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:
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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