zlacker

> this is a "can a submarine swim" problem IMO. We need a new word for what LLMs are doing.

Why?

A plane is not a fly and does not stay aloft like a fly, yet we describe what it does as flying despite the fact that it does not flap its wings. What are the downsides we encounter that are caused by using the word “fly” to describe a plane travelling through the air?

>>JimDab+(OP)
I was riffing on that famous Dijkstra quote.

>>JimDab+(OP)
For what it's worth, in my language the motion of birds and the motion of aircraft _are_ two different words.

>>JimDab+(OP)
Flying isn’t named after flies, they both come from the same root.

https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=fly

>>JimDab+(OP)
> A plane is not a fly and does not stay aloft like a fly, yet we describe what it does as flying despite the fact that it does not flap its wings.

Flying doesn't mean flapping, and the word has a long history of being used to describe inanimate objects moving through the air.

"A rock flies through the window, shattering it and spilling shards everywhere" - see?

OTOH, we have never used to word "swim" in the same way - "The rock hit the surface and swam to the bottom" is wrong!