[wbakst]

i like this so much

"stone soup" could be seen as a trick (to get the villagers to provide that which they were previously unwilling), but i like that it's multiple different villagers who provide individual ingredients -- it's the coming together of everyone and their individual contributions that ultimately makes the soup so good

[dredmorbius]

My take on "Stone Soup" is that it was written as an allegory for cooperation, as well as, perhaps, a guide to how to induce it in the face of reluctance.

Of course, intent and outcome can differ, and Gopnik takes the piece to a new place. But then, that's also in the spirit of the original as I read it (individual ingredients creating a greater whole).

And of course, as with all metaphor and allegory, there are limits to the comparison. But utility as well, and the point that AI LLMs require significant additions on top of the LLM-trained stones bears pointing out.

[scrumper]

I first read this story in the back of the manual for a DOS program called Fractint in the very early '90s. It was a super-fast fractal generator made by a collective called the Stone Soup Group. It's still around but the SSG disappeared years ago.

The story stuck with me, I told it to my kids only a few weeks ago.