25AD (After Dad), letter to my father 2023
Hey dad.
We’re now into our 3rd year of COVID, things are as back to normal as they are going to get in the world on that front. Vladimir Putin is still trying to wage a war in Ukraine and has made threats to use nuclear weapons. Some level of mass-hysteria has started with weather balloons flying over the United States and Canada with U.S. fighter jets shooting them down and blaming China. Interesting times…
That artificial intelligence company my friend Sam Altman co-founded released something really cool called ChatGPT. It is “AI” that does really cool things and is taking the world by storm this year, here’s ChatGPT telling you about itself:
“I am ChatGPT, a large language model trained by OpenAI. I can understand and generate natural language text, and I am designed to assist users in answering their questions or providing information on a wide range of topics. My training data includes a vast amount of text from the internet, including books, articles, and websites. Using this training data, I have learned to understand language patterns and generate text that is similar to what a human might write.”
It’s really interesting. I’ll end this letter by having it write a ballad to you based on your obituary. I use it for a lot of stuff, including work, I can tell it in plain English what I want a spreadsheet to do on the computer, and 95% of the time, it will correctly spit out a formula that does exactly what I wanted it to do in literal seconds.
I rode 1,000,000 meters on my indoor bicycle, just hit the milestone a couple of weeks ago, and now my target is 5,000,000 meters.
I’m still forcing myself through school. This makes year… 20 of pursuing a 4-year college degree, few more years to go if I keep at it at my current pace.
Baptismal work was done for your mother in the temple last year by some kind stranger.
Not much else to report. It’s been a fairly tame year with no robot overlords, no aliens, no bad pandemic, just some saber rattling by other countries. Now, I promised you a ballad…
Your obituary:
“MARK A. MERCER, 45, Indianapolis, died March 11. He was a detective with the Indiana State Police for 19 years. He was a member of the State Police Alliance, Northern Valley Scottish Rite and New Haven Masonic Lodge, Fort Wayne. Memorial contributions may be made to Indiana Concerns of Police Survivors, in care of Indianapolis Police Department Credit Union, 1502 E. Washington St., Indianapolis, Ind.
46201. Services: 10 a.m. March 14 in Speedway United Methodist Church, of which he was a member. Calling: 1 to 8 p.m. March 13 in Flanner & Buchanan Speedway Mortuary. Burial: Floral Park West Cemetery. Survivors: wife Pamela M.
Hager Mercer; son Ryan Mercer; stepson William Lawrence; father and stepmother Carl “Jack” and Marilyn Mercer: brothers Doug, Curt Mercer.”
The ChatGPT generated ballad:
“Mark A. Mercer, a detective bold,
Served with Indiana’s finest fold,
For nineteen years, he kept the peace,
In his hands, justice would release.
A member of the Masonic Lodge,
And the Scottish Rite with all its awe,
His heart was pure, his spirit bright,
And to those he loved, he held on tight.
His memory lives on in his kin,
His beloved wife and son within,
Stepson and family by his side,
Mark’s legacy will never subside.
We honor his bravery and his name,
A hero, true, who played life’s game,
Rest in peace, dear Mark A. Mercer,
Your service we will always treasure.”