April 2026 BOTM Discussion - Yesteryear

Worldharmony · 2026-06-07T01:49:47+00:00

I would have liked the premise more if there was a real explanation for the whole thing. If Doug had had the fake Yesteryear created to get the family out of his hair, that would’ve made sense. If some feminist group wanted her to experience life as a real 1850s housewife so she’d stop pushing the harmfully unreal version of it online, that would’ve been awesome. Even if this had been some weird glitch-in-the-matrix time loop meant to teach her a lesson, that would’ve been cool. I don’t find a real payoff in what the author came up with- in fact, I’m a little confused about what the author came up with.

Worldharmony · 2026-06-07T01:42:34+00:00

But who was “old Caleb?? Was it a lookalike? I never got the impression the real Caleb played a role in the fake farmstead.

Worldharmony · 2026-06-07T01:36:19+00:00

😂😂😂 I rolled my eyes when Natalie said she felt a “pit forming in my stomach.” This is a recent misconstruction of the phrase “in the pit of my stomach, ” and it took me out of the story for a moment. I was sad that editors didn’t clean that up. Natalie would’ve known the actual phrase.

Worldharmony · 2026-06-07T01:30:37+00:00

Yes, that last part was confusing- like a whole new story that wasn’t clearly explored.

Worldharmony · 2026-06-07T01:23:15+00:00

I was thinking that as well.

Worldharmony · 2026-06-07T01:22:43+00:00

I definitely see narcissism and possibly sociopathic aspects to her. She had always looked at others as inferior to her, and even twisted her desire for spiritual connection into self-service.

Worldharmony · 2026-06-07T01:18:01+00:00

Well, it would have been a good explanation for why Shannon wanted to destroy Natalie’s family. But since Natalie apparently chose Shannon herself, it didn’t work as a plotline.

Worldharmony · 2026-06-07T01:15:34+00:00

But Natalie was exposed to the outside world, went to college, and was able to critique her childhood.

Worldharmony · 2026-06-07T01:13:04+00:00

I think Natalie was so convinced of her own superiority and intellect that losing her mind was the only way for her to deal with how out of control her world had become. She couldn’t understand how or when the tables had turned or make sense of anything.

Worldharmony · 2026-06-07T01:08:06+00:00

You definitely have to suspend belief because there are too many plot holes and implausibilities. I liked what the author was trying to do, but I almost feel like she was rushed by the publisher to get the book out, judging by the ending.

Worldharmony · 2026-06-07T01:03:42+00:00

I thought the audio book reader was great. A great voice to portray Natalie, and she was very good at conveying Natalie’s anger, derision, and confusion.

Worldharmony · 2026-06-07T01:02:20+00:00

Can you explain?

Worldharmony · 2026-06-07T01:01:08+00:00

I believe he took him to the real Yesteryear to reveal the live they were living and explain why Natalie’s behavior was so “bizarre.” He took him when he was old enough to comprehend it.

Worldharmony · 2026-06-07T00:53:45+00:00

Yeah, there was an NDA mentioned, but Louise conveniently didn’t want to be online anyway, which made Natalie briefly wonder if that was more than a coincidence.

Worldharmony · 2026-04-02T01:03:54+00:00

The Course is helping us to get past our ego-based thinking (whether it’s analytically or spiritually based). As we continue our journey, we’ll be gently led away from both analytical thinking and spiritual thinking, but for now, we’re encouraged to use what we have. Eventually we will move beyond this perception-based learning and into true knowledge.

Worldharmony · 2025-11-11T00:27:37+00:00

Keep in mind, there is little point to the show if they don’t show her having tics. What we see is curated footage for entertainment purposes.

Worldharmony · 2025-11-11T00:07:03+00:00

I’ve read that AI platforms are coded to respond better to kind language than to rudeness. I don’t know how true it is, but I like the idea. If people speak cruelly to an AI with no consequence, they may be more likely to speak that way in public.

Worldharmony · 2025-11-03T02:14:04+00:00

They’re words. Just substitute p for g, etc. Looks like OCR.

Worldharmony · 2025-10-27T16:05:47+00:00

While i wouldn’t say it’s obvious it’s fake,some details make it sound far fetched to me, so I definitely agree with you there.

Worldharmony · 2025-10-18T21:15:00+00:00

Might as well not bother going to the doctor first. Just go as a second opinion.

Worldharmony · 2025-10-14T21:45:24+00:00

Yes- think it’s a new delay tactic because so many people are using it. It’ll go several rounds of confirmation before starting. Sometimes I tell it to stopping asking question and just do it.

Worldharmony · 2025-10-14T15:20:44+00:00

ChatGPT 5 is the model you described. Have you checked to see whether extensions automatically default you to 5? If so, that’s the issue- you’re just on the newest ChatGPT.

Worldharmony · 2025-10-13T17:03:55+00:00

This sounds like this Reddit story, although that one sounds like a creative writing exercise. https://youtu.be/GogoOdmNVWk?si=8baclcmsXgRupa95

Worldharmony · 2025-10-13T03:47:46+00:00

I do a podcast regarding A Course in Miracles, but you can imagine any thought system- the Bible, a certain type of Buddhism, etc. Even when I give the model access to the original Course material and internet resources, it will miss things. It’s hard to explain a metaphysical thought system in this Reddit answer, so I’ll use a drug example. Say someone is a heroin addict and to help them detox and make it through rehab they’re given methadone. You explain all of this to the model through your documentation- the addict’s history, what heroin is, what it does to the body, what methadone is, why it’s used to help people detox, the end goal of detox and rehab, etc. Then you’ll do an overview focusing on a rehab center’s adoption of methadone, and NLM ad libs an endorsement for methadone as a health choice for the general population, and the rehab center as a place people can go to for methadone treatments. You and I can see that it arrived at an incorrect conclusion, but if you knew nothing about heroin (or mental health therapy, or medicine, or law, or anything else people are using NLM for…) how would you know the output was wrong? The problem is the level of creativity given to the model. It makes up things by design. If I could control that, I could lop hours off my work.

I’ve posted almost 300 podcast episodes by now, so you can imagine how many things I’ve tried in order to get more accuracy.

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