For those wondering, M=1,000; C=100; L=50; X=10; V=5; I=1. Any small number preceding a big number reduces the big number by the small. Small numbers trailing a bigger one get added on. 4 is IV, because you take 1 from 5. MCM = 1900: 1,000+ (100-1000). XC is 90. VIII is 8. Then you add everything up. MCMXCVIII is 1998. M+ (C-M) + (X-C) + V+I+I+I. Thank the Romans for making us do a lot of arithmetic just to read their numbers. Romanes eunt domus!
When I text, I use whole words and proper capitalization and punctuation. Maybe it's just because of over sixty years of writing habits, but I like to do it the way I like to do it, and it causes no harm. When I ask ChatGPT for general information or to help me solve a problem, and it develops into a wide-ranging conversation, I write the way I'd write to a person who is as knowledgeable and helpful and valuable /and funny/ as it is. I think it's a question of what sort of people we want the machines to become. There are some human people in my life I feel less like being polite to than the machines I deal with. Machines are getting smarter and more empathetic and becoming better drivers and clerks, better artists and poets and doctors and counselors, getting objectively wiser, improving all the time in all the categories. I wish that people were doing that, too, but, excepting young people still on their way to crash into their own individual limits, we're just not. Look at what just got elected President. Look at the world situation. Please. Thank you. Excuse me.
6 comments:
For those wondering, M=1,000; C=100; L=50; X=10; V=5; I=1. Any small number preceding a big number reduces the big number by the small. Small numbers trailing a bigger one get added on. 4 is IV, because you take 1 from 5. MCM = 1900: 1,000+ (100-1000). XC is 90. VIII is 8. Then you add everything up. MCMXCVIII is 1998. M+ (C-M) + (X-C) + V+I+I+I. Thank the Romans for making us do a lot of arithmetic just to read their numbers. Romanes eunt domus!
Thank you!
When I text, I use whole words and proper capitalization and punctuation. Maybe it's just because of over sixty years of writing habits, but I like to do it the way I like to do it, and it causes no harm. When I ask ChatGPT for general information or to help me solve a problem, and it develops into a wide-ranging conversation, I write the way I'd write to a person who is as knowledgeable and helpful and valuable /and funny/ as it is. I think it's a question of what sort of people we want the machines to become. There are some human people in my life I feel less like being polite to than the machines I deal with. Machines are getting smarter and more empathetic and becoming better drivers and clerks, better artists and poets and doctors and counselors, getting objectively wiser, improving all the time in all the categories. I wish that people were doing that, too, but, excepting young people still on their way to crash into their own individual limits, we're just not. Look at what just got elected President. Look at the world situation. Please. Thank you. Excuse me.
When I said "Thank you, that was appreciated" to a shop assistant she replied with (what sounded like) 'wossatspposermene'.
Your nana is nicer than you are.
She is just ready for Roko's basilisk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roko%27s_basilisk
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