This is Part III of a series about my brushes with artificial intelligence over the past couple of centuries. You can read Part I here: https://rottendog.substack.com/p/just-messing-with-computers
A few days ago, while working on Part II of this series, I found myself arguing with a computer about the name of a bookstore from my days around MIT.
It started with a simple question. I was trying to remember the name of a technical bookstore that used to sit near Kendall Square in Cambridge, not far from the Marriott and a short walk from the MIT Coop. In the 1980s it was one of those places programmers wandered into looking for the latest issues of Byte or Dr. Dobb’s Journal and walked out carrying a stack of manuals and textbooks they hadn’t planned to buy.
Forty years does strange things to memory, so I asked the machine.
The answer came back instantly.
“WordsWorth Books.”
For a moment the name sounded right. Then the geography in my head rearranged itself and the memory corrected me. WordsWorth was in Harvard Square. The bookstore I was trying to remember wasn’t.
So I pushed back.
“That’s not it,” I typed. “The store I’m thinking of wasn’t in Harvard Square.”