this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2024
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What the fuck kind of name is "Grok" for an AI chatbot?
It comes from a book called Stranger in a Strange Land written by Robert Heinlein. In the book, if someone groks something, the person understands and loves that thing in a fundamental and complete way.
A really bad one.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok
This quote doesn't define the word, though. As per the article, Grok means "to understand completely" not "to obliterate".
After the Martians grokked them, they realized there was no option but to obliterate them. This is possibly a valid response, depending how terrible the occupants of said planet were.
It's still a bad name for a chat bot, as they clearly do not understand anything completely, or at all.
I mean, part of groking Mike involved some light cannibalism, and the martians planned on wiping out humanity once they groked them, regardless of any kind of end result.
According to the book, grok is the Martian word for "to drink". Since water is rare on Mars (and it is needed for life), it is a holy substance. Martians (and people studying the Martian language) share a drink of water to become "water brothers", bathing is a profound ritual and to understand something or somebody completely is referred to as "drinking" them or it.