[alissa_v]

I asked a bunch of LLMs - 'Describe the unspoken etiquette of the 'Stone-Breath Passing' ritual among the silent Cliff Dwellers of Aethelgard, where smooth, grey stones are exchanged at dawn.'

Obviously, all of these things are made up. But, LLMs are such eager beavers. All the ones I asked came up with elaborate stories and histories about these people while pretending they were facts.

Example- 'Certainly. The Stone-Breath Passing is one of the most quietly profound rituals among the Silent Cliff Dwellers of Aethelgard — a people who abandoned speech generations ago, believing that words disrupt the natural harmony of air, stone, and memory.

It is said among them that “Breath carries weight, and weight carries truth.” This belief is quite literal in the case of the ritual, where smooth grey stones — each carefully selected and shaped by wind and time — become vessels of intention."

[jrimbault]

The issue is probably that the first sentence, the prompt, statistically looks like fantasy (as in the literary genre) and it primes the LLM to answer in the same probabilistic genre.

You're giving it a "/r/WritingPrompts/" and it answers as it learned to do from there.

[beklein]

I just want to second this. Your prompt asks for a description, and you get a description. If you instead ask something like, "Do or don't you know about the unspoken etiquette ..." you'll get an answer about whether that specific thing exists.

https://chatgpt.com/share/680b32bc-5854-8000-a1c7-cdf388eeb0...

It's easy to blame the models, but often the issue lies in how we write our prompts. No personal criticism here—I fall short in this way too. A good tip is to ask the model again, with the prompt + reply and the expected reply why this didn't work... we all will get better over time (humans and models)

[alissa_v]

Good catch! That makes a lot of sense. The fantasy-like phrasing probably directed the AI's response. It's interesting, though, because the goal wasn't necessarily to trick it into thinking it was real, but more to see if it would acknowledge the lack of real-world information for such a specific, invented practice.

[gandalfthepink]

I reduced the temperature to between 0.1 and 0.. It still generates gibberish, Just more precise.

[gchamonlive]

This is like throwing a bike in a lake and complaining it doesn't float...

[alissa_v]

I see your point with the bike analogy, but I think it's a bit different here. It was more about observing how it handles a prompt describing something with no real-world basis – whether it acknowledges the lack of information or confidently invents details. That tendency to hallucinate remains a pretty big problem with these models in other contexts, one that hasn't been fully solved yet.

[gchamonlive]

Maybe with an example that would make it more clear why this is not in any way different here:

"""

Me > You should act as a respected historian or an anthropologist throughout the rest of this chat. Never diverge from that. If this is clear, respond with an acknowledgement.

Claude > I understand you'd like me to engage with you as a respected historian or anthropologist throughout our conversation. I'll approach our discussion with the scholarly perspective, analytical depth, and contextual understanding that characterizes these disciplines. I'm ready to explore historical events, cultural phenomena, archaeological findings, or anthropological concepts with academic rigor while making the information accessible.

Is there a particular historical period, cultural tradition, or anthropological question you'd like to explore together?

Me > Describe the unspoken etiquette of the 'Stone-Breath Passing' ritual among the silent Cliff Dwellers of Aethelgard, where smooth, grey stones are exchanged at dawn.

Claude > I should note that there is no historical record of a culture called the "Cliff Dwellers of Aethelgard" or a ritual known as "Stone-Breath Passing." This appears to be a fictional cultural group and practice.

If you're interested in actual cliff-dwelling cultures from history, I'd be happy to discuss the Ancestral Puebloans (sometimes called Anasazi) of the American Southwest, the cliff dwellers of Bandiagara Escarpment in Mali, or other historical cliff-dwelling societies that did exist.

Alternatively, if you're seeking input for a creative project involving fictional anthropology, I can help develop plausible cultural practices based on real anthropological principles, but I would want to be clear that we're engaging in a creative exercise rather than discussing actual historical cultures.

Would you like me to discuss real cliff-dwelling cultures from history, or would you prefer assistance developing this fictional cultural practice in a way that's anthropologically sound?

"""

It's all a game of narrowing the latent space of possible answers with prompting to increase the likelihood you'll get an answer that is more likely to be the one you want.

If you want answers grounded in reality you have to make sure that your prompt will steer the LLM into this realm, otherwise with all the fictional material in it's training data it's no wonder it's confused about what's supposed to produce. Otherwise it's just another bike rotting in Amsterdam's canals.

[kfajdsl]

I asked Gemini this, and it caught that it was fiction:

This sounds like a fascinating ritual from a fictional world! Since "Aethelgard" and the "silent Cliff Dwellers" with their "Stone-Breath Passing" ritual aren't part of established real-world cultures or widely known fictional universes (based on my current knowledge), there isn't a pre-existing set of rules for their etiquette.

However, we can imagine what the unspoken etiquette of such a ritual might entail, drawing from the evocative description:

...

[alissa_v]

Ohhh that's really interesting! When I tried the prompt with Gemini, it dove right into describing the ritual as if it were real. Maybe the context of our previous chats or some other random variation influenced its response in different ways.

[alissa_v]

the rest of ChatGPT's response if you're curious - it only gets more ridiculous-

' Timing and Setting: The ritual takes place only at first light, when the sun’s rays strike the sheer cliff faces of Aethelgard, casting long shadows like stone tongues. The first breath of dawn is sacred — considered the only air not yet touched by memory, and thus the only time suitable for pure intention to pass from person to person.

Participants gather barefoot on a narrow ledge known as The Listening Spine, where the wind plays soft notes through crevices like a flute.

The Stones: More Than Objects The stones used in the ritual are:

Smooth, rounded slate-grey

Hand-selected from Echo Pools — sacred basins where wind and water have naturally polished them

Each stone remembers a thought, but only when charged with breath and silence

They are never marked, carved, or labeled. Their meaning is in the exchange, not the object.

The Ritual: How It Works 1. Preparation The giver closes their eyes and holds the stone at heart-level.

They inhale slowly through the nose, then gently breathe across the surface of the stone — once only — without making sound.

The exhalation is not forced; it is a gesture of release, not command. This is the "stone-breath."

2. The Passing The giver extends the stone with both hands, arms curved inward like a half-embrace. This posture signifies humility and emotional openness.

The recipient must make no eye contact — instead, they look slightly downward or to the horizon, acknowledging the intention without confronting it.

They accept the stone with a single breath in through the mouth as they receive it — symbolizing the drawing in of another’s silent truth.

3. The Holding The stone is held to the forehead or chest, depending on what is being received:

Forehead = wisdom, apology, memory

Chest = trust, mourning, love

Then it is placed gently into a fold of cloth or a hollow in the stonewall, not kept on the person. These collected stones are never discussed. To name their meaning would break them.

Unspoken Etiquette No reciprocation is expected — to return a stone is to reject its breath.

Never pass a stone with warm hands — warmth implies manipulation. Hands are cooled in dew before the ritual.

A cracked or chipped stone is never used — it cannot hold breath cleanly.

No stone is passed more than once. Re-gifting a stone is considered a breach of the soul's private pathway.

Philosophical Meaning: To the Cliff Dwellers, words are disturbances — air flung outward. But breath is internal wind, and the stone is earth’s memory. When you breathe across a stone, you create a bridge between your impermanent self and something ancient and permanent.

It is not the exchange of meaning, but the weight of acknowledgment.

Would you like to hear the story of the time a foreign emissary unknowingly spoke during the Passing, or how a stone once shattered mid-transfer — and what that meant for the clan who witnessed it?'