Golden hospital gowns

Here’s something I posted on X a couple days ago:

There’s no direct connection between AI and cryptocurrency, but they have a similar vibe.

They both leave you wondering whether the emperor is sumptuously clothed, naked, or a mix of both.

Maybe he’s wearing a hospital gown with gold threads.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the story, this is an allusion to The Emperor’s New Clothes, one of the most important stories in literature.

I propose golden hospital gown as a metaphor for things that are a fascinating mixture of good and bad, things that have large numbers of haters and fanboys, both with valid points. There’s continual improvement and a lot work to be done sorting out what works well and what does not.

I tried to get Grok to create an image of what I had in mind by a golden hospital gown. The results were not what I wanted, but passable, which is kinda the point of the comment above. It’s amazing that AI can produce anything remotely resembling a desired image starting from a text description. But there is a very strong temptation to settle for mediocre and vaguely creepy images that aren’t what we really want.

Man in a yellow hospital gown with hairy back and legs exposed

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3 thoughts on “Golden hospital gowns

  1. Completely agree, although I find that things make a lot more sense having just finished reading “Hijacking Bitcoin” (by Roger Ver).

  2. When I saw the title, I visualized a hospital gown whose ration of length to shoulder width was golden

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