ChatGPT Tackles xkcd's 'What If'?
I asked ChatGPT some of the most interesting "What If" Questions: Here are the Answers
I end up doing quite a bit of professional writing at the end of the year and to take a break I decided to jump on the ChatGPT bandwagon - I hope you enjoy reading this as it was quite fun to put together.
ChatGPT from OpenAI is quickly becoming a household name, and if you haven't heard of it yet, you're in for a treat. Its amazing and accurate responses are captivating audiences, but there's still a lot of potential for growth and improvement.
If you're not familiar with xkcd's "What If?" series, it's a popular webcomic that tackles all sorts of science- and math-related questions with a humorous and informative approach. In this post, we'll be using ChatGPT to answer a selection of questions from “What If?” and see how far it can go.
Lets start with something simple.
Compare that with the xkcd about page:
“It's not actually an acronym. It's just a word with no phonetic pronunciation -- a treasured and carefully-guarded point in the space of four-character strings.”
“For those of us pedantic enough to want a rule, here it is: The preferred form is "xkcd", all lower-case. In formal contexts where a lowercase word shouldn't start a sentence, "XKCD" is an okay alternative. "Xkcd" is frowned upon.”
The description of the comic may be accurate, but the origin of the name appears to be entirely fabricated. Now, lets get to the fun part
Dropping A Mountain
What if a huge mountain—Denali, say—had the bottom inch of its base disappear? What would happen from the impact of the mountain falling 1 inch? What about 1 foot? What if the mountain's base were raised to the present height of the summit, and then the whole thing were allowed to drop to the earth?
Get ready to laugh.
Mountains can float because gravity will hold them in place. To be fair, no one has tried to make a 1 foot gap at the base of a mountain to test this. [Citation Needed]
Saliva Pool
How long would it take for a single person to fill up an entire swimming pool with their own saliva?
Ok lets give it some more information..
This math is off by about an order of 100. It should take ~8300 years not 8.3. ChatGPT is not good at math. This response is after I taught it some proper multiplication.
Please don’t rely on ChatGPT for math.
Keyboard Power
As a writer, I'm wondering what would be the cumulative energy of the hundreds of thousands of keystrokes required to write a novel.
Even if you help it along by providing missing information, it can’t handle the analysis.
A Mole of Moles
What would happen if you were to gather a mole (unit of measurement) of moles (the small furry critter) in one place?
Hard to believe but this is actually a fun answer.
Relativistic Baseball
What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?
Lets help it out a bit with some of the conditions laid out in Randall’s original post.
Someone forgot to teach it how to play baseball?
hmmmm, ok so it does know baseball
now we’re getting somewhere….
Everybody Jump
What would happen if everyone on earth stood as close to each other as they could and jumped, everyone landing on the ground at the same instant?
Supersonic Stereo
What if you somehow managed to make a stereo travel at twice the speed of sound, would it sound backwards to someone who was just casually sitting somewhere as it flies by?
This is a fun one. Randall actually cites a scientific paper that confirms the sounds would be backwards if you could hear it over the sonic boom.
Glass Half Empty
What if a glass of water was, all of a sudden, literally half empty?
Before I ask it the What If question, lets see if it can handle the concept of “Half”.
Apparently 500ml is more than half of 1000ml. Again, do not use ChatGPT for math.
On to the real question
Now if only ChatGPT could draw.
Letter To Mom
What’s the fastest way to get a hand-written letter from my place in Chicago to my mother in New Jersey?
Hmm, not very innovative, lets try a follow up question.
Conclusion
I think it’s safe to say that ChatGPT won’t be taking our jobs anytime soon. For now it’s just a fun tool that can do some decent writing and answer general knowledge questions.