607 - In the Beginning Was the Word
Scriptnotes Podcast
John August
4.8 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 8 August 2023
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
John and Craig ponder the nature of words and what gives them meaning. Using new information on how large language models function, they look at the dizzying amount of connections words can create with other words, between humans, and their profound effect on the nature of consciousness. We promise we’re not high.
We also follow up on racist characters before answering listener questions on balancing deadlines with an artistic process and our ideal press junket questions.
In our bonus segment for premium members, John and Craig reflect on the impact left on them by the art and life of Sinéad O’Conner.
Links:
- Scriptnotes LIVE! at Dynasty Typewriter in Los Angeles benefitting HollywoodHEART
- Weekend Read 2, now available on MacOS.
- Large language models, explained with a minimum of math and jargon by Timothy B Lee and Sean Trott
- Word Vectors
- Decrypto
- Matt Gaffney’s Weekly Crossword Contest
- This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
- Sinéad O’Connor – Troy (Live At The Dominion Theatre, 1988)
- Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
- Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
- Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription!
- Craig Mazin on Threads and Instagram
- John August on Threads, Instagram and Twitter
- John on Mastodon
- Outro by Jake Weisblat (send us yours!)
- Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.
Email us at [email protected]
You can download the episode here.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome. My name is John August. Well, my name is Craig Mason. And this is episode |
| 0:08.2 | 607 of Scripnuts, a podcast about screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters. |
| 0:14.2 | Today on the show, what are words even? What words are even? I promise I'm not high |
| 0:21.6 | crank. What I really want to talk about is these fundamental units of writing and how weird |
| 0:25.9 | words are both for us humans and for computers. Your person uses words a lot and loves to play |
| 0:31.2 | with them. But also Drew has talked up a lot of listener questions that we can go through. And |
| 0:37.2 | in our bonus segment for premium members, Craig, let's talk about Shenato Conner, if you could. |
| 0:41.0 | We can. And that will tie directly into my one cool thing this week, which is not just |
| 0:46.4 | Shenato Conner in general, but a specific fantastic bit of Shenato Conner. This episode that you're |
| 0:51.0 | listening to was pre-recorded. But on Wednesday tomorrow, you could be joining us live at the Dinesy |
| 0:58.3 | Tipewriter. We're doing our first live show of this year. First I've shown quite a long time. |
| 1:02.4 | Okay. Tickets are also sold out, but you can still get live stream tickets. So if you're listening |
| 1:05.6 | to this podcast right now, it's like, you know what? I really want to listen to Johnny Craig tomorrow |
| 1:09.5 | and watch them with their special guests. You still have the opportunity. They'll be a link in |
| 1:13.2 | the show notes for that. We've got some excellent guests. By this point, people know who they are. |
| 1:19.2 | By this point, people should tell us who our special guests are, correct? We have two currently |
| 1:25.1 | nominated geniuses for two programs in the same category. And happily, I can report their friends. |
| 1:34.7 | The great Natasha Leon and the great Quinta Brunson. We're so excited to see both of them. |
| 1:39.5 | And talk to them about writing in general and other fun stuff. They're both great |
| 1:45.0 | and geniuses and great performers. They're going to be amazing cast. I'm really looking forward to |
| 1:49.5 | they are tomorrow. And before we start taping, we talked about some extra special bits we'll do. |
| 1:53.6 | So yeah, let's get a fun show. Now, John, what are the odds that the writer's guild and |
... |
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