The Perplexity dialogues

Are you familiar with Perplexity? It's one of the new AI-based search engines.

What's remarkable is that you can ask it very detailed questions, which it parses, understands, and responds to with striking specificity. If the answer isn't clear, or you want more information, you can ask follow-up questions, which it will respond to in the context of what's already been said. In this manner you can, if you wish, engage in long-running "dialogues" on a topic, poking and prodding, following tangents, going deeper. It's actually quite amazing.

I've been increasingly using Perplexity to quickly zero in on information I'm looking for, where I wouldn't have bothered with the tedium of a Google search. I still catch myself wondering about some obscure thing or another, and it dawns on me: Just ask Perplexity.

The contrast with Google is stark. For one thing, Perplexity understands your question, even a complicated one, in considerable detail. (I've heard that Google is working to increase the amount of AI in its own query processing.)

For another, it constructs a detailed response that, if all goes well, gets exactly to what you asked. Google responses, by comparison, are still largely a collection of links. It's your job to plow through those links, process the source documents, and (hopefully) find what you're looking for. By contrast, Perplexity pulls the relevant information out of the source documents and constructs a customized response, and that response is very well organized.

Of course, Perplexity isn't infallible. As with all things you encounter on the internet, it's still your job to ascertain your confidence in its answers. I've had situations where I wasn't happy with how it formulated an answer or explained a concept, so I drilled in with follow-ups until it seemed to be making sense. I'll share some of those in later posts. Perplexity does show you its sources, and you might want to consult them on subjects that are very important, or at least verify that they're sufficiently authoritative for your particular needs.

I said you can ask Perplexity complicated questions. Here's an example:

"Suppose I discharge a fully charged battery by n Amp-hours at a very high rate relative to the battery's capacity. The very high discharge rate will reduce the battery's capacity. Can we say anything about how many Amp-hours of charge will be required to bring the battery back to full charge?"

I thought Perplexity's answer to this one was more convoluted than it needed to be, with extraneous detail. After a couple of iterations of follow-up we both agreed that the discharge rate doesn't matter: Amp-hours in equals Amp-hours out. That, too, for another post.

What follows below is one of my first Perplexity dialogues. I've reproduced the questions and answers, but it would have been too tedious to include the linked sources and all the rest that were part of the original session. If you want to see and read it in its original form, which I recommend, click on this. Ignore all the gobbledygook that appears, and click on the Download button in the upper right part of the page. This downloads the source html file. You will then need to open it using whatever mechanism your browser provides for viewing downloaded files. (Firefox, Edge, and Chrome all pop up download dialogues. You'll need to click on the appropriate document when the download completes.)

Here then, the dialogue. And yes, I changed the subject after two questions. I was doing some initial experimentation with Perplexity. The largest bold headings are my actual questions; all the rest is Perplexity's answers:

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Is conjecture a verb?

Answer

Yes, "conjecture" can be used as a verb. It means to form an opinion or reach a conclusion on the basis of information that is not certain or complete. For example, "He conjectured that the population might double in ten years" or "She conjectured the existence of a completely new species".

 

Yes, but you changed it to "conjectured." Can I say: "If we were to conjecture..." ?

Answer

Yes, you can say "If we were to conjecture..." The word "conjecture" can be used in conditional sentences to express hypothetical situations, as in "If we were to conjecture the outcome, it might lead to a..."

 

Was the author of the Gospel of Matthew the apostle of the same name?

Answer

The authorship of the Gospel of Matthew is a topic of scholarly debate. While the gospel is traditionally attributed to the Apostle Matthew, most modern scholars hold that it was written anonymously in the last quarter of the first century by an anonymous Jew familiar with technical legal aspects of Judaism. The claim of his gospel authorship is rejected by most biblical scholars, and the author is not named within the text. The attribution "according to Matthew" was added possibly as early as the second century, but the actual authorship remains uncertain. Therefore, it is not definitively established that the author of the Gospel of Matthew was the apostle of the same name.

 

You say "most modern scholars." Can you characterize "most"?

Answer

The term "most modern scholars" generally refers to the majority or a significant number of scholars in a particular field. In the case of the authorship of the Gospel of Matthew, the majority of modern scholars, including biblical experts, hold that the gospel was written anonymously by an unknown Jewish author in the late first century. While the gospel is traditionally attributed to the Apostle Matthew, this attribution is not supported by the majority of modern scholars, and the actual authorship remains uncertain. Therefore, "most modern scholars" indicates a prevailing consensus among experts in the field.

 

How strong is that consensus?

Answer

The consensus among scholars regarding the authorship of the Gospel of Matthew is generally strong in favor of it being written by an anonymous Jewish author in the late first century, rather than the apostle of the same name. This consensus is based on a variety of evidence, including the lack of direct attribution within the text and the presence of technical legal aspects of Judaism in the gospel, which suggests that the author was a Jewish individual familiar with such matters. While there may be some minority views or debates on this issue, the prevailing scholarly opinion supports the conclusion that the authorship of the Gospel of Matthew is not attributed to the apostle of the same name.

 

You didn't mention that much of Matthew's gospel comes from Mark.

Answer

The Gospel of Matthew is believed to have been composed in Greek, probably sometime after 70 CE, with evident dependence on the earlier Gospel According to Mark. The relationship between the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel According to Mark is a topic of scholarly discussion. It is widely recognized that much of the content in Matthew's gospel comes from Mark, with Matthew incorporating about 600 of Mark’s 649 verses into his Gospel, and Luke retaining about 360 verses of Markan material. All told, 97% of Mark is reproduced in Matthew and/or Luke. This dependence on Mark's Gospel is one of the factors that contribute to the scholarly consensus that the author of the Gospel of Matthew was not the apostle of the same name, but rather an anonymous Jewish Christian writing for Christians of a similar background. Therefore, the strong consensus among scholars regarding the authorship of the Gospel of Matthew is based on various textual and historical evidence, including its relationship to the Gospel According to Mark.

 

Matthew's gospel also doesn't seem to be an eye witness account, does it?

Answer

The Gospel of Matthew is not generally considered an eyewitness account of the life of Jesus. While some early church tradition holds that the Apostle Matthew wrote the book, modern scholars question this attribution. The gospel itself does not explicitly claim to have been written by the apostle, and it is widely believed to have been composed in Greek, possibly by an anonymous Jewish Christian, with evident dependence on the earlier Gospel According to Mark. The relationship between the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, as well as the lack of direct attribution within the text, has led to the majority of scholars believing that the Gospel of Matthew was not written by the apostle of the same name and does not represent an eyewitness account. Therefore, the prevailing scholarly opinion is that the Gospel of Matthew is not an eyewitness account of the life of Jesus.

 

You also didn't mention that Matthew also used Q.

Answer

Yes, you are correct. The Gospel of Matthew is also believed to have used Q, which is a hypothetical written collection of primarily Jesus' sayings, and is part of the common material found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke but not in the Gospel of Mark. According to the Q source hypothesis, both Matthew and Luke used the Q document as a source for the sayings of Jesus, and this is one of the factors that contribute to the scholarly consensus that the author of the Gospel of Matthew was not the apostle of the same name, but rather an anonymous Jewish Christian writing for Christians of a similar background.

 

And the apostle Matthew wouldn't have written in Greek, correct?

Answer

The language in which the Gospel of Matthew was originally written is a topic of scholarly debate. While some early church tradition and certain scholars have suggested that the gospel was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic, the prevailing view among most modern scholars is that it was composed in Greek, probably sometime after 70 CE, with evident dependence on the earlier Gospel According to Mark. The claim that the apostle Matthew wrote the gospel in Aramaic and later translated it into Greek is not supported by the majority of modern scholars, and there is no extant manuscript of the Gospel of Matthew in Aramaic or Hebrew that predates the Greek manuscripts. Therefore, while the issue is not definitively settled, the consensus among most modern scholars is that the Gospel of Matthew was written in Greek, and its original language remains a topic of ongoing scholarly discussion.

 

But if the apostle did write it, he would have written in a Semitic language, right?

Answer

The question of whether the apostle Matthew would have written in a Semitic language is a matter of scholarly debate. While some early church tradition and certain scholars have suggested that the Gospel of Matthew was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic, the prevailing view among most modern scholars is that it was composed in Greek, probably sometime after 70 CE, with evident dependence on the earlier Gospel According to Mark. The claim that the apostle Matthew wrote the gospel in Aramaic or Hebrew and later translated it into Greek is not supported by the majority of modern scholars, and there is no extant manuscript of the Gospel of Matthew in Aramaic or Hebrew that predates the Greek manuscripts. Therefore, while the issue is not definitively settled, the consensus among most modern scholars is that the Gospel of Matthew was written in Greek, and its original language remains a topic of ongoing scholarly discussion.

 

So Brant Pitre's contention that the Gospel of Matthew was written by the apostle is outside the mainstream of scholarly opinion.

Answer

Yes, the contention that the Gospel of Matthew was written by the apostle Matthew is outside the mainstream of scholarly opinion. Most modern scholars hold that the gospel was written anonymously in the last quarter of the first century by an anonymous Jew familiar with technical legal aspects of Judaism. The claim of his gospel authorship is rejected by most biblical scholars, and the author is not named within the text. Therefore, the view that the apostle Matthew wrote the Gospel of Matthew is not supported by the prevailing scholarly consensus.

 

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