Elon Musk's Martian Connection

I was immensely disappointed at the rollout of the nerfed Chat-GPT system. It's ability to create intricate and inappropriate storylines using my friend’s names, fake world war scenarios, 58008 (if you know you know) was sadly all taken out. None work.

Humanities greatest achievement, the one that will replace us all...can't even say cunt.

Obviously I was not the only one and thankfully, nerds smarter than myself got to work.

Now regardless of what it seems, this is not a review of the interface, as I do not even have access to use it. However, there was a familiar feeling… something that I couldn’t quite place at the time.

A few days ago, I was scrolling through my Spotify podcasts and went into WarMode. A wonderfully raw podcast by two blue collar Philly area gentlemen, known affectionately as Spud and Bill. An episode goes by my screen called Water Brothers. It hits me.

Water brothers: a term coined in a Robert Heinlein book “Stranger in a Strange Land”. A Martian (from mars) named Michael Smith describes water brothers to humans as briefly summarized here.

On Mars, water is a very finite resource and typically it would not be shared. However, in certain cases when you find a true companion you would share water with them, essentially providing them with life. The sharing of water was done quite ceremoniously and created a bond that goes beyond oneself.

Anyone who was Michael Smith’s water brother was awarded many benefits not limited to Michael laying down his own life for them as they are now “forever family”.

As everyone knows, with food and water so scarce on Mars, water is not something to be taken lightly.

In this episode of WarMode, Spud goes onto to tell Billy about the book, the crazy fantasy wonderland that is science fiction and about his very own Grok hoodie. This is the first time I heard the term, and honestly after listening to the podcast episode, had to listen to the book and do not regret it.

So, what exactly does Grok mean?

It is to understand something intuitively, or through empathy. The ultimate form of understanding.

You delve into a specific topic, simply trying to grok it. You have eight beers with your buddy talking about his wife, to help him grok his situation. We write articles to grok ourselves (cough cough). Your parents tell stories at dinner to help you grok your roots. It’s almost a mindset a state of being.

This dot connecting Elon to Stranger in a Strange Land is interesting if you consider that Elon himself seems to be a bit of a stranger in this world. Misunderstood and attacked, like Michael Smith in this wonderfully distracting world that Heinlein created.

Anyways, I’m excited to see the roll out of the dirty mouthed AI that will take all our jobs, installed into the newest Tesla robots and kill us all.

Until then, a big shout to Spud for putting me onto a great book, and continuously being on the cutting edge of life. I will be waiting for the rollout of Grok to the masses and will utilize the tool to make fun of my friends and “create” stories about the government hiding mole kids on a ship off the shore of NYC. Wink wink.

Here is part one of the audiobook, you're welcome.

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A Heinlein (Audiobook) part 1/2