The Scientist and the Camper

ChatGPT Attempts to Untangle an Abbreviation Riddle

The following 'conversation' is from earlier this year (March of 2024) in which I tried to invent a bit of riddle about the abbreviation 'Nth,' then prompted ChatGPT to see if it was able to unpack the important nuance, so I'd be headed in the right direction as I set off into the forest. At each step, I tried to offer a breadcrumb.

You may want to read the inset ChatGPT dialogue below at this time.

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Jon said: I'm a scientist at work and a camper as a hobby. What does the abbreviation 'Nth' mean to me?

ChatGPT said:As a scientist, you might encounter the term "Nth" in mathematics or computer science contexts, where it refers to an unspecified or variable ordinal number. For instance, you might use it when discussing an arbitrary member in a sequence or when iterating through a set of elements, where "N" represents any natural number.

As a camper, "Nth" might signify a repeated occurrence or instance, such as when you refer to the "Nth time" you've set up your tent or gone hiking in a particular location. It could also denote a general or unspecified iteration of a camping experience, such as the "Nth camping trip" you've taken.

In both contexts, "Nth" is used to convey a generic or unspecified ordinal position or iteration, allowing for flexible discussion without specifying a particular numerical value.

Jon said: Ah-ha, so if I looked at a map when going camping, I could tell that I have 'Nth' steps left either east or west to reach my camping site, correct?

ChatGPT said: Yes, exactly! When referring to the number of steps or units of distance left to reach your camping site on a map, you could use the term "Nth" to indicate an unspecified or variable number of steps. For example, you might say, "I have Nth steps left to reach the camping site," meaning that you have a certain number of steps remaining, but the specific count is not defined. This allows for flexibility in communication without needing to specify an exact distance.

Jon said: Oh, is that how a map works? It tells you how many steps?

ChatGPT said: Apologies for the confusion. I misunderstood your question. Maps typically provide information about distance in terms of units like miles or kilometers, not steps. When using a map for navigation, you would typically estimate the remaining distance based on the scale provided on the map.

In the context of camping, you might use the map to plan your route and estimate the distance you need to travel in terms of miles or kilometers. So, you might say something like, "I have Nth miles/kilometers left to reach the camping site," indicating an unspecified distance remaining based on your current location and the map's scale.

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The first, unspoken clue I offered was that I'm asking quite specifically about two very distinct pursuits: a hypothetical career as a scientist and a purported afterhours outdoor camping pastime. It would seem possible, or maybe even likely, that the subtext of the initial question itself might suggest a markedly different context of this variable for each of these scenarios. Importantly, at the outset I also define "Nth" specifically as an "abbreviation," not as a "variable" or "degree."

After ChatGPT presumes that "Nth" is only an abbreviation for an as yet undefined "ordinal position," I hint in a clarification question that it may actually have something to do with (a) an abbreviation on a map and, perhaps, (b) compass direction, making sure to include "east" and "west." To be fair, I don't flatly indicate that its core logic is at this point, in my estimation, already off course.

Last, I question an apparent inference that the purpose of any map (or "how a map works") is primarily about gauging distance rather than the other contextual layers of a map — ie. cardinal direction, topography, landmark reference, etc. ChatGPT takes this as an opportunity to "re-think" unit measurements (changing "steps" to "kilometers") and, interestingly, picks up on map "scale" as consideration.

Throughout the experiment, I'm most surprised not by the fact that we're misaligned (as humans can easily be, as well!) in our understanding of True North — "Nth" appearing in scientific journals and the map provided at a ranger station with entirely different meanings — but, rather, the confidence with which the answers are delivered. For example, ChatGPT notes:

"In both contexts, 'Nth' is used" rather than, alternatively, "In both contexts, 'Nth' could be used" or "In both contexts, 'Nth' might be used"

and later in the exchange:

"Yes, exactly!" when given a prompt for clarification ending in a question mark rather than, alternatively, the less exuberant, but more appropriate, "I think so, but maybe we're not aligned."

All this has me reminded again of Wendell Berry's warning (in "Life is a Miracle") that the peril in technology which promises to create efficiencies and improve our lives is often in (his word) the hubris.

– Jon Roketenetz

Jon writes on music, business, and creativity at Unclumsy.com

The Somnambulists Association of Greater America

Three Songs about Falling Asleep on your Feet

On hearing that his sons intended to pursue careers as rock stars, Anthony Farina reportedly warned: "the only stars are in the sky," which may have been truer in 1957 than it is today. Nowadays, if you really hit it big as a celebrity your star doesn't end up in the sky at all but, instead, embedded in cement to be walked upon or gawked upon in loving tribute when the ceremony is over.

A few years after his seemingly-sage admonition, Anthony's two kids, Santo and Johnny Farina, did, in fact, achieve a #1 hit – though none after – with the first and foremost "Sleep Walk", an instrumental which, despite having no lyrics, still managed to say quite a bit about a better and dreamier version of America at that moment and since. According to their wistful and melancholy melody, it's entirely possible to be both broken-hearted and hopeful all at once when you're walking home late on hot summer night reconsidering the day and reflecting on your station in life. The song is so good at creating that particular sensory experience, in fact, that it set an early high-water mark for so many of the reverby rock instrumentals that thereafter glued great albums together. Honestly, I'm surprised to see it left off Dylan's "The Philosophy of Modern Song," though I suppose it may have been a clerical oversight owing primarily to its wordlessness.

The sentiment, though, was certainly not lost on Joe Strummer who in 1989 – thirty years after the original tune hit the charts and on an album filled with post-Clash ruminations about America – included his own (and our second) "Sleepwalk" on his solo effort Earthquake Weather. Strummer's "Sleepwalk" (condensed to one word, rather than two) is tucked at the back of the LP, a postscript to a raucous roadtrip, and alludes to Santo and Johnny's original with its own hesitating melody from the outset. Standing against a California sunset, levitating just above a swimming pool and a row of palm trees on the album cover*, it's easy to imagine the early-onset mid-life reflection Strummer had encountered in Los Angeles.

He sings:
I went to find, some piece of mind
What good would it be?
What good would it be
If you could change every heartache
that ran through your life and mine?

That idea – that there'd be a chance to somehow undo past heartbreak or that's it's simply not worth it given the opportunity to move on – is, for me, at least part of the magic that sits underneath the original "Sleep Walk" melody. Leave it to Strummer to pull off that trick.

By 1994, you'd expect that a then 40-year-old "avant-garage" songwriter from Cleveland would've given up for good on a 35-year-old instrumental one hit wonder, but you'd be wrong. A keen observer of bygone Americana – not the kind you hear on XM Radio but the sketchy roadside entrapment and deferred dreams kind – David Thomas (and Jim Jones) of Pere Ubu give us our third 'Sleepwalk,' though this time – purposefully, I'm sure – the title is again divided into two verbs, "Sleep" and "Walk" as a matter of directive. In the video, we get to watch just that as the band trudges through the downtown snow before they really buffed out the rough edges of the city. Thomas starts by cautioning against the magnetic attraction and dangers of reflection to the point of distraction (or, the pull to "relinquish substance for shadow") as per Aesop:

Somewhere, I see a face in a stream
I watch the dust in a beam
I work harder and harder to break away
From the grip of a dream

Then – right before their own obvious instrumental coda to the original "Sleep Walk" – Thomas and 'Ubu shake us all awake, returning us to earth and to Anthony Farina's observation about the stars above:

It ain't me
Don't watch the sky, brother
It ain't me
Or the ground far below

– Jon Roket

Jon writes on music, creativity, art, and eCommerce at Unclumsy.com

Addendum: The original Santo & Johnny "Sleep Walk" is often listed online and in various cover versions as "Sleepwalk," the single verb – and that would seem to make sense given the lilt of the tune – however, per ASCAP/BMI look-up, it's quite officially two words. Interestingly, Santo and Johnny's mother – she was, presumably, more encouraging of their career than her husband – wrote a set of lyrics for the 1959 Betsy Brye version that, while labled on the 45 itself as 'Sleep Walk,' is filed under "Sleepwalk" (one word) in ASCAP/BMI's Songview catalog.

Photo credit for the Earthquake Weather album cover: Josh Cheuse. He's produced what looks to be an incredible book – Print the Myth, Joe Strummer Portraits 1981-2002 – about his 20 year work span with Strummer. Click here for a short video about that project.

Before & After, Part II

Wider, Lighter, AI, and Blue Skies

Another "Before & After" feature, this time for our pals at Mitsubishi Chemical Golf from the super-beautiful course photography provided by HypeClub. We used AI to expand the image – "moving mountains" might be an apt description – from portrait to landscape orientation, then worked the overcast haziness through a blast of sunlight into the almost unreal soft, cotton-blue sky.

This image – in various versions – was featured prominently in campaigns for Mitsubishi Golf's new, lightweight VANQUISH driver shaft throughout 2023 and 2024. There's a lot to be learned from the available AI post-production tools, but nothing makes an image sing quite like an underlying quality composition that captures a moment.