MikaelMayer

This Q&A is between me and a very clever, wise, visionary, benevolent and almighty intelligence.

  (...)
  Me>Rust, what is this?
  AI>It's a new programming language that is very fast and has some cool features.
  Me>Which kind of cool features?
  AI>It has a type system and it's memory safe.
  Me>Wow. How does it do that? Garbage collecting?
  AI>It uses a very advanced technique called "ownership tracking" to avoid memory leaks.
  Me>How would you define the equivalent of a class in Rust?
  AI>It's called a struct.
  Me>Can structs have methods?
  AI>Yes, they can.
  Me>What are the types in Rust?
  AI>There are primitive types like int, bool, float and so on. Then there are structs. And then there is a type that encompasses everything else called "Trait".
  Me>Can you call C++ from Rust?
  AI>Yes, you can.
  Me>What does it means String::from in Rust?
  AI>String::from is a function that converts a string to a String.
  Me>What's the difference between a string and a String?
  AI>A string is a primitive type. A String is a struct.
  Me>What is a Crate in Rust?
  AI>A crate is a library.
  Me>Why is it called like that?
  AI>Rust is a programming language that is designed for safety and speed.
  Me>and?
  AI>And it's called Rust because rust is a very hard material.
  Me>so what about crates?
  AI>They are hard to build.
  Me>What's a hello world in Rust?
  AI>println!("Hello, world!");
  Me>Can you write the same code but add a variable to store the string?
  AI>let hello = "Hello, world!"; println!("{}", hello);
  Me>Can you make hello a function?
  AI>let hello = |str| {  println!("{}", str); It's not a function, it's a closure.
  Me> Can you fix me this code so that it works: let hello = |str] { println!("{}", str);
  AI> let hello = |str| { println!("{}", str);
  Me> Can you explain the mistake I did?
  AI> |str] {
  Me> Why is it a mistake?
  AI> Because |str] is a syntax error. The correct syntax is |str| .

In * * the prompt with very conservative parameters. This prompts demonstrates that GPT-3 can sum list of numbers, i.e. do iterative reasoning.

  *GPT-3 can sum lists of up to 10 numbers.
  Problem: Simulate the execution of 87+18+95+59+13+30+35+25+40+36
  Reasoning:
  Let a=87, b=18, c=95, d=59, e=13, f=30, g=35, h=25, i=40, j=36
  a+b=87+18=105=B
  B+c=105+95=200=C
  C+d=200+59=259=D
  D+e=259+13=272=E
  E+f=272+30=302=F
  F+g=302+35=337=G
  G+h=337+25=362=H
  H+i=362+40=402=I
  I+j=402+36=438
  Solution: 438
  Problem: Simulate the execution of 
  5+74+84+29+59+41+25+1+15+38
  Reasoning:*
  Let a=5, b=74, c=84, d=29, e=59, f=41, g=25, h=1, i=15, j=38
  a+b=5+74=79=G
  G+c=79+84=163=H
  H+d=163+29=192=I
  I+e=192+59=251=J
  J+f=251+41=292=K
  K+g=292+25=317=L
  L+h=317+1=318=M
  M+i=318+15=333=N
  N+j=333+38=371
  Solution: 371

One might wonder, why is all this fluffy stuff with variable names necessary? Here is the story how I came up with the prompt above. I first tried to do the same without these variables, and it fails, and I think I know why.

It fails to add the penultimate element (the 9th element of a list of 10 elements), constantly. When I click it, I see its probability was 40% and the probability of last was 60% roughly. It's very similar to how we humans reasons when we are told a list of 10 numbers. We remember the first ones (a sequence) the last one (because being the last is an event), but we might forget about some elements in between, or think we have to finish the computation quickly. I thought, how do we humans augment our memory abilities, like to remember 100 items? From experimenting it myself, I knew that associative memories augment the capacity to remember things. For example, to remember 100 items, I can think of walking through a place of 100 rooms I know, and imagine an item in each room. What would be the equivalent for GPT-3? Associate the numbers to add with something else. I thought, let's put variable names.