, but I don't think my writing style is actually very similar.

I'm pretty sure that when people say that, most of the time, they actually mean, "I want to disagree with what you're saying, but I lack the ability to do so legitimately. If I simply accuse you of using an LLM, people will assume I'm right and I will 'win'."

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  • [–] 24 points 1 year ago (8 children)

    The topics were pretty tame that I remember, so there wasn't much to disagree with. I was just being... uh. Florid? Verbose? Sesquipedalian?

    It might be a neurodivergent trait; the need to use the right word to communicate exactly the right meaning even if it runs to several syllables.

    It might lose a few people, but I've got to say what I mean.

    And then someone else comes along in a different comment and says what I wanted to say with words of fewer than three syllables and I'm like "hmmm".

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago

    It might be a neurodivergent trait; the need to use the right word to communicate exactly the right meaning even if it runs to several syllables.

    It might lose a few people, but I've got to say what I mean.

    Speaking as someone who got his ADHD diagnosis late and felt chronically misunderstood for his entire adolescence, I'm gonna go with

    And then someone else comes along in a different comment and says what I wanted to say with words of fewer than three syllables

    Beginner's luck!

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I've never seen LLMs talk like what you're describing, though.

    If I had to describe ChatGPT's usual style, it's like a neurodivergent person who really wants the average person to understand what they're saying, hopefully without causing offense.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Oh, god, that's me that you just described. No wonder people think I'm an LLM. Yikes! Lol!

    I've also gotten accused of being on meth due to my Internet comments, even though I've never touched anything like it. Yay, AuDHD!

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Since you're a polysyllabic person, can you explain why the word "monosyllabic" has five syllables?

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  • [–] 18 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Information entropy. You need roughly as many syllables to explain the same concept with mono- or disyllabic English words as you do with a scientific polysyllable. Admittedly, some of it is "I know this word! See how smart I am!", but another part is how much more fluid it is to say. "Monosyllabic" rolls off the tongue a lot more easily than "having only one sound".

    (The funny answer here would have been "No.")

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    can you explain why the word "monosyllabic" has five syllables?

    For the same reason why the word "lisp" has an s in it and the fear of long words is called monstrosequippedaliophobia*: because sometimes language is a callous bastard 😁

    *no, I don't accept the "Hippopoto-" many people like to tack on. Unlike the rest of the word, which describes EXACTLY what the word means, adding a large semi-aquatic mammal serves no purpose other than lengthening an already monstrously equipped dalio.

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