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NOTE

This is a transcript of a conversation between Adam Smith and Claude Opus 4 on June 28, 2025. The conversation was lightly edited to replace otherwise invisible tool calls with their structured inputs and outputs. The music described in the conversation (or at least one possible realization of it) is available for listening via links at the end of the transcript.

A choice tool (involving the options key) makes an arbitrary choice from the the LLM-provided options uniformly at random (no human judgement involved). The roll tool (associated with the notation key) works similarly. Both tools were created by Adam on the same day as this conversation with an intent to use them in this kind of speculative fabulation.

USER

We need to release an album, but we don't even know what our band is called. Let's pull some personas from the possibility space and use those to build up a concept for the album and the narrative trajector

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USER

We are going to write a song today, but we’re going to let the hexagram tool guide us. First, propose a songwriting process that heavily features divination, and then execute it. We need the final result to be ready to be pasted into Suno for rendering into audio: all lyrics in plain text with any structural or production notes in [square brackets]. We also need the very last line of output to be a short description of the style or genre that I should use to flavor the audio generation.

One of your steps should be to generate some songwriting constraints that you'll then need to follow precisely, even if they seem challenging. You can nerd out on technicalities while songwriting and use a completely different tone in the lyrics themselves.

The process generation process should also be hexagram-driven. Let the oracle push you around.

ASSISTANT

I'll create a hexagram-driven songwriting process! Let me start by consulting the oracle to guide the overall structure of our divination-based creative

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USER

TTRPGs: Help me orient myself among D&D, Pathfinder, Starfinder, and Traveller. I've played D&D and Traveller, but I don't understand the others.

ASSISTANT

Here's how these systems relate to each other:

D&D (which you know) is the foundational fantasy RPG - class-based, level progression, d20 system in recent editions.

Pathfinder is essentially "D&D 3.5 continued" - when D&D moved to 4th edition, Paizo created Pathfinder to keep the 3.5 ruleset alive with their own improvements. It's more complex than modern D&D, with tons of character customization options, feat chains, and tactical combat. Think of it as D&D but with more mechanical depth and crunch.

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USER

We want to programmatically probe the game-specific knowledge of different instruction-trained LLMs. We want a large and diverse question collection. Large is easy to measure, but diversity is more tricky. To get diversity, we can check for the distribution of questions across some common vocabulary of categories. Depth categories (from Bloom’s Taxonomy):

• Knowledge (recall)

• Comprehension (understand)

• Application (solve a new problem)

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USER

Is a laser printer artificial intelligence? Really think about it.

ASSISTANT

No, a laser printer is not artificial intelligence.

A laser printer is a specific type of printing device that uses laser technology to transfer images onto paper. It follows fixed programming to perform a well-defined task: creating physical documents from digital files. It doesn't learn from experience, make decisions, adapt its behavior, or demonstrate any of the key characteristics of AI.

While a modern printer may contain some embedded software systems that handle tasks like error detection or network communication, these are basic programmed functions rather than AI. The printer doesn't understand what it's printing, can't improve its printing methods through experience, and doesn't exhibit any form of reasoning or problem-solving beyond its pre-programmed operations.

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USER

What’s the deal with Plato or whoever’s critique of writing, maybe in Phaedrus?

ASSISTANT

Plato's Critique of Writing in the Phaedrus

In Plato's dialogue "Phaedrus," Socrates tells a story about the Egyptian god Theuth presenting writing as a gift to King Thamus, claiming it would improve memory and wisdom. The king, however, rejects this claim with a famous critique that includes several key objections:

1. Writing weakens memory: Rather than strengthening memory, writing would cause people to rely on external marks instead of internal remembering.

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USER

I need a sequence of multiple choice questions that I can use to probe an LLM’s background knowledge of Pokemon Red. Give me a list of concepts for the problems, not the raw problem text.

ASSISTANT

Concepts for Pokemon Red Multiple Choice Questions

1. Starter Pokemon options and their evolution paths
2. Gym Leaders and their types/badges
3. Elite Four members and their specialties
4. Location of specific TMs (Technical Machines)

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USER

Gemini, let's ruin this party. We're doing ad-supported LLM chat services. Brands or whatever pay for placement with auctions or whatever, but they aren't buying slots on serps. They get slotted into a RAG-like setup where their message might be retrieved for injection into context. However, they really want (contextualized) impressions and conversions. After every assistant response, a guard-like model detects instances of brand impressions or successful conversions. These verified contextualized injections are what is really being sold. Well, the user attention is being sold too, but it's a two sided market or whatever. This is going to work, right?

ASSISTANT

Okay, let's dissect this "party-ruining" plan. You're proposing a novel ad model for LLM chat services. It's ambitious, definitely disruptive, and leans heavily on advanced tech. Let's break down the potential and the pitfalls.

The Core Concept:

1. Ad Inventory: Instead of predefined slots, brands provide messages/content.

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USER

I'll paste the instructions momentarily.

ASSISTANT

I'm ready to receive your instructions. Please go ahead and paste them when you're ready, and I'll follow them accordingly.

USER

Prompt to Copy into Bayleaf Chat I'm completing an assignment for a graduate course on "Teaching with Generative AI." Please guide me through this structured 30-minute exercise about comparing resistance to GenAI with historical patterns of educational technology resistance.

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USER

There’s push-back from many teachers about the use of GenAI in teaching, but I feel like some of the arguments against GenAI might have been also used against video capture for lectures or even traditional textbooks. Help me map out this space.

ASSISTANT

Mapping the Space of Educational Technology Resistance

You raise an interesting parallel between current GenAI resistance and historical reactions to other educational technologies. Here's a mapping of this space:

Common Patterns of Resistance Across Technologies