Do you lie awake at night thinking about the imponderables of life, the questions that seem to have no answer? I don’t, but I do have questions. For example, what if Shakespeare had written like Dr. Seuss? I’ve discovered that ChatGPT.com, an artificial intelligence (AI) tool, can fill in the knowledge gap. Below is an abbreviated version of Shakespeare’s famous passage by Juliet, containing the quote “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” ChatGPT has rewritten it in Seussian style for our enjoyment. This version would probably qualify as stuff you didn’t know (and likely didn’t need to know).

I wonder how it would have influenced our professions of romantic love had we memorized that in English class.

Continuing with the poetry theme, our son asked the Chat to write the history of the world in limerick form. That was a laugh-out-loud experience.

“How many treat-sized chocolate bars would it take to circle the Earth?” I asked my new, possibly unreliable, source. It responded with 802 million bars (5 cm each) laid end-to-end, and would weigh as much as 2,000 elephants. “How many would it take to cover the surface of the Earth?” Answer: You would need “about 510 quadrillion treat-size chocolate bars to blanket the entire planet in sweet, cocoa-covered glory.” Has your life been enriched yet with stuff you didn’t know you didn’t know?

ChatGPT often helps me with dinner solutions. I enter the ingredients I want to use, and it creates several recipe choices, some of which I’ve used. Recently, I asked a sick friend if I could make him some soup or, as a joke, roast a red squirrel for him. Yes, the Chat provided recipes for that rodent delicacy, including one for fine dining. Wow. The backwoods brothers Larry, Darryl, and Darryl of TV show Newhart fame could have benefited from this site.

When I asked my new toy for recipes using broccoli, cauliflower and chocolate ice cream, it warned me that they weren’t best friends. Really? It offered mostly vegetable options, but came through with this delectable suggestion:

Ingredients:

• 2 scoops chocolate ice cream
• ¼ cup finely chopped broccoli florets (yes, trust me)
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• Pinch of salt

Directions:

1. In a skillet, melt butter and brown sugar.
2. Add broccoli bits and sauté until crisp and caramelized (they’ll taste nutty!).
3. Sprinkle over the ice cream like crunchy praline topping.

If, perchance, you decide to try this culinary wonder, please let me know!

 If I can dream up such ridiculous questions, I wondered what funny questions others had asked.

Some amusing contributions from the Google list are:

• “Why is your face on your head?”
• “How does a giraffe clean its ears?”

Offerings from ChatGPT:  

• “If I train my cat to meow in Morse code, can it legally send distress signals to the Coast Guard?”
• “If I microwave a burrito at the speed of light, will it still be frozen in the middle?”

These people are way ahead of me on the silly front, but I’m glad they asked.

Yes, all AI can provide incorrect answers and has some significant implications in several realms, which raises valid concerns. However, rather than writing it off as something evil to be feared or trusting it as an infallible fount of all knowledge, I use it for entertainment and practical help. No, I don’t have too much time on my hands, but the answer to a silly question can spark a humorous and lively dinner conversation.

It’s dreary November, so I hope I’ve inspired you to embark on an enjoyable quest, using whatever means you prefer, to discover stuff you didn’t know before you began. We can all use a laugh now and again, so I hope at least one of these questions made you chuckle.

Thank you for sharing your time with me.