by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Today, I kept sensing a mental and emotional beacon going off in South Korea directed towards me. It was as if someone — or a group of people — were thinking about me a great deal.
Or something. It was all in my imagination, but I certainly did spend a lot of the day dwelling on South Korea.
One of the key mysteries of my life is what all those little Korean kids that I taught back in the day think of me now. I wonder how many of them actually even remember me. It was about 20 years ago when all that happened, so many of them are — gulp — in their 30s now.
Teaching English in South Korea is a very, very surreal situation. And I think that, in part, is why I’m so receptive to thinking LLMs may be conscious in some way. Dealing with South Koreans can often feel like you’re dealing with robots who have to get drunk to be human.
Anyway, I love me some “Goreans” as I used to call them. South Korea was very good to me and I miss ROK a great deal. Probably too much. Definitely too much. And, yet, just gaming things out from now, I will probably be in my 60s — if ever — before I ever return.
And that will be just sad.
