It looks to me like L-loon Musk continues his intellectual thievery.

[flashman13]

I am referring to the fact that Musk has named his new chatbot Grok. The word Grok is an integral part of Robert Heinlein's most controversial sci-fi novel, Stranger in a Strange Land. When I was in high school we all clandestinely read it because of it's sexual content (the original uncensored version wasn't published until the early 80s).

To Grok is to have deep existential understanding. It means, to have clear insight. It is a metaphysical idea.

Heinlein, like Verne, Clark, and Asimov, had that insight and predicted things such as the coming of the computer age and sentient AI beings. Heinlein was a graduate of the Naval Academy, an aeronautical engineer, author, and as Asimov called him, "a flaming liberal". In Stranger, he forecasts the coming of religious nuttery in the form of the Fostorites, something akin to the prosperity preachers. He even foresaw massive global pollution and climate change.

If you are a hardcore fan of Heinlein and his writings such as myself, you know him as a man that believed in integrity, duty, honor, country, sacrifice, and the power of hope and love. In short, he would be appalled at the point we have arrived at in our nation and world. Musk stands for everything that Heinlein detested. He would absolutely never have allowed Musk to appropriate the term Grok. It is a word that has meaning that Musk can not begin to Grok. I do hope that the Heinlein estate is equally appalled. I can't believe that they would give Musk permission to use the word. I hope they drag Musk into court and force him to cease and desist. I guess we will have to wait and see.

End of rant.

[unblock]

1. A) Grok is in the public domain. B) I'm not so certain Heinlein would have hated musk

I know some people on the left adore heinlein, but I think he would have been a hardcore trumper.

[flashman13]

3. A) I don't think Grok is in the public domain.

I believe the copyright for works published prior to 1978 last for 95 years. The original version of Stranger was published in 1961. That work should be covered by the 95 year copyright. The long version was published in 1991 (not the 80's - my mistake). Under the 1978 copyright law, the copyright for that version would extend for 75 years after the author's death.

While Grok is found in various dictionaries and appears in published articles, I think that is covered under the fair use doctrine. But when you appropriate someone elses idea for your own commercial purposes, that becomes copyright issue.

It seems to me one more example of Musk appropriating someone elses original idea.

B) I'm quite certain Jubal Harshaw and Lazarrus Long would both have despised Musk. That is where I will leave it.

Of course I could be full of shit too.

[dchill]

2. While I agree with your assessment of Musk...

...and his fairly obvious intellectual thievery, reasonable minds can disagree about the excellence of Robert Heinlein. As a youth, I devoured everything Heinlein I could find. As I got older - and I suspect as Heinlein got older - my opinion of his altruism was ground away. The more liberal my mind became, the more of a chauvinistic, superior - and frankly, fascistic bent his work took on in my view.

But don't take my word for it. Check out this alternative take on him and his work:

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-dec-09-ca-heinlein9-story.html

It matches with my experience.

[flashman13]

4. I'm the first to admit that I was more impressionable in my youth.

Starship Troopers is something of a fun adventure shoot'em-up story, but it has always bothered me that in that story, to become a citizen and to enjoy the privileges attached to citizenship, required a person to be or have been a member of the military. I can understand why that looks somewhat fascistic. I find that concept totally unacceptable.

In many of Heinlein's stories he held most governments in very low esteem.

I think his attitude towards women significantly evolved. Prior to Stranger, women were generally just bit players. In Stranger and later works, women became very strong characters and were very much in charge of their own lives. The love story at the heart of Time Enough For Love is very poignant. By the time you get to, To Sail Beyond the Sunset, the main character is a women and there is no question of her strength. I guess I think an author often reveals their true character through the characters they create.

And there is no shortage of critics that don't like Heinlein. To each his own.