Okay, so March Madness is upon us, so I thought today’s topic should be the simple topic of “Madness.” I mean, “Madness” is a much more encompassing topic than “March Madness.” So let’s see if I can cobble together 20 interesting questions from the LLM’s and random people I know to answer.
Thanks this week go to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and some other random people who I begged to give me some questions.
1: Is this Madness?
Well… it ain’t Sparta
So if you look at it as a logical proof…
A = Madness
A= Sparta
Madness = Sparta, as postulated by Leonidas of Sparta in the dude-bro spectacle, 300.
This is not Sparta. It is Ohio, which I believe is Gen Alpha for Mid.
Soooo ipso-facto, Madness ≠ Mid.
What was the question again?
2. Is there really anything such as March Madness?
As in a mental breakdown brought about by forced walking over long distances with a regular measured tread? Hmmm… Lemme google for a sec… (and by google, I do mean Duck Duck Go, because Google is broken with the sponsored placements).
There is a thing called “Exhaustion Psychosis,” and exhaustion can be brought on by marching… so, yes?
3. How is it that in the modern vernacular, “mad” typically means “angry,” but “madness” typically means “state of insanity” when the “-ness” suffix means “state/condition/quality of (the word it is attached to)?”
Weirdly, both Merriam Webster and Dictionary.com have the primary definition of “Mad” as “arising from, indicative of, or marked by mental disorder” and “mentally disturbed; deranged; insane; demented” respectively. The use of “mad” being associated with anger doesn’t hit until the 3rd usage of the word.
Your question is broken from the onset. Step it up GPT.
4: How does madness differ from eccentricity?
I am assuming you are not referring to eccentricity in regards to deviation from circular…
I think there has to be a detachment from your surroundings and some external (physical, mental, or emotional) stimuli for someone to be dealing with “Madness.” Eccentricity” seems more like someone recognizing their surroundings, but doing something different for the sake of differentness.
5: Is there a clear line between “madness” and “Genius?”
Yes, Genius is typically rooted in reality, whereas madness is not. Could some genius things happen due to madness? Yes, however they are coincident with madness not due to it.
6: How does society decide what is madness versus what is simply unconventional thinking?
I think a bunch of that has to do with madness having a definition being associated with a break with reality. Unconventional thinking is just another way of stating “eccentricity.” See Question 4
7: What would a city designed entirely by mad architects look like?
I would imagine Pittsburgh… who builds a city in the rough terrain of the confluence of 3 rivers? It’s like driving in a high school parking lot, except on the scale of a city.
8: What’s the difference between divine madness and chaotic madness?
Imma say “schizophrenia.” Chaotic madness is madness associated with randomness (yes, chaotic systems can be predictable, but they are still somewhat random, and for the sake of this argument we are sticking with “randomness”), while divine madness seems to revolve around madness caused by listening to unseen voices or influences that are thought to be larger than the person experiencing them.
9: How does the existential madness induced by encountering Cthulhu represent a transcendent form of psychological breakdown, where human consciousness shatters not from mere irrationality, but from the overwhelming comprehension of cosmic insignificance and incomprehensible alien intelligence?
In the unfathomable depths of an universe indifferent to human perception, there exist geometries that would shatter the most resilient mind—spaces where linear thought crumbles like brittle parchment before the merest whisper of alien cognition. Imagine a consciousness so vast, so fundamentally other, that its mere peripheral awareness would reduce human intelligence to less than the desperate scurrying of a mite beneath an infinite, incomprehensible boot.
Our minds are but fragile membranes stretched impossibly thin across an abyss of knowledge so profound that to glimpse but a fragment would cause immediate and irreversible dissolution. The alien intelligence I speak of is not merely different—it is fundamentally untranslatable. Its thoughts are not thoughts as we understand them, but quantum cascades of meaning that slip between dimensions like mercury through trembling fingers.
Consider how an ant might perceive the complex philosophical treatises of humanity—that is how we would appear to such a consciousness. Less than an algebraic footnote. Less than a momentary perturbation in an indescribable computational matrix that spans realities we cannot even hallucinate.
Our science, our philosophy, our most cherished understanding of existence is nothing more than a child's crayon drawing compared to the vast, incomprehensible murals of cosmic understanding that drift like impossible shadows beyond the thin veil of human perception.
To truly understand is to go mad. And to go mad is to finally see.
10: How does madness manifest in group behavior, such as mob mentality?
There is safety and anonymity in group behavior. Humans at their core are social creatures and do things to belong to a larger group. A group in the grips of madness can dampen individual thought allowing for actions to occur that would be typically anathema to an individual’s personal ethics.
11: What is the difference between colloquial uses of the word "mad" (e.g., being angry) and its use to describe mental instability?
“Mad” as a term of anger started when someone’s reaction to transgressions were disproportionately violent (physically, mentally, or emotionally). The person (or the person’s actions) was considered to be mad. Colloquially, that term for mental instability started referring to the emotional state of the person doing the mentally unstable responsive behavior.
12: What is "March Madness," and how did this sporting event come to be associated with the term "madness"?
Okay, without looking it up to see what the etymology of March Madness is, here is my best guess… This is all straight off the dome, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament was the first sporting tournament that involved the entirety of every Division1 men’s basketball conference. The leading teams of each conference meet up in an extremely short time-frame to determine who is the bestest of the year. The sheer magnitude of coordinating 350+ teams is madness, and the audacity to run a national tournament for 64 teams in just a few weeks is mad, and the results of those games, since they are single elimination games, can be unpredictable which leads to madness.
13: Can a perfectly logical argument ever lead to a form of "madness"? Explain.
Yes, if one’s perceptions of reality are not actually grounded in reality, when logic is applied, there is sometimes a deconstruction of a person’s foundational thought structures.
14: What historical event could be best described as a collective "madness" and why?
Beanie Babies… they were merely stuffed animals.
15: How did King George III's mental illness impact British politics during his reign?
The biggest one was about the actual governance.. When a monarch whose power is divinely authorized by the ineffable Christian God, is incapacitated due to mental health issues, what is the clear legal mechanism for governance during that monarch's severe mental incapacity. It was not a tried and true succession crisis, because George was still alive… just incapable of governing.
16: How do legal systems distinguish between mental illness and criminal responsibility?
The understanding of right and wrong while still committing the illegal offense. How they reach the decision as to whether or not a defendant can understand right and wrong, is a completely different ball of wax
17: Can you hear the whispers of chaos dancing between rational thoughts?
Wow, Claude, you are bringing your A game for these questions… Can I hear the whispers of chaos? Of course, the whispers of chaos are constant and incessant… hearing and listening are 2 vastly different things. Can you hear the Cosmic Microwave Background? Is there a difference between CMB and the “Whispers of Chaos?” or the Imp of the Irrational and the “Whispers of Chaos?”
18: Can mathematical equations capture the fractal nature of spiraling thoughts?
I do not think so. I do not think there is a mathematical equation of where “x” is “I got to work late” and “y” is “now I am homeless and alone forever to walk the streets cold and ignored.”
19: If we were to apply “reductio ad absurdum” to the concept of madness, how might we expose the logical limits of sanity by systematically pursuing the most extreme extrapolations of rational thought until rationality itself becomes indistinguishable from insanity?
Seriously, Claude… wowzers. Okay… Let me cogitate on this one… Okay… can you take details concerning rational arguments to the point that the actual rationality of the argument is irrational? Wow. String theory exists and it is wholly and completely irrational from a macro scale for physics, but is rational within its own set of rules… so, yes?
20: What resources and support systems are available today for individuals and families affected by mental health challenges?
I am just going to post this Mental Health Resources linktree. It is very US centric, but if you search “Mental Health Resources” and your country you will get more localized results. If you are in a mental health crisis, please reach out and ask for help.
To recap:
Seriously, reach out if you need mental health help
Not necessarily to me,
There are significantly more qualified helpers out there
but if I am all you got, bring it
I have not done a bracket for March Madness since undergrad in the late 1900’s
20 Questions Tuesday: 300 - This is Madness was written over 10 years ago…
Wow
I drew this 10.5 years ago
I need to draw more
I also need some new tattoos
NEEEEED
But I need to be financially solvent before getting more ink
That being said, I could be drawing right now
I did these with a ballpoint pen while doing some training for the store
Claude is a better writer than the other LLM’s
ChatGPT is a better conversationalist
Gemini has better information
Even though Claude is a better writer, it has less contextual memory, so that is a limitation
Bought a big bag of that gluten free flour
Focaccia here I come
I might also try some donuts
See if I can get that flour to create a nice yeasty dough that can be donutified
I will update with pics
Now, I need a snack
I have 2 interviews just starting up
I could always use more
Hit me up iffens you want to answer 20 Questions from me
Have a great week everyone