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Ruth Schwartz Cowan

Prompt engineering a dinner between Thomas Sankara, David Graeber and Betty Friedan. Results posted tomorrow.

Prompt engineering uses specific kinds of narrative, scenarios and instructions to give a large language model the context it needs to simulate bodies of knowledge, or even mimic specific individuals.

It doesn’t involve adding or providing new material to an LLM – but the fact these models know who Betty, Thomas and David are is because OpenAI and Anthropic have already scraped the entirety of human data. This includes copyrighted material, highlighting how any engagement with these systems immediately involves ethical dilemmas.

Erosion (1997) by Olafur Eliasson involved emptying a water reservoir in Johannesburg, creating a 1.5km long stream that people had to unexpectedly navigate. The photographs documenting the work make us think about precarity, resilience, adaptability and the aestheticisation of climate crisis.

The first in a series of mood references for Self Engineering. Happy Friday to all who celebrate.

See also: James C Scott’s “Domination and the Arts of Resistance” 1990.

SRC beta waitlist is now open, visit link in bio.

RIP #davidgraeber