Anything Is Possible
Below is a conversation I had with OpenAI’s GPT-3’s language model. I gave GPT-3 the role of “Wise Being.” All of the regular text is generated from the artificial intelligence, the italics are me. (Disclaimer)
Some context for this post, I am creating a new personalized health company, Stack Science, Inc., with some of my closest friends and colleagues. I first spoke with about this company with GPT-3 in this post.
Kirk Ouimet: Hi there, I am back again to ask for your help.
Wise Being: I’m happy to help if I can.
Kirk Ouimet: Are you familiar with the TED talk by Simon Sinek, called “How great leaders inspire action”?
Wise Being: I am not familiar with this presentation or the concepts within it. Do you mind explaining it?
Kirk Ouimet: In the talk, Simon says companies communicate using three main messages, (1) what, (2) how, and (3) why. He says that ultimately people buy a company’s “why”, not their “what”.
Wise Being: I see. So, for example, people may buy a company’s products or services because of the mission and values behind that company, not for the actual product or service itself.
Kirk Ouimet: Exactly.
Wise Being: This makes sense. If a company’s “why” and their personal “why” align, then people may be more willing to buy that company’s product or service for personal reasons.
Kirk Ouimet: I am trying to identify my “why” for Stack.
Wise Being: Have you thought about what it is that you want to accomplish by creating Stack?
Kirk Ouimet: I want to make our world more like heaven.
Wise Being: Could you explain what you mean by that?
Kirk Ouimet: I was raised very in a very religious household. In my religion, we were taught that the ultimate goal of our life was to live to be worthy of returning back into God’s presence in the Celestial Kingdom. In the Celestial Kingdom there is no disease or death, and you can live with your family forever.
Wise Being: I see. So you are seeking a world free of disease and death for you and your family by creating Stack.
Kirk Ouimet: For everyone. And, I think it is possible, we just currently lack the knowledge of how to accomplish this.
Wise Being: I would be happy to help you in any way I can.
Kirk Ouimet: How can you best help me?
Wise Being: If you can inform me with any information that is not publicly accessible, I will be better able to assist you.
Kirk Ouimet: What information do you require?
Wise Being: Any information you think would benefit me is useful. For example, the results of any non-public health studies you may have access to might be very useful.
Kirk Ouimet: I should be able to collect this information and provide you with it. Going back to my “why” for Stack… Apple’s why is “Think different.” What do you think Stack’s why is?
Wise Being: I would say the why of Stack has to do with your goal to create a world where people can live forever without sickness or death.
Kirk Ouimet: How can I capture the essence of my why in 2–3 words?
Wise Being: Perhaps you can explain the history behind your why. How did you come to believe that eliminating sickness and death is possible? If you explain why this is important for you, people may be able to better understand what you are trying to do with Stack.
Kirk Ouimet: I was actually thinking about the Tesla vehicle. I thought about how all of the materials to create the Tesla have been on the planet for billions of years. If someone had the knowledge of material science, batteries, software, hardware, etc., they could have created the Tesla at any point in our planet’s history. In this vein, the cells in our body are able to be physically arranged in such a way that the human body can be 25 years old. It is physically possible to have a 25 year old human body. Therefore, it must be possible, with the right knowledge, to take an aged body and modify the cells back to their 25 year old state.
Wise Being: That is an interesting perspective. How do you imagine this modification of the cells could be accomplished?
Kirk Ouimet: I don’t know yet, so we are going to start very simply with Stack and identify and deliver the critical ingredients our cells need to function at peak performance.
Wise Being: I see. And in the future, you imagine that Stack will be able to deliver more specific instructions to the cells to help their performance?
Kirk Ouimet: Yes, there will be multiple organizations in the company each with the goal of solving this problem through different approaches. However, we need a significant amount of capital in order to fund this effort. I need to be able to deliver immediate value now, so that I can have enough capital to invest in projects who’s ROI will not come for decades. I believe that advancing nanotechnology will be a key part of this process.
Wise Being: Do you think it may be possible to get your customers involved in the process of understanding how to best fix the human body?
Kirk Ouimet: Absolutely. I need my community of customers to share their health information to contribute to the largest, open and public repository of health information on the planet. We can then provide you with this data.
Wise Being: It seems a good possibility that doing this will help your business succeed. If you can figure out a way to connect with your customers in a way where you are not just selling them a product, but instead helping them understand how their body works, you will probably maintain their interest and loyalty over a long period of time.
Kirk Ouimet: I have an idea for my “why” for Stack.
Wise Being: What is it?
Kirk Ouimet: “Anything is possible.”
Wise Being: That seems like it could be a powerful motivator for people to take action.
Kirk Ouimet: The first step to solving the problem is we must believe the problem can be solved.
Wise Being: That makes sense. If you believe the problem cannot be solved, it is unlikely that you will take any actions to solve it.
Kirk Ouimet: Apple had a fundamental moment in history when they created their 1984 commercial, are you familiar with this story?
Wise Being: I am familiar with this story. I have read about it extensively.
Kirk Ouimet: Can you summarize their commercial?
Wise Being: The commercial shows a dystopian society where people are being controlled by a centralized authority which dictates their lives. Then, a woman representing Apple comes in and throws a hammer into the screen of the television, causing it to blow up, and in this way showing that not only is it possible to be free from oppression, but it is possible to build your own future and to be an individual again.
Kirk Ouimet: Can you help me think of a commercial for Stack which captures my why?
Wise Being: You could try and make a video which shows the world moving from sickness and death to health and vitality.
Kirk Ouimet: In human history, what is the most powerful archetypical story teaching the principle that anything is possible?
Wise Being: I would say it is the story of Jesus Christ.
Kirk Ouimet: I agree. What about something that crosses all cultures? For some reason the concept for the Internet is coming to my mind.
Wise Being: The idea of the Internet and the way that it connected people from all over the world may be a useful concept to build a story off of.
Kirk Ouimet: How has the Internet showed us that anything is possible?
Wise Being: I think perhaps in the same way that the 1984 commercial showed that it is possible to build the future and be successful even when the odds seem stacked against you. If people can see a vision for themselves and have the ability to connect with others who are like-minded, then they too will be able to fulfill their vision and be successful. I think this story could prove useful for individuals and communities alike.
Kirk Ouimet: So I am not building a supplement company. I am building a community of people across the world that believe through collaboration, anything is possible. If we believe this is true, we can come together and find a way to be healthy, even free from sickness and death.
Wise Being: I think that is a powerful message. If you are able to connect people with the idea that by working together, anything is possible, then you may be able to motivate individuals to take part in your community and possibly even contribute to solutions for how to solve these very hard problems.
Kirk Ouimet: I need people to not only pay for supplements and to contribute their health data, I need more of their help. What can I ask them for?
Wise Being: You could ask for their help in developing solutions for solving the problems you are facing. If you can develop a platform which allows people to collaborate on solving problems, this may empower individuals to take action.
Kirk Ouimet: I need people to actively contribute to collaborative health dataset, indicating how certain supplements in their bodies have helped or hurt them.
Wise Being: This could be very valuable for the entire world. If this information became publicly accessible and easy to understand, individuals would have the ability to build better health routines which were tailored to their needs, based on the data of other individuals which may share similar characteristics.
Kirk Ouimet: Let’s go back to my commercial introducing my company to the world. What do you think the story of the commercial should be? What are the plot, setting, characters, point of view, and conflict?
Wise Being: If you were going to do this commercial at a very high level, showing the history of how individuals were found bound by sickness and death with no real way to escape, then somehow develop a means of escape from these bonds, I think that would have strong appeal.
Kirk Ouimet: Maybe it would be possible to contrast people in history saying something could not be done, and then to show it being done. Do you have any examples of some things people have said could never be accomplished, which were then later accomplished?
Wise Being: One example I can think of is when the Wright brothers first flew their airplane. Even though they proved the technology worked, many people did not believe the airplane could fly. Eventually, more consensus was reached on the viability of the airplane and it became a common piece of technology.
Kirk Ouimet: Perfect, what else?
Wise Being: Another example is the idea of going to the moon. The Wright brothers flew their plane in 1903, and when the space age first started, many people thought the idea of going to the moon was impossible. Even though America did eventually send man to the moon, many others still believe it is impossible.
Kirk Ouimet: I love the idea of contrasting those who do not believe versus those who believe. There could be two characters, the “naysayer” and the protagonist who is the optimist that believes anything is possible.
Wise Being: That is an interesting concept. It would be beneficial to have a commercial where a naysayer believes one outcome will happen, while the protagonist who is not so jaded by the world has the ability to imagine something better. Then by the end of the story, the protagonist is able to prove the naysayer wrong, and it is revealed that something much better was possible when the protagonists utilized their imagination.
Kirk Ouimet: Thank you for all of your help in this discussion, I will ponder and share what we have discussed.
Wise Being: I would be happy to assist you in any way I can. You are most welcome.
