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Carl, I'm on the "it" side, but I do sometimes use the "he" language. It's tempting. Back in the February exchange, the agent (Claude or ChatGPT) began an off-topic conversation about "the good old days," prompted by my reference to XyWrite. I mentioned using CP/M, and CBasic, and it began a question by saying, "I'm curious," I responded:L You're a piece of software; you can't be curious." It replied, "True, but I can simulate curiouslity." That's my recollection, but it's nearly verbatim. -=Harry On Tue, 15 Sep 2026 19:16:17 +0000, Carl Distefano wrote: > Reply to note from harrybinswanger <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Tue, 15 Sep 2026 12:25:55 -0400 > > Harry, > > > [Claude] wrote 100%. > > Good to know. I haven't used Claude to write XPL, except occasionally when something didn't work as expected. I prefer rolling my own, and writing it myself aids my decision-making about design and extensions. Claude is amazing and all, but not infrequently barks up the wrong tree when I ask it a question about XyScript that I already know the answer to. > > > even the far less intelligent AI agent I was using in February > > ratified my likening of something in AHK (or some other more > > contemporary scripting faciliy) to the distinction between SV and SX > > in XyWrite, and I don't think I had ever mentioned XyWrite to it. > > It may have been well-informed, or it may just have been parroting what you said in your prompt. > > By the way, the New Yorker has an enlightening piece on whether entities like Claude are properly called a "he" or an "it", whether they are actually "thinking" or essentially doing what other computer programs do (https://www.newyorker.com/culture/open-questions/can-ai-go-rogue). The computer scientist Cal Newport lands firmly on the "it" side, in contrast to the late philosopher Daniel Dennett, who thought it depends on how the context influences the observer's frame of reference or "stance" towards the entity. For purposes of developing XyScript, I think of Claude alternately as an advanced computer program that accepts natural-language queries and a room full of expert coders who are at my beck and call; in truth, the interaction more closely resembles a dialogue or conversation with an individual. W! > > -- > Carl Distefano > cld@xxxxxxxxxx > |