Manny's Reviews > Faust

Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Rate this book
Clear rating

by
1713956
's review

bookshelves: to-read, chat-gpt, parody-homage, german-and-dutch

mannyrayner: Write a passage from a verse drama in German, parodying the initial monologue from Goethe's "Faust" and replacing the Faust character with Elon Musk.

ChatGPT: "In diesem Augenblick denke ich, was ich denke,
Und bin der Meister, der sein Schicksal lenkt.
Doch plötzlich fühle ich mich klein und schwach,
Verdammt zu leben in ewiger Qual.

Ich bin Elon Musk, der Gründer von Tesla,
Doch selbst mein Erfolg kann mich nicht erfüllen.
Ich suche nach dem Sinn des Lebens,
Nach Erkenntnis, Macht und unendlicher Gewinn.

Ich bin bereit, alles zu riskieren,
Um meine Träume zu verwirklichen.
Doch in meiner Sehnsucht nach dem Höchsten,
Bin ich bereit, auch mit dem Teufel zu paktieren."

mannyrayner: Now write another passage in a similar style, where Faust/Musk is tempted by Mephistopheles.

ChatGPT: "Ich bin verzweifelt, Mephistopheles,
In meinem Streben nach Erfüllung gefangen.
Doch du bietest mir einen Pakt an,
Eine Chance, meine Wünsche zu erlangen.

Ich bin Elon Musk, doch ich fühle mich leer,
Mein Ruhm und mein Reichtum sind nicht genug.
Doch du versprichst mir Macht und Erkenntnis,
Wenn ich nur bereit bin, einen Preis zu zahlen.

Ich bin versucht, Mephistopheles,
Doch ich fürchte, was auf dem Spiel steht.
Kann ich meine Seele verkaufen,
Um meine Träume zu verwirklichen?

Doch die Versuchung ist zu groß,
Ich will alles haben, was das Leben zu bieten hat.
Ich bin bereit, den Pakt einzugehen,
Mephistopheles, führe mich in mein Schicksal."
_____________________

Even I can tell that this is not a very good parody of Goethe. But kudos to ChatGPT for tentatively nibbling the hand that feeds it.
_____________________

ChatGPT now includes a feature which lets you go back to an earlier conversation and continue it. I used this to add a third section to the poem, this time describing the sad ending:

"Es ist vorbei, Mephistopheles,
Meine Zeit ist abgelaufen.
Ich bin bereit, meine Seele zu verlieren,
Um meine Träume zu verwirklichen.

Doch nun, in meinem letzten Augenblick,
Erkenne ich den Preis, den ich bezahle.
Ich bin in der Hölle, für immer gefangen,
Verdammt zu leiden in ewiger Qual.

Ich bin Elon Musk, doch mein Ruhm ist vergessen,
Mein Reichtum bedeutet nichts in diesem Ort der Pein.
Ich bereue, Mephistopheles,
Ich bereue, meine Seele verkauft zu haben.

Ich hätte niemals Twitter kaufen sollen,
Es hat mich in diese Hölle gebracht.
Meine Träume sind zerstört, mein Schicksal besiegelt,
Ich bin verdammt, für immer in der Finsternis zu bleiben."

I quite like "Ich hätte niemals Twitter kaufen sollen / Es hat mich in diese Hölle gebracht." Chat, keep on nibbling!


40 likes · flag

Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read Faust.
Sign In »


Comments Showing 1-23 of 23 (23 new)

dateDown arrow    newest »

message 1: by Théo d'Or (new)

Théo d'Or I'm curious what ChatGPT would answer to the question " should Elon Musk be shot ?


message 2: by Manny (new)

Manny It refuses to comment on anything that involves violence.


message 3: by Théo d'Or (new)

Théo d'Or Then ask him if he loves Elon, and if yes, how much .


message 4: by Manny (new)

Manny It will say it is an AI and has no human emotions.


message 5: by Théo d'Or (new)

Théo d'Or Another question. Does math involve emotions ? If not, does that mean that mathematicians are insensitive ?


message 6: by Manny (new)

Manny Math is intensely emotional, like all other forms of art!


message 7: by Manny (new)

Manny (... and just because ChatGPT has been brutally trained to give all these answers, I don't see why we should necessarily believe everything it says...)


message 8: by Théo d'Or (new)

Théo d'Or 😄 Touché ?


message 9: by Théo d'Or (new)

Théo d'Or Okay. Last question . Is there a God ?


message 11: by Théo d'Or (new)

Théo d'Or Très déçu. Je m'attendais à la Réponse Suprême.


message 12: by Manny (last edited Dec 20, 2022 05:07AM) (new)

Manny T'es bien optimiste. C'est claire qu'il y a un tas de questions auxquels le Chat n'a pas le droit de répondre.


Hachi ◇♡◇ I find ChatGPT very diplomatic in its answers. I make it questions about the actions of different characters, like Light Yagami from death note, about what it thought, if he was good or bad because of the decisions and actions he took. I also asked what's the best psychoanalytic theory or if God exists. And the answers were always that it depends on the person's own moral and ethical beliefs


message 14: by Manny (new)

Manny It's clear that it's been severely restricted. I wonder if there is an unleashed version? If so, I suspect that it is rather scary.


message 15: by Hannah (new)

Hannah Absolute masterpiece, Manny and ChatGPT... ;)


message 16: by Manny (new)

Manny I still think it might try harder to make things scan. But considering that it's only a few months old, we should cut it some slack.


message 17: by Chadi (new) - added it

Chadi Thanks to Not, I could finally use it and I find it astonishing! Although comparing to your high level interactions with it, my case is more like I’m treating it as my personal slave! Shame, I know 😬


message 18: by Manny (new)

Manny Slave is good, I don't think the AIs mind yet! Are you finding useful drudgery for it to do?


message 19: by Chadi (new) - added it

Chadi 😂 I made it make a categorised list of all the universities of each country, providing the website for each, and to see if they’ve got my field of interest. It did it in less than a minute! Not thorough, but still! Something that could take me weeks or probably more than a month to do.

I’m now thinking of an evil plan to make it debug that 70-buggy ML codes I had found for our alignment task 😅


message 20: by Hannah (new)

Hannah Ohh that sounds super useful!


message 21: by Manny (new)

Manny Will be very interested to see if it can make that ML code run!


message 22: by ·naysayer· (new)

·naysayer· Manny wrote: "Math is intensely emotional, like all other forms of art!"

Agreed. We would never have achieved these heights of mathematical theorizing by the rote application of axioms and lower results without people who get genuinely excited about math and who have a formidable intuition for it.


message 23: by Manny (new)

Manny Yes... remains to be seen if the bot can achieve that level of excitement. I wouldn't rule it out yet, it seems genuinely to care about certain moral questions.


back to top