-punk worlds (Part 1.5 An Experiment)

AI hallucinates and that's a good thing. I'm not a scientist or business that needs facts, figures and data to be real, to be correct. I'm an artist, a poet, a writer, a songstress. What I need, what I live and breathe is make-believe, hallucinations and creations. Writers make up words all the time. In 1980, Bruce Bethke titled a short story "Cyberpunk", published in Amazing stories in 1983. Thus a new word was born. Cyberpunk gave birth to Steampunk and a lot of other -punk words I went over in my last blog post, " -punk worlds (Part 1) ". As AI prompters, we use words. Why are we limited to words that already exist? The truth is we limit ourselves. Writers make up words all the time and so can we. AI puts together patterns, tries to fit elements together. The AI can solve a new madeup word just like a jigsaw puzzle by looking at the pieces. One of the 7 wonders of the ancient world: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon The Experiment So let's try a little experiment. First I need a list of ancient civilizations. Eight might be a bit much but I wanted to cover a few continents. 8 ancient civilizations Sumer (c. 3500–2000 BCE) — First known cities, early writing (cuneiform). Xia Dynasty (traditionally c. 2070–1600 BCE) — Earliest traditional Chinese dynasty. Babylonia (c. 1894 BCE onward) — Famous for Hammurabi’s Code. Minoan Civilization (c. 2700–1450 BCE) — Centered on Crete. Mycenaean Civilization (c. 1600–1100 BCE) — Early Greek culture, Homeric age. Olmec (c. 1500–400 BCE) — Earliest major Mesoamerican civilization. Phoenicians (c. 1500–300 BCE) — Maritime traders, early alphabet. Celtic cultures (emerging c. 1200 BCE) — Spread across Europe. Next we need a simple prompt to test our experimental words. Once again let's start with this very simple prompt to see what the AI can do. Again I'll be using Grok as my model. Simple Prompt (fill in the blank) woman looking out the window into a ---- world Notice that I did not describe what the woman is wearing, her hairstyle, her room or the world outside the window. All of that will be conveyed with the one word, or so I hope. What I hope the AI will Hallucinate I'll do 2 image for each set. A. The ancient civilization with no qualifiers. So we have an idea of what the AI thinks that ancient civilization looked like B. The ancient world + -punk (a new made-up word) . I chose these ancient civilization because I could not find a -punk version already on the Internet. a. seeing if the AI will recognize the made-up word as a word b. seeing if the AI generates that civilization in a later time period The new madeup words Sumerianpunk XiaDynastypunk Babyloniapunk / Babylonpunk Minoanpunk Mycenaeanpunk / Homericpunk / Trojanpunk Olmecpunk Phoenicianpunk Celticpunk / Celtpunk Sumer Sumer is the first known cities and developed an early form of picture writing called cuneiform. Sumer existed 3500–2000 BCE. Think about it. That's 4,000-6,000 years ago. woman looking out the window into a Sumerian world this is the ancient version of the Sumerian civilization woman looking out the window into a Sumerianpunk world note my madeup word "Sumerianpunk" Wow! What do you think? I see a couple of flying vehicles so I think this world is in the future. And I think the giant scorpions are robots? Xia Dynasty (China) This one is going to be difficult, I think. woman looking out the window into a Xia Dynasty world Yeah, this doesn't look that ancient. It's supposed to be about circa 2070–1600 BCE as the earliest traditional Chinese dynasty but mud brick huts exist in places around he world even now and so do thatched roofs. Oh well. let's see if we can make a -punk word out of it. woman looking out the window into a XiaDynastypunk world Well, that looks a lot more interesting. It seems like the AI took one look at XiaDynastypunk and decided it must be a Chinese steampunk world. There are robots, airships and flying machines. I think this is a pretty good example that the AI can take a madeup word and extrapolate probable meaning from it. Cool, right? Babylonia (Iraq) Babylonia is circa 1894 BCE onward and is famous for Hammurabi’s Code. The Code was 282 laws carved into a black stone pillar and was rediscovered in 1901. woman looking out the window into a Babylonian world This looks pretty cool. The Sumerians pioneered mosaics and Ziggurats, those buildings you see here used as temples. Babylonians took it a step further by adding glazed bricks and vivid colors. Let's see what happens with our made up -punk word woman looking out the window into a Babylonianpunk world Babylonianpunk doesn't seem to have the artiness that the previous image showed with the bright blue Bull tiles. It looks like this time the AI interpreted Babylonianpunk as a dieselpunk or petropunk world with dark smoke puffing pollution into the skies. I did try it again as a shorter -punk word. I think Babylonpunk would be a better word. woman looking out the window into a Babylonpunk world I do like this a lot better. It still leans towards dieselpunk with the black smoke rather than the white steam of steampunk. Minoan Civilization (Crete) I am curious to see Crete's Minoan civilization circa 2700–1450 BCE. These were the bull dancers who flipped over bulls. woman looking out the window into a Minoan world I am thinking that giant courtyard down there is where they dance with bulls. woman looking out the window into a Minoanpunk world This one the AI interpreted Minoanpunk as a steampunk world with the tiles and the Minoan ships having rotors. it looks like it's a world that relies on steamships rather than airships. In another generation, airships appeared. Something that is interesting here is the domed buildings. As shown in the first picture, early Crete architecture was flat and rectangular. Modern Crete, however, has some buildings with domes. So the Minoanpunk image incorporates some modern architectural elements into the image even while keeping the ancient ship styles. Remember these are madeup words so AI is extrapolating meaning from words with similar patterns The thing to realize that since none of these -punk words are real words, the AI interpretation on what it might possibly may mean may vary between models, but even generations within the same model. Since I am not spelling out what these words mean, the AI has a lot of latitude to hallucinate/extrapolate based on the pattern of the new words and patterns of existing words. The AI is not making up these words from scratch. It is extrapolating from patterns and information in other words like steampunk, dieselpunk and cyberpunk. The AI may also include information on what those ancient areas look like now. From there, the AI creates a possible new world. Mycenaean Civilization (Greece) Mycenaean civilization is the early Greek Homeric age circa 1600 to 1100 BCE. This is the world where the Trojan War happened. woman looking out the window into a Mycenaean world You can see the the soldiers down below and the fortifications. This is a culture prepared for or at war. woman looking out the window into a Mycenaeanpunk world It works but the word is looong. I want to see if I can find a shorter way to say it. Let's try Homericpunk for Homer's Iliad. I am not trying out Homerpunk because that just makes me think of the Simpson's. woman looking out the window into a Homericpunk world That's interesting. Much more warlike. It still feels long tho. Let's try Trojanpunk for the Trojan War. woman looking out the window into a Trojanpunk world That's another interesting world with some juxtapositions between the ancient culture, the fire towers, the steampunk horses and her scifi outfit. She looks very militaristic to me. woman looking out the window into a Mycenpunk world I just thought I'd try truncating Mycenaean to Mycenpunk. I'm suprised it worked. But in this one, I think they are losing the war. Olmec (Central America) Olmec is the earliest major Mesoamerican civilization in Central America circa 1500–400 BCE. It's considered the mother culture of later civilizations like the Mayans and Aztecs. woman looking out the window into a Olmec world Ok, this image did not go back in history. She's modern and so is the window. It's showing a bit how Olmec cultural remnants might look in the jungles, a bit overgrown. It is not a realistic depiction or a recreation. Olmec carved heads also look quite a bit different than that. But this is an experiment so onward we go. Here we are trying Olmec+punk woman looking out the window into a Olmecpunk world Olmecpunk turned out Interesting. Again it looks more modern. More 1950s? I think. Although her clohtes feels 1970s or later. I need a person into cars to tell me what decade those cars look. It looks more polluted with smog in the background although it also looks white like steam coming off the pyramids. So maybe a combo of steampunk and dieselpunk moving into the mid 1900s. Pyramids do look like Yucatan pyramids. Phoenicians (Mediterreanean) I always thought the Phoenicians were cool. They sailed throughout the Mediterrean and traded with everybody circa 1500–300 BCE and their early alphabet influenced a lot of alphabets including English. Thor Heyerdahl felt that they could have sailed to the Americas. But that's another story for another day. woman looking out the window into a Phoenician world That looks cool. Let's try Phoenicianpunk and see what happens. woman looking out the window into a Phoenicianpunk world Ok, my lady looking out the window, looks like she's on a balcony. That's ok. We have a good view of the city. Looks like the ships have taken to the skies but there are trains. There is a bustling market with neon signs and holo screens. It feels like it is mixing technologies from steampunk and cyberpunk. And yeah Phoenicianpunk looks superlong but I can't see a good way to shorten it without it being mistaken for Phoenix. I did try Phoenicpunk but as I thought, I got birds woman looking out the window into a Phoenicpunk world Celtic cultures (Europe) Emerging circa 1200 BCE near the Danube River, Celtic culture spread throughout Europe. A lot of fairytales and folk tales sprang from this culture. They had respect for nature and skilled craftsmanship with a belief system led by Druids. woman looking out the window into a Celtic world I'm real curious to see how the AI will interpret a Celticpunk world woman looking out the window into a Celticpunk world Very much a dieselpunk world, dark and polluted. The celtic knotwork shows up. There is graffiti that says "Resist the Iron Crown." It feels like there is a story here already starting to be told. The moss on the monolithic rocks is the first time I've seen any greenery in a -punk world (except for solarpunk but we haven't gone there yet). Since we tried shortening other ones, let's try Celtpunk woman looking out the window into a Celtpunk world Pretty cool, and very vibrant. Historical Cities and -punk We tend to think in broader terms these days with countries but really it was citystates, not countries back in the day. It's obvious you can put a lot of things with -punk and the AI will try to give you something. You could try Pompeii, Transylvania, or Nara (first capital of Japan). woman looking out the window into a Pompeiipunk world woman looking out the window into a Narapunk world woman looking out the window into a Transylvaniapunk world Oh, what the heck. Transylvania and Goth are practically sisters. Let's try Gothpunk and Punkgoth just to see what happens woman looking out the window into a gothpunk world woman looking out the window into a punkgoth world It is different when you flip it so that punk is in front. Tucks that away to think about later. Conclusion It's obvious if you are making up words for the AI, it helps to connect two words together in making a new third word. Those two origin words give the AI something to work with, a pattern to search for. The AI will hallucinate for you but if you don't want a totally random result, suffixes like "-punk" are packed with meaning; "-punk" already has a rich history with steampunk, cyberpunk and punk culture for the AI to dip into, to find pathways. Adding something in front also packed with meaning like a ancient civilization is like handing the AI a bucketful of candy. It'll shoot out elements based on the front and back end of your new word. It's fun to see what the AI will do. What worlds will you create?