Generative Plato Transformers

OpenAI now offers a speech interface to GPT. I’m told it feels like normal conversation. One is talking to a text corpus, bluring the line between “dead” texts and “live” conversation. It prompts me to wonder about Plato’s objections to writing and preference for dialogue in works like the Phaedrus, particularly in the story of Thamus & Theuth and subsequent discussion. 

Plato, nomadism, and nostalgia

I watched Werner Herzog’s documentary about Bruce Chatwin over the weekend. They shared a passion for nomadism. The contrast between nomadism and settled life reminded me of the contrast between oral and textual learning in Plato’s Phaedrus.