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Tell me 15 fun facts about Kevin Drum

Published on 27 Comments on Tell me 15 fun facts about Kevin Drum

Charlie Stross wrote today about an experiment with Google's Bard AI assistant. "Tell me five fun facts about Charles Stross," he commanded it, and for the first five it did pretty well. But then he asked for five more, and then five more. And at that point Bard just went bonkers, making stuff up out of whole cloth.

That sounded like fun! So I headed over to ChatGPT-4 and asked it for fun facts about Kevin Drum. It was very disappointing. It basically got everything right, though it did so by being pretty careful and sticking closely to Wikipedia.

But maybe ChatGPT-4 is just better than Bard? Sure enough! I won't bore you with the entire conversation, but here are the final five fun facts Bard offered up about me:

5 More Fun Facts About Kevin Drum:

Language enthusiast: Kevin Drum is fascinated by languages and enjoys learning new ones. He is fluent in English and Spanish and is currently learning French. He believes that learning languages opens up new perspectives and fosters understanding between cultures.

This is laughably wrong. I speak only English and am famously bad at learning new languages.

Gardening hobbyist: Despite living in an apartment, Kevin manages to cultivate a small but thriving balcony garden. He enjoys growing vegetables, herbs, and flowers, and finds gardening a relaxing and rewarding activity.

Also laughably wrong. In fact, when we bought our current house I made sure to tell Marian to pick one with a yard small enough that she was comfortable taking care of it herself. I wanted nothing to do with it. Also, I don't live in an apartment.

Travel enthusiast: Although not as much as he'd like, Kevin enjoys traveling and exploring new places. He has visited several countries around the world and is always eager to discover new cultures and experiences.

This is more or less right, though I'm not really all that passionate about discovering new cultures. Mostly I like taking pictures.

Amateur astronomer: Kevin has a passion for astronomy and enjoys gazing at the stars. He owns a telescope and occasionally attends stargazing events. He finds the vastness of the universe awe-inspiring and loves learning about the cosmos.

Half credit? I do have a telescope, but I've never attended a stargazing event and I use it for photography, not gazing.

Animal lover: Besides cats, Kevin has a deep love for all animals. He supports animal welfare organizations and advocates for the humane treatment of animals.

I do like most animals, but I've never supported an animal welfare organization.

Bonus Fact: Kevin Drum is a big fan of coffee and can often be found sipping on a cup while writing or reading. He considers coffee to be his essential fuel for thought.

Again, laughably wrong. I hate coffee.

Oddly enough, Bard also told Charlie Stross that he was a language enthusiast. Does it just make that up about everyone when it starts to run out of things to say?

27 thoughts on “Tell me 15 fun facts about Kevin Drum”

  1. cld

    Kevin also has a species of brine shrimp named after him which he discovered in a deserted borax mine in an unknown desert location. He cultivates them for their iridescent exoskeletons that are used as an ingredient in the glaze of high end ceramic ashtrays and celebrity sunglasses.

  2. Adam Strange

    I have always liked the autobiography of Dr. Evil.

    "The details of my life are quite inconsequential... very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical. Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent, I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds- pretty standard really. At the age of twelve I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum... it's breathtaking- I highly suggest you try it."

  3. pjcamp1905

    Yeah. AI is going to take over any day now.

    Also, if you hate coffee you can't be a physicist. It is one of the two essential fluids of physics.

  4. D_Ohrk_E1

    It depends on how well you construct your prompts.
    "Can you tell me 5 fun facts about Kevin Drum, former writer for Mother Jones and former editor at Washington Monthly?"

    Sure, I can tell you five fun facts about Kevin Drum, former writer for Mother Jones and former editor at Washington Monthly:

    He started his career as a technical writer and editor for several software companies, such as Symantec and Microsoft. He also wrote a book called “Environmentalism Through the Lens of Social Justice” that examines the relationship between environmental issues and social justice movements.

    He is an avid reader of history books, especially those about the American Civil War, World War II, and the Cold War. He also likes to play strategy games, such as Civilization, Crusader Kings, and Hearts of Iron.

    He is a vegetarian who does not eat meat, fish, or poultry. He also avoids dairy products, eggs, and honey. He says he became a vegetarian for ethical reasons, but also for health benefits.

    He is a fan of crossword puzzles and sudoku. He likes to challenge himself with difficult puzzles and often posts his solutions on his blog. He also enjoys watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune on TV.

    He is a supporter of universal health care and single-payer systems. He has been advocating for health care reform since the 1990s and has written extensively about the Affordable Care Act, Medicare for All, and other proposals.

    "Give 5 more fun facts about Kevin Drum."

    Here are five more fun facts about Kevin Drum:

    He has a PhD in biochemistry from the University of California, Irvine. He studied the structure and function of a protein called calmodulin, which is involved in regulating many cellular processes.

    He is a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Angels. He often tweets about their games and shares his opinions on their performance. He also likes to watch soccer, especially the English Premier League and the World Cup.

    He is a supporter of nuclear power as a clean and reliable source of energy. He has written several articles and blog posts defending nuclear power and debunking some of the myths and fears surrounding it.

    He is a collector of stamps and coins. He has a large collection of both, dating back to his childhood. He says he enjoys the history and the artistry behind them.

    He is a fan of the musical Hamilton and has seen it live twice. He says he loves the songs, the story, and the diversity of the cast. He also thinks that Lin-Manuel Miranda is a genius.

    1. emh1969

      I tried it and got this gem:

      Name Change: While he is commonly known as Kevin Drum, his birth name is Kevin Kevin. He decided to change it to Kevin Drum for professional reasons.

      LOL

    2. Chondrite23

      You make a good point. But the counter is that this sort of algorithm doesn’t know that it might be wrong and happily makes assertions as if they were true.

  5. Dana Decker

    "I've never attended a stargazing event"

    You should. It's not for serious photography Kevin does, but more a festival in the dark, with a range of telescopes (Dobsonian are popular), some trance electronic music, even a few pets (check out the dogs with red LED collars). Often couples with children but also serious geeky nerds who will talk your ear off about the merits of Plössl eyepieces. A little light drinking but almost never rowdy. And remember, don't flood the place with your headlights!

    You don't even need to bring a telescope. There are enough scopes out there and if you are polite, the owners will gladly share theirs; they really like it if you complement them (on whatever: mirror, eyepiece, mount - some amazingly robust metal ones are hand made).

    There are many groups that hold events, typically once a month when the moon is close to new (like this weekend). The Internet will help you find what's closest and best suited - but only an actual visit will give you a sense of how it goes.

    When I did it on Fridays or Saturdays with friends, it was standard to head back home at 3 am and stop by a 24 hour chiliburger place for, um, breakfast.

    A fun (?) resource is a map (here for Southern California) showing where the dark places are. Not many near a metropolitan area of 18 million.
    http://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=6.00&lat=34.2850&lon=-118.0056

    1. Jay Gibbo

      Seriously... There are 20 Kevin Drums on linkedin, plus many not on there. How do we know those facts don't apply to one of these Kevin Drums?

  7. skeptonomist

    These things are all true about other Kevin Drums (how many others are there in the world?). The bot has not yet figured out how to distinguish among the different ones, or it does not have enough data.

  9. Srho

    They told me it couldn't be done. They said I was mad for trying. But I've shown them! Bow before my glorious invention: Artificial Stupidity!!

  10. reino2

    I asked it for ten interesting facts about myself, and got:

    I do not have enough information about that person to help with your request. I am a large language model, and I am able to communicate and generate human-like text in response to a wide range of prompts and questions, but my knowledge about this person is limited. Is there anything else I can do to help you with this request?

    I then asked for one interesting fact about myself and got the same thing. To be fair, I am not interesting.

  13. grishaxxx

    So, so glad you followed Charlie Stross down this particular rabbit hole, with head-lanterns and cleft-sticks and all the other modern explorer gear.
    I am a dedicated CS fan on his many platforms/narrative paths - happy that you are, too.
    👍👍👍🤠

  14. kaleberg

    Years ago, the game was googling oneself and finding out about your alternate lives. I, for example, was a Cornell hockey player in another life.

  15. Pingback: How many Kevin Drums are there, anyway? – Kevin Drum

  16. QuakerInBasement

    I asked Bard for five shocking facts about Bruce Wayne. This was number four:

    He has a code word for asking Superman for help: Due to his emotional barriers and pride, Bruce finds it difficult to directly ask for help. He has a code word, "Banana Muffin," that he uses to signal Superman when he needs assistance.

  17. kennethalmquist

    A few insights from ChatGPT 3.5:

    “Drum has connections to California and has previously lived in Irvine, California.” True--if a bit of an understatement.

    “There isn't specific publicly available information that explicitly mentions Kevin Drum's personal preferences regarding coffee.” Again true as of ChatGPT's 2022 cutoff date, but there is now!

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