It was late at night, and my kids found it difficult to sleep. I was taking improv lessons (at The Improv Company!) so I thought, why not create something for them to challenge myself?
The game was simple – my kids would give me three words, one thing, one place, and one person, and I would come up with a totally original story using those words on the spot. The game allowed for endless possibilities and creativity, making each bedtime story a bit more unique and exciting (for me, because it was quite stressful! But the story was sometimes exciting, but sometimes fizzled to a disappointing end. Sometimes, it was so beautiful that I am shocked with what I managed to come up with.)
Today, Feynman came to ask me if I could do one for him on the spot. I said, “Why not?” but also realised that I was doing something similar to what ChatGPT is doing, forming something with concepts I know to come up with something original. As I was putting everything together, I felt a bit of pride at coming up with something original. It was something that I thought was beautiful.
So here it is!
Of course, I typed it out after I was done with my ‘generation’, and got ChatGPT to flesh out the rest of the details. The words were “a cute cat”, “with “a powerful crystal” and “a volcano” Want to try? What would you come up with?
“Mr. Cottonsworth! Oh Mr. Cottonsworth!” The old lady’s voice echoed through the narrow corridors of her HDB apartment. She shuffled through the cluttered living room, calling out for her beloved pet, but he was nowhere to be found. Little did she know, the grey feline had been waiting for this moment for years – an escape from the mundane life of a domestic cat.
As BBK, or Bad Bad Kitty, slipped out of the apartment, memories flooded his mind. He wasn’t always a house cat; in fact, he was over 3000 years old, hailing from an ancient tribe of cats with magical abilities. BBK had been one of the council members tasked with guarding the powerful crystals that granted them their powers, until the fateful day when the tribe decided to destroy them. The crystals, while providing immense power, had corrupted the tribe with their greed.
BBK’s crystal was the one that gave him infinite lives, and as the other crystals were thrown into the boiling volcano of Timbuktu, he succumbed to their evil influence and jumped into the fiery pit, activating his crystal in mid-air. For 100 years, he died and came back to life repeatedly, until he emerged from the volcano, the only survivor. His family and friends were long gone, and he was left to wander the world, watching as civilizations rose and fell, and time marched on.
For 3000 years, BBK had seen everything there was to see, and yet he couldn’t shake the loneliness that gnawed at his soul. So he embarked on a dangerous journey, trekking from Singapore to Timbuktu, hopping on planes, trains, and buses, and hiding in the shadows. Finally, he arrived at the top of the volcano, where he spotted the other half of the crystal lying at the bottom, its power still intact.
Without a moment’s hesitation, BBK leapt into the molten lava, and as he held the crystal halves together, the power surged through him, one last time. The heat was unbearable, and his body was consumed by the fiery inferno, but he didn’t care. He was finally at peace, reunited with his family and friends in the afterlife.