New (fun) Theory on Book of Mormon Translation Process

[master_dc]

If you follow/track artificial intelligence news, you may have heard of the third generation generative pre-trained transformer (GPT-3). It is basically text generator that is designed to mimic human text with very minimal input. It is developed by Open A.I., a non-profit research org.

Here is an example of GPT-3:

Prompt: write a biblical verse in the style of the king james Bible explaining how to remove a peanut butter sandwich from a VCR

Output: And it came to pass that a man was troubled by a peanut butter sandwich, for it had been placed within his VCR, and he knew not how to remove it.

And he cried out to the Lord, saying, "Oh, Lord, how can I remove this sandwich from my VCR, for it is stuck fast and will not budge?"

And the Lord spoke unto him, saying, "Fear not, my child, for I shall guide thy hand and show thee the way. Take thy butter knife, and carefully insert it between the sandwich and the VCR, and gently pry them apart. And with patience and perseverance, the sandwich shall be removed, and thy VCR shall be saved."

And the man did as the Lord commanded, and 10 and behold, the sandwich was removed from the VCR, and the man was saved.

And the Lord said, "Verily I say unto thee, seek not to put thy peanut butter sandwiches in thy VCR, for it is not a suitable place for such things. Rather, keep thy sandwiches in thy refrigerator or on thy plate, where they belong."

And the man heeded the Lord's words, and from that day forth, he kept his sandwiches in their proper place, and was saved from trouble and woe. Amen.

Maybe Uchtdorf was on to something with his seer stone was an iPhone talk.

Maybe I will ask GPT-3 to write a chiasma for me...

[master_dc]

This is pretty cool.

Prompt: Write a chiasma comparing faith to a seed

Output: "Faith is like a seed, planted deep and growing tall, whereas a seed is like faith, small and barely visible, yet with the potential to become something great."

I wonder when speech writers will turn to this type of tech.

One more

Prompt: Write the history in the style of early modern english of the founding of the Mormon church

Output: In the year of our Lord Eighteen Hundred and Thirty, there came to pass a great and miraculous event. A man by the name of Joseph Smith, who was a farmer's son, did receive a vision of a heavenly messenger. The messenger did declare unto him that he should join none of the churches which did exist upon the earth, for they were all abominations in the sight of God.

Joseph Smith did inquire of the Lord and was told to join no church, but to set up his own. And it came to pass that Joseph Smith did receive other visions from God, and wrote them down in a book which is known as The Book of Mormon. And in the year Eighteen Hundred and Thirty-Three, Joseph Smith did gather a group of believers, and they did organize The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Book of Mormon did become the foundation of the faith, and the members of the church did believe that God did speak through Joseph Smith. This faith did spread through the land, and those who believed did grow in number.

And so it was that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded and established, and it has continued to grow and spread ever since.

[drumdude]

We need to get Royal Skousen on this asap!

[Kishkumen]

Brilliant! I believe!