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ABSAgrams
***07: chatGPT: contextualizing I Ching? ***
Teaching and Tech: Whither A.I.?
The other day, ABSAprime spoke with my wife of adventures she'd had this past summer in Sonora, AZ, studying under the wise councilors of the Yaqui tribe (it is said by some that her father Carlos was a Yaqui Indian from Sonora, and her mother Vera was Siberian, but living “up north” of Arizona in Idaho--however, the details of her life are a matter of some dispute and persistent inquiries are, erm, discouraged 😜--and we'll say no more about that!). As a newly retired Professor Emeritus, ABSAprime still likes to gossip about educational matters with my wife, a former Dean and currently Professor.
Among other things, they mutually griped about the effect of artificial intelligence (A.I.) on education, and particularly the use of programs like ChatGPT. My wife claims that too much of what she asks students to write about is obviously done with ChatGPT, and both lamented the long-term effects of having students go through college without learning much about expressing themselves.
Anything in there for us?
Naturally, as A.I. is so obviously an emerging force in human creativity and expression--forces that are pretty much everything ABSApundit stands for, my attention was caught by the potential for A.I. to be used in conjunction with our ABSApundit “vibe” and the ABSAdomains. After some discussion with ABSAprime I decided to try out an AI approach to I Ching, using ChatGPT.
Casting our own hexagram (we used the coins, which, apart from a plethora of web-based resources [see e.g., here, one of a number of others] is still the easiest way to consult the oracle), we obtained Hexagram 8, “Holding Together [Union]” (on this site, unless otherwise noted, we use the Wilhelm translation, see, e.g., here (the sites we identified above all use the Wilhelm translation), with the fifth line moving (yang to yin) yielding as outcome Hexagram 2, “The Receptive.” Or, in graphic form:
Hexagram 8
Holding Together [Union]
Hexagram 02
The Receptive
One word of caution: apart from various online renderings of the Wilhelm translations, there are many (many!) other translations of I Ching available, so much so that some of the images, judgments, and individual lines can appear quite different from translation to translation, unless you are proficient in the Chinese language and thus able to consult resources in that language.
However, as an entry point for those not familiar with Chinese, and for details on the subtleties of Chinese culture and language, you can’t beat the translation, plus concordance, of Ritsema and Karcher—though we warn you, this may prove to be an “adult portion” for most people. Nevertheless, if you want to get into I Ching the way the authors and contributors may have intended it, it’s well worth the effort.
ChatGPT protocol and our core values
One further comment: since the Ritsema/Karcher work represents a (much) deeper exploration of this classic, our advice concerning the effort involved in reading it perfectly illustrates a core tenet of ABSApundit, one you’ll see here a lot: to benefit from the ABSAdomains, you can be involved peripherally or incredibly deeply, with all stops in between. The decision about how far to venture into a domain is always, still, yours and yours alone. To go deeper in this domain, then, we say, consider Ritsema/Karcher.
The Question
All this in mind, here’s the question we posed to ChatGPT: “Write a very short story (no more than six paragraphs) about this Image from the I Ching hexagram "Holding Together" (all hexagrams come with an Image and a Judgment): "On the earth is water, the image of holding together. Thus, the kings of antiquity bestowed the different states as fiefs and cultivated friendly relations with the feudal lords.”
Now, before we go any further, let me confess that I am a stone-cold amateur when it comes to ChatGPT; ABSAprime and my wife both know something about it, but I use it mostly for research (for instance, I asked it earlier about online versions of I Ching, and for it to assess their value, which it did, in seconds!). In other words, I use it in a kind of “noob” fashion (which is just fine with me!). I say this to forestall possible protests, from folks who know the program better than me, that I could have done it better. Believe me, I know that, but thanks in advance for the help 😏
My “noobness” caused me to think that I could ask the program to formulate a story based on all six of the hexagram’s lines. That is apparently too much, so I opted for using Hexagram 8’s image (each hexagram is presented with a Judgment, and an Image) as a stimulant. Under those parameters, and by using the specified image (see paragraph one, above), this is ChatGPT’s response:
The A.I. Narrative
The rains had come late that year, and the river ran thin as a silver thread through the valley. The farmers gathered at the temple steps, murmuring among themselves. Without water, the crops would wither, and without crops, the people would starve. Lord Jian, ruler of the valley, stood before them, his brow furrowed. He knew that beyond the hills, Lord Wen’s land had seen heavier rains. But to ask for aid was to risk appearing weak.
That night, Jian climbed to the shrine atop the mountain, where the wind carried whispers of ancient wisdom. He knelt before the sacred flame and cast the yarrow stalks. The oracle spoke: On the earth is water, the image of holding together. He understood. Strength did not lie in isolation but in unity.
At dawn, Jian rode to Wen’s court. He did not demand nor beg but offered what he could—timber from his forests, iron from his mines—in exchange for grain and water. Wen, wise and just, accepted, for he too knew that fortune was fleeting and only through alliance could their people endure.
Word spread of their accord, and soon, other lords followed. Fiefs once divided by suspicion now exchanged goods, knowledge, and protection. Roads were built, messengers rode freely, and the river, though still meager, flowed with renewed purpose.
Seasons passed, and when the rains returned, they brought abundance to all. The valley flourished, not just from the harvest but from the trust sown between rulers. No man stood alone, no land suffered in silence.
Thus, it was as in the days of the ancient kings: the strong upheld the weak, and together, they endured.
"As Below, So Above"
[Graphics by Descript's Overlord and Microsoft's Powerpoint. Background videos by Wix.com].
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