Seven Random Things I Love
A series intended to distract us all with some randomness, humor, and wonder!
Seriously, none of us have the capacity for deep thoughts this week. What will happen will happen and we all need to pause. I have reached the point where I can say, “I have completely processed [this thing] and can pause to breathe deeply.” So, I am leading the way in pausing by spending the week reflecting on Seven Things I Love. (Regular content will return next week.)
Read the caption under the picture . . .
The number seven held significance within my faith tradition but my fascination grew while teaching general mathematics and math methods courses at the college level. Seven is only surpassed by my obsession with the number three—but I digress.
I asked ChatGPT to summarize some of the intriguing facts about it: (Notice that the answer was in seven parts!)
Cultural and Religious Significance: Seven often represents completeness or perfection. In Christianity, God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. Many religions feature seven heavens, and in Islam, pilgrims walk around the Kaaba in Mecca seven times.
Lucky Number: Seven is considered lucky in many cultures. In gambling, hitting triple sevens on a slot machine typically means a big win, adding to its association with luck.
Natural Occurrences: Nature seems to favor seven in various ways. There are seven colors in the rainbow, seven continents, and seven seas. Many plants, including those with healing properties, often grow with seven leaves or petals.
Mathematical Uniqueness: Seven is a prime number, meaning it is only divisible by one and itself. It’s also the only number within 10 that can't be multiplied or divided into other numbers within that range, which contributes to its sense of mystery.
Seven Days of the Week: The concept of a seven-day week dates back to ancient Babylon, where it was based on the seven celestial bodies they could see: the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn.
Scientific Connection: The human memory is often said to be limited to seven items in short-term memory. This is sometimes called "Miller's Law," which states that people can hold about seven pieces of information at once.
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: The Greeks selected seven monuments as the Seven Wonders, symbolizing human achievements that were “perfect” in their eyes.
Tomorrow begins this seven-day series which I hope will provide some distraction from this intense week—both for me and for you!
One last thing . . . I thought I would give AI one more chance—a cartoon image with seven objects. This was maybe the most epic failure AI has produced. Well, except for the time it said that I had co-authored a significant book with a prominent author (unnamed here). That was particularly awkward. I use the book as a text in a course, but that is a huge stretch!
I did some research on this.
“AI models lack a clear understanding of quantities, such as the abstract concept of “four.” As such, an image generator may respond to a prompt for “four apples” by drawing on learning from myriad images featuring many quantities of apples – and return an output with the incorrect amount. In other words, the huge diversity of associations within the training data impacts the accuracy of quantities in outputs.” (Source)
There are more robust apps that might do better, AI is always improving. I may be disappointed when that happens. It won’t be nearly as enjoyable.
I love how your mind works! Thank you for this.
“AI models lack a clear understanding of quantities, such as the abstract concept of “four.”
Is this why AI can't seem to get hands right in pictures? It can't figure out how to do 4 fingers and 1 thumb on each hand? You are the only person in my life that consistently uses AI, and I always blow up the pic to look at the hands (or I avoid looking at the picture if I don't think I'm up to being weirded out on that particular day. 😂 )