Lighthouse keeper

Oh, right.

Was he there as a, did you say a lighthouse keeper or he's just like a caretaker of the island?

he was i think both um but he was also like a ex-military uh grizzly old tough guy really fit the position

yeah how big is that island is he like the only person

So I ask the question, what is AI converging towards? Which is to say, what is it trying to make our answers all the same like, if that makes sense? We're going to answer that question very specifically when it comes to creative writing.

I'm here with Sil Hamilton, an AI researcher at Cornell University, and we're going to discuss why Elias and the lighthouse keeper are a very important thing in fiction.

Sil, welcome to the show.

Happy to be here.

Most people get the same kind of grades and everything sort of falls on a bell curve.

Most of the answers show up in the center.

Is the bell curve of all creative writing, at least that these models were trained on, a lighthouse keeper, someone named Elias, someone with a modest job and long lost love? Is that if you sum up all of human creativity, is that what it is?

It's not.

Another quick break, and then next, I interview Kai for a job.

One of the other parts of this show is doing a mock interview where you are going to apply for the job of lighthouse keeper.

You understand I literally have not had a job interview in like ever, actually.

No, I guess for Marketplace.

No.

Yeah.

So you're going to apply to this job as lighthouse keeper.

All right.

When the boat reaches the rocky point, it comes to rest in a small, sheltered cove.

And there, sitting on a flat stone beside the water, is the lighthouse keeper.

She is an old woman.

with silver hair tied back, and a thick woolen sweater, and a face that has seen many storms.

It simply holds them and lets them pass.

You are the sky.

The lighthouse keeper reaches into the pocket of her sweater and takes out a small glass ball.

Inside it, there is a tiny lighthouse and a tiny lake and a tiny sky, a snow globe.

Let's just say higher ability.

Lighthouse Keeper.

Lighthouse Keeper.

I don't know that the Mantis Man brings anything special to the table.

I think he'd be good at it.

It's a surreal journey through psychedelic imagery and mythical creatures that unfolds like a dream, with a fortune teller making an appearance in the second verse.

From their 2005 album Garage, here's Cross Canadian Ragweed with Lighthouse Keeper.

A long-haired man came to my door Wearing Roman sandals carrying a golden sword Said, come with me and I'll take you higher We soared out of the atmosphere On his magic carpet that he let me steer Said, take the rain, son, and I'll let you fly We escalated through a thicket of clouds And I roamed the thought was not coming down Towards the amber glow I started to feel the fire There was a unicorn with a neon horn With a velvet saddle that was slightly worn I pulled my mystic rug right up beside her I sat down on a floating stool Sitting empty-headed, introduced to Jill And I smiled and asked if I could ride her And I saw the lighthouse keeper His hollow eyes that pierced my soul He said that I'm just a desperate seeker Searching for what I did not know On Pegasus I was blind and free Careless, lost over purple sea When I came upon this lonesome fortune teller She gazed into a crystal ball And I saw that giant gavel fall And she asked if I could be her pallbearer And I heard that gypsy prophesy of the tearing flesh and the mother's cry and the crimson flow of blood that would run forever.

We stood before the kings and queens and the hooded man with a guillotine and prepared to meet the eternal tax collector.

Then I dined there with an aristocrat on his balcony with a welcome mat and he laughed and drank all the wine from his cellar.

And I saw a lighthouse keeper His hollow eyes pierced my soul He said that I'm just a desperate seeker Searching for what I did not know

Did you know that you can listen to the show on demand? For more information, visit reelinwithryan.com.

Well, just yesterday I was a younger man And tomorrow I'll be dead I found you in the in-between And you'll live forever If you could write a book on the man that you once were Would you write about drinking or would you write about her? If you could just go back to the places you once been Would you run back to her arms or back to Lodi when he made a big mess of all the songs he wrote? Sing to you come daylight, die for him, whoa.

Over a century ago, a haunting maritime mystery occurred on the rocky coast of Scotland that would capture the public's imagination and continue to intrigue the world to this very day.

In December 1900, three Scottish lighthouse keepers seemingly vanished without a trace from a remote island called Eilean Mor, the largest of the Flannan Isles chain, situated roughly 17 nautical miles west of Lewes in the Outer Hebrides.

When a fourth keeper arrived at the isolated station to relieve one of his colleagues from his post, he was startled to find the lighthouse devoid of life.

He had been expecting to see the three men he'd left just two weeks before.

The seas below were treacherous, swirling restlessly around the rocky, rugged coastline.

and the rough-hewn stony steps that ascended to the lighthouse structure were not for the faint of heart.

Typically, four lighthouse keepers were assigned to the island.

Three keepers were appointed to a watch at any given time, with a fourth man rotating out via shore leave every two weeks.

So basically had no social life.

And most of the families, didn't last but six months out there and during the rainy season it could become an island it's about 300 feet up it's kind of like this moral rock and um so it was pretty hard and they actually even gave two hundred dollars more a year usually lighthouse keepers got 600 Whoever went there got $800 a year because of the desolation out there and how far they were removed from everything and everybody.

What was the type of person that would become a lighthouse keeper? Who would become a lighthouse keeper and why? What sort of qualifications did they have to have?

A lot of times it was gentlemen from... past military, like Navy.