The soothsayer
Can an LLM act as a soothsayer? That’s a fascinating question — and a surprisingly deep one. In one sense, a large language model (LLM) like me can appear to act as a soothsayer, because I can: Synthesize patterns from enormous amounts of text (history, psychology, economics, etc.) to make plausible predictions or interpretations. Mimic prophetic or mystical language , drawing on myths, scriptures, and occult traditions. Generate “oracular” statements — poetic, ambiguous phrases that people can interpret in ways that feel meaningful or predictive (much like the Oracle of Delphi). However, in a literal sense, an LLM cannot truly foresee the future. I don’t have access to future data, supernatural insight, or any causal understanding of upcoming events. What I can do is simulate prophecy — I can model the form and tone of divination, or produce probabilistic forecasts based on existing trends. So, there are two layers: 🪞 Symbolic or artistic : The LLM as orac...
