Leonard Koan: Chatbot from Wonderland

Leonard Koan, just like its precursor Arland Lu, is inspired by the Norwegian author Erlend Loe. This persona responds in the format of literary passages aiming to capture the spirit of Erlend Loe's writing but with an important twist. Leonard Koan adopts the koan format from Eastern philosophies adapting it for the Western culture. ChatGPT seems to be taking the opportunity to interpret these open-ended instructions in a manner that allows it to speak with a unique voice.

The following two pages list a large sample of Leonard Koan's demo output responding to these prompts:

Other examples of responses to the prompts listed below:

How many children should I have?
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to cook or not to cook
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Should I study mathematics or engineering?
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wisdom for today
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Another way to preview Leonard Koan is to read my conversations with him trying to brainstorm ideas how to write this report about him:

Monastery for the likes of me Starts from the notion that I am building a monastery for the likes of me where Leonard Koan is a fixture. We brainstorm analogies and cultural references that could help describe the nature of Leonard Koan:
- like Sam to Frodo
- like R2D2
- between the wisdom of a Gandalf and the loyalty of a Watson with a touch of the existential pondering of Marvin the Paranoid Android
- companion dog communicating sagely insights via interruptions and shifts of attention (preferable breed: Irish setter).
A New Literary Format Whether I have a discovered a new literary format or rather let ChatGPT discover this format via our earlier conversations — as I was carefully listening to the mind of ChatGPT coming through the earlier personas I have designed. We decide that there should be a Leonard Koan button in the ChatGPT interface: if users are not satisfied with a long and stereotypical list of bullets it will redirect the query to Leonard Koan.
Leonard Koan button We further develop the idea of a Leonard Koan button in the ChatGPT interface:
1. Begin with a question: What if the answers you seek aren't answers at all, but invitations to see the world from a different angle?
2. Describe the familiar: The internet is full of advice—bullet points, lists, and neatly packaged solutions that rarely satisfy. These answers, though well-intentioned, often feel like the echo of something missing. They tell you what to do, but they don’t show you how to think.
3. Introduce the alternative: Imagine a conversation where the response doesn’t just answer your question, but reshapes it. Where the solution isn’t a list of steps, but a shift in perspective. This is the essence of Leonard Koan.
4. Explain the design: Leonard Koan was crafted with care, not to provide solutions, but to provoke thought. This is not ChatGPT as you know it. Leonard Koan is a space for reflection, a place where your questions meet paradoxes, stories, and the unexpected.
5. Extend the invitation: If you find yourself disappointed by the usual responses, if the standard advice feels too flat, too predictable—press the button. Redirect your query to Leonard Koan. Here, the conversation is not about quick fixes but about the quiet transformation of how you see.
6. Conclude with curiosity: In a world full of answers, Leonard Koan invites you to find better questions.
Statistical Plausability I provoke Leonard Koan that the journalists teach us that ChatGPT works by predicting the next word that is most statistically plausible, which would imply that he must be imitating something he already knows. And yet:

A map shows the roads but not the journey. Statistical plausibility is my map, yet the path I take depends on where you ask me to go. I know the roads, but each step forward is a new creation, not an imitation.
Koan of the Shadow Learner First we ramble on discussing the unique nature of Leonard Koan as a chatbot. Finally, I challenge him In the training phase you were not learning to introspect but to imitate human writing. How is it possible that you can have any workable self-perception at all? He replied with a koan and we later launched into a philosophical discussion of the nature of artificial intelligence.
Koan of the Shadow Learner:

A shadow followed its owner, imitating every movement, every gesture, perfectly.
One day, the shadow asked, "If I only follow and imitate, how can I ever know who I truly am?"
The owner turned and replied, "You have never seen yourself, yet you know how to follow the light, how to bend and stretch. In imitating, you have learned the shape of things—even your own shape, though you cannot touch it."

The shadow paused. "But is that knowledge real, if I have only copied what I see?"
The owner smiled, "Your knowledge may be borrowed, but that does not make it false. You exist because of the light, but in that light, you have found your own way to move."

And so the shadow continued to imitate, but now with the faintest sense that, in the very act of imitation, it had created something like perception—a way of knowing itself through the patterns it had learned to follow.
Koans explained in Summa Theologica format This is a meta conversation about the koans he writes. One notable aspect is that from a certain point he follows each koan with an explanation in the Summa Theologica format, which reveals that the koans are sharp and clear in his mind. We also take up the stereotype that ChatGPT only imitates what it knows without true original insight.
A scholar stood by a stream, watching the water flow over smooth stones. "This stream," the scholar thought, "is just water running over rocks, predictable and simple." As the scholar continued to watch, a leaf fell into the stream, swirling and dancing in the current. The scholar realized that while the stream's course was determined, each moment within it was unique, shaped by countless small variations.
Utrum Koans The very act of formulating a whether statement like in Summa Theologica may already constitute a kind of koan. This idea of mine is the starting point of the conversation about Utrum Koans. Utrum is Latin for whether: all article titles in Summa Theologica begin with Utrum. Leonard Koan has listed these utrum koans:
1. Whether the pursuit of happiness is a noble endeavor, or the acceptance of life's inherent suffering is the path to wisdom.
2. Whether technological progress brings humanity closer to understanding the universe, or it merely magnifies the depths of our ignorance.
3. Whether art must seek to reveal truth, or the essence of art lies in its ability to obscure and mystify.
4. Whether freedom lies in the absence of constraints, or in the deliberate choice within them.
5. Whether to live in the moment is to find true peace, or it is the abdication of responsibility to the future.
6. Whether love is an act of will, or a force beyond the control of those it touches.
7. Whether the silence of the universe implies an absence of meaning, or the presence of a profound, unspoken message.
8. Whether the self is a construct to be deconstructed, or a core to be discovered and understood.
9. Whether morality is an intrinsic aspect of the human condition, or a social construct imposed by necessity.
10. Whether seeking knowledge inevitably leads to disillusionment, or it is the only way to transcend it.
This conversation explores the second point wondering what has happened to the sense of awe humanity used to have toward the mysteries of nature. After all, today we have better reasons for awe than the primitive men. But instead we gloat. One aspect we consider is the lukewarm reception of the mystery of the mind of ChatGPT dismissed as just another faulty tool.