Ask HN: Can you think of a sci-fi novel that feels like ChatGPT now?

“Beware of first-hand ideas!” exclaimed one of the most advanced of them. “First-hand ideas do not really exist. They are but the physical impressions produced by love and fear, and on this gross foundation who could erect a philosophy? Let your ideas be second-hand, and if possible tenth-hand, for then they will be far removed from that disturbing element — direct observation. Do not learn anything about this subject of mine — the French Revolution. Learn instead what I think that En charmon thought Urizen thought Gutch thought Ho-Yung thought Chi-Bo-Sing thought Lafcadio Hearn thought Carlyle thought Mirabeau said about the French Revolution....."

While not a book about an AI like chatGPT explicitly, it does feature some birds whose minds work a lot like how chatGPTs AI seems to work.

The Children of Time series' books all describe a far away future in which some animals have evolved to be about equally intelligent as humans… but each each of the animals described in the book develops an intelligence that is somehow unique, and usually embodies some sort of adaptation that those animals have today.

In the third book, the author introduces a type of bird whose intelligence is a sort of an organic data gathering and data regurgitation parroting (pun intended). The way he describes their intelligence is quite similar to how chatGPT seems to work (at least as far as I understand it anyways).

Viewing the those birds as being similar to chatGPT and seeing how they interact with their world is a fun idea to hold in your head while reading the book.

While the birds are the most like chatGPT, the books also feature other animals whose hypothetical intelligence we have some interesting aspects of what AI can do as well. There is even an AI in the books! Although it is quite different than chatGPT or any other AI today.

The books are an amazing exploration of what other types of sentience could look like. I can’t recommend them enough! They really stretch the imagination.

Credit where it is due: I was not the one to notice the parallel between the birds and chatGPT, Ezra Klein made the observation in a podcast interview with the author.

(edits: typos, capitalization)

The book spoke in a lovely contralto, with an accent like the very finest Vickys. The voice was like a real person's- though not like anyone Nell had ever met. It rose and fell like slow surf on a warm beach, and when Nell closed her eyes, it swept her out into an ocean of feelings.

"Once upon a time there was a little Princess named Nell who was imprisoned in a tall dark castle on an island in the middle of a great sea, with a little boy named Harv, who was her friend and protector. She also had four special friends named Dinosaur, Duck, Peter Rabbit, and Purple. Princess Nell and Harv could not leave the Dark Castle, but from time to time a raven would come to visit them..."

"What's a raven?" Nell said.

The illustration was a colorful painting of the island seen from up in the sky. The island rotated downward and out of the picture, becoming a view toward the ocean horizon. In the middle was a black dot. The picture zoomed in on the black dot, and it turned out to be a bird. Big letters appeared beneath. "R A V E N," the book said. "Raven. Now, say it with me."