[GoLUG] LLMs can't reason

[Steve Litt]

On Fri, 13 Jun 2025 17:49:50 -0700
Kyle Terrien <kyle at terren.us> wrote:

> Yep, I have run into some of them (although usually it’s “flat earth
> conspiracy”; I have never heard the phrase “astrological birth
> control” 

You can thank your lucky stars you never heard it. In the late 1960's
and early 1970's there were people who were supposedly "hippies". I say
supposedly because there was no tight definition, and there were many
variations on the theme. When I lived in Miami December 1972-February
1973, I hung out in the "Hippie District", Coconut Grove. Many
inhabitants of "The Grove" were phony intellectuals baffling each other
with their bullshit neologisms (such as "astrological birth control")
and hijacked science words like "energy" and "entropy", purposely put
together in a word salad that any schizophrenic would envy. They spent
their 20's in The Grove, their 30's selling healing crystals and
colonics on Venice Beach, and their 50's, 60's and 70's as crusading
antivaxers selling "alternative medicine", perhaps sprinkle vinegar and
black pepper on your measles rash.


> even though I am aware of the method that tracks hormonal
> cycles).  I usually tell them that my astrological sign is a duck
> because astrology is a quack, and usually try to give a quick physics
> or biology lesson which of course goes over their heads.  The reaction
> is usually either a stoned stare or anger and aggression.

I think you'll like this article I wrote 28 years ago:

https://troubleshooters.com/tpromag/9708.htm

It was true then, and it's truer now.

SteveT

Steve Litt 
Spring 2023 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful
Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques