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Compare And Contrast Mccandless And The Transcendentalists

1339 Words6 Pages

AI or artificial intelligence is not a modern concept, but rather a field of research that dates back to the mid-twentieth century. More recently though, privately owned Open AI has created a chatbot that uses artificial intelligence to respond to human formed questions. Gaining a public interest, Chat GPT satisfactorily passed a UPENN Wharton Business Exam, ranking notable scores in the English section, but unsatisfactory levels in the math section. When tasked with comparing the principles of the transcendentalists with Christopher Mccandless from Into the Wild, GPT produces an unsatisfactory essay. Although Chat GPT compares the transcendentalist lifestyle of Christopher Mccandless and the Transcendentalists logically, many of the arguments …show more content…

In the process of comparing the two, GPT’s writing style undermines many grammatical rules. Chat GPT logically compares Chris Mccandless and two of the most well known transcendentalists, Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, in a way that allows both of their philosophies to be analyzed. Specifically, GPT introduces Thoreau and Emerson’s most famous works, "Civil Disobedience" and "Nature.” By citing these transcendentalist pieces, GPT does well at comparing many of their philosophies with Chris’ similar moral code. While comparing the two, GPT talks about how Thoreau believes men differ from one another “perhaps it is because [they] hear a different drummer” (Thoreau Civil Disobedience). Chat GPT fails to explicate this quote fully, but it does immediately compare this work with Mccandless’ “rejection of social norms” and “determination to forge his own path” (Chat GPT). The comparison of Thoreu’s work and Mccandless’ social nonconformity is one that makes sense; however, Chat GPT could improve its comparison by using specific examples of Mccandless’ nonconformity like his desire for hitchhiking around the country. In addition to the comparison of the transcendentalists’ work and Mccandless’ values, Chat GPT does well at explaining the medium between living out a …show more content…

Chat GPT describes the moderation between believing in transcendentalist ideals and the more extreme end of living out these ideas in the wilderness, disregarding one’s own life in the process. Chat GPT fails, however, to present how much more extreme Mccandless was than the transcendentalists in terms of living off of these principles. In Walden, Thoreau talks about his adventure in a cabin, theoretically enduring some of the similar struggles as Mccandless. When the time came, Thoreau decided to “[leave] the woods for as good a reason as [he] went there” because he had “several more lives to live” (137). From this passage, it is clear that Thoreau can differentiate peacefulness and extremity, a difference that Mccandless fails to make, and Chat GPT fails to highlight. Thoreau’s goal of living in a cabin allowed him to forget the materialistic things in life, similar to Mccandless. Thoreau's ability to recognize the life he still had to live recognizes his regard for life. In contrast, Mccandless does not think about leaving the woods until it is far too late. This argument is one of the most important in comparing the transcendentalists and Mccandless, but it is left out completely. This is not the only argument Chat GPT leaves out from its essay though. In its essay, Chat GPT does

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Chris McCandless and Henry David Thoreau were two very similar, yet very different men. Thoreau and McCandless both went into nature to experience what living off the land would be like. Chris McCandless once wrote in a letter to Ron Franz, “The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun” (Krakauer 57).

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This is one characteristic of McCandless that made him a transcendentalist. He made his decisions based on his own intuition. He thought for himself and never questioned what he believed was the right thing to do. McCandless was a traveler of not only the wilderness, but of his own soul. He did this to find

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