TECH Signal 253
Blog post compares LLMs to Eco's Abulafia, a shuffler that traps users in meaning
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Illustration only Photo by Anders Jildén on Unsplash
A blog post draws an analogy between Umberto Eco's fictional Abulafia program and modern LLMs, arguing that both are convincing but semantically empty shufflers that can trap users in a recursive cycle of meaning-making.
For engineers working with LLMs, the post is a caution that model outputs can be syntactically convincing while semantically meaningless, and that the human tendency to find patterns can lead to over-interpretation. It suggests that relying on LLM explanations without verification can create unfalsifiable narratives, similar to the conspiracy theory in Eco's novel. The post also highlights the risk of LLMs remembering and building on user-provided context, which can amplify the trap.
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The blog post analyzes the BASIC program from Eco's novel, noting a bug and its use of LPRINT.
It argues that LLMs, like Abulafia, are shufflers that produce convincing text without semantic grounding.
It warns that the recursive nature of language and LLM memory can trap users in self-reinforcing interpretations.
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