Between Posts

I don't know if this is eerie, funny, interesting or boring . All of the above? None of the above? But I'm sure it's a rare, one in a million (billion?) response from AI, in which AI reveals its "thought" process in addition to the response to my actual prompt: "How many elections has Lina Hidalgo won for Harris County Texas Judge?"  I'm sure you can pick out the portions where Gemini AI is thinking about how, and if, it should respond. Some of it is funny. Some is scary and disturbing. All (to me) is intriguing. If nothing else, the "Reply only..." Instructions are an intriguing peek into the wokeness and censorship programmed into AI. The Gemini Conversation, in its entirety (AI "thoughts and mental musings highlighted): My Prompt:  How many elections has Lina Hidalgo won for Harris County Texas Judge? Gemini's Response (process (thinking) in italics ): Let me get the specific dates and facts right. Lina Hidalgo was elected in 20...

  If you have ever suffered from what the Reformers and Puritans called "melancholy" (the closest modern terminology is "clinical depression"), you might consider perusing the attached. Start at User Prompt 3 (or at the beginning if you prefer). Melancholy, I have come to understand, is rooted deeply in the DNA of my ancestors on my father's side of the Family Tree, and in their progeny. Not so much endemic as recurring. Reformed Christianity generally, and the Puritans specifically, dealt with Melancholy under the umbrella of Christian Ethics and Morality, or how we OUGHT to live compared to how we ACTUALLY live. As a result, there are many great works on what melancholy is, and how Christians should approach it. Timothy Rogers' "Trouble of Mind, and the Disease of Melancholy" is on my bookshelf, and is a constant source of comfort for me. Reading through Rogers' book with your Bible at hand doesn't always obliterate the melancholy, but it...